Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I bought this ice maker for my office and put it into our coffee alcove. We don't have access to a larger ice making machine and the office refrigerator does not make suitable cubes. It has been a big morale booster with the office staff. This is not intended to be a high capacity machine. It is portable, in the sense it can be easily hand carried and placed on a flat surface virtually anywhere. After about every three-four loads of ice produced, you have to refill the water reservoir. The ice basket hold enough ice for about two-four, 20 oz. soft drink cups when full, depending on how much ice is used for each cup. The new cubes form quickly, however--faster than most refrigerator freezers--but cannot keep up with a refrigerator ice maker in volume. Two sizes of cubes can be selected; but the smaller size is perfectly adequate for most uses. Off by itself, the machine does not make enough noise to bother anyone. The machine's function is ingenuous. It automatically fills the ice tray with water from its reservoir, freezes the cubes around refrigerated cores, then drains the water from the ice tray and lifts the cube cores out of the way (the cubes are cylindrical and hollow in the middle). The ice tray then mechanically tilts the cubes onto a dispenser platform which gently pushes them over the side of and into the ice basket. A small scoop is provided with the machine to extract the cubes from the basket. The drawback to this system is that someone needs to periodically check the machine to (fill up the water reservoir and) keep dispensed cubes off of the dispensing platform, or the machine automatically stops making new cubes until it senses they have melted or have been removed. This has to be done regularly if you want to continually produce more cubes--for example when ice is in high demand. On the other hand, the machine can be left unattended for long periods, even weekends, because the ice cubes in the ice basket and on the dispensing platform melt back into the water reservoir if left untouched. When the machine senses they are no longer on the dispensing platform, it makes another batch. Just make sure the water reservoir is two-thirds full before leaving the machine unattended. The removable bits can be hand washed. Dishwasher washing not recommended. Empty the water reservoir and wipe with a clean cloth periodically. This machine has been in continual use for several months in my office area with no mechanical problems.