Antarctic Star Nugget Ice Makers Countertop, Pebble Ice Machine with Chewable Pellet Ice, 34Lbs/24H, Self-Cleaning, Sonic Ice, One-Click Operation, for Kitchen,Office Stainless Steel Silver

This is the first ice making machine I’ve ever owned, the ice maker on our refrigerater went out and I got tired of making ice, I run it usually every other day, I did try making two rounds of ice in one day and it made a squealing sound, I think it may have gotten too hot, the next time I used it there was no sound. It’s fairly quiet, not any louder than a microwave. Ice tastes good, I do use filtered water from both the faucet and then a filtered water pitcher. We have fairly hard water so I do descale it more frequently to extend the life of it. I would recommend it if you don’t need a lot of ice, for one or two people max. I’ve not tried running it more than once to know whether or not it made that noise again. I generally stick to every other day, summer coming it might end up every day. For my needs it’s been a good machine.

I’m writing this to help potential buyers in seeing some data on how well this unit works.I bought this car fridge as part of the Prime day deals for $109, and to be honest wasn’t expecting much. I am a big believer in mobile refrigerators as I have an ARB 63 quart fridge I use when camping, but was looking for something cheaper and smaller for use in the car during long trips. As part of the same Prime Day deals I also picked up a Jackery 240 WH power pack for $165, which I used in generation of these data.Upon receipt of the unit, I followed the directions and allowed the system to sit for a few hours before powering it on. I then filled it with room temperature cans of beer and used AC to chill it down. Using a fridge thermometer I found that the actual temperature is 3 degrees F higher than indicated. No big deal, I set it to 30 to get 33 degree very cold beer. Using a kill-0-watt I found that the fridge draws 45-50 watts on AC when the compressor is on and essentially zero when off.After the fridge was chilled to 33 degrees I swapped the power source to my Jackery 240 and also switched the fridge to ECO since it was already cold, and I wanted to maximize the the battery life. On “ECO” mode the compressor draws about 33-35 watts, versus the 45-50 when on “max” mode. The eco mode had no trouble maintaining the 33 degree beer in a very hot garage of 85-95 degrees ambient. I monitored the Jackery’s level and found that it takes about 24 watt hours per hour to maintain the 33 degree beer in a hot garage. Thus the Jackery would last about 9-10 hours in a very hot environment. This included a couple of openings of the fridge to sample the beer and make sure it was still cold :) Of course I would expect a much better endurance if the ambient temperature was lower.My use case for this fridge will be to plug the fridge into the Jackery and the Jackery into the car’s 12v socket. Thus using pass-through charging I would expect a full Jackery while driving, and during breaks I’d start to dip into Jackery’s battery but with at least 10 hours of endurance this should not be an issue. Typically during the evening I’d either be back at home or in a hotel on AC so 10 hours should be more than enough. If was camping I'd bring either a solar panel, or larger Jackery to ensure at least 24 hours of endurance. I think a Jackery 500 would do the trick for longer runs on battery.As far as the unit itself, I was surprised at how well packed it was, and how sturdy it is, especially considering this cost like 7% of what I paid for the ARB. Of course they are not comparable, but for a small fridge to keep your dinks and sandwiches cold during a road trip this is hard to beat, especially if you pair I with a modest sized battery pack

Let's be honest: you're here because you want an Opal but can't justify spending $400-600 on a freaking ice maker.*Ease of use: The most complicated part of this ice maker is making sure the drainage plug is firmly inserted, as it won't operate otherwise. Take it out of the box, wipe it down, and run a 15-minute cleaning cycle before the first use. It's one-button operation--press once to make ice or hold for a few seconds to start the cleaning cycle.*Quality of ice: If you're a "Sonic ice" purist, this isn't the machine for you. The nuggets are smaller and a little harder than the Opal's nuggets, but they have a satisfying mouth feel and crunch, especially after they've been in a drink.*Noise: All ice machines make noise--that's unavoidable. When this one is humming along, it's comparable to a microwave. I put mine in the garage, and it's not like the walls are shaking from the vibrations.*Quantity of ice: The bin isn't enormous--this isn't the machine you want for an ice-loving family of four. A full bin is enough to fill at least a couple of big tumblers. NB: if you follow the instructions and move the ice around in the bin during the production cycle, you'll get more ice because the machine won't mistakenly think the bin is full.*Bottom line: Is this ice maker going to revolutionize the beverage industry? No, but it's easy to operate, it does what it says on the box, and it doesn't cost as much as a car payment.

I seldom write a review, but I am exceptionally pleased with this product. I never truly thought about one ice being superior to another, but this ice is definitely better for many things than your typical ice is. This ice has a nice crunch and seems to cool the beverage another level. Conventional ice seems to last a little longer, so a mix of half/half of the two cools faster, colder, and longer. This ice maker makes ice very fast, but you need to keep the ice pushed away from the dump area to achieve maximum ice production. My wife loves the small ice that it produces and when mom is happy, everybody is happy! Great product!