Vremi Black Portable Ice Cube Maker - Produces 26 Pounds of Ice Cubes a Day - Display Panel Indicator with Removable Ice Basket and Scoop - Modern Countertop Ice Machine That Makes Ice Every 8 Minutes

**UPDATE** I continue to stand by my 5-Star rating for two reasons:First, this little machine has more than paid for itself. I've found that it works best when the house is cool, but it produces all the ice to meet my needs.Second, wonderfully prompt and professional customer service. I contacted them early on about something and was more than satisfied with the help I received. I've had this unit for 16 months and a couple of days ago it just quit making ice mid-cycle. Sad day! I emailed customer service and in less than 24 hours had a response from the company with suggestions for troubleshooting. Once I verified I had followed all the steps with no success, I received an email stating they would replace the unit. This morning I received another email stating my unit should arrive in 3-7 business days and, since my unit is defective, it's not worth the hassle to return it and I should just dispose of it. I'm hoping the next unit lasts more than 16 months but even if it doesn't, this machine has more than paid for itself.The unit arrived quickly, in original manufacturer packaging, and with no damage. For those who care about aesthetics, it's a nice looking unit.I'm sad to see the 1-3 star reviews but understand that, sometimes, you just get a "bad" unit. That aside, I'll address other complaints I've seen listed here.First of all, I followed the instructions and allowed the unit to sit for a couple of hours before attempting to operate. I had 9 ice bullets within minutes. The first few batches were "thin", but the ice continued to get thicker with each batch.I literally get a batch of ice every 7-1/2 to 8 minutes. (Yes, I timed it.)Is the ice "wet"? Yes, it is. Do they "clump up" and freeze together when put in the freezer? Yes, they do. My solution is to drain as much water from the basket before dumping in the freezer bin, then bang the ice bin on the counter every time I add a batch of ice to break them up. It works. This is actually a LOT less stressful than dealing with three out of four ice cube trays that won't release cubes after twisting, turning, banging, and slamming the trays on the counter, only to get half, or less, of the cubes. Then I have to refill the trays and wait another three or four hours for a "batch" of ice. (As many times as I've purchased ice trays, I've YET to find a "set" that perform consistently.) Roughly doing the math, in three hours, I get 56 ice cubes from trays (if I'm lucky), versus 189 bullet cubes from the Vremi. (PS: I have four ice trays for sale real cheap if anyone's interested...!)Noise...I don't hear this machine running. I live in a very small two bedroom house, the ice maker is in the kitchen, I always have the TV on in the living room (where I spend most of my time), and I don't hear it. Even when I go into the kitchen, I don't hear it running.Is there noise from ice dropping in the bin? Of course, there is! Especially when the bin is empty. Is it truly loud and obnoxious? No, not in my opinion, but, I'm not hyper-sensitive about 9 cubes of ice hitting an empty plastic bin. The noise isn't much different than your freezer ice maker dropping ice in an empty bin. And if you don't empty the ice after every drop, the "noise" decreases.Does the ice start to melt with each batch? Yes, it does. This machine is not a "freezer". If you want your ice to stay frozen as it's produced, you should probably spend another $400-500 to get a freezer ice maker.Is the ice clear? No, and I'm using distilled water. Do I care that the ice isn't "clear"? Nope, not at all. That doesn't change the effectiveness of the ice for my purposes.Are the ice bullets chewable? I'm not really an ice chewer, but for the sake of this review, I just popped one in my mouth. It was taken from a drink, so I'm not sure if that counts, but I chewed it and it didn't break a tooth. I'm not sure what you consider "chewable", but, again, I didn't break a tooth. Is it ice you'd get at "Sonic" kind of chewable? No, but then again, you're not paying for that kind of ice.Is this good for picnics and outdoor use? I can't fairly answer that one because I purchased this for indoor use and it's performing, so far, as well as, or better than expected.Draining water between uses...well, I must say the instruction manual wasn't really clear on this. I reached out, via chat, on the Vremi website, and Anj was most helpful. The drain plug is at the bottom on the outside of the machine. My machine is currently on my table and I was able to slightly move the machine so the bottom was over the edge, put a pitcher under the machine, pulled the plug, by feel, and drained the excess water. If I had it on the counter next to my sink, I would've just moved it over the sink to drain.Customer Service: As just stated, Anj was very helpful in answering my question about the plug/draining issue. And after our chat ended, I received an email with our entire chat conversation. What company does that?! I now have "proof" of my question and the company's answers. What the what?! That, in itself, is huge!I honestly wish I had discovered this awesome little machine while I lived in an RV for four years. The amount of money I spent on bagged ice, that lasted only two days or less, would've paid for this gem three or four times.Now...I have to admit..I've only had this machine a week. HOWEVER, after my wonderful experience with the ice maker and the fantastic customer service, I have no doubt VREMI would take care of me if I had an issue. And if my opinion changes anytime soon, I'll be sure to give an update.Happy ice making!

I ordered this for myself and my partner. We are both working from home now, following the stay at home order in our state. During the day we work, home school our children and try to find some semblance of normalcy. At night after we get the babes in bed, we try to forget about the horrors that we will face in our (and their) future. We particularly try to forget the horrors we will face as small business owners, with no certainty about how this economy will fare, but a lot of indication that it won't be pretty. To manage these fears we drink, not to the point of stumbling around drunkenness, nor more than we drank before all of this; we drink just to the point of being able to relax. We may not be royalty, but neither are we peasants! We require ice for our drinks!The stay at home order has meant many changes, including needing to feed ourselves and our 4 children for every meal, snack and dessert (if we are good), every day, every week. Our freezer is full to the brim each time we go to the grocer, leaving no room for ice trays or bags of ice. Honestly, I lost one tray 3 weeks ago, I still have no idea where that sucker went. Between less room for ice trays, not taking trips when we only need 1-2 things, such as a bag of ice, and our now pressing need to have some relaxation, I could sense we were headed for some cold, hard times if we didn't resolve this ice situation. We tried switching to drinks with less ice, not fancy enough, gave me the hiccups. We attempted to forgo our evening drinks, too many worries, not enough calm, too much time on our hands. This was a problem that I knew we could solve.I hopped on the interwebs and almost immediately had my answer! After a Saturday morning of intensive research, reading reviews, watching comparison videos, learning about pros/cons in differing ice shapes, crunching numbers of the risks and benefits, I determined this specific model was the right choice. Firstly, the nearly immediate gratification of 6 minute ice. Wowza! That made my head spin just thinking about it. Second, the insulated basket area means I can turn this on around dinner and have a full basket of ice throughout the night, from just after the kids are down until our nightcap before bed. This machine keeps the ice cold enough that I don't need to immediately retrieve the fresh ice in some sort of high intensity ice rescue mission. This is an independent ice machine! Third, we have a small house and a small kitchen. This little buddy doesn't take up much more counter space than our lovable 4 slot toaster! Fourth, this sweet gal has been able to keep up with our ice needs, even with the continued sham of a response. I imagine if we are ever permitted to safely host a dinner party, we might need to make some ice ahead of time. However, with some in reserve, we would be just fine to host away, wining and dining to our post-pandemic hearts' content.I did forget to turn it off one night and in the morning awoke to find a full, nice basket of ice, tempting me to make an iced coffee for the day (how wild!). That's where this slope gets slippery, you may find yourself willy-nilly adding ice into things you never realized needed ice!I would like to respond to some of the negative reviews.Not working - I highly recommend reading the guide that comes with it, as I would with any appliance that you purchase. Most problems can be resolved by turning the machine off and then back on. This is not rocket science and if you can read this review, if you're still with me at this point in this novel, you can manage this task.I see people saying that they need a holder for the scoop, honestly I see many more benefits to leaving the scoop in the basket on the side. With Covid-19 risks, I am washing my hands even more than all the time. In this day and age I want anything touching my food to be in a protected area. I believe an external holding area for the scoop would take up more precious kitchen area and detract from the style. The children or I might be tempted to put other things, (candy, notes, toys, who knows what) in this hypothetical scoop holder. Not worth the risk, trust me on this.I find the minimal noise to be very soothing, a comfort during this time that everything in the world feels so overwhelmingly quiet. We have it set up in the room adjacent to where we take our evenings and each time I hear the ice bullets drop and hear them pushed into the ice basket, I am comforted, knowing that at least in all this chaos, my drink will be chilled.

First, it works as described. I removed one star because is noisier than what I expected. Still not bad enough to return and makes ice. Noise is similar to that of most Air Fryers, or big over the range microwave oven when running.In the noise of a normal household kitchen is not an issue.After easy unpacking, clean it, wait 2 hours for the oil to settle; add water and voila: ICEKeep in mind:- It does not hold the ice cold: The ice will melt and go back to the tank to be made ice again- Starts making ice within 5 ~ 10 minutes (depends on water and ambient temperature - the cooler the better)- For a party you may want to start running it earlier and moving the ice to a chest cooler- For regular 5 people dinner, we start it ~30 minutes before and this is plenty for all. We turn it off when we start eating (Noise - see above)- The ice will stick to a solid ball if you try to save it in the freezer- The ice is "white" which makes it great for chewing if that's your thing- The cubes are really more like hollow finger tips, but they do their job- Footprint is small, but you still need room in the back and sides for ventilation (~4 inches)We like it, and we have used it for about 2 months now and it still works. Time will tell, but the construction and finish feels good.I almost forgot: Looks perfectly fine, not out of place in a stainless and black kitchen.