Igloo Premium Self-Cleaning Countertop Ice Maker Machine, Handled Portable Ic...

I don't consider something a liquid to drink if it lacks ice. This machine works great and I love it dearly. I just was tortuted by a more expense NewAir Unit that ran 10 days, then it eventual replacement that was "Refurbished" to which I objected but got anyway. After the "runaround circuit of misery" by NewAir? The eventual Refurb "New Unit" arrived D.O.A. It turned on but the arms would not turn just like the junk unit I bought new. I finally bought this "Igloo- The Wirecutter Recommendation". I LOVE IT!!! It just keeps WORKING AND WORKING CRANKING OUT REALLY NICE ICE. Buy THIS ONE. Please read their EXCELLENT User's Manual. It's highly informative: tells you what to expect, troubleshooting tips, how to use the self-cleaning (easy) feature. It does take a very few minutes of no sounds before you hear it working this is normal. A tip I received from people experienced in buying ice machines: Get the extended warranty. I bought it for 3 years. I realized what a bargain and convenience this unit was compared to the cost and hauling of bagged ice. This wonderful machine also weighs 1/3 of the NewAir garbage. BUY THIS ONE! Update 2 years later: I bought this 12/21. Have used it 24/7 365 to perfection! Now close to two years later it malfunctioned and stopped making ice. The "people in the know" who said "always buy an extended warranty on an ice-maker were right! The warranty people are picking up the device from my home tomorrow for free and issuing me an Amazon credit for the full price to buy a new one. Honestly? Even for the time it worked perfectly non-stop it was worth the $145 or so I paid for it even if I wasn't getting a new one. The dependability and non-stop availability of ice nonstop without having to spend a cent on a bag and lug it around, then have it take precious space in. my freezer was divine. I am left with one confusion: My machine is the "Original Aqua (it might mention the arm) now at $172.00 (approx) I can pay the difference. But the page pulls up the $99 unit "Aqua Arm" or "with Aqua Arm." I would rather pay less, but in reading the reviews they were better for the more expensive unit I had, and the model numbers are similar but different: It is ICEB26HNAQ vs IGLICEB26HNAQ (Higher Price vs Lower Price) but I don't want to be a dummy and pay more if I don't need to, so I'll check with Igloo first comparing motors and here comparing dimensions. I don't want to screw up getting a machine that delivered beyond my wildest dreams because cash is tight. I retried the NewAir junk. It still never worked. I hate that company for charging more, delivering a dud and replacing it with a dud. They robbed me of about $200.00 and tortured me. Never had a functional machine. Stay away from New Air, they are thieves that make broken machines and run an unethical operation. I will bring this up every chance I get as I've never bought and been stuck and replaced and stuck with a lemon buying from ANY company. New Air are "Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves" as the song goes and are the more expensive choice! They cannot even begun to be compared to Igloo!

I decided to wait a while before posting my review on this to really give it a proper review. The ice maker in our refrigerator broke and it was going to cost more than I wanted to spend to get it fixed. I knew that calling in a repair man would require buying a new part and paying for his time and labor. I figured it'd be at least a couple hundred bucks. So I decided to see what Amazon had. We bought a fuel pump for my daughter's car on Amazon, I was sure they'd have a replacement ice maker for my fridge, and I'd get the neighborhood handyman to install it. He installed the fuel pump and that turned out okay. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a replacement icemaker for my fridge, but I did find this little gadget. My husband had his doubts, but I trusted Igloo, and I was tired of him going to the gas station every day for a bag of ice. When we first got it, I wiped it all down with a towel and bleach water. I set it up in the dining room on top of our mini freezer, which sits in the corner of the room beside the China cabinet. It fit right in with the recommended six inches of space all around it. The first few times we ran it, I bought a couple of gallons of distilled water to put in it. Then I realized that doing that would also mean a trip to the gas station every day for water, so I decided to just knuckle under and use tap water. I was sure that it would have a funny taste, but it just doesn't. Maybe the freezing process kills whatever makes the water taste funny when it's liquid. We did notice that the ice cubes were more white and less clear than the cubes from the distilled water. We try to not to dwell on why that might be. Every day starts the same. Instead of getting up and turning on the coffee pot, my husband or I (whoever gets up first) fill up the ice maker. Seven minutes later, you can set your watch by it, the machine will push out 9 ice cubes. I try to stay on top of it but my husband will let it go a few rounds before getting up and dumping the ice into a gallon sized Ziploc bag. Within a few hours you will have a full bag. It comes out of the machine wet, so when it goes into the Ziploc and into the freezer, the cubes tend to freeze together. I recommend not using cheap or generic Ziplocs and using them over and over. Cheap bags will not stand up to being dropped repeatedly on the floor to break up the ice. It would be nice if the cubes didn't come out wet, but I don't think it's a deal-breaker. This has been a very handy little ice machine and we've done the math. Ice machine vs bags of ice from the gas station equated to the ice machine paying for itself within 3 months. We travel often and we always end up buying bags of ice that sometimes go unused. This solves that problem, we only make what we need and the unit is small enough to take on any trip. We keep it running most of the time while we're awake and constantly fill up bags. When we get four bags, we stop because we're out of freezer space for the bags. Between my husband's (12 pk a day) Pepsi addiction and mine to iced tea, we go through a lot of ice, I'd say far more than 2 average people and this ice maker has accommodated us greatly. It has become a permanent piece of our furniture now. We can't imagine life without it. Side note: I had a stroke and I have limited motion. My physical therapist says that walking to the ice machine every 7 minutes is the best thing I could be doing to get my mobility back. I read through other reviews before deciding on this model and I think I made a great choice. This little gadget is very nifty. My husband likes to let it go two rounds before dumping the tray. That way he can time it to drop when the commercials come on. I had concerns about the sounds of it, but you barely hear it at all until the ice drops. We can hear it, but it's not loud enough to disturb the TV or casual conversation. If we have company and the ice drops, nobody panics and says "WHAT WAS THAT?" In fact, I think one of our friends is planning to buy one after seeing ours. It's cool!

We've loved this ice maker for the last 15 months! Easy to use, fast ice making, easy to clean. No issues at all However last week it started cycling the mechanical deal that holds the water and moves the ice to the tray. But it wasn't ever turning on the condenser or pumping water. After a bit of research I found. A video referencing a switch that fails fairly often in these. I found the switch for $2/switch and bought a cheap soldering iron kit and in under 45 minutes I had it working again. Here's the switch you'll eventually need. I've never soldered before but it's super easy. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07MXDGLGS?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

I bought this new, along with an extended warranty. A lot of ice makers seem to go out after a year. The one I bought -- Igloo in a light blue-- only lasted a month and a half before completely dying. I called Amazon customer service to inquire about the manufacturer's warranty. The agent said to use the extended policy, but I told her I did not think that would take effect until after the original manufacturer's warranty expired. She said she would send me another one, without charge, as long as I returned the one I had. So we went with that. However, I spent the next month trying to get rid of the horrible taste of the ice from the replacement. We kept running the cleaning system to no avail. Didn't help at all. Kept flushing it out. I called Amazon again, and asked if it might have been a "renewed" one, sent back and previously owned, and if they might have used some sort of cleaning agent in it. She said probably, and ended up refunding the original purchase price. So at that point, the machine owed me nothing. We tried flushing it out again, several times alternating between vinegar and lemon Juice, and it helped somewhat. We used it occasionally over the next two to three months, before the replacement ice maker also completely died. Could never revive it no matter what we tried. I have no idea what killed it, but the lifespan of the 2nd one of these received was also very short. I do not think these are well made at all. I'm shocked to see that so many customers gave it 4 to 5 stars. Maybe I shouldn't be griping since it was free after all, but it was also a total waste of my time and energy. These are fairly heavy to pick up and drain, etc. And I had hoped for ice. Just ice. With none of that horrible chemical taste. Nothing more and nothing less. That was what I bought it for. Igloo did not deliver the promised ice; instead, both of their machines died prematurely in the kitchen. They were never abused, just not well made. I really do NOT recommend buying any of these from this company. Their coolers are fine, but not their ice machines. Though I did like the pretty blue color.

This ice maker is pretty good! For the relatively low price, it’s been really strong and worked well. Of course, I bought it because it came recommended as the best budget option from ATK and they tend to know their stuff. And I’m talking about the one with the handle, it’s pretty annoying to nail down the right one with the many options in this one listing. It produces ice pretty quickly, and it’s nice to be able to see it as it’s forming so you can identify if there are any issues or it needs a cleaning. It’s a pretty standard size for a countertop ice maker, a little skinnier and taller than my last one. I’m replacing a Frigidaire that saw near constant use for about 2.5 years before it died, so my expectations are high and I can’t speak on the longevity of this one yet. One thing I really like about this one is the self cleaning function. If you notice there’s some gunk buildup inside the machine, you can use whatever cleaner they specify in the manual to run it through a few automatic cleaning cycles, drain it, and wipe it down. It actually lets you use lemon juice as the cleaner instead of a chemical, which I would highly recommend since I faintly taste it in my ice for about 2 batches after I run the cleaning cycling and I’d much rather be drinking lemon juice than bleach. I do have a few minor gripes, though. First, the handle is honestly kind of stupid. I can’t think of a use case where you’d need to lug it around a bunch and the handle would be genuinely helpful as opposed to just carrying it. And if you take it off, there are two huge holes in the side of the machine that look bad. Mainly an aesthetic complaint, but I’m not a fan. Second, the capacity of finished ice seems to be lower than my previous ice maker, giving me 4-5 scoops per full basket. This is partially due to the scooper - the basket has a really handy cutout to store your scooper, which keeps it cleaner than the open-air cup I had been using, but it also means you’re sacrificing probably 15% of the potential ice capacity just to store the scooper. I prefer to keep my scooper inside the machine to keep it clean and always accessible, but if you need the max capacity you’ll have to take it out. The machine is a little loud too, nothing crazy but louder than my last. You’ll especially be able to hear it when it runs out of water since it starts whining pretty loudly. The tank itself seems to hold roughly 32 oz of water up to the fill line - less than my last but still plenty. The cubes themselves are different than some of the other countertop ice makers I’ve used. The cubes are long and skinny on the large setting, while the others I’ve used are short and thick. I prefer the shorter ones since they don’t seem to melt as fast and you can cram more of them into the basket, but it’s a minor complaint. My last very minor complaint - it has a little plastic filter piece that covers the water intake area, to keep bigger particulate out of the pump. The holes are way too big to be effective though, so anything smaller than like a whole peppercorn is going to make it through. Mine dislodges pretty much every time it runs, and I got tired of fixing it so it just sits at the bottom. Overall, this is a pretty good budget ice maker. It has a bunch of handy features, more than most at this price point, but it feels a little cheap and I have concerns about the longevity. When it dies, I’ll try to remember to post an update on how long it took. But at the price point and with the glowing ATK recommendation, it’s a very good option. From personal experience, I’d research a Frigidaire one around the same price and decide what’s best for you, since mine lasted a really long time.

I’ve been really impressed with this ice maker so far! It works super fast—you don’t realize how nice that is until you don’t have to wait forever for ice anymore. It’s also not nearly as loud as I expected. You can definitely hear it running, but it’s more of a background noise and not disruptive at all, which was a big plus for me. Setup and use are very straightforward, and I love that you can choose between small and large cubes depending on what you need. That’s been really convenient for different drinks. Overall, it’s been a great addition and does exactly what I needed it to do!

You know the story. Some domestic issues have a way of developing into major sources of discontentment. Toilet seats: Up, or down? Toilet paper: Leave a couple of sheets or replace the roll? Milk: Chug the rest or leave it in the almost-empty box? The morally upright, living saints among us know there's a correct answer to each of those. But for the rest of us, it's not as clear cut. Anyway, if you're a mere human like me, and you live among others in a home or an office without an automatic ice maker, you may have been guilty, on occasion, of taking almost all of the remaining ice in the freezer and putting the tray back in the freezer without the intervening step of refilling it with water. Or perhaps, you're the next guy or gal who opens the freezer, expecting frozen gold to chill your drink, only to feel disappointment and disdain, or the stinging smack of karma. Well, the Igloo Premium Self-Cleaning Countertop Ice Maker Machine may change your life. It changed mine. I got this for our small office, after months of bickering over the ice situation. I didn't expect much, but the Igloo really astounded me. It's not much bigger than a toaster, and plugs into a 3 prong outlet. You fill it with your favorite version of water (tap, filtered, bottled, etc) -- or even some fun not-water liquid beverages (or so I've been told) -- and literally withing 15 minutes of contented purring, the Igloo has produced 18 conical "cubes" of ice. And it will keep churning out batches of ice as long as it has water in its reservoir. You'd be surprised how much ice gets made 18 cubes at a time, every 15 minutes. The Igloo churns the ice into a little basket. Just open the lid, and use the included scoop to scoop some frozen deliciousness, or empty the basket into a bin that you can keep in your freezer. Any remaining ice melts slowly back into the reservoir. This affordable Igloo makes more traditional-style ice. If your budget is bigger and you have fancy taste, you might want to check out the crunchy ice maker by GE: https://amzn.to/3rW1kuC Our now-happy office has had this Igloo since August 2022. That's saying a lot, because we're an office of people who explain the saying "that's why we can't have nice stuff". It's been easy to clean, reliable, and productive (unlike some of our staff). This ice maker is also great for renters and for RVers who don't have freezers with built-in automatic ice makers. While you're clicking the "Add to Cart" button, you may want to add an ice maker cleaner / descaler, especially if you're using tap water and live in a hard water area: https://amzn.to/44YezJK And, even though the Igloo comes with its own scoop, you may want an upgrade: https://amzn.to/3s6cjBq

We’ve owned this ice maker for nearly two years now, and feel enough time has passed for a fair review. Over that period of time, it has been running every day 24/7. Overall, it does what it’s supposed to do; however, if you plan to use it as much as we have, be prepared for some maintenance and possible repairs. A short time after purchasing it, we noticed some water on the countertop near the back of the unit. This was caused by a lack of sealing on the inner left side near the upper tank. When the unit runs, water shoots out of an upper hose to fill the upper tank as it should, but while doing so, it also splashes onto the left inner wall and leaks through inside the unit and down onto the inner framework and eventually onto the countertop. This was repaired by making a shield out of aluminum foil and placing it along the inside wall near the pivot point of the upper tank. A simple fix that worked. Just last week another issue with the ice maker happened. It stopped pumping water, although the movement of the upper tank would still cycle. A search on the internet found that an inner micro switch was a possible fault. Testing with an ohmmeter confirmed the switch was shorted and needed to be replaced. This was another simple fix that cost less that 10 dollars to repair. I’m only giving 3 stars since although it does make ice, and has run continuously for the past 2 years. The water leak issue is a design fault that could easily have be resolved by the manufacturer by molding a shield into the design. Regarding the switch, this may have failed due to the water leak, however wear and tear was probably the reason since the water leak problem was repaired nearly two years ago. Cleaning is essential, and not just with vinegar/water through the “cleaning” function. The top tank area under the black plastic cover must be cleaned by hand on a regular basis, and the stainless surround cover must be removed at least bi-annually to inspect and clean dust build up on the evaporator.