Newair AI-100R Compact Automatic Countertop Ice Maker Machine (Red) - Makes 28 lbs Ice in 24 Hours, Ready in 6 Minutes - Perfect for Home Kitchen, Office, Bar, RV & Outdoor Use

Fast making ice, little loud , has a variety of colors to pick from.I have had this unit for almost 2 years and it has been plugged in and running 24/7. We bought it originally because we do lots of shakes and smoothies and my refrigerator icemaker never came back to life after 3 attempts at repairs. We got tired of buying bags of ice, and we use way too much ice to use trays, so we bought this icemaker from amazon in 2013. It is awesome! I keep it right on my kitchen counter between the sink and the blender. I fill a pitcher with water from the sink and pour it into the unit, and I scoop the ice right from the unit into the blender. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because the plastic water tray that holds the water where the ice is actually made just got a crack in it, and now the unit will not make any ice. I live in an area with very hard (well) water and we put water right out of the faucet into the unit. I wonder if the plastic just couldn't handle the minerals in the water here(?). Anyway, after 3 frustrating weeks of doing ice trays and bags, and since my 14 year old refrigerator doesn't seem to be on its deathbed, I'm back on amazon contemplating buying another one. Even though the first one lasted only 2 years, for the price I paid vs. the extraordinary convenience I feel like it is worth it AND much cheaper than buying a new refrigerator. Here are a couple of items to note:1. If you leave the unit on, it will stay cold enough to keep the ice in the bucket mostly frozen, and as long as you use the ice at a steady pace, you don't need to dump the extra ice in your fridge freezer. Note, however, this unit is not a freezer. The inside is basically cold like a refrigerator is. At the times when we've wanted extra ice on hand, we simply dump the ice into our fridge freezer more often and this unit just keeps pumping it out.2. If the unit has been unplugged for a while, or if you are using faucet water (vs. cold water from the fridge), or if the unit is running outside (at a campground or picnic for example) we have noticed that it takes longer to make the first couple batches of ice. I think this is due to the fact that when the unit is warm, or the water is warm, then it has to take extra time to cool itself down. But once it's been on a while, the batches come fast and steady and there's no slowdown unless it runs low on water or if it fills up the basket.3. If the power goes out or the unit is shutdown mid-cycle, follow the directions on the label in the unit to get it to restart properly. Restarting it can be a little unreliable if you don't follow the directions.4. It does make some noise when it's running, and of course you can hear it when it dumps the ice in the bucket, just like with a regular refrigerator ice maker. I noticed the noise the most when it was running low on water. It was never noisy enough to really be a bother, however, and i could certainly talk on the phone or have conversations and not get distracted by the noise. The best way i can describe it was almost like having white noise in the background. Visitors to my home frequently noticed the unit in my kitchen, but only because of the bright red box on the counter, not due to the noise. And I think a lot of them were a little jealous of our cool little icemaker.This gets a 5 star rating from me. It's built really well and it's very quick at putting out ice. My wife and I are bartenders and have get togethers with friends at least once a week. We make so many cocktails that the refrigerator ice maker couldn't keep up with us. Rather than buy bags of ice, or bag the ice during the week from the fridge to save for "cocktail nights" I looked into getting something else that made ice without the pain of freezing ice cubes in trays (I hate to be lazy, but I wasn't going to do that every week).For those confused about how this thing works, it's pretty basic and any bad review about having to do this or that to keep the machine making ice should be ignored. It has a holding area for water. Keep that filled. We have a blender next to this thing and we just fill the blender basket with water and dump it in the ice maker (takes two fills and about 20 seconds to do). You're all set for quite a bit of ice after that. In about 15 minutes you'll have your first dump of ice cubes. The tray that holds the ice cubes inside of the machine has slits on the bottom so when the ice in the machine melts, it goes right back into the process of making more ice. We always use the large cube setting and the ice melts nicely with the drinks. I'm not a huge fan of "red", but I don't really care since this icemaker does its job very well. We have it sitting on the kitchen counter and the window on the top of the door is kind of pointless, but who cares... if you had it sitting lower it may be really useful to someone.There is very little effort to keep the icemaker focused on its job... making ice. The lights on the front do exactly what they're supposed to. Green means on and the size of cube choice. Red means either "I'm out of water... fill me", or the bin is full of ice. There is a big metal sensor on the inside right of the machine. If you want an insane amount of ice, just do this trick... If an ice cube comes in contact with this sensor, just take the little scoop it comes with and move some of the ice away from it. It'll pump out a ton of more ice. If the sensor didn't exist then this machine would keep making ice until it ran out of water. The only thing I noticed is that if you let it run out of water, and then fill it, it may not continue to make ice. Just press the power button and wait like 10 seconds. The machine will turn off and then the pump releases the water back into the holding tank. Turn it back on and you'll hear the pump fire back up and it will begin the icemaking process all over again.I love it, and we have used it EVERY day since it arrived. One thing to note is that it does not have a freezing/refrigeration type of cooling to keep the ice frozen. It will and does melt back into the icemaking process. We don't really care because it's in a constant rotation of making ice and don't consider it any kind of deal breaker. It would greatly increase the cost, I'm sure. Along with the size and probably the electricity it would use. I could definitely see this as an RV must have, or even on a boat.Bartender tested and approved.I ordered this ice maker because extensive research on my part seemed to indicate that it was one of the better ice makers. I was replacing a ten year old Danny that was a work horse of a machine. I use the ice maker on my deck and it is in use for about 4 months a year. This New Air machine is very light compared to my Danby and takes a long time to generate its first batch of ice cubes and subsequent ones are not much faster. If you are using it for a party you have to start the machine at least two hours in advance in order to build up even a small amount of cubes. As for the size of the cubes, well I set it for the large cubes and I can only say that New Air’s definition of large is certainly different from mine. The good thing is that it is still working after 5 weeks of use for about 4 hours a day. Would I buy this machine again? The answer is no. Is it overpriced? The answer is yes.Only owned this for 3 weeks and so far I'm loving it. I don't use it every day, usually make a bunch of ice and store in freezer bags. I'm only one person so I expect that this was not really a necessity for me as I could have continued to use the plastic ice cube makers in the freezer. But it's so much fun hearing the ice cubes drop and seeing them in the basket. Easily amused.Ok, it was an impulse purchase but I wouldn't give it up now.Using only distilled or RO water in it. Never tap water here, I'm sure that would wreck it fast.I will update this review if it fails to perform over time.Bought to provide a reliable and convenient supply of ice. Works well with no problems to date(May,2019).Has the advantage of three different sizes of ice "cubes". We find the medium size best for storage as there seems to be less clumping together in freezer storage. The only question we have is why it doesn't use all of the water in the source reservoir after indicating it is out of water (about one inch depth remains). This is a minor concern and it doesn't affect otherwise flawless operation.Would buy againIve been using this ice maker for 3 months and had no issues until these last few days. Its been making a funny noise and im getting a slight burning smell from it. Dont really feel safe to continue to use it. Its to bad because i really liked it and its pretty color.Just got this machine and already making ice. Color matched my red appliances. Great machine so far.