Antarctic Star Nugget Countertop Ice Maker with Soft Chewable Ice, 34Lbs/24H, Pebble Portable Ice Machine with Ice Scoop, Self-Cleaning, One-Click Operation, for Kitchen,Office Stainless Steel Silver

I bought the Nugget Countertop Ice Maker a few months ago, and I’m happy to say it’s still working great with no issues. It’s been exactly what I needed for my kitchen. The machine makes ice quickly and produces the perfect nugget ice that’s great for drinks. Whether it's iced tea, coffee, or just water, the ice is always refreshing. The setup was straightforward, and I love how easy it is to use. Just press a button, and it starts making ice in no time. The self cleaning function is a great feature that saves me from having to spend extra time cleaning it manually. One downside is that it can be a bit noisy, especially if you're in a quieter environment, but it’s not a huge issue for me. Also, the ice basket fills up fairly quickly, so if you’re hosting a gathering, you might need to empty it a couple of times. Overall, I’m really happy with the ice maker. It’s compact, efficient, and makes great ice for everyday use. If you’re looking for an easy to use ice maker that makes nugget ice, this one is a solid choice!

This makes plenty of ice for our wants. It's not going to make it super fast, but it'll be faster than filling an ice tray or waiting for your fridge ice maker to get some ice. It makes tiny pellets, and makes roughly two cups of ice at a time. Perfect for us. We simply fill a two gallon freezer bag for some ready made ice and break it up with a rubber mallet when we want some. it does break up really well and doesn't stay in huge chunks. Whether it's for soda, water or an iced coffee, this has been fantastic ice. The machine did make some funky noises once. I turned it off, unplugged it for a little bit, then plugged it back in and started it back up. No issues since. Don't let it run constantly. It is a small machine and needs breaks. It does not keep the ice in the basket frozen forever. Hence the reason why we bag and store some, and make more as we need it. Having ready made pellet ice that isn't costing us a lot by the bag is fantastic and saves us a trip across town to grab more. I've had zero issues thus far, and filter water before I fill it. I do expect I will have to run a descaling cycle on it to clean, but it does have a self cleaning cycle I can run with descaler, then follow up with a couple rinse cycles. Much like I do with my single cup coffee maker. The ice comes out tasting great and doesn't leave anything behind in my drinks. It doesn't melt too fast and is a little more solid than some popular ice providers, which I love. I might have to get these as holiday gifts for my offspring, as they love pellet ice as well. For the price, portability and size, I'm really digging on this ice maker. Time will tell on lifetime of this machine, but if I get a good couple years out of it, it will have easily paid for itself in that time. Perfect on a budget. Edit: We're in September now, and it's still running like a champ. My husband and I enjoy cold, icy drinks every day. No running problems at all, and the ice doesn't come out tasting or smelling funky. I have yet to run a descale because I put filtered water through it. We run it long enough to fill a two gallon freezer bag, then let it sit and rest while we use the current supply. The bag goes in the deep freeze, and when we want some we smack it a little with a rubber mallet to break up the chunks that freeze together so we have a cup full of good ice.

This was a great product until it wasn’t. The motor stopped working conveniently a week after the one-year warranty expired. I reached out through their customer service link, which took me to a chat page. It took days to get a response, and when I replied, it took several more days just to be told, “Sorry, you’re out of warranty.” The engine gave out literally a week after the coverage ended. What a scam. I chose this product because of the reviews and figured spending $160+ would mean I was investing in something reliable. I was wrong. On top of that, Amazon sent a follow-up survey asking if the issue was resolved, but there was no option to explain what actually happened. So is Amazon aware this company is selling questionable products? Are they even looking into it? We followed all the cleaning instructions and treated the machine properly. The motor failed anyway. I bought this for my dad on Father’s Day last year because he loves chewing ice. Sure, I could buy another one, but after this experience and Amazon’s weird follow-up, how am I supposed to trust any other ice machines on here? Customer service was disappointing. I didn’t want a refund. I just wanted it fixed. I was willing to send the broken unit back, but they didn’t offer that as an option. Don’t waste your money unless you’re okay with a one-year lifespan and no support. I’d give this product negative stars if I could.

Update: the manufacturer contacted me and made it right. They stood up behind their product and we came to a solution. After talking with them it sounds like I happened to get a defective ice maker that slipped through quality control and that my experience is not typical. I'm revising my review to 4 stars because the manufacturer stepped up and fixed the issue, but I can't do 5 stars because I didn't receive a defective one. I think that is fair. Previous review: Warning - If you are looking to buy an ice maker like this, be forewarned that this is not the one you want to buy. In my experience, it will fail and break in only a few months and calls and emails to the manufacturer go unanswered. We really loved this little ice maker. It's small, compact, and pretty quiet. It make the perfect ice and pretty fast too. But only after a few months it has broken. It started making a horrible clunking and grinding noise that sounded like it came from the right rear corner area of the machine. It first I thought that maybe there was some ice stuck in there so I unplugged it and let the whole machine defrost overnight and then cleared it really well the next day. I filled it back up with water and plugged it in. All seemed normal and it started producing ice. I thought it was good to go but nope. Within a few hours it started making the same horrible clunking and grinding noises. Unfortunately it broke just outside of Amazon's return window, so now I guess I have a $200 paperweight on my kitchen counter. I have tried contacting the seller and manufacturer but I get now reply from them.

So, I was asked to see "if Amazon has an icemaker." Of course Amazon does. The question is, does Amazon have the right ice maker for the right price? TLDR - Yes! It makes little tiny ice pillows just like Sonic. It's a little noisy. You're going to have to figure out how to store it unless you want to keep the machine running 24/7. But it makes little tiny ice pillows! The longer version of the story is as follows. I did A LOT of searching through Amazon to find the right ice maker. There are a bunch that talk about 'small nuggets' but they're not little Sonic-sized pellets. They're more like baby cubes or bullets. There aren't a lot of pellet/pillowed ice makers on the site that I could find until you start getting into the 'high' priced options. The Good - It's pretty darn easy to get your own tiny ice nugget production rolling pretty quickly. Open the box. Wipe down the insides per the instructions. Fill to the fill line. Plug it in and push the button. In about 30 minutes/hr you've got pretty full tray of tiny little nuggets. They're the perfect size for ice chewers and the people who very specifically like this type of ice. The Bad - Like I mentioned above, there are a bunch of ice machines on Amazon, and in varying price ranges. There are considerably less machines on Amazon that make tiny ice nuggets/Sonic-style ice. (And to be clear, it's not exactly Sonic's pillow-ice but it's close. See photo) There aren't a lot of 'affordable' options out there. This one was among the most price-conscious of the limited options, but definitely a lot more than regular ice maker 'value' options. Additionally, it's a bit noisy. I'm a WFH guy and stray noises from the other room can be a distraction. I wouldn't say it's loud, but it's noisier than the compressor on your refrigerator. Lastly, once you have your nice little ice pellets, you're going to have to figure out how to store them. You cant just put them in a tray in your freezer, they'll stick together. There are a bunch of 'hacks' online for what to do in this situation. I've taken to just doing individually pre-packed 'flat' ziplock individual serving bags. Take it out of the freezer, drop it on the counter to break up the little pellets, and boom, in the drink. All of that to say, it makes little ice pellets. That was the intended goal here. And it does it successfully without breaking the bank. It's not a perfect solution by any stretch, but for the dollar value buy... it's actually pretty great.

I've had the Nugget ice maker about 9 months now and have used it extensively. It makes ice fairly quickly but it won't keep up with more than 2 people especially as the fresh ice melts in mixed drinks rather quickly. A work around is to start making ice earlier or do I like do - make several gallon freezer bags of the stuff and store them in your freezer. I have a rubber mallet I use on the bags to break the stored ice up to serving size. You can reuse the gallon freezer bags a couple of times. The fresh ice is around 32 degrees and the stored ice is at 0 degrees. The stored ice is better for drinks and the fresh for chewing. The unit makes some noise but it is in my kitchen so I don't hear it anywhere else. I use distilled water and the flavor is pure ice, no other tastes. Cleaning is a bit involved, but if you completely dry out the insides and store some waded up papertowels in the unit and leave the lid slightly ajar it is fresh for the next use. I do the extensive cleaning every 4th or 5th run.

I’ve had this machine for about two months. I’m no ice “scientist” but I do have some knowledge on this topic. In my opinion this machine does not produce what the industry considers to be “nugget ice”. Nugget ice is made from “flakes” of ice that are compressed into, well…. nuggets. Basically, made of shaved ice like that used for snow cones. The result is usually varying length cylindrical pieces of “ice”. Since they are made from ice flakes, it is easy to understand how these are soft to chew and readily absorb liquid and take on its flavor. Machines that make this type of ice are typically very expensive. (There is a commercial nugget ice maker at my office and it costs around $5000.00.) I was recently in the hospital, only able to consume "ice chips". In this case it was nugget ice that the y gave me. This machine however, produces what appears to be similar to crushed ice. To me, that id better than ice cubes, but it’s not what I know to be nugget ice. Speed: It starts making ice very quickly. I was surprised. I don't know if it makes as much as advertised. Noise: You don’t want this in your bedroom. It is fairly noisy. It doesn’t produce noise constantly. Only when it is making ice. With my somewhat cheesy Radio Shack level meter, it measures about 51 dBA SPL at about 1 meter away. Not horrible, but some people may be annoyed with the noise level. Conclusion: I have an ice maker in my refrigerator, but I also have well water so I don’t like the taste of ice made with that. That was one reason I purchased this machine. If you are ok with something that resembles crushed ice and don’t mind a little noise, this machine may be just what you need. If you want a true “nugget ice” experience, you will need to look elsewhere and probably pay more. UPDATE: The company wrote and offered a refund, but I decided to keep the machine. After about 13 months of continuous use it started emitting a loud screeching sound. Thought it might be the fan, replaced that (I'm an engineer), but it started screeching again. After being inside the thing, and seeing where components are located, the sound appears to be coming from where the water pump is located. Not going to spend any more money on it, so it will be heading to the dump to be recycled. So, it worked well up to that point. Would have hoped for longer life.

I love this machine, I'm obsessed. If I'm home, it's running. I'm pregnant with my second and I wish I would have known about this machine with my first because all I want to do is chew ice. I don't even drink water anymore 💁‍♀️, I chew it. I was getting bags of Sonic Ice before this machine and it never froze well, it would Clump up in the freezer and get really hard. I had bought a plastic container to put into the freezer because I planned to make the nugget ice and store it in the freezer (like you see the ladies on tik tok opening their freezer and shoveling out scoops of nugget ice all loose and perfect 🙄) but it does the same thing the Sonic Ice does, Clump up and get hard. I haven't quite figured out how to store it yet So I just eat the ice straight out of the machine, right away. In the morning I turn it on an hour before work while I'm getting ready, it makes enough to fill a 24 oz insulated tumbler and also enough for me to snack on during. I use approximately a half gallon of purified drinking water a day, maybe a little more (easily 4 gallons a week). And that's just making ice for myself, my boyfriend doesn't want anything to do with it, he doesn't like ice like that and the babe is too small, but I WILL fill her little mesh teething thing you put frozen fruit in with nugget ice for her teeth, it fits well in the opening and if it leaks and makes a mess it's just water. IF I had to share this ice with another individual I'm not quite sure how I would take it. I might have to get a second machine because I feel like it makes just enough for me and my needs for the time it takes to makes it. Also, the consistency and texture when biting this ice is very satisfying... it's like biting into a very compacted snowball, if you can remember as a kid, or as an adult.. ha. That's probably what keeps me so addicted to this ice is the texture. But again, that's the texture of it coming straight out of the machine. Not after sitting in a liquid or frozen in the freezer, because both of those will change the consistency. I haven't had any problems with it, I've had it for just short of 2 months and if it ever broke I would get a replacement in a heartbeat. The pictures are just to give you an idea of production time, it's 15 minutes after being turned on, not 15 minutes after starting producing I would say it starts to produce within 5 to 8 minutes. Oh & I'll run the cleaning cycle once a week but I'm afraid to put bleach in it ( I'm pretty sure I read to do that somewhere) so I just put really hot water from the sink in it and let it do its thing, not sure if it's cleaning anything but I've never found any bits or particles or dirt or any kind of contaminant in the ice or in the ice machine