GE Opal Ice Makers: GE Profile Opal Countertop Nugget Ice Maker
Expired
$350
+ Free S/H w/ Prime
+19Deal Score
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Home.Woot has GE Opal Ice Makers on sale below. Shipping is free for Amazon Prime Members (must login with your Amazon account and select a shipping address in order for Woot to apply free shipping) or is otherwise $6 per order.
I'm not sure why they are still sellilng the gen1s, especially at this price, knowing how nasty the internal tank (constantly elevated temperature creating a brewing ground for bacteria) can get and how nearly impossible it is to open up the machine and clean the internal tank. the 2nd gen fixes this issue--GE has been fairly quiet about it.
My biggest concern is repairability. You can't! You spend this much for an icemaker and then in a year and a half when your circuit board goes out, there's NO support. You can't even pay to have it repaired. An ice machine this expensive should not be a throw away item.
I've wanted one of these machines forever, but that price tag is still way too hefty. When these machines for below $200, I will consider it, and even then I won't be jumping to buy and add another appliance to my countertop.
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idk, at $2 a bag for 15 pounds of ice, still seems like just buying bagged ice and keeping it in a cooler is a better option than spending $500 + cost of electricity to run one of these. I have something similar to this, and it's stored away all winter, and only used evenings in summer when people are having extended cocktail hours on weekends. The other upside of bagged ice is it is solid and doesn't melt nearly as fast as ice from one of these.
1) Use only distilled water. Trust me, it's worth it
2) Buy the extended warranty and with AMEX. We have purchased about 4 of these units (1.0) and they do always fail. The warranty pays for a new replacement.
This is absolutely not a slick deal when Costco has the newer unit with the side tank for $100 more. If this deal was live 2 years ago, okay...but no way a good deal at the end of 2023. It's like trying to sell a 2 year old car that hasn't been driven for MSRP in the year it was built. No thank you.
I've had my 1.0 since 2018. Knock on wood I've never had an issue with it. I've seen the videos of the disgusting bacteria breeding tank but that's not really any different than a commercial ice maker in a restaurant, convenience store, etc that never gets cleaned. None of them ever do.
As for distilled water, I tried that for about six months when we lived elsewhere and had soft well water. My experience was that it made the ice hard and brittle. As soon as I stopped using the distilled I got the soft packed snow effect back. Just my two cents.
I might be daft, but what is the point of this over say, ice trays or the maker in your freezer?
This has an auger that compacts the ice into nuggets. Given that the ice nuggets are riddled with fractures, it's softer than regular ice and takes on the flavor of the beverage it is put in.
My wife bought the Opal 1.0 with side tank during prime days and not a day goes by where she isn't using the nugget ice. She loves it and said it was one of the best purchases she ever made.
As for bacteria/junk it says to clean it once a week. With tat said we do it once a month with a bleach solution and descale it with white vinegar every 3 months. I take the discharge from the bleach solution and feed it into the side tank, shake it up real good, and run it through the side tank bottom thingy then rinse that stuff also. So far so good.
If it ever dies we'll buy the 2.0 without a second thought.
Bought a 1.0 not too long ago. I used distilled water only, but I had issues with my first one. Got a replacement unit that is even worse.
Overall I love and hate this thing. My replacement unit is super loud, and ended up with the same failure as the first one (after a bit it goes into the "pump" mode a few times a day). I'll keep using mine until it dies then maybe get a 2.0.
I have the 1.0. Don't get the 1.0. Out of spite, I'm probably not buying anything GE ever, ever again.
However, some things --- warranty:
* the warranty for the 1.0 hasn't been too awful. I sent a recording of it making a super ugly grinding noise to onpoint-warranty-opal . kustomer . help which seems sketch AF, but I promise it really did work.
* With fairly little fanfare, they messaged me and asked me if I wanted to change it out. It came here about 2 weeks after I said 'yes'.
* dropped the old one off at Fedex
Ownership
* Not being able to clean the internal tank is a bummer, but I figure that gets clean when I have to descale it every 3 fscking weeks.
* The side tank develops a vacuum.
* This thing gets pretty hot which is a pretty real summer consideration.
* I have no idea, but even the replacement unit has the issue where the front power button just doesn't work. How you make a non-functional power button is beyond me.
EDIT: Someone mentioned the power consumption --- YES. It uses a bucketload of power. I don't know the energystar on it, but I think it's like 300-400 watts for like half of a day.
There's a literal warehouse full of pallets of these things in LA right now. I expect the price will decrease in the future. They have a design flaw with tank maintenance
avoid generation 1 at all costs because of the internal tank / mold sludge slime issue (heat issue)
gen 2 seems to fix it, though i havent seen any definitive to say that fixes it 100%.
I own a gen 2 and have been using it non stop (asides from 2 week cleaning) for the last 4 months. Using a TDS tool, i put RO water in rated at 44, and the ice output is roughly the same at 48.
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1) Use only distilled water. Trust me, it's worth it
2) Buy the extended warranty and with AMEX. We have purchased about 4 of these units (1.0) and they do always fail. The warranty pays for a new replacement.
They are great when they work.
https://ibb.co/7zKQbwn
As for distilled water, I tried that for about six months when we lived elsewhere and had soft well water. My experience was that it made the ice hard and brittle. As soon as I stopped using the distilled I got the soft packed snow effect back. Just my two cents.
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This has an auger that compacts the ice into nuggets. Given that the ice nuggets are riddled with fractures, it's softer than regular ice and takes on the flavor of the beverage it is put in.
https://www.costco.com/ge-profile...36137
I'm trying to convince myself that I need a $500 ice maker. Especially when I have a fairly well performing ice maker in my GE Profile fridge
As for bacteria/junk it says to clean it once a week. With tat said we do it once a month with a bleach solution and descale it with white vinegar every 3 months. I take the discharge from the bleach solution and feed it into the side tank, shake it up real good, and run it through the side tank bottom thingy then rinse that stuff also. So far so good.
If it ever dies we'll buy the 2.0 without a second thought.
Overall I love and hate this thing. My replacement unit is super loud, and ended up with the same failure as the first one (after a bit it goes into the "pump" mode a few times a day). I'll keep using mine until it dies then maybe get a 2.0.
Don't buy the 1.0 version.
However, some things --- warranty:
* the warranty for the 1.0 hasn't been too awful. I sent a recording of it making a super ugly grinding noise to onpoint-warranty-opal . kustomer . help which seems sketch AF, but I promise it really did work.
* With fairly little fanfare, they messaged me and asked me if I wanted to change it out. It came here about 2 weeks after I said 'yes'.
* dropped the old one off at Fedex
Ownership
* Not being able to clean the internal tank is a bummer, but I figure that gets clean when I have to descale it every 3 fscking weeks.
* The side tank develops a vacuum.
* This thing gets pretty hot which is a pretty real summer consideration.
* I have no idea, but even the replacement unit has the issue where the front power button just doesn't work. How you make a non-functional power button is beyond me.
EDIT: Someone mentioned the power consumption --- YES. It uses a bucketload of power. I don't know the energystar on it, but I think it's like 300-400 watts for like half of a day.
gen 2 seems to fix it, though i havent seen any definitive to say that fixes it 100%.
I own a gen 2 and have been using it non stop (asides from 2 week cleaning) for the last 4 months. Using a TDS tool, i put RO water in rated at 44, and the ice output is roughly the same at 48.
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