Frigidaire Retro Bullet Ice Maker (Silver or Black)

There are traditionally two Chinese manufacturers that produce these and slap on a myriad of brand names but unless this product has gotten the Temu shrink-a-lization, turning it deceptively into a fraction of its normal expected size, these are all roughly identical and do produce a healthy amount of bullet ice -- plenty for several drinks unless you have a two gallon Slurpee cup,

I have owned about eight of these over the last ten years. They all last an average of one year before a mechanical issue shuts them down or they get ravaged by hidden mold which can develop if you allow the ice to melt and re-freeze repeatedly without regular cleaning. If you do get mold, cleaning it all out is impossible and it is better to just throw it out.

Periodically, you will want to run concentrated lemon juice and some diluted Clorox bleach through the machine to sterilize it and keep mineral deposits down. If you are not going to use it, empty and dry it as best as you can. Also, some units have silicone drain plugs that are easy to damage or lose. Keep an eye on it.

As is often the case, the 26 pounds is simply advertising BS.

For those considering this, the unit makes about a cup or so of ice at a time. Not 26 pounds at one time. I suppose if a person sat at the machine, filled it each cycle, harvested the ice at each cycle over a 24 hour period nonstop, and collected and weighed the results, the ice made might weigh 26 pounds. Unless you plan to do so, take the 26 pounds with a grain of salt. Also, know that the device makes ice. It does not keep the ice frozen for later use. If you don't retrieve it, the ice simply melts in place. To save the ice, you need to take the newly made ice out of the basket and put into your freezer. This would need to happen about every 14 minutes, after refilling it with new water of course.

That said, there is a place for these. A single person may find its production sufficient for their needs. Also, those who purchased newer refrigerators with crappy ice makers (especially Samsung and LG) thinking they would produce ice like the Whirlpools of 30 years ago might find these helpful in times of need such as a the heat of summer or a big dinner.

I have one (regrettable LG fridge) and it sits on a cabinet unused 99.9% of the time. Worse yet, when one of my daughter's friends was using it, she simply left it on for days at a time unaware that the newly made ice was not being kept frozen. Not good for the compressor or my electric bill.

Can you explain how you use it? I don't need to make bucket fulls of ice, nor do I use ice every day. I just want to make enough for a couple of drinks once a week. Do you fill it with water and ice will be ready for a few weeks? When you deplete the ice, you refill with more water?

Or is there some other process for using this ice that I'm just not used to?

Reading everyone descriptions, I'm still confused how this thing works and whether or not I can use it to keep ice available for when I need it maybe once a week. It doesn't sound it it's a freezer that runs 24-7? It makes ice the same way a pop corn maker makes pop corn? When it's done making, it stops making ice, and the ice that it made...starts to melt? And you have to start it up again or something?

I don't know, am I being dumb? Does anyone utilize these table top ice makers to just keep ice available for some random once a week use? Does is that super inefficient due to how these function?

Reading everyone descriptions, I'm still confused how this thing works and whether or not I can use it to keep ice available for when I need it maybe once a week. It doesn't sound it it's a freezer that runs 24-7? It makes ice the same way a pop corn maker makes pop corn? When it's done making, it stops making ice, and the ice that it made...starts to melt? And you have to start it up again or something?

I don't know, am I being dumb? Does anyone utilize these table top ice makers to just keep ice available for some random once a week use? Does is that super inefficient due to how these function?

Ì have a bin inside my freezer that can hold 7 lbs of ice... or maybe 5 I can't remember. But I do know that it doesn't take more than 6 hours to make a full bin. At 5 lbs that's 20lbs of ice in a day but no one is going to watch it for 24 hours straight. I let it run and in about 30 to 45 minutes I dump the ice into the bin. Then I let it keep making more ice. Once the water runs down I add more water, take out the catch bin and let it run for 20 minutes or so to demo fresh ice into the water reservoir. Then put the catch bin bag in and let it run again. I just keep repeating until the bin is full. And the bin lasts us almost a week on avg. So I could essentially run it for a few hours each evening and dump the ice into the bin before bed. And I ran a kill a watt meter and last I remember it didn't even burn a kWh in a few hours. It hardly uses any energy at all.

Glad to hear it meets your needs. Many others like myself would prefer not to spend a few hours every evening, much less six hours in one day, tending to the machine. I'll continue to use ours when the refrigerator's own ice maker is insufficient to meet our needs, which seem to exceed yours. We use more than five pounds per week.

Another alternative is simply ice trays. A two pack costs $1.25 at Dollar Tree. A couple of these might make as much as the posted ice maker. Assuming you have enough space in your freezer of course.