Antarctic Star Black Mini Ice Maker 9 Cubes in 6-8 Minute

Excellent, a great little ice maker. Question, do you leave it on 24/7, because it never quits recycling the ice ? Jm

I did not know that they had home, countertop ice makers until I went to see my uncle when he 1st moved back to Colorado. He had one and it was like the most awesome small kitchen appliance. Well I found out where to buy one and I loved it for about a year. Then it started making terrible noises and the ice tasted nasty.<br>So I decided to get a new one. Found this one on Amazon and it was a great price. Well not only was it a great price but the ice crunches just like Sonic ice does. I eat the ice several times a day and from this machine, it taste amazing and doesn't try to shatter my teeth LOL I haven't figured out how to do the self-cleaning yet. I've had it for a few months but I knew were moving, so I was gonna wait until we got settled in the new place and try to clean it. All in all I love this machine and I hope everyone else does too.

This was actually an impulse buy as we didn't even know they made these. After complaining about all the ice we made this summer, forgetting to refill trays, etc, we ran across these. Since there were several brands that basically looked the same, we chose this one. It have been extremely useful. It's fast and easy to use. We use spring water from the store (You can get at least 3 fill-ups from the larger bottles) and find that one of those fill-ups can last 2 people several days. When you need more, just fill and let it run until it tells you it needs more water. Put the ice in a gallon size bag and put it in the freezer. No more trays, spilling water on the way to the fridge, etc.<br><br>The only complaint is when it has produced all it can from the fill-up, it says to not let the remaining water stay in the machine but to dump it out. There's a fair amount of water left - so you have to take the machine to the sink, then turn it over and dump it. The machine isn't exactly light. Plus, with the bottled water, we pour it into a bowl to put back in the bottle (It leaves a pretty good size bowl of water when the light goes on - maybe 12-16oz?) A small hose in the back to drain it would make things much simpler. Otherwise, it's been great.

I just love this machine. Its a game changer. No more ice trays filling up my freezer. Now i just have a big tub full of ice in my freezer that i can replenish quickly. I also purchased a box of 2 gallon ziplock bags on walmart.com that i can use and re-use to put ice in my coolers (i prefer to keep ice in the bag and not loose in the cooler so i have clean ice for mixed drinks and a dry cooler). i'm reducing plastic waste by not buying ice in plastic bags as i can get a lot of uses out of one plastic ziplock bag.<br>I was intimidated at first but this thing is simple to use.<br>1. let it sit for a few hours before you plug it in so the refrigerant can settle back into the compressor.<br>2. wipe it clean on the inside, all surfaces.<br>3. plug it in and fill the well with water just below the ice basket level.<br>4. the machine will fill the basket in about 1.5 hours. I usually shake off any excess water and dump the ice from the basket in my freezer. i will add more water to the machine at this time but usually it will fill the ice basket 2 or 3 times before requiring water to be added.<br>5. the unit will run and use about 100w when its running but when the ice basket fills it turns itself off and remains dormant until the basket is emptied. I think, but not sure, its not using any power or very little during these times.<br>6. it claims 26 lbs of ice per day. I'm not sure how much it really makes but it makes a LOT of ice so i dont doubt these claims. Of course for this to happen you will empty the basket every 1.5 hours and add more water about every 2nd or 3rd dumping of the ice basket.<br>7. there will always be some standing water in the bottom of the ice well. that water should be drained off when the machine is not in use and wiped dry. there is a drain plug down there to drain out this water. I only plug my ice machine in on the weekends when i'm around to monitor it and dump out the ice. I can easily make a weeks worth of ice in one day.<br>To address some of the complaints on this item:<br>1. "the unit leaks water from the bottom". fix....did you make sure the drain plug is installed before adding water?<br>2. " the ice is watery" fix....the first batch of ice is watery as the unit is warm and its not quite cold yet. after about 30 or 40 minutes, the ice is solid. there is always some water on the ice and i shake off that ice before i dump the contents into the freezer. if your ice is still too watery, how hot is your house? If you are making ice outside on a summer day you will have watery ice.<br>3. " ice is too thin" fix....yes, the ice has a center hole that doesn't go all the way through so its not a solid cube of ice. because its greater surface area it will melt faster, but it also gets drinks colder faster. Its also easier to chew if you or your dogs like to chew ice. I find these cubes a huge improvement over my ice tray cubes and i was doubtful that would be the case.<br>This is a really good kitchen gadget for those without a freezer that makes ice. Even if your freezer makes ice you probably wont be able to keep up with the output of this machine if you want to make a lot of ice. I would recommend this item and will rebuy it if i ever need another one.<br>Regarding the self-cleaning function, i assume it works but i'm not sure how but it takes about 30 minutes to complete the cycle. There must be some water in the machine for this to work. I presume it has a heating feature and repeatedly sucks in water and pumps it through the system to descale the mineral deposits on the internal tubing.

When our ice maker started acting up in our fridge, I ordered this so that our household could have plenty of ice. My husband keeps his water tumbler slap full of ice all day and with my son playing sports in the florida heat, we now have plenty of ice to keep them happy. I clean it weekly and it makes ice super fast.<br>You have the choice of small or medium sized cubes which are great for tumblers, glasses, or small water coolers.

It is big on the counter for a small appliance. The drain plug is a pain to use. CUTE device. Makes ice. Especially if you turn it on and leave the room. If you watch it, it makes a timy bit at first, but after we start drinking, it keeps up and makes plenty of ice within an hour. Fresh ice, looks like little 'bells'. Did you know that the reason the big expensive refrigerator ice makers fail is because the water going into the machine is too warm, so it melts and freezes and jams the ice makers. We cannot use a refrigerator that makes ice since we live in a hot climate and the water coming in the pipes is too hot. We love this little icemakee so much, we bought a second on for our vacation home. Now we don't have to use old ice sitting in the refrigerator, we get fresh ice. Really CUTE and fun ice maker, with a pretty good self clean feature, it squirts inside itself for half hour if you press the cleaning cycle.

We were spending about $25-$30 on ice. 5lb bags. We use a lot of ice. I especially use, A LOT of ice. So I got this at the end of the hot summer months. Haven't tested this in the summer yet. It recycles the melted ice though! I LOVE that feature. We don't move the ice to our tiny little rental freezer. This is softer ice too. My dogs love it. Its not too loud but you can hear it doing its thing.

I am really happy with this ice machine. I got it to replace the 7 year old ,very heavily used igloo. The design is really well thought out on this one. The igloo would back up with ice because of its design, and it broke at one point , so we took it apart and glued it ,and it lasted a couple more years. This one has smaller cubes but I do like it. I eat a lot of ice. Which is a side effect of low iron and being anemic. I have no complaints so far, it is quiet, it is a smaller size machine. Which is great and it seems to fill up with ice pretty fast. I fill up a 44 oz soda glass about 4 - 6 times a day and it more then keeps up. I like the auto shut off. And the price was great too. I would recommend.

After our ice maker on our refrigerator went out, I had heard from a friend about countertop models. After researching many different models and reading a lot of reviews I decided on the Kismal, it was within my price range and had good reviews. Well I don??t know how it happened but this is one of the few times that a mistake was made to the customers advantage. Instead of receiving the Kismal I received the Antarctic Star which was actually about thirty dollars more then the Kismal. So here??s my review for the Antarctic Star. I love it. Yes it does make ice as fast as it says does, it is quite, it does put off a bit of heat but not too badly. It goes for a long time on each reservoir filling so you don??t have to keep putting water in it continuously, and I can fill my large ice storage bin in my freezer in about three hours from it being almost empty, and it??s much cheaper than buying ice. I absolutely love it. Do make sure to fallow all instructions, especially drying thoroughly after use when storing between uses.

Bought to use for my RV, it works great . The post office lost it for a while , but the seller was great and in communication about it. Highly recommend the units make great ice , easy to use.

This ice maker works great as expected, arrived in a timely manner, easy to use, keeps ice from melting until you remove....very happy with this product......a very satisfied customer......would recommend this product......

this ice machine is awesome!! Great product. Works as promised.One month update!I have had this a month now. I am very pleased with the out put. I can run it a half day on the weekend and put up enough ice for the week!! I love the self cleaning cycle!! If I could change one thing, it would be make the dump scoop a little bit long to get the ice out a little further from the full censor. It would give you a an even basket full before it shows full. However, it is not a problem as I walk through the kitchen to even out the ice.

I like this little machine very much. Makes ice fast and keeps going as long as there is water in it. It does not have a freezer to keep the ice frozen, but the cubes themselves will stay frozen quite a while and any melting gets reused to freeze again. I'm just using spring water and it's just fine. I don't have an icemaker in my refrigerator and this makes enough for family dinners in a short time. I store the rest in my freezer for later use when I'm not running the machine. Also, the machine is very quiet (though you can hear when the cubes fall into the basket, it is not loud). A great purchase -- economical and doesn't take up too much counter space (about the same as bread machine).

This unit is wonderful. Having unlimited ice in the summer is such a pleasure. No more ice cube trays to spill on the way to the freezer or to fight with to get the cubes out. This ice maker has worked all day every day since we got it. Let it sit overnight first so the refrigerant could settle. Ran 2 cleaning cycles with plain tap water. Use tap water to make ice and it tastes fine. If you store the cubes in the house freezer you will have to break up clumps. I use a rubber mallet to wack a bagful of the little ice pellets. When you use the ice directly as it is made clumping is not a problem. I turn it off when I go to bed, and start it in the morning.

I love my ice maker, I have a small cottage with not much room for a full size refrigerator so this is a must for small spaces. I live in the country and well water is our only source of water. I don't suggest using well water as my first ice maker purchased thru Amazon lasted under a month. I thought it was a product defect until my daughters lasted the same amount of time. We both took another chance with Amazon, as this is our lifeline living in the country. Bottled water from now on and they work beautifully. The sleek design and see thru lid design is definitely a plus. It produces ice just as is described and already used the self cleaning function. I would not trade this in for another brand. Thank you Amazon for once again being true to your word.

I bought an ice maker off HSN and it didn??t even last 1 yr. Purchased this one plus the 5-yr warranty. So far I love it and am very pleased!<br><br>Pros: nice size ice cubes, quiet operation, top opens fully so I can wipe the insides down and clean as needed, smaller size than my old one, has a self-clean option (haven??t used it yet), has a drain plug (BONUS because my other machine did not have one), blends in with the kitchen decor nicely<br><br>CONS: it seems the ice basket and water tank are smaller than my old machine but the pros definitely outweigh the cons

I like this model access to the ice maker tongs is great, for cleaning the entire back compared to other models, unit is quite, some<br>noise when starting very low, in all for the bang for buck, it??s solid.<br>I would recommend this model above all the others just to have access to the back of the ice maker.

I am so happy with this purchase! I originally ordered the IGLOO brand as it is top rated on Amazon? I was very disappointed &amp, unhappy it made all sorts of noise and the ice would not stay frozen melted as it was making more, which in return I found myself babysitting it.<br><br>Now this ice Maker is a whole new experience and I am so happy I decided to give it a try... It is quiet keeps ice frozen and makes a decent amount of ice before you need to dump basket &amp; add water. I love it! I am definitely happy to write this review and recommend it to you all... best investment!

Have had the ice maker 10 days and it has performed like a champ! Reasonably quiet, easy to move around. We had a leak in the line of our refrigerator's ice maker and decided not to chance another leak (which has led to very costly repairs in our kitchen and downstairs). So we decided to purchase this one. We use this ice maker and put the ice it makes in the old ice maker. The ice is very similar to the ice our refrigerator's ice maker made and is dispensed by the refrigerator's ice maker.

Just received it and it is working great! I will update my review in a month or 2.

What an amazing company. They stand behind their products.

As a matter of fact, am making ice RIGHT NOW! Recommendation! USE DISTILLED WATER! Makes clear ice, and you don't need to spend extra money on a more expensive portable ice maker designed for clear ice! This is absolutely PERFECT! Not only for home use,but for our RV...am loving this little thing!<br><br>Am not sure what the "Warmth" category is...it doesn't run hot. Basically all portable ice makers are similar. This is just what I needed and a tad more lightweight than some others. Priced JUST RIGHT too!

quick and easy to use

I love this little guy! Has made ice consistently since it??s arrival, getting over a quart of ice per hour. We??re 100% solar and it does not use a ton of energy.

I questioned if it could make as quickly as advertised. It does!

Always have ice on hand! Continuously keeps on cranking!

The ice maker did work as described. There was nothing wrong with it, I just wanted to return because it did not suit my intended purpose. THE SELLER WILL NOT REFUND. They want to credit you with $50 to keep it. I do not want to give them my credit card information so someone is going to have a nice present. I will not purchase anything from this seller again.