Frigidaire EFIC235-AMZ Countertop Crunchy Chewable Nugget Ice Maker, 44lbs per day, Self Cleaning Function

This makes the best nugget ice. I turn it on first thing in the morning and eat ice allllll day long. I recommend it to all my friends and family. It is not silent but isn’t loud enough that it bothers anyone in the house. (About the level of a large box fan)

This machine appears to be a four star rated at first glance. I mean, they all have their problems, right ? Even the Opal shares a lot of the same complaints. Honestly, this is about a strong 2.5 or 3 star. And certainly not priced accordingly.
I was very trepidatious after reading through all of the reviews how obnoxiously loud this thing is. Not only does the motor constantly run but the water part is horribly loud with each fill. It’s like an Adam West Batman episode. BANG! SQUEAK! POW! The ice comes out watery to boot so it melts off fast.
The thing is quite large and doesn’t fit on the counter as listed – so you’ll need to find space for it elsewhere. Ours is classily now on a stand alone folding table in our kitchen. Nice.
It does make crunchy ice quickly … it also melts fairly quick as well. So there’s that.
There is UV portion that I am not even sure what it does.
I have now come home to a small wading pool on our floors due to some sort of drain issue from this percussion machine.
This was a gift for the wife. In the end, it doesn’t seem worth it. I think we will return it. While the ice is great, the noise and it being a massive eye sore that I need to be on top of to be sure we aren’t flossing our floors and not have melting ice seems more work than I would like. I just don’t think the technology is there yet. Even at this price. Good luck !

Our objectives for the purchase of this ice machine was:
1) to get better tasting ice since our fridge ice made me and my daughter gag even with new filters (very hard city water here)
2) to have the ice source outside of our new gallery/french door fridge so our food would not get freezer burned by all the freezer drawer openings. We use a lot of ice and did not want a door dispenser because it eats up so much door bin space and the ice dispensers in the door of french door fridges are notorious for failures because they tend to have recurrent ice-over problems because they are contained in the refrigerator compartment.

I was willing to spend some money and sacrifice some of what little counter space I had to solve the ice taste and freezerburn dilemmas in a long term way.

I’ve done everything as the manual advises. The UV light feature shown on the listing is completely absent and that was a significant purchase point for me to keep the machine from developing microbial problems. The cleaning mode only circulates water. It does NOT sanitize the interior compartments or water lines in any way. Sanitizing the interior is important to do intermittently in ALL ice machines (usually using special nickel and aluminum safe sanitizer solutions sold for this purpose) yet this machine and its manual do not cover this topic at all.

It squeals like nails on a chalkboard. The squealing started just right after the return window closed.
I follow the manual and use only reverse osmosis purified water in the machine.

Pros:
The ice is the right size and shape
The ice tastes good because I can use much more purified water than my refrigerator ice maker would have with its one dinky filter.
Melt water from the ice collects in the bottom reservoir and is reused to make new ice (at least that is how it is supposed to work).

Cons:
The ice machine itself is a very cumbersome shape and size, it will not fit under cabinets that are at standard height so make sure you measure and verify adequate vertical clearance of the location you want to place it. I knew this and dealt with it using a cart squeezed into a nook in the kitchen.

Multiple serious design flaws in the ice bin shape and drainage; ends up depositing water all over shelf and floor (ruining part of our floor)

Incurable loud squealing. It starts intermittently and less loud. Just wait a few more weeks and it will make you cry.

Like most countertop icemakers it doesn’t keep ice freezer-cold so you can’t fill the bin and turn it off without the ice melting over a few hours. Also the too-small drainage/reuse reservoir overflows if the ice bin is full and melts even half way while the machine is off. Can only fill the bin and then move the ice to the freezer where your family can retrieve the ice as needed while freezerburning the contents of the freezer (at great expense if there is anything expensive in the freezer).
Anti-convenient; it’s supposed to be convenient but it made a lot of work for me and ate up a lot of my time.

I will go back to old fashioned ice trays I can fill with good water until I find a better solution. We’ll have to keep more of our food in our garage freezer that isn’t opened much (and is unfortunately detached and not a quick access option).

This was $300 down the drain (and all over the floor). It ate up scads of my time cleaning/draining it according to instructions AND cleaning up after its flaws –which is not a desirable feature in any appliance.

The only practical use I can see for this is using it for occasional parties and NOT for daily household use. In that case I would have to wonder if just buying bags of ice wouldn’t be more cost and time effective since your time is worth money too.