[NEVER RUN OUT OF ICE AGAIN] – This countertop ice maker fits neatly on your kitchen counter and makes 50 pounds of ice each day to keep you stocked for all your entertaining needs. That’s almost the same as purchasing five 10lb bags of store-bought ice in a single day.
[SELF-CLEANING FUNCTION] – Keeping your ice maker free of mold and mildew is a piece of cake, thanks to the self-cleaning system. This ice maker is also made entirely of BPA-free plastic, so you don’t have to worry about any harmful chemicals in your ice.
[18-HOUR TIMER] – Ice making can be programmed to start in a set number of hours. For example, you can set it to run a few hours before you wake up, so you’ll be greeted with a full basket of fresh ice every time.
[ICE FOR ANY OCCASION] – Choose from small, medium or large bullet ice at the touch of a button. Small ice is perfect for drinks, while large ice easily fills coolers for outdoor activities.
[EXTRA THICK INSULATION] – Keep your ice colder for longer thanks to the ultra-insulated storage area inside this ice maker. Forgot about the last cubes No worries. Water from melted ice drains back into the machine and is recycled in the next round of ice making.
This will be our 3rd ice maker, and 2nd identical one. The first time we bought this ice maker was 12/29/17; the day our daughter’s entire softball team was coming to spend the night, and the exact day our other ice maker decided to die. Now May 31, 2019 this one stopped working. TBH, I considered ordering a part and fixing it myself, because it seems to be the pump that stopped working, but given the cost and the time to order a part, replace it and hope I diagnosed it correctly, I’ve decided to replace the entire thing since we use it nonstop and 2 years seems to be the average life span of one of these machines. I hate to waste time and money, but in the end it seems worth the $200 to have a new one.
Our daughter plays travel softball on a competitive team, and she’s a pitcher, so we use A LOT of ice. It runs continuously, and has since we got it. I love the self clean feature, although be aware that you still need to manually clean the water tray, and it’s still a pain to access. I’ve found the best way is to use a flexible bottle/ straw cleaning brush to get behind the freezing rods, and a water bottle like they use for football teams (you know, the kind that can be squeezed to spray a stream of water through an angled straw). I put a monthly cleaning reminder on my calendar. It takes about 30 minutes: run the self clean cycle (1:1 vinegar: water solution, so no need to buy the ice machine cleaners you’ll see advertised), wipe it out, clean the water tray, drain the water and run it through a quick ice cycle (you have to discard the first couple of batches of ice).
As you should expect with a large capacity ice maker, this has a significant footprint, so instead of taking counter space, we bought a low table that sits on the floor next to our fridge and put the ice maker on it. The drain plug is on the left side, so it works perfectly for easy access. We use an extension cord that is plugged into the outlet behind our fridge because periodically, you will need to unplug it for a couple of minutes to reset it (like if the power goes out in a storm). Trust me, it saves frustration when you don’t have to move the fridge to unplug it!
Because we use this continuously, I’ve extensively researched and tried to find a better ice maker. As soon as I finish this review, I will be buying this exact model again, and here’s why:
– Self-cleaning feature (most portable ice makers don’t have it) – 3 ice sizes (we use the small one most often because it cranks it out quickly, though for tournament days we make the large size because it doesn’t seem to melt as quickly). This is another feature that’s surprisingly uncommon. – Side drain hole allows easy access
Here are the reasons I tried to find a better option: – Spending $200 every 2 years isn’t ideal. However, for the price point, it’s hard to find a capacity larger than 24lb/day without making the jump to a commercial ice maker that has to be directly plumbed. – Bullet ice isn’t my favorite. As awesome as it would be to make the nugget (aka “Sonic” ice) at home, those machines cost twice as much and make half the ice per day. Considering that we use this ice for water bottles/ ice packs for shoulders every day, the slower melting bullet ice makes the most sense for us. Unlike square cubes, the smallest bullet size will fit into water bottles, even ones with smaller openings. – It’s not exactly quiet. The sound of the water pump and especially the ice dropping onto the platform after being frozen and then dumped into the ice bucket is loud. It’s actually not any louder than the other portable ice machine we had, and you do get used to it. However, you may want to consider placing it in a room with a door and away from bedrooms if you have light sleepers. – You need to get into the habit of taking a few minutes every morning to refill the water if you use it continuously.
Although my family teases me about the bright red color, I like it and it’s frankly not worth $30 to get a stainless silver one that may or may not match our other appliances anyway. We’ve been without this for about a week while I researched repair/ replacement options, and we miss it! If you entertain or have athletes in your family, it’s worth the expense. Our fridge does a great job making ice, and we store the extra in the freezer every night, but it still can’t keep up with our need. $200-$210 does seem expensive for an ice maker (and the price has gone up about $30 in 2 years), but it’s still cheaper than buying ice all the time. During the summer, I fill ziploc bags with ice a few days before a tournament so we will have plenty, and we still never run out because it literally makes ice every 8-10 minutes if the bucket isn’t full.
Don’t let my 4 star rating fool you- I think this is the best option available. If there was a way to remove the water tray and have easier access to clean it, I would give it a full 5 star rating.
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★★★★★
J. Morris –
We purchased this unit for home use. It is replacing a name brand unit that only lasted 2 months past its warranty. The previous one was 9 cubes in 7 min vs this one being 12 in 7 min. It holds an entire gallon of water. It was MUCH larger than I was expecting. I should have actually measured where it was to go instead of relying on memory from the previous purchase. But, we just moved stuff around to make it fit. (Would NOT fit under a cabinet.) After reading the reviews, was slightly concerned about noise. But, except for when it drops the ice into the bin…super quiet. The large bullet cubes are LARGE! They are nice ones, however, that you can chew if you want. Not super hard. It does make a LOT of ice in a day! You could easily bag some up for a cooler or whatever if you wanted. We were very impressed with the packaging. It was packed well, extra corner protectors, etc. So, as I said…So far, so good! Will update if anything changes!
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★★★★★
al mcqueen –
Bought for the cottage. Produces lots of ice over a short period of time. Very convenient and can put away in the winter. Works as well as my ice maker on my refrigerator at home. One 6 litre bottle of water fills the ice basket.
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★★★★★
The Goddess –
Like the ice choices, like the quantity, all good. It is a bit noisy. Glad it is far from bedrooms, but can hear in the kitchen over the TV often.
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★★★★★
Brian Davies –
This is an easy push-button program for different sizes of ice. Ice for drinks in 5-6 minutes. I have it in my office. I like cold drinks. I use it daily without any problems. Of course, the ice melts over a few hours If not used. That’s ok because it drains into the same collection as the new water used to fill up the reservoir. I would recommend it.
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★★★★★
Jennifer A. Ray –
The rental house I am in doesn’t have an ice maker in the refrigerator. It was the best choice out of all the rentals I looked at the last time I moved and since I don’t use ice every day, I decided it was something I could easily live without.
I started out using bags of ice from the store, which works OK. Then I decided that it would be nice to have an icemaker in the house, so I looked at portable ice makers. I’m not sure how difficult it would be to run a water line to where the refrigerator is and really don’t want to go to that much trouble since I do rent this house. A portable ice maker is easy to set up and can go with me when I move.
, I put the NewAir brand at the top of my list when I looked at portable ice makers. I finally settled on the Newair AI-215SS Stainless Steel Portable Ice Maker with 50 Lbs. Daily Capacity because I liked its features and I liked it’s high daily capacity.
The unit has a self-cleaning cycle, which I very much appreciate. My sister used to have a portable ice maker, but it did not self-clean and she said it was really difficult to do manually with her model (I don’t know what brand she had.) I put the self-cleaning cycle on, using the manual’s recommended solution of one part water to one part white vinegar. After running it through a cleaning cycle with the vinegar solution, I ran a cycle with clear water to `rinse’ it. The procedure is very similar to using a vinegar solution to clean a coffeemaker. After both the vinegar solution cycle and the fresh water cycle, I set the appliance on the edge of the kitchen sink, aiming the drain plug to empty the unit into the sink. At the end, I had to tilt the ice maker a little to get the last of the liquid out. Draining it might be a little easier if the drain plug were placed underneath the unit, but I’m not sure if that is mechanically feasible. Still, it wasn’t hard to drain it, although I do think there is room for improvement.
Once it had been freshly cleaned, I filled it with fresh water and set it to make medium-sized ice cubes. The window on the top lid allows you to watch it make ice cubes, which is only exciting for about a minute. Mostly it is nice to simply see what stage the cycle is in. The ice maker comes with a basket to catch the ice in after it has made, and an ice scoop for serving it. Both of these items can be run through the dishwasher on the top rack, but they were also very easy to hand wash.
I filled a couple of large zip style bags with ice (
Hefty One Zip 2.5 Gallon Jumbo Bags 16ct (pack of 2)
) and stored one in the upright freezer in the garage and the other in the kitchen freezer for serving. The bags are easy to handle and can be zipped up to protect the ice. I also like that I can write the date I made the ice on the bags.
The maker produces bullet-shaped `cubes’ that fit nicely in most glasses and work wonderfully in most drinks.
You can use this maker during parties if you want to keep ice going throughout the party rather than make a few batches beforehand.
While this machine does make ice cubes, it does not keep them frozen after it has made them. However, as the ice melts in the basket, holes in the basket allow the water to drain back into the water reservoir, recycling it to make another batch of ice bullets.
I am very pleased with this ice maker. It does everything I want and has proven very reliable so far. The only thing that would make it easier to make ice would be if it could be connected to a water line, but I really didn’t want that feature because it would have required an installation I’d need help with. With the AI-215SS, I was able to unbox it and go with no assistance from anyone.
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★★★★★
donald pilote –
Excellent produit. Un peu bruyant.
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★★★★★
Dale Hartley –
It came so well packaged. When we opened it , it had a scratch on the red top. We were very disappointed as it’s such a nice looking machine. I called and spoke with a manager and they were very understanding and gave us a credit back towards it. The unit is for our coach and works just great. I had previously purchased a 26# ice maker at Canadian tire. When I saw this 50# I returned the small one. Very happy I did. I recommend this ice maker!
Love this machine! We run it all day with five kids and it just keeps pushing out the ice. I have no complaints on my praise. Had it for 3 months so far. Easy to clean. Makes ice quickly
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★★★★★
chinoyvr –
This thing is a little bigger and heavier but so fast at making ice. I previously had the small RCA/Danby unit which was priced very economically but this one… quiet and making 50LBS of ice a day…. and so fast…. 3 different ice sizes… OH YEAH. The price shortly afterwards dropped by $76 to $299 …. sometimes you just miss the breaks but again, works great. Well, after 13 months, the ice maker died. Non-repairable, luckily I had bought the Canopy Insurance (Asurion) that covers an additional 3 years after manufacturer’s warranty expires. Canopy refunded me price of ice maker with taxes included in full. Now the price is about $475.00 and it is not a Prime product anymore and there are shipping costs… sheesh.
UPDATE: This unit stopped working after 13 months. Warning light blinking for 20 seconds. Manual says internal sensor needs to be replaced. Luckily I had bought the extended insurance (extra 3 years coverage) and was informed where to take my unit to, to get fixed. Technicians deemed not fixable as there was a leak in the tank and in the compressor so it was unfixable. Insurance reimbursed me full price including taxes. When mechanical and electronics run in tandem, always wise to buy insurance.
Rene –
This will be our 3rd ice maker, and 2nd identical one. The first time we bought this ice maker was 12/29/17; the day our daughter’s entire softball team was coming to spend the night, and the exact day our other ice maker decided to die. Now May 31, 2019 this one stopped working. TBH, I considered ordering a part and fixing it myself, because it seems to be the pump that stopped working, but given the cost and the time to order a part, replace it and hope I diagnosed it correctly, I’ve decided to replace the entire thing since we use it nonstop and 2 years seems to be the average life span of one of these machines. I hate to waste time and money, but in the end it seems worth the $200 to have a new one.
Our daughter plays travel softball on a competitive team, and she’s a pitcher, so we use A LOT of ice. It runs continuously, and has since we got it. I love the self clean feature, although be aware that you still need to manually clean the water tray, and it’s still a pain to access. I’ve found the best way is to use a flexible bottle/ straw cleaning brush to get behind the freezing rods, and a water bottle like they use for football teams (you know, the kind that can be squeezed to spray a stream of water through an angled straw). I put a monthly cleaning reminder on my calendar. It takes about 30 minutes: run the self clean cycle (1:1 vinegar: water solution, so no need to buy the ice machine cleaners you’ll see advertised), wipe it out, clean the water tray, drain the water and run it through a quick ice cycle (you have to discard the first couple of batches of ice).
As you should expect with a large capacity ice maker, this has a significant footprint, so instead of taking counter space, we bought a low table that sits on the floor next to our fridge and put the ice maker on it. The drain plug is on the left side, so it works perfectly for easy access. We use an extension cord that is plugged into the outlet behind our fridge because periodically, you will need to unplug it for a couple of minutes to reset it (like if the power goes out in a storm). Trust me, it saves frustration when you don’t have to move the fridge to unplug it!
Because we use this continuously, I’ve extensively researched and tried to find a better ice maker. As soon as I finish this review, I will be buying this exact model again, and here’s why:
– Self-cleaning feature (most portable ice makers don’t have it)
– 3 ice sizes (we use the small one most often because it cranks it out quickly, though for tournament days we make the large size because it doesn’t seem to melt as quickly). This is another feature that’s surprisingly uncommon.
– Side drain hole allows easy access
Here are the reasons I tried to find a better option:
– Spending $200 every 2 years isn’t ideal. However, for the price point, it’s hard to find a capacity larger than 24lb/day without making the jump to a commercial ice maker that has to be directly plumbed.
– Bullet ice isn’t my favorite. As awesome as it would be to make the nugget (aka “Sonic” ice) at home, those machines cost twice as much and make half the ice per day. Considering that we use this ice for water bottles/ ice packs for shoulders every day, the slower melting bullet ice makes the most sense for us. Unlike square cubes, the smallest bullet size will fit into water bottles, even ones with smaller openings.
– It’s not exactly quiet. The sound of the water pump and especially the ice dropping onto the platform after being frozen and then dumped into the ice bucket is loud. It’s actually not any louder than the other portable ice machine we had, and you do get used to it. However, you may want to consider placing it in a room with a door and away from bedrooms if you have light sleepers.
– You need to get into the habit of taking a few minutes every morning to refill the water if you use it continuously.
Although my family teases me about the bright red color, I like it and it’s frankly not worth $30 to get a stainless silver one that may or may not match our other appliances anyway. We’ve been without this for about a week while I researched repair/ replacement options, and we miss it! If you entertain or have athletes in your family, it’s worth the expense. Our fridge does a great job making ice, and we store the extra in the freezer every night, but it still can’t keep up with our need. $200-$210 does seem expensive for an ice maker (and the price has gone up about $30 in 2 years), but it’s still cheaper than buying ice all the time. During the summer, I fill ziploc bags with ice a few days before a tournament so we will have plenty, and we still never run out because it literally makes ice every 8-10 minutes if the bucket isn’t full.
Don’t let my 4 star rating fool you- I think this is the best option available. If there was a way to remove the water tray and have easier access to clean it, I would give it a full 5 star rating.
J. Morris –
We purchased this unit for home use. It is replacing a name brand unit that only lasted 2 months past its warranty. The previous one was 9 cubes in 7 min vs this one being 12 in 7 min. It holds an entire gallon of water. It was MUCH larger than I was expecting. I should have actually measured where it was to go instead of relying on memory from the previous purchase. But, we just moved stuff around to make it fit. (Would NOT fit under a cabinet.) After reading the reviews, was slightly concerned about noise. But, except for when it drops the ice into the bin…super quiet. The large bullet cubes are LARGE! They are nice ones, however, that you can chew if you want. Not super hard. It does make a LOT of ice in a day! You could easily bag some up for a cooler or whatever if you wanted.
We were very impressed with the packaging. It was packed well, extra corner protectors, etc.
So, as I said…So far, so good! Will update if anything changes!
al mcqueen –
Bought for the cottage. Produces lots of ice over a short period of time. Very convenient and can put away in the winter. Works as well as my ice maker on my refrigerator at home. One 6 litre bottle of water fills the ice basket.
The Goddess –
Like the ice choices, like the quantity, all good. It is a bit noisy. Glad it is far from bedrooms, but can hear in the kitchen over the TV often.
Brian Davies –
This is an easy push-button program for different sizes of ice. Ice for drinks in 5-6 minutes. I have it in my office. I like cold drinks. I use it daily without any problems. Of course, the ice melts over a few hours If not used. That’s ok because it drains into the same collection as the new water used to fill up the reservoir. I would recommend it.
Jennifer A. Ray –
The rental house I am in doesn’t have an ice maker in the refrigerator. It was the best choice out of all the rentals I looked at the last time I moved and since I don’t use ice every day, I decided it was something I could easily live without.
I started out using bags of ice from the store, which works OK. Then I decided that it would be nice to have an icemaker in the house, so I looked at portable ice makers. I’m not sure how difficult it would be to run a water line to where the refrigerator is and really don’t want to go to that much trouble since I do rent this house. A portable ice maker is easy to set up and can go with me when I move.
Having had an excellent experience with theÂ
NewAir AIC-210 Commercial Grade 1 Quart Ice Cream & Sorbet Maker
, I put the NewAir brand at the top of my list when I looked at portable ice makers. I finally settled on the Newair AI-215SS Stainless Steel Portable Ice Maker with 50 Lbs. Daily Capacity because I liked its features and I liked it’s high daily capacity.
The unit has a self-cleaning cycle, which I very much appreciate. My sister used to have a portable ice maker, but it did not self-clean and she said it was really difficult to do manually with her model (I don’t know what brand she had.) I put the self-cleaning cycle on, using the manual’s recommended solution of one part water to one part white vinegar. After running it through a cleaning cycle with the vinegar solution, I ran a cycle with clear water to `rinse’ it. The procedure is very similar to using a vinegar solution to clean a coffeemaker. After both the vinegar solution cycle and the fresh water cycle, I set the appliance on the edge of the kitchen sink, aiming the drain plug to empty the unit into the sink. At the end, I had to tilt the ice maker a little to get the last of the liquid out. Draining it might be a little easier if the drain plug were placed underneath the unit, but I’m not sure if that is mechanically feasible. Still, it wasn’t hard to drain it, although I do think there is room for improvement.
Once it had been freshly cleaned, I filled it with fresh water and set it to make medium-sized ice cubes. The window on the top lid allows you to watch it make ice cubes, which is only exciting for about a minute. Mostly it is nice to simply see what stage the cycle is in. The ice maker comes with a basket to catch the ice in after it has made, and an ice scoop for serving it. Both of these items can be run through the dishwasher on the top rack, but they were also very easy to hand wash.
I filled a couple of large zip style bags with ice (
Hefty One Zip 2.5 Gallon Jumbo Bags 16ct (pack of 2)
) and stored one in the upright freezer in the garage and the other in the kitchen freezer for serving. The bags are easy to handle and can be zipped up to protect the ice. I also like that I can write the date I made the ice on the bags.
The maker produces bullet-shaped `cubes’ that fit nicely in most glasses and work wonderfully in most drinks.
You can use this maker during parties if you want to keep ice going throughout the party rather than make a few batches beforehand.
While this machine does make ice cubes, it does not keep them frozen after it has made them. However, as the ice melts in the basket, holes in the basket allow the water to drain back into the water reservoir, recycling it to make another batch of ice bullets.
I am very pleased with this ice maker. It does everything I want and has proven very reliable so far. The only thing that would make it easier to make ice would be if it could be connected to a water line, but I really didn’t want that feature because it would have required an installation I’d need help with. With the AI-215SS, I was able to unbox it and go with no assistance from anyone.
donald pilote –
Excellent produit.
Un peu bruyant.
Dale Hartley –
It came so well packaged. When we opened it , it had a scratch on the red top. We were very disappointed as it’s such a nice looking machine. I called and spoke with a manager and they were very understanding and gave us a credit back towards it. The unit is for our coach and works just great. I had previously purchased a 26# ice maker at Canadian tire. When I saw this 50# I returned the small one. Very happy I did. I recommend this ice maker!
Mémé –
Beaucoup plus gros que je pensais. La glace colle entre elles mais bon un petit coup et up séparé. Nous sommes trois qui consomme beaucoup glace et en 5 mois nous sommes entrés dans notre argent à l’achat de celle-ci. Je croque toujours mes glace et elle est tendre pas dure comme de la roche c’est parfait pour moi.
Danielle –
Love this machine! We run it all day with five kids and it just keeps pushing out the ice. I have no complaints on my praise. Had it for 3 months so far. Easy to clean. Makes ice quickly
chinoyvr –
This thing is a little bigger and heavier but so fast at making ice. I previously had the small RCA/Danby unit which was priced very economically but this one… quiet and making 50LBS of ice a day…. and so fast…. 3 different ice sizes… OH YEAH. The price shortly afterwards dropped by $76 to $299 …. sometimes you just miss the breaks but again, works great. Well, after 13 months, the ice maker died. Non-repairable, luckily I had bought the Canopy Insurance (Asurion) that covers an additional 3 years after manufacturer’s warranty expires. Canopy refunded me price of ice maker with taxes included in full. Now the price is about $475.00 and it is not a Prime product anymore and there are shipping costs… sheesh.
UPDATE: This unit stopped working after 13 months. Warning light blinking for 20 seconds. Manual says internal sensor needs to be replaced. Luckily I had bought the extended insurance (extra 3 years coverage) and was informed where to take my unit to, to get fixed. Technicians deemed not fixable as there was a leak in the tank and in the compressor so it was unfixable. Insurance reimbursed me full price including taxes. When mechanical and electronics run in tandem, always wise to buy insurance.
Debbie Gutierrez –
Worth the money .