Silonn Nugget Ice Maker Countertop - 36lbs 24H Chewable Pellet Sonic Ice

I've been wanting an ice machine for awhile. Prime Day comes around and this one is on sale. So I read the reviews. The bad ones first and then the good ones. I decided to take a chance. The delivery was a little suspect as my box was dented. thankfully that was the out box. It took about 15 mins from the time I opened the box and got it set up and ready to make ice. True to its word the production of ice started in less than 6 mins ( I put on a 6 min timer and ice started dropping before the timer went off) You are not going to have a glass full of ice in 6 mins but enough to know the machine is working. The ice is the perfect size for chewing...it the pellet size and when first made it is soft right texture for crunch by not hurt your teeth. The noise. I saw a number of reviews that said it was noisy and some that said it was quiet. Too me it sounds like a microwave running. So its not bad at all. I would recommend.

After two years and two months of daily use, through two summers in the Deep South at a house with a pool, with guests for all the usual holidays AND including a full year as the sole ice maker for an adult couple...the fan quit.For about the last month it had been giving indications that something wasn’t normal. After 44 years of marriage, pattern recognition becomes a finely honed survival skill, so when a machine in the kitchen starts acting up you tend to notice it. This past Sunday afternoon I was dozing on the sofa ignoring the TV when this ice maker made a unique noise that woke me up. I can’t describe the actual noise it made (I was dreaming, I swear it shouted something at me) but it was weird enough that I went to check on it. The ice in the bin had melted, the back of the unit felt hot, and the fan wasn’t running. I quickly unplugged the machine without paying attention to the status lights (so unfortunately I don’t know what was displayed) and positioned a small desk fan blowing into the rear vent to cool it down. After 30 minutes I re-powered the unit and it started making ice again, except the exhaust fan was dead.I unplugged and drained it, then removed the rear cover (five screws on the bottom) and used the external fan for cooling to verify the ice maker still worked otherwise, which it did. The fan would start if I gave it an assist, but would not run full speed and would not restart on its own. After several hours I was confident a new fan would fix it.Exact replacement fans are plentiful and inexpensive here on everyone’s favorite home shopping site, just search for the part number printed on the fan motor. For $17 a new fan arrived overnight. Removing the fan from the radiator is super easy (two obvious screws) however unplugging the fan from the controller board and fishing the power wire out with plug intact is extremely difficult. The controller board is mounted inside a plastic box, and getting the cover off the box without full disassembly requires a lot of cussing, needle nosed pliers, and at least one skinned knuckle. Once the controller cover is off, the fan’s power plug had a glob of hot glue covering it and the socket, and the wire was tie-wrapped in a spot that I couldn’t even see at first. The manufacturer doesn’t intend for you to remove this, and if you’re not careful you’ll break the socket off the board or something else. There's lots of wires all bundled together, easy to mess up.If I were to do this again I’d simply cut the wires to the old fan, careful to leave as much length as possible, and splice in the new fan using small wire nuts, or solder and shrink wrap if you prefer. Be sure to clean the dust from the backside/inlet side of the radiator (internal, facing the compressor) using a soft bristle toothbrush. Mine was completely blocked by dust, which is what caused the fan to fail in the first place. This unit does not have an air filter, so if you live in a dusty environment and/or have pets you probably need to open it up and clean the radiator once a year. Before you put the cover back on, blow the whole thing out with compressed air or a leaf blower.As to cleaning the actual ice making “wet” section of this model, I use a hand held steam gun with a flexible nozzle about three times a year and it keeps it clean as new inside. No need for running vinegar through it, it’s not like a coffee pot and doesn’t develop calcium deposits. I use a mild bleach solution for running the built in cleaning cycle while blasting the top out with the steam gun, then thoroughly rinse out the whole thing using the sink hand sprayer. The mold/slime that will develop in the top of the unit comes from exposure to room air. Like most ice makers I’ve ever owned, it’s difficult if not impossible to access the actual ice tray section to hand clean it. AND every ice maker I’ve ever owned will develop mold wherever it’s regularly exposed to room temperature air, so the complaints I’ve read about this unit are not unique to this unit. If your refrigerator has an ice & water dispenser in the door, I discourage you from looking at it too closely with a flashlight or you’ll stop using it.Anyway, the unit has been cleaned and reassembled and making ice again like it was new. While this particular machine has not been subjected to vibration like it might be in a motor home, or rough handling from potable use, it has run for over two (2) years continuously, sometimes needing multiple tank refills per day. I subtract one star for being moderately difficult to repair, but I’d give it 10 stars if I could for being a great value for the money.

I'm huge on ice. An ice fanatic, if you will. Big fan. HUGE fan of ice. And yes, I have a history of iron deficiency, but even when my iron levels are on point, I just love ice. Any time of year. I bundle up in the winter and lay on heating pads so that I can have ice to my heart's content without perishing of hypothermia. I used to keep a list on my phone of the restaurants with the best ice, or the gas stations that sold my favorite brand of bagged iced. It's truly insane. But I'm otherwise normal, promise.We don't have a fridge with a functioning ice maker, so I was buying bagged ice at least 3-4x per week to have and to munch on. Eventually I realized that if I found a decent ice maker, it would pay for itself eventually. AND BOY HAS IT! If this machine ever dies, I will absolutely repurchase, immediately. I may buy a backup so I never have to go without, truly.PROS:- Such a great product for the price! It paid for itself (by me no longer buying bagged ice) in like 2 months. I believe when I purchased it, it was discounted pretty significantly which was the cherry on top. But even the regular sale price is super fair for the product.- The ice itself is the biggest pro. Oh my god, the ice. It is officially my favorite ice in the world - topping all the restaurants and bagged ice brands and airlines that I once ranked lol. It is soft but not too soft, and shaped my favorite way (bullets/ovals with holes in the middle). It's so good.- Set up and instructions were super easy.- You can choose small or large sized ice (although I always choose large)- The machine is fairly quick to churn it out - the only times it seemed slow was before I had it for long enough to have collected a stockpile in my freezer.- It's pretty quiet (although, if you are nearby and forget you have it on, the sound of the ice dropping may startle you!)- It isn't very imposing, doesn't take up a ton of surface area and doesn't really catch the eye when you enter the kitchen.- It can take about 64 oz of water at a time. I have the machine right beside my Vitamix, so I just fill the vitamix with water, pour it into the ice maker, and then am good for a while.CONS/Room for Improvement - and I'm being detailed with this but personally, these are all things I'm not altogether fussed about given the trade-off but I know it may matter to others!- The piece that holds the collected ice is big enough to completely fill a cup of mine that holds about 32oz of water. Once it is full, it stops producing ice until it is emptied or has melted down enough to make room to produce more. When I forget to turn it off, I come home to a chamber that was definitely once full, but the ice that has now melted down is positioned in such a way that it still registers as being full even though, with a shake, it's really only half-filled by that point. I'd be happy with a bigger chamber, but honestly the fact that it fills the cup I always use is kind of perfect. If I was fighting others for ice, this may be a bigger deal to me.- When it needs more water, it makes a sound where you know it's trying to run to produce more ice but can't draw up water. I think it'd be a nice touch if it powered off or had some sort of sensor to prevent the motor from continuing to try to make ice until you refill it - similar to the 'ice full' sensor.- If you are stocking up your freezer, you do have to empty out the container yourself. Which leads to some drippage on the floor. It takes a large amount of these trips from machine to freezer to fully fill up the freezer's ice box. And because the ice is soft and wet, it often really clumps together in the ice box so my husband and I have to take turns hacking away at it with a knife so that it breaks apart enough to be able to dispense through our fridge's ice dispenser. I've seen others say they bag it, and as it freezes into one big mass they break it up on the ground like you would bagged ice - which is a solid solution, unless you're filling your freezer's ice box so that it can move through the dispenser like we do.- Ice texture is different the first few times it drops after turning it on, or when it fully empties of water and you completely refill it for some reason? Hard to explain, but after a couple cycles it goes back to perfection. Not a huge deal to me.- Once turning it on, it takes probably...45ish mins (give or take) to fully fill the chamber.- The chamber itself is not chilled, however the collection of ice keeps itself cold for a good while before it starts melting. A completely full container will take at least an hour or two before it is noticeably smaller in size.- It's not really the ice's fault but I prefer the ice straight from the machine over the stockpile I keep in my freezer. Once in the freezer, it (obviously) really solidifies and loses the satisfying softness! So my favorite thing to do is have enough in the freezer for if we have company (or if it is the summer time and my ice consumption is faster than the machine), and otherwise use it straight from the machine!- Because there's work involved with manning the ice maker (work I am happy to do for the payoff), if we are going to fill anything aside from a really small cooler, we will still buy bagged ice for that.

This ice maker makes the perfect crunchy little pellet ice and was just what I was looking for. The price point was a little high imo but reasonable compared to some others I’ve seen. It makes plenty of ice to keep up with mine and my daughter’s ice addiction! 😊 I’ve only had it a few weeks and so far haven’t had any issues but I will say this thing runs constantly so I worry I won’t get a very long life span out of it. It isn’t overly loud but loud enough since I work from home and my office is in an open floor plan where the ice maker is easily heard all day. Not a big deal but worth mentioning if you prefer silence while working. I make sure to use filtered or distilled water and so far haven’t had any issues with buildup or lime scale and we have a lot of that in our area water. All in all I think it is a great middle of the road option if you love pellet ice and want one in your home. It is fairly compact and doesn’t take up too much space.

After replacing my refrigerator’s ice maker unit several times, I decided it was time to invest in a countertop unit for my daily iced coffee habit. Setup was quick and easy, and the machine immediately began producing beautiful, chewable nugget ice.Since I live in a warmer climate, it took about 7–8 minutes for the first batch of ice to begin forming, just as advertised. Once the unit was chilly, subsequent batches were produced much faster.On the second day, I experimented by filling the reservoir with a chilled 32-ounce water bottle—the perfect amount for the tank. To my surprise, ice production started in just 3 minutes! I now keep a couple of chilled filtered water bottles in my fridge for speedy ice batches.Because of the warmer temperatures where I live, some melting occurs after a full production cycle of about 80–90 minutes. To avoid that, I simply set a timer and transfer the ice to a freezer container every 30 minutes or so.The convenient drain plug on the bottom makes it easy to remove any remaining water when I’m finished using the machine.Overall, this Silonn Nugget Ice Maker has performed exactly as promised and has been a fantastic addition to my kitchen. For anyone who loves nugget ice, it’s been a great investment.

I have to be completely honest and I admit that this is a harsh review. . .I am not impressed. For context, please let me explain my use case and where I feel this ice maker fails:To increase their longevity, save wear and tear on the compressor and water pump, and also to discourage mold growth and mildew, I prefer not to run countertop ice makers continuously. For fire safety, I also prefer not to leave them running unattended.Instead, for the reasons mentioned, I run them for only one day twice per month (every two weeks) followed by sanitizing and then I let them air dry until the next use. I run multiple nugget ice makers at the same time and then bag the ice from each full basket and put the bag in the freezer. I take it out later and tap the bag gently on both sides several times with a small flat mallet to loosen the ice nuggets and keep them separated. I then collect all of the frozen ice nuggets into commercial ice bags and make several bags of nugget ice just like what you would buy in the store. Because I have several nugget ice makers, I can get it all (2 weeks worth) done in one day.The ice from this Silonn nugget ice maker (model SLIM43B-US) is crumbly, ill-formed, and only partially frozen. It has a softer consistency and there is a significant amount of what I call debris -- broken bits, slush, and irregular shaped pebbles. This type of ice does not lend itself to bagging and storing as it is so wet that it melts together and forms big lumps (rocks) in the freezer and loses its nugget shape, what little there is of it. This makes it nearly impossible to store for later (collect, bag and then freeze). I also noticed that the ice melts rapidly when a beverage is poured over it, instantly watering down the drink.The design of this ice maker sacrifices the quality of the ice in favor of the production speed. It rapidly and continually spits out soft, wet bits of ice. This completely defeats the purpose of buying a “nugget” ice maker.Other, cheaper nugget ice makers sold here on Amazon make better ice -- consistently well-formed, evenly shaped, firmly frozen nugget ice without debris (bits and pebbles) in the mix.This ice maker might work fine for someone who just wants to have ice ready on the counterand plans to scoop it right into the glass and then pour a beverage over it. Personally, however, I am disappointed in the performance for the price. You might be too.Other notes: The entire machine is made of cheap flimsy plastic and will eventually crack from age and stress. I don’t think it is built for longevity. One accidental drop on the floor of the ice basket or the water tank and it will likely be cracked or chipped. Due to the cheap all plastic housing, the ice is not kept insulated like other ice makers. This means that water condenses on the outside of the water tank and is constantly dripping down the sides when in use.This ice maker automatically runs a defrost clean cycle after 4.5 hours of continual use. This means it flushes tank water through all of the metal parts that freeze the water to make ice -- the auger and the extruder holes that form and release the ice nuggets. The warm water flushing through the machine brings the temperature down of all of the cold mechanical freezing parts. Water also pours down the ice basket like a waterfall. This effectively interrupts the ice making cycle and the mechanical parts have to reach a chilled state all over again. This interrupts the ice making process for about another hour while the machine recovers and begins starts making ice well again. Until it fully recovers, it rapidly spits out wet malformed bits all over the ice in the ice basket. This is a hindrance not a feature. For context, other nugget ice makers only run an automatic cleaning/defrosting cycle when a freeze up is detected -- the auger struggles to turn, the thermostat detects the temp has dropped too low, or the ice extruder holes freeze up and the ice is stuck. It will then flush the machine to defrost before restarting the ice making process.The fan is on the side of the ice maker right next to the water tank and ice basket rather than on the back like every other ice maker I have ever owned. This hot air blows right next to the water and ice basket. This is a poor design choice IMO. The ice is not kept insulated like other ice makers. This means that water condenses on the outside of the machine. Water is constantly dripping down the sides of the water tank when in use.As far as aesthetics, if not using the timer functions, there is always a big pointless double zero “OO” on the display. There is nothing sleek about this ice maker. It looks and feels cheap.There are much better ice makers here on Amazon that sell for much less. Do yourself a favor and invest in one of those instead.

I love my new Silonn Nugget Ice Maker! I got it a couple of months ago and purposely waited a few months before reviewing it.This ice maker did not disappoint at all! As soon as I cleaned it and plugged it in, it went to work spitting out ice. It works well and the ice is perfect for drinks or chewing (iykyk). It's just as good as the ice you get from sonic (similar to hospital ice) but better because I now have an unlimited supply! I literally leave this thing on all day and night and it hasn't skipped a beat. I fill it up when I leave for work and there's always a bucket full of ice waiting for me when I get home. I use spring or distilled water in my machine and I run the cleaning feature at least once every two weeks. I haven't had any problems with it to date.The machine is not completely silent but it also isn't noisy. It doesn't take up too much counter space (I have a small kitchen with limited counter space so that was importantly for me) and it comes with a scooper and a hook for the scooper.The ONLY con I can think of (if we can really consider this a con) is that the suction cup that holds the hook onto the machine sometimes fails and lets the scooper fall off of the machine. But I can't even really count that as a con because it doesn't affect how the machine works at all!If you're in the market for an ice maker for your family this is the one! It easily provides ice for my family of 3. The ice that it makes is great and the machine looks good.

Best decision to purchase this! I like to chew on ice and found that this ice machine makes the best nuggets. The machine is small so I have to refill a few times during the day but it also holds a decent amount of ice. I don’t mind the size as it quick to put out more ice after I’ve emptied it. Not too noisey other than when I first start it up. Easy to clean. Definitely worth it.