RCA RIC102-Silver Compact Ice Maker, Silver

Have a vacation place where the fridge doesn't have an ice maker. For years we lived with the pain of ice trays. So figured we'd give this unit a try. It is really simple to use - you lift out the basket which catches the ice, and fill the reservoir with water - up to the point where the plastic level changes. Put the basket back it, and turn it on.You have two choices of ice size - I chose large, which is about the size of a large finger tip. It would take about 12 minutes to make a batch of ice, and will continue until the ice basket is full or it runs out of water. If either of these occurs, it will light an indicator.The ice is hollow in the center and damp when made. This is because it works by creating a dam which it fills with water and then lowers the refrigerated "fingers" into the water which the ice forms on. When the time is up, the remaining water goes back into the reservoir, and the cubes drop into the basket.The unit itself is not refrigerated. It is insulated and stays cool while making ice because of the refrigerated fingers. But the ice will melt with the water going back into the reservoir if you don't take it out.Because the cubes are damp, if you move them to your freezer, they will freeze to each other. We would fill 1 gallon freezer ziplock bags with the ice. When we wanted ice we would bang the bag onto the counter top to separate the cubes.How well did this work? We never ran out of ice while our place had 12 people with the outside temperatures in the 90s with 90% humidity. It can make over 20lbs a day. We would run as needed to keep about 4 of the gallon bags full (probably 10lbs)You can hear the fan if you are near it. You can hear the water pump and the dumping of the ice too. So it is not silent. We did not mind. It became a running joke for someone to say - "ice is ready" when we would hear it dump another load.It does come with a little plastic ice scoop which you can use to scoop the ice out the basket if you want to fill a glass directly. Also, if you like to chew ice (sorry ADA) by being hollow in the middle they crunch pretty easily.Next to a new king size mattress, this was the best purchase for the vacation house.

I first saw one of these years ago in one of those junk mail catalogs that wind up in your mailbox all the time. At the time I saw it it cost $300. I thought, this would be a great item for parties and I swore if they ever came down in price I was going to own one. Well this one dropped to $100 and I pulled the trigger and bought one and I am glad I did.Every summer I Brew insane amounts of iced tea and I also work outdoors in the heat and need ice to fill my water cooler for work so I am constantly running out of ice. The Ice Maker in the fridge just can't keep up with the demand. The freezer takes 2 hours, this thing takes less than 10 minutes!When I come home from work I fill it up and it runs all night until I go to bed. Each day it produces enough ice for me to keep my summer beverages cool and at the same time make an extra bucket of ice that I use in my water cooler.Here are the only cons I have for this item.1. before you use it you may want to give it a thorough cleaning with mild detergent.. I gave mine a quick rinse instead of a thorough wash and my first batch of Ice left a plasti-like taste in my beverage when melted. Cleaning it properly before the next use fixed that.2. It judges the state of the ice by a timer not a thermostat. So 7 minutes for small ice 13 minutes for large (approximately). It takes a while for the chillers to get nice and cold so the first 2 batches or so it makes are pretty lousy little ice balls, but once she gets running up to speed, you'll easily get a pound of ice every hour. So if you are hosting a cocktail hour at your house, you might want to plug this guy in about an hour before your guests arrive. :o)

piece of crap...I bought it on 9/5/15 and in December, not even 3 months later it was having problem. First it started making micro ice, that is what I call it, where it is super tiny and melts very fast. Then in January 2016, it started reading as Ice Full, all the time. I would open and close the lid and it would work for a while.Then it completely decided not to work. So on 2/3/16 I called Curtis, because it was still under warranty period, and the extended warranty I had bought told me to do it this way. They told me to reset the ice maker. I did. It was a pain.It did start to make really tiny ice,even smaller than before, but the ice full light was always on and I had to empty tray each time it made ice for it to make a new batch.On 2/5/16 it totally died... nothing. so i went to drain it, and the stopper on the bottom broke off in the unit causing water to shoot all over the counter tops... yay!... and once emptied it was left to dry.On 2/8/16, today, I called Curtis, to let them know, the reset didn't work. I called at 9:10am, Sam hung up on me. I called at 9:12 am, Paul hung up on me. I called at 9:17 and finally Daisy, did not hang up on me. She was very nice, but I am still not happy with the way they go about their repair process:I had to pay $7, right then, for their insurance, for after the repair to ship it back to me.I have to pack it in a safe box, and pay to ship it back to them. Included all this info, plus sales receipt. Describe the issues in detail with all the previous calls and issues also in detail.After all that, they will repair it and ship it back to me.I will update after I get the unit back.*** UPDATE****2-8-16... so I just found out it will cost me $65 to ship it back... I can't believe a company can get away with this kind of customer service.I am so disgusted with Curtis International ltd. I am shipping it back and will update again when i get it back.****UPDATE****11-2-16Update********************************So after I paid the $7 insurance, the $65 to ship it, Curtis Int. did ship me a total brand new one. It was an Igloo same design, same color, same buttons, same Issues, Just with Igloo instead of RCA... It lasted 2 months and totally died.I had to wait till Sept 2016 to use my extended Warrenty.They didn't even want this turd back.They told me don't bother shipping it back and they just refunded me my purchase price, not shipping on an Amazon Gift Card.So to sum it up. This Ice Maker is crap. Save your MONEY, and just buy the bags of ICE.This unit costed me $127 the first time, $8.99 Assurion Extended Warrenty, after it died (RCA) $7 insurance to Curtis International, $ 65 to USPS to ship it back to get repaired, they just replaced it... and a grand total of $207.99 and I am right back to buying bags of ICE...Save your $$$$$, RCA and the Replacement IGLOO, both are crap and both died.HOpe this helps.