EdgeStar IB120SS Built in Ice Maker, 12 lbs, Stainless Steel and Black

The media could not be loaded. Ladies and Gentlemen,This dude is like the R2D2 of the icemaking world, obedient, and does his job. There are no frills, just cranks out ice. The ice it cranks out is super cold which makes your drink colder and last longer. There is one little secret that probably peeves people, every 2-3 weeks you have to defrost it.So I uploaded a video of what I do. Since I have a blower fan I aim it right into the frost and let it totally defrost and dry out. Takes 20 minutes. I'll bet if you don't use a fan you may leave it sit there an hour or longer before it is totally defrosted, and you want it totally defrosted because you don't want water seizing up the otherwise moving components of the cube maker. I defrosted it the other day and by chance about a day later a cube happened to jump sideways and block the rotary action of the cube maker. I spotted the problem, did another full defrost and it was working just fine. My wife was in icecube maker PTSD from out other "reservoir ice cube makers" (always causing problems) and wanted to file a warranty claim, thinking this was the same issue. Honey, it wasn't fully defrosted before you turned it on last time, try it again, and sure enough, that is the secret.Let's be honest, if you get one of those ice cube makers that have a little reservoir and you fill it up, what happens is bacteria and algae always make their way into those systems, and there is no real solution except to shock that ice cube maker with some anti-algae solution. We have had those other ones, they work great for 2 months, and then here comes the green funk again and after that, it is a constant maintenance nightmare. Not so with this one! Here is another little secret, I found a float and valve system for those reservoir ice cube makers that automatically filled up the reservoir, so you didn't have to pour it in from a water pitcher, guess what? I still got algae in it. Will never get one with a water reservoir again ever...!Contrast that maintenance to this one which is simply defrosting it. You could just turn it off overnight one night and that would do the trick, but I take the blower fan and get'er done.What I also do, is since it fills ice up so fast and it sort of creates that ice pile at the top which is always somewhat cumbersome when you go get ice, I take the whole tray and fill up my little Coleman cooler, its about 1 ft/square, and put the ice tray back in the ice maker and let it role. That also reduces the frequency I need to defrost the ice cube maker because I'm not opening the ice cube maker's door all of the time, because I'm pulling ice from the little cooler on the countertop. I'll fill the cooler up once a day for example...If I ever have to swap this out I'll probably go with making an icemaker using an ice chest. I like cold ice just like this because it works best. "Warm Ice" makers are nice (like the ones at pizza shops or chickfilet etc) but I don't have a good drain point anywhere and frankly I would rather have super cold ice anyhow (I'm a pragmatist)...Enjoy this wonderful little R2D2 IceMaker.

I will keep this short and sweet. We got this ice maker 11months ago. It ran great for the first 4 months. Produced a good amount of ice for us and did what we needed. Then the problems started. Ice sheets started to form in the bottom of the ice bin. Right after that the ice bin was filled completely with liquid water....Not Ice. Come to find out the machine is stuck in Ice Harvest mode which means it is filling the ice tray with water about every 2-3 minutes. This does not give the water time to freeze. I would imagine it has a switching control that has gone bad. I have submitted two different service requests as the website says to do for warranty issues. NO RESPONSE! Not a word from them. I have called multiple times and after sitting on hold for over an hour I gave up. The product did not hold up nor do they have any Customer service. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT DUE TO LACK OF SUPPORT AND EARLY FAILURE OF THE UNIT.

This review includes my initial review and updates--scroll to the end to see my most recent comments.After too many trips over the last couple of years to the grocery story to buy ice for our family, I purchased the ES IB120SS ice maker after extensive research. I also bought the 3-year extended warranty policy. The unit was delivered several days ago, and I set it up yesterday in our basement, connecting the water line to our existing reverse osmosis water filter system.Within 40 minutes, the first batch of ice was produced. It continued producing ice steadily. (After 3 hours, I threw out all the ice, and thoroughly washed out the ice bin, as instructed in the installation steps.)However, this morning, I discovered that the ice maker itself had stopped producing ice sometime during the night. (The condenser seemed to be working fine, and the interior of the freezer unit was cold.) The metal arm that detects a full bin was partially up, and the white "arms" that rotate and push out the ice cubes had stopped in an odd position. After some inspection, I discovered that a bit of ice had formed at one spot on the white plastic top rim of the ice mold, effectively jamming the white arm at that location. I carefully broke the ice away, and the white arms immediately started rotating, and a moment later the ice mold filled with water.I'm not sure how water could have dripped or splashed onto that location. My guess, however, is that as the white arms rotate, they carry with them a drop or two of water. In that particular location, the drop accumulates on the rim, and quickly freezes. More drops of water accumulate and freeze, until the bit of ice there is large enough to finally stop the white arms from rotating.I"ll continue to report on what happens.Update 2017-09-02:The ice maker module continued to accumulate ice on its top plastic rim at one end, jamming the white arms that release the ice. This occurred about every 4-5 hours. I called EdgeStar customer support, and they were very helpful. The support rep first said that they would send out a new ice module and find a locale technician to install it (all covered under warranty). A few minutes later she called back and said that the module was not in stock and that they would send me a complete replacement unit (yes, the whole appliance). It arrived a few days ago, which I immediately installed.So far there have been no problems with ice build-up on the ice maker module. I also noticed that the compressor seems to run a bit quieter than the original appliance. (Or maybe I'm just used to the sound now. We have it in our basement, and it cannot be heard in the next room or upstairs.) Only downside is that I need to pack up the original unit and ship it back. But fortunately I kept the original box and packaging, and EdgeStar is paying for the return shipping.I'm upgrading my rating from 3 to 4 stars, because of the good customer service and prompt shipping of the new unit, and because this new unit seems to be working well.Update 2018-02-03:Since I received the replacement unit from EdgeStar, this unit has continued to operate flawlessly, cranking out a bin of ice (about 6 lbs) every 12 hoursThat being said, defrosting the unit every 4-6 weeks is critical. (It is not a self-defrosting unit; but I knew that when I bought it.) Otherwise, ice will build up on the interior from frost and water splashes, and jam the mechanism.Defrosting the unit, however, is easy. I simply turn the unit off, open the door, remove the ice bin, and place a large cloth towel in the interior, making sure that the towel is pushed against all sides and corners. (This prevents the ice water from running out of the interior compartment and onto the floor.) Leave the door open for about six hours, and it's defrosted. Toss the wet towel in the laundry basket, put the ice bin back in, and turn the unit back on. Twelve hours later, the bin is again full of ice.