GE Profile Opal | Countertop Nugget Ice Maker with Side Tank | Portable Ice Machine with Bluetooth Connectivity for Smart Home Kitchen | Stainless Steel Finish | Up to 24 lbs. of Ice Per Day

My family is in love with this GE Profile Opal | Countertop Nugget Ice Maker.We have a franchise fast food place called Sonic, which has always been famous for its soft, chewable, ice. They literally sell bags of their ice and we bought ice there for years. I was horrified when my nearby Sonic closed. So when my daughter called me to tell me that she had purchased this GE Opal and that it makes "Sonic ice", I knew I had to have one. Mt daughter was so tickled, she sent me an Amazon gift card as an early birthday gift to cover part of the price so I ordered.It comes in a very protective shipping box with custom molded foam inside. Mine fortunately arrived in perfect condition but others have not been so lucky so I strongly suggest opening and inspecting it immediately so you can return if necessary.Also note that if you live in a city with hard water, as I do, you need to order a filter to install before first use. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07518FM17/ It snaps into the bottom of the water well in the ice maker. You have to really push to get it in place but there is a definite snap when it's in place. You need to run the cleaning cycle before first use but it's easy to do. It is outlined well in the user's guide. Also, you need to wash out the side, water tank before first use. Then you are ready to make ice.This ice maker is pretty big but it fit fine under my upper cabinets. The side tank attaches magnetically on either side of the ice maker so it's pretty flexible. It's quite attractive with crystal clear plastic and a brushed, stainless steel skin. It's also pretty heavy at 47lbs so you may need help to pick it up and put it in place.You need to understand how these work. The unit is not refrigerated. It does not keep the ice frozen. Instead, it makes the ice, which falls into a clear, plastic, ice drawer. When the drawer gets full, you transfer the ice to a bag or bin and place it in your freezer. That is, if you aren't using it the minute it gets made. ;-) If you leave ice in the bin, it will slowly melt and the water goes back into the water well beneath the ice drawer and will be reused to make more ice.It is also not plumbed and there is no option for a direct plumbed line. Instead, you fill the water tank and the side water tank manually so it has water to make ice. The side water tank holds enough water to make about 3 drawers full of ice. The machine can make up to 24 lbs of ice per day and the drawer holds about 3 lbs of ice. It's plenty for my big family and I do make and bag ice so I don't have to run the ice maker all the time. (These are the bags I buy and use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00INV51ZM/)It is very easy to use once you set it up. The user guide provides good, clear instructions for this. It's mostly making sure you have the correct water line attached to the side water tank. Once it's set up and clean, you set the switch in the back to ice and start making ice. There is an illuminated, round, touch sensitive, button on front. The lights surrounding the button tell you the status of the ice maker. It tells you when to empty the ice drawer, when to add water, and when it's making ice. There is also Bluetooth connectivity and an app for your phone which allows you to see the status of the ice maker and control it remotely. However, the permissions were too invasive, IMO, so I did not install the app.Others have mentioned that their machine is too noisy but I don't find that at all. It's louder when the fan comes on initially but for the most part, it's just a quiet hum and the sound of ice falling into the drawer periodically.Best of all, it makes that perfect ice we all love. It makes soft, chewable, small, nuggets. We are completely delighted with the quality of the ice. It also makes ice pretty fast. It's summer in Texas and we use a lot of ice and this machine keeps us in all the ice we can use. Do note that when you place the ice in the freezer for future use, it's not quite as soft as when it comes straight out of the ice maker and you do have to bang the bag of ice on the counter to break it up after it's been in the freezer. But it's still awesome.Maintenance is weekly descaling with vinegar or a product GE makes for that purpose. I am using vinegar and it works fine. You also need to clean it with bleach to prevent mold on a regular basis but neither is a huge chore and again, the process is covered well in the user manual.I am very pleased with this ice maker. It looks great on the counter. It makes perfect ice. The drawer is easy to pull out and empty or just pull out and scoop what you need. It's expensive, though. If you aren't a household that uses a lot of ice or enjoys chewing this special, soft, ice, I'm not sure it would be worth it. You can buy much less expensive, counter top, ice makers.

I was hesitant at first to purchase this. My wife really wanted an ice maker. The one built into our refrigerator doesn't make good ice. To top that off, it has been repaired 3 times under warranty. That was a little motivation to seek out something different. We have a coworker with the original Opal off the crowdfunding campaign and he raves about it. My wife always reminded of that LOL. A $3-4,000 standalone ice maker was out of the question for us. Enter Opal.We saw this on sale in March, so we decided to take the plunge. It's heavier than I expected, but not in a bad way. We have plenty of counter space, so that was a plus. When we first turned it on and it started making ice, I thought to myself this is pretty slow. I can see that when you start it up for the first time, before you get used to it. I have not said that since. We leave ours on 24/7 making ice. I have never been without ice. Me, my wife, and our 5 year old use it all of the time. I actually use it more than my wife does. We had family over for Father's Day yesterday. It kept up just fine with demand. Granted, not everyone used ice. Maybe 4 or 5 people were using it.I highly recommend this. What sold this to me over some cheaper ones was the water recycling process. I had looked at some cheaper ones that did not do this. That was a deal breaker for me. I do not want to have to babysit a machine, so it was well worth the extra money. The extra water reservoir was a plus too. Our coworker who has the original does not have that and wishes he did. I am not sure if he can retrofit his original. If you are on the fence, you won't regret it. For extra peace of mind we bought the extended warranty. The Opal was on sale to justify the cost of adding it for us.Cleaning is easy. The machine directions are to use a little bleach with water and run it through a cleaning cycle. Then run about 3-4 cleaning cycles of fresh water. The water reservoir, ice reservoir, and the holder for the water reservoir I clean with dish soap. The instructions call to do this once a week. I will say I do not do it that often. I am doing it once a month. We only use bottled water (5 gallon variety) in this machine. We do not and will not use tap water; as we have hard water where we live. Therefore, I do not feel the need to clean it every week. I hope this helps! I will update my review if we have any issues with this machine.