Frigidaire EFIC235-AMZ Countertop Crunchy Chewable Nugget Ice Maker, 44lbs per Day, Self Cleaning Function, 120 Volts

I labored back and forth through ice makers, and the reviews are the most important thing for sure. I have to say I LOVE THE ICE THIS MAKES. It’s not bullet ice, it’s actually chewy nugget ice like Sonic, Holiday, etc. It’s awesome.Also, let me preface my review by agreeing with another review: unpackaged it and let it sit upright for a couple of days.That said; there are some pros and cons and helpful hints.Buy the warranty. It’s nothing for an expensive ice maker.Use distilled water.Clean often: I ran my ice maker for about a month and I was shocked how dirty it was! If you use regular water, you’ll end up with hard water deposits and dirt. Now I clean it every other week.It’s noisy: but not THAT noisy. After about a month, I started hearing that dreaded low whine I read about. It’s almost like it’s a part that is triggered when it’s too full of ice, or a belt?If you keep it on the kitchen, you cannot hear it from the other room. You can hear it dumped ice, just like your refrigerator dumps ice. It’s only loud if you are in the same room. It has to have some noise for the air to keep it cool. Each side has an air in/out take. They run softly.I had zero problems for the first month. Absolutely no water leakage, no weird sounds, not one problem. And I ran it constantly.Now, it’s filling (overfilling) the drip tray, and it has a whine. I think, and it’s just a guess, when we don’t use the ice as much, it melts. And then it leaks out. Also, I think my mom used tap water and that’s awful.It holds exactly 1 gallon of water in the machine, and I have to refill it about every three days, depending on who visits. Our family drinks tons if water now! It’s perfect for water bottles, and slushees.Overall, I LOVE THIS THING!!! No more trips to the gas station, and no more mystery ice. If this little thing that I keep meticulously clean has dirt collected …. Image any gas station or ice maker. Freaks me out!It has a clean cycle you can use. And it’s worked good so far!!!Just take care of it, because it is an investment, and it’ll take care if you!!!

STAY FAR AWAY FROM THIS MACHINE or Ones like this from CURTIS ( I would loop in GE Opal too since the machine fails so often)consider brakes like Thereye, Mueller, Kismile or anyone other than one made by Curtis. Check their warranty requirements and how they handle product failures. Requiring the customer to ship back a 45lb machine is very expensive.I purchased this ice maker for my mother who loves "sonic ice". I can assume if you are looking for a nugget ice maker you know or at least would love to have that delicious and crunchy ice at home. Its not the same to buy a bag and freeze it because its super hard again.So to start my initial findings it was great to start. Ice was delicious and then it all went horribly. The machine started leaking around the door because the design is just terrible. No other ice maker that is of quality has a slide out tray. Water leaks all over the place and we had to put towels down just to prevent it. Some suggested tilting the unit by a few millimeters and that didn't work either. Then compared to the other bullet or cube makers this unit gets black mold super quick. I have hard water and regularly clean it with citric acid or acetic acid. Descaling is not hard but keeping the mold away is hard. I moved to trying bleach in a small amount and that seemed to work briefly before the whole machine took a dump. I noticed water was pooling around the base and found it was leaking internally. The machine then decided it would no longer make any ice and instead squeals making horribly loud noises. I am quite familiar with the design of how these units work. They use an auger to force water up a metal tube that is freezing it as it moves up and then extrudes the chips of ice into a circular cutout as the same auger has an arm that breaks them off. Scotsman has had this design for decades and while its great at making ice it also breaks down. The seals leak causing water to cover the mechanicals mixing in the gear box leading to the gears rusting and breaking. The auger scores the walls of the metal tube causing metal shavings to flake off. The same auger that scored the walls can freeze up because its built up metal around the sidewalls. These are a few of the issues with this design that the Chinese knockoff made by Curtis for Frigidaire have still managed to screw up. For the price of this unit it should last longer than 5 months.So then comes to the warranty issue. I contacted Curtis about the ice machine and they want me to ship it back to them even when I have provided them video/photographic proof of the machine no longer working. The costs of packing it up and sending it back come to about $65. This is a standard method of warranty service with Curtis. They do not send replacements, they do not make contact except via email, they will not stand behind their products. They are literally just a mill selling these cheap machines for high prices and then telling you to go away if one breaks. The exception that the unit has to be mailed back to them I can assume was done to prevent warranty claims for those who don't want to fork over more money on such an expensive machine. I bought an extended warranty however it will not come into effect until the manufacture's warranty is over. See how they screw you.Out of any of my issues I wish to tell anyone to stay far away from these Curtis made machines. Nugget ice makers are great and I get why they are expensive over the bullet machines. But these manufactures need to make them better and stand behind them.

Purchased July 2021. Worked great. A little loud, but fabulous ice and super easy and convenient.December 2022 - walk in to the interior light flashing and ice melting. I make sure it’s turned on and set to make ice, hear it start up, and go about my day. Spoiler: no ice stayed in the bin, light continued to blink, and zero way to get in touch with customer support on the weekend.Amazon’s warranty expired January 2022, which makes sense.Can’t register the product on the Frigidaire website (can’t register any of the countertop I’ve makers, fyi).Very frustrated and unhappy that a $350 purchase lasted 18 months under proper usage conditions and there seems to be little to no recourse.