hOmeLabs Chill Pill Countertop Ice Maker - Perfect Ice in 8 to 10 Minutes - 26 Pounds Per Day Production To Keep You Iced Out Of Your Mind

We have been using it for only a few days but so far we are mostly loving it. It makes the ice in only minutes but you do need to give it a couple of hours to make enough ice for two smoothies. Each cycle, ours only takes 8 minutes per cycle, makes 9 small cubes that are the perfect size for our use. IN just a couple of hours we have enough ice to make our nightly smoothie with extra to dump in the ice tray in the freezer. The machine is not exactly quiet when running, but not overly noisy either. Its relatively small size does not take up a lot of room on the counter top so there is plenty of room for the smoothie maker next to it. The ONLY complaint, so far, is the ridiculous drain system. What idiot thought that up? We are in our mid sixties and trying to remove the drain plug is a royal pain in the neck, and a bit lower too if you catch my drift. Surely they could have use a petcock valve where a lever could turn the petcock open and closed without the need to unplug the drain from underneath, or at least made the drain plug unscrew instead of pull out. We find it very difficult to extract the plug but yet you are supposed to drain it and not store ice in it for any prolonged period of time, which means we need to drain it every night. The ice maker would have gotten 5 stars if not for that God awful drain plug system. Design engineers should be forced to use the machines they develop because one use and they would have redesigned that idiotic feature.

Great

We purchased the machine in October 2018. We really love it! My main issue is that it doesn't last very long. The first one died after 6 months of use. We had bought the warranty and it was replaced very rapidly which was awesome! Now 15 months later, the second one has stopped working correctly. We follow all the directions for cleaning and care, so maybe we use it too much? We have it on daily, but just cannot figure out why it doesn't last. Still love it!

We’ve only had this ice maker a few weeks but like it so far. I do like that the large ice cubes are a bit larger than our previous ice maker and it is a lot quieter.

Bought this baby just before sailing from America to the Caribbean 8 months ago. We bought it just to make ice for cocktails but, our main refrigator on the boat died so, we have been using it everyday.. all day to keep an ice box full of food cold.. plus cocktail ice ;) It draws little power and is very reliable. Money well spent.

We guys ROCK!!

Great little machine, easy to use and a nice addition to my kitchen. My Mother in law bought it for us because our fridge ice maker went out and we’ve been buying ice. It’s nice to have as a backup and buying ice gets expensive. Today I made ice all day because our local store hasn’t had ice for days. Just filled the reservoir full of water and let it make ice till the basket was full, plus the ice hadn’t melted, then poured the ice in zip lock bags. Just choose large or small cubes. I made the large cubes. Very pleased with it!

I have had this ice maker for a little over a year. It worked great but then all of a sudden stopped producing ice. Glenn, their customer service rep, was super friendly and was able to send us an entire new unit because my original one was still under warranty! Great ice maker and great customer service!

Was given as a gift, hoping that it was well received.

This review is a long term use review. We have owned this nearly two years now and we have enjoyed it greatly. It does make the first batch of ice in 9 or ten minutes but that first batch is really thin sad looking ice. Barely suitable to cool down a 10oz drink. After that and the interior cools down, it routinely makes ice every 9 minutes or so appropriate for one 10 to 12 oz drink unless you want a full cup of ice and you can have that about every 20 minutes. We use ours at least 5 times a week and it runs constantly on the weekends. I would not hesitate to recommend this product.

I bought one of these ice makers in July of 2018. I really like it and was very satisfied. The bad news is that it stopped making ice last weekend after about six months of operation. As it was still under the manufacturer's warranty, I steeled myself for a "fist fight" and went on line with hOmeLabs this morning. I got into an on line chat with Faye, one of their customer service representatives. She could not have been nicer. After a couple of "have you tried this?" (which I had) She informed me that she had processed a replacement and I am to receive it in two days. What? No fist fight? I thanked her profusely and then asked how I should send back the defective unit. I copied her response as I didn't think anyone would believe me. She wrote, "That's not necessary. We don't want to cause any more hassle. Kindly keep it or dispose of it the green way." I consider a company "good" when everything goes right. I consider a company "great" when it doesn't but they correct the issue immediately without any push back. Faye and her company are great! Do not hesitate to buy. J

We purchased this to use in our camper, thus saving ice cube tray space in the freezer. This is a good product but I am a little disappointed. The description indicates first ice is as fast as 8 minutes and up to 24 lbs ice in 24 hours. This is a true statement...but. If you use the large setting first ice is in about 15 minuets and melts just about as fast as it's made. It takes awhile and about 2 - 3 sets of ice to cool the interior enough to get usable ice. We like to fill an 8 oz glass with ice before adding beverage, we've learned to give the ice maker an hour to achieve this. After the first hour, each batch is good. We usually will make ice for 2 hours, putting ice in the freezer in sealable plastic bags. Next night do it all over again.

Bought this for our cottage. The ice maker is convenient and easy to use. The smaller cubes do not come out as nice as the larger ones.

This is a pretty good little ice maker. I made the mistake of buying a fancy Samsung French door refrigerator that has the now infamous ice maker issues. I have to defrost the ice maker once a month to get any ice out of that hunk of junk. I bought this little beauty for backup and works well-it's actually running right now. It's not the fastest ice maker but makes good ice and it's not too terribly loud. I just bought a clear container to put in the bottom drawer of my freezer and make ice on the weekends and fill it up for those times my fridge ice maker is frozen up being I hate not having ice and have no desire to buy bags or use those little old school ice trays. Until the Samsung class action lawsuit is settled, this little gem will work just fine.

I normally don’t review a product until after I had it a few days or weeks. In this case I am so impressed I am reviewing this ice maker after having it less than one day. However, I promise to update this review if it has some issues later. I ordered this ice maker on 29 January and got it early yesterday afternoon after only two days. I set it up and had my first ice cubes after only 60 minutes. I had to wait that long because the item was placed in my postal parcel locker on its side. Instructions say not to use it until 60 minutes to let the refrigeration fluid settle to the bottom. I used the time to wipe the inside lightly. The first ice was made, after only about 10 minutes but further ice was completed in about six minutes as they said. I flushed this first batch down the sink as a precaution since I wanted the mechanism to be cleaned too. This morning I used filtered cold water from my refrigerator to make a whole tray of ice. These go into the freezer compartment for later use. I am hoping I can put them in the hopper of my refrigerator ice maker so I can dispense them direct from its built in storage tray. These ice cubes are much smaller than my refrigerator made them so I am not sure whether this will work well. I will update this if not. I got this potable ice maker because every refrigerator I ever owned needed at least one ice maker replacement. The last time, the repair man put in a whole new unit instead of just replacing the motor. He said this was much cheaper and faster since this was a common problem so most manufactures design the entire unit to be replaced. This saves on labor time. The cost is still about $300 or more! Never again! I was also impressed by the reviews. The few negative reviews got replies from the manufacturer and it appears that most issues were resolved. Homelabs.com also provides a telephone that is answered by a human! Also live internet chat with a human! So far I have not used it. Added 2 Feb 2018. One minor problem I noticed, as did one other reviewer. As the fresh ice cubes are dropped into the basket, they go through some of the water left in scoop that shoves them in the basket. You have to let them "dry" a little before putting them in your freezer but only if you are NOT going to use them immediately. Even then they are still soft and will stick to the other cubes when they are frozen again. I found you have to shake the container after you put them in your freezer compartment. Do this about 10 minutes later. Yes, maybe a pita for some people, but worth it if you enjoy gazing at your scotch with two beautiful ice cubes in it. Still a five star rating. Added 29 Aug 2018. I just saw this same machine with another name on TV, HSN. Reminded me of my above review. Thought I would mention that this ice maker is still working flawlessly. I use it almost every weekend. Oh, the price on HSN price was $129.95, with free shipping.

Great little machine that makes ice pretty quickly! I usually add filtered water for best tasting ice and use the large ice setting. The added bonus is that my cat is obsessed with this thing... he comes running when the ice cycles through and drops out of the maker. Little weirdo! The only problem is that he sometimes turns the machine off with his little paws and the ice will all melt if I don't notice soon enough... thankfully, like I said earlier the machine makes ice quickly!

I bought this as we never seem to have enough ice in the house. I wasn't sure it would work out for us, but it is perfect! It sits on the counter with plenty of room left. I added water and removed all the tape and it was making ice in minutes. The large cubes are a decent size and there is also a smaller choice. It's not the quietest appliance in the world and the cats jumped when it first dropped ice into the basket, but it is a terrific addition to our kitchen. Highly recommend!

Here in Southern California temperatures have been over 100 degrees for weeks. I had a fantasy of having endless ice, so I bought this cute little machine. I don't have one of those refrigerators that makes ice. Not everybody does! Yet, I seem to live on Iced Coffee and Iced Club Soda every single day. Probably we will end up saving money since we were buying bags of it. Yes, I have ice trays, but it's hard to keep up. Not now though! I am extremely fond of this machine. First things first though. You MUST be a little patient when you first set the machine up. I learned this when I bought a freezer recently, but this machine gives the same instruction which I bet that a lot of people ignore. Find a spot for it and set it upright and LEAVE IT ALONE for an hour. The coolant has to "settle" into the tubing and if you don't do this your machine with not function well. It's no big deal, just wait! Then plug it in and put water in. I discarded the first few groups of cubes just to get rid of the factory residue, if any; though really it didn't seem chemically or anything - just a precaution. Then you can just go and go. I use filtered water because where I am the water leaves lime deposits on everything, you may not have to where you live. Use the large function because the small cubes melt too fast I think. The little basket that holds the cubes is fine, but I keep emptying mine and storing the ice in bags in my freezer. I keep filling it up and making and making lots of ice. I have ice to put in pet bowls, ice to use in the kitchen, ice for drinks. It really is pretty "cool", ha, ha. It doesn't make cubes or blocks of ice; it makes what I can only describe as small thimble shaped ice with a hole in the middle. That's how it does it so fast I imagine. They are probably formed on frozen prongs in there. Looks like that anyway. In any case, say hello to my little friend!

I've got nothing but love for this ice machine! It works beautifully. First off, I'm extremely impressed with the small footprint of the machine. It fits nicely on my countertop. It's somewhere in between the size of my coffee maker and breadmaker. I let my church borrow it this summer and they used it for their VBS. They use a ton of ice for that and it saved them a lot of money. It takes about six minutes per batch of ice. You just fill up the tank and let 'er rip. Once the ice drawer is full, it automatically stops producing ice which is a nice feature. You can easily load up a quart bag of ice for your freezer. The ice is soft and chewable. It has two sizes of cubes to choose from. It's a low energy machine meaning it won't hit your utility bill hard at all. I love having the convenience and the portability of this ice maker. It's high-quality and looks great! I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one – it's a keeper!

Last summer the ice maker went out on our fridge, my hubby said he would get it fixed by this summer. Well, it did not happen due to other more important problems. Instead of complaining I bought this portable ice maker. I figured that if this machine could get us through the hottest part of this Arizona summer, then it should make a great addition to the bar we are planning on adding to our family room, eventually. We found that the ice maker does make good ice but we also learned that we need to start making lots of ice hours prior to the event in order to have plenty on hand. My son and I have been using the ice maker everyday since and not only has it been providing enough ice for us to enjoy our cold drinks all day long but we also get some ice that I put in a freezer bag for later use. I am very happy with my decision to purchase this unit.

I have been seeing these portable Ice Makers being sold and I have always wanted one because my ice maker in my fridge has never worked. Yes, we still use the trays. lol. Anyway, my friend has this one and she recommended it so highly. I went ahead and got it and I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. The first couple of batches will be softer and wetter ice since it takes a minute for the freezer to harden it completely. I just keep it going all the time and empty the ice constantly into our freezer ice container. It makes 2 sizes of ice, but we like the smaller cubes. It does have a sensor and when the small container inside gets filled it will shut off and not make anymore so it is important to keep emptying it. This comes in so handy when you are having parties and bar-b-ques and drinks are being made constantly. It is small and compact and fits on the counter with no trouble. This will save you lots of money when having to buy ice! ETA:. I just had to come back 1.5 years later and say that we have used the heck out of this machine and it's still going strong. We even took it camping with us. We love it so much!!

We got this ice maker because our freezer is constantly out of ice and it takes a significant amount of time to refill. The ice maker is easy to fill with water by lifting the ice tray out and filling to the max fill line. You can select whether you want small or large cubes. The cubes are shaped like hollow bullets. The small cubes have thin sides and the large cubes have thick sides. It produces cubes every few minutes and will automatically shut off when the ice basket is full. There are warning lights that let you know when the ice basket is full and when the water needs refilled. It makes. Quiet humming noise while it is producing ice and comes with a small scoop. It can store ice in its tray, however I haven't yet tried that as I put the ice in baggies in the freezer to stock up.

This is definitely my new favorite small appliance. My husband and I have discussed getting an ice machine for a couple of years and just never did it. Now that I have one I wished I had purchased it a couple years ago when we first talked about it. We currently have it set up on our counter and I find myself grabbing ice out of it even though we have an ice maker built into our refrigerator. It makes two different cube sizes and it really does only take 6 minutes. It only makes 9 cubes in those 6 minutes but that’s ok with us because that’s 9 cubes every 6-7 minutes so it all adds up quickly. The small sized cubes are small enough to fit into a plastic water bottle, so if you’re like me and like ice cold water this is awesome. Let’s face it, water bottles don’t stay cold that long and that’s half the reason they just end up being dumped so I call this a win. The reservoir that holds the water is directly below the basket the ice falls into so as the basket doesn't get emptied or the ice doesn't get used it does eventually start melting but it goes right into the holding tank and more ice is then made, genius! The original reason we wanted one was for our camper because we go through so many bags of ice for our cooler, this will pay for itself in a summer. Also, I’m horrible at remembering to fill an ice cube tray so we have ice for drinks when we’re camping so this will solve that problem too! As an added bonus that I didn’t even think about before we bought it was that it can be used during parties. We are having a cookout and we can easily set this on the table next to the drinks where it will continue to make as much ice as we need. I couldn’t be happier with this purchase and I will definitely be recommending it to others.

We go through ice like crazy in the summertime. I LOVE having a steady supply of ice right at my fingertips. This icemaker fits easily beneath my kitchen counter and makes ice in 6 minutes. As long as I keep the reservoir filled with water, it faithfully keeps me in ice! It’s an attractive appliance and very intuitive to use. My only criticism is that the ice, once made, is a bit damp and the basket that holds the ice doesn’t drain the excess water very efficiently. I understand, though, that the machine has to use water to make the ice and so the presence of dampness on the ice is unavoidable. Basket drain design would help this problem for sure. For this reason, I give this icemaker 4 stars. I’m thrilled with it.

I have enjoyed using this ice maker daily. I have very little freezer space, making freezing water in ice trays very inconvenient. It's so convenient to pour water in the machine and turn it on whenever I need ice. In about an hour I can have a day's worth of ice that would normally take hours to freeze in my freezer. I love how even the large ice setting makes the ice small enough to fit in water bottles. Perfect for taking a cold drink on the go. The ice machine does take up a bit of counter space, but the ease of having ice whenever I want makes up for that. I am very satisfied with my purchase. Here is a photo showing the difference between the large and small ice options.

Absolutely love this ice maker!! I do not know what took us so long to buy one. We have two fridges in the house with ice makers and neither of them work!! We live in super hot Arizona and have been buying ice for several years. I am guessing we spend about $40 a month on ice for our family of 6. I am so happy with this little machine. It fits on my counter, it looks nice, it is fairly quiet, and it makes ice in two sizes FAST!! It is also super easy to fill. For those that are making ice ahead of time to store I recommend either putting the ice in a bag in your freezer until it refreezes and then you can break it up and add it to another container/bucket or just keep the ice in a bag so you can throw it on the ground to break it apart. When you get the ice out of the machine it is very wet and if you are storing in your freezer you will end up with a big block of ice. You will not have that problem if you are just taking the ice from the machine and putting it directly into your drinks. I like that it automatically stops running when the ice tray is full and as soon as some of the ice melts down a little or you take some of the ice out it will continue working right away. This is just a great product. Thank you hOme for making life easier, it really is the simple things! I am crossing my fingers that the constant use will not effect its performance.

I purchased this icemaker for my office. It's slender footprint makes it ideal for a small kitchen space. Easy to use, you pour the water into the bottom compartment, touch the size ice cube you'd like to make, Close the top and you are all set. The box says it will make up to 26 pounds of ice per day, although I'm not sure we will go through that much… However the perfectly formed ice is not too hard or too soft and is made quickly. Great purchase

Perfect for everyday use. Fits in our counter and doesn't take up much room. A little larger than my coffee maker. In less than 30 min it made 4 rounds of ice, still going strong. I let the machine settle over night after washing it then filled it with water, like the directions stated. Makes very little noise except when dumping ice ( you hear that) then it has a slight hum you have to really listen out for.