Does anyone have experience with a counter top ice maker? Are they any good?

We are on our second opal machine. Makes sonic type ice. First one was Gen one and we got right at 3 years out of it, Heavy use, for around 500. Bought the Gen 2 when the first died. Seems just as good. Highly recommend.

We bought an Opal 1.0 in Fall '18. Replaced under warranty after 6 months. The replacement was a refurb but we got 3.5 years out of it despite of it's lack of reliability.

Opal 2.0 has it's share of issues as well and apparently warranty service has gone to crap. We decided to try something different and went with the Mueller. A close second is the Gevi 2.0.

The ice is fantastic but you must keep them maintained. We only use distilled water in ours.

We haven't used our Opal more than a handful of time.

We mistakenly thought it would be a good option if we have a small party - it could be used for mixed drink ice. Unfortunately it isn't designed to crank out enough ice quickly to cover that scenario. It's more of a 1 or 2 people casual daily sonic ice maker.

I had one of the original Opals from the early days (did the kickstarter thing and waited like 2 years for it to arrive). Worked from ~2015 until about six months ago and then bought a 2.0.

The biggest key is to use distilled water. And to clean it routinely. We also user ours daily and I think the continuous use helps with the reliability.

Looks like 3.0 is in the final design phase and they released a video in the past week or so where they are working on a water softener that can be added.

For parties, it makes ice pretty fast so if you want an ice chest full, you could probably spend a day making ice, emptying into chest, making more. All the various machines will tell you how much per hour they will make.

We love our Opal(s).

LOVE IT, won't ever go without it ever again.
PROS

• softer ice for your teeth, if a chewer
• gets thing colder faster with hole through it & small or large selctions (except for crushed ice cooling speed)
• alerts you to fill a quart bottle w/R.O. and dump it in
• much fewer trips for bag ice at odd hours due to guests, other
• faster than freezer ice makers and excellent backup when freezer ice takes a break, needs cleaning
• 110v and flat surface, so sits anywhere even in RV
• every store carry these; better luck for us with Amazon "free returns, no postage" ones

CONS

• better wipe it out, clean it else risk health
• block direct sunlight on its sensors, else it over runs with ice
• will need to be replaced in a few years (dead or hard to reach cleaning areaa)
• beware of cheap junk, we had to return the replacement recently; reviews don't always defend you
• some are very noisey and some noises eventually just become background SOP and getting used to them
• draining them is a pain; when older, prefer to dump them out for cleaning

We bought this in 2021 when our ice maker in the fridge went out and the replacement wiring harness was $1k.

We pour in a gallon of water and make ice for the week once a week and anytime we have people over.

Works just like it says and still going strong.

FRIGIDAIRE EFIC452-SS 40 Lbs Extra Large Clear Maker, Stainless Steel, Makes Square Ice https://a.co/d/h7w9MS7

We're on our third Opal 2.0 in about a year

As long as they keep replacing it I'm not too upset about it.

What have been the issues with the first two, if I may ask?

fka ftc said:

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What have been the issues with the first two, if I may ask?

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The list is long. Executive Summary: POS.

That hasn't been my experience, but I have heard particularly with the mass produced units the quality was completely hit or miss.

Just curious which type of failures they were having.

This is the video I referred to in an earlier post regarding a potential "fix" for hard water scaling. Looks like they are reworking the machine as the ones in the video are different than the original and 2.0.

fka ftc said:

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What have been the issues with the first two, if I may ask?

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First one leaked all over the counter multiple times.

Second one shorted itself out.

After posting this, a few days ago the third one starts shrieking when the pump is running. Doesn't do it every time, but does it enough that I'll be putting in another warranty.

Bite the bullet and build in a Scotsman. It's amazing.

I am sure since I posted about having good luck with them mine will shiite the bed within a few days.

Bought an Opal for our Daughter and Son n law for Christmas a few years ago. Worked Fantastic for 3 days then died. Luckily we purchased from Amazon. We returned for a full refund.

We have an opal that has run continuously since Dec 2019. Ran tap water through it for the first two years, just required more frequent cleaning. Since we have started running distilled and it works better. You have to have plenty of space around it to allow for air flow. When you do the routine cleaning be sure to clean the dust off the evaporator coil as well (wife originally thought it was dead about a year ago, cleaned the evaporator coil and it started working great again).