WhynterIMC-490SS Portable Ice Maker, 49-Pound, Stainless Steel

I bought this recently because my husband and I have a lot of parties at our house. One main reason I bought it instead of other models is that it makes much more ice in less time than the others in this price range. There are also 3 sizes of ice to choose from plus a timer where you can either choose for a delayed start or amount of run time. Delayed start is nice option so that I timed it to begin making ice in the morning automatically.My only major complaint is that it turns out quite a bit of external heat when cooling down the water for ice. (At our summer party here in Florida, my A/C was struggling to keep the house cool, and this heat didn't help that situation, but nonetheless it's necessary evil for a refrigerator, freezer, or ice maker to cool inside.) Also, the included ice scoop is very small, so I recommend buying a larger one.On another note, this ice maker is larger than I anticipated, but I imagine the larger size is needed for the higher capacity and faster ice production. I have a picture of it near a roll of paper towels to give you an idea of the scale. We hope to buy an RV one day, but I am not sure how well it would fit on a smaller RV kitchen counter.As with most other portable ice makers, the ice storage compartment is not refrigerated, so we continually grabbed any ice when its bin became full, put the ice in a plastic bag, and threw it in our chest freezer to have enough ice ready for the coolers and drinks. Any unused ice will melt into the compartment below which is the reservoir for the water - any melted ice is recycled into water and turned back into ice again, which I think is a nice feature in the absence of a cooled storage compartment.

I have purchased numerous portable ice makers but all of them have died on me. So far, so good. I have no water line connected to my refrigerator and cannot see myself making ice with ice trays so this works for me. I like that this ice maker makes a huge quantity so I can easily fill a zip lock bag and throw it in my freezer to use as needed. I use ice every day with my water so it's so convenient that it keeps making ice as needed. I fill it with filtered water when the water level gets low and you get ice all the time for your cocktails, juices, etc. as it keeps making ice until the bin is full. The ice will melt & keep recycling to make more new ice! I put bags of ice in my ice cooler when traveling on the road so it's so convenient! I just hope this ice maker will last for a long while.

Recently moved into a new home. It has an ice maker connection behind frig. I had to wait nearly two months to get my new frig from Maytag only to find that the water to the ice maker connection was disconnected below the house. So decided to go with a counter style. This was easy to set up. It is heavy and larger than others. But it really grinds out the ice. Very quiet too. I am counting on this to get me through until I can get the water hooked up under the house.Update: less than six months after purchase the machine has died. It runs makes sounds like it is working but cannot freeze ice. I see I have to pay shipping to get this huge heavy thing back. Also requires original shipping container? Who has room for that? Says something though if they expect you to have to ship it back that they require you to keep the container. So it looks like I am screwed. DO NOT BUY!Update 2: Looks like this piece of junk only came with a 90 day warranty. Again do not buy. Just missed getting it picked up in a junk haul. Biggest waste of money spent here on Amazon.

It is not particularly quiet, but the ice cubes don't seem to all fall at once. In general, it seems quieter. The pump isn't as noisy as the NewA*r we had for several years. And the ice cubes don't seem to get caught under the sweep when the water level gets low like our old one. I like the color. The stainless steel has been easy to keep clean so far, compared to the red one we had. It also looks smaller, in spite of being the exact same dimensions. The red one just seemed huge by comparison. I had to get out the tape measure to prove to my husband that the stainless steel was the same size as our old red one. Visually, it is that much less intrusive in the room. I can't say whether it makes more or less ice cubes or whether it meets the amount per day that it says but I did have one of the smaller versions for about a year, in a different brand and it could not keep up with our ice consumption, so by comparison to the 26 pound versions, this model churns out a lot more ice. If you make ice and try to store it in the freezer, you will be needing an ice pick. Like all ice makers of this type, the bullets (cubes) release because hot water is run back through the line to melt them off the tines. So these are wet cubes and will freeze together if stored in the freezer.

The first unit was pretty beat up by UPS by the time it arrived and even though the compressor made the appropriate noises, it never got cold. Not even 1* colder. I sent it back and the 2nd unit the compressor wouldn't even fire up. I took it apart and the neutral wire from the compressor harness had pulled out. Once I saw it, I realized every time the unit was moved, the harness was going to pull that wire out again, it was made too short. After running it for a while, I noticed the fan bearing (a bronze bushing, actually) was making a groaning sound. I contacted Amazon to get another fan, because I was tired of mailing units back and they gave me the mfr phone number and website.Whynter gave me a case number and asked for a sound clip of the noise. Then they decided that since I bought it from Amazon Warehouse, it wasn't going to honor the warranty even though they built the defective unit. While the unit does produce at least 49 lbs of ice per 24 hr period, I would recommend you buy a similar unit from a competitor who knows what customer service means and actually honors their warranty.

I purchased this item as a back up ice maker as well as for when we go camping. I have used it four the past month and am happy with it. Not Estatic. I does not really keep the made ice frozen in the compartment and as a result it all freezes together in one block. When you take the ice out the cubes are dripping water. The cubes are a decent size but the center is hollow. The ice shape reminds me of a finger thimble for sewing. I am not going to send it back but I have some doubts.

This unit arrived dead on arrival. The support however was excellent but could not resolve the malfunction remotely. I returned the unit for refund, which so far seems to be a painless exercise. I did however find an identical unit made by Igloo for exactly half the price at Canadian Tire, and it worked perfectly. But I returned that unit too. Unless you are there to take the ice and put it into a real freezer, it will get wet quite fast, and then when you bag it, it becomes a big glob of ice. It sure does make ice quickly though - you just need to deal with it right away, I would not recommend this ice maker. Either spend the mega-bucks to get one that will hold the ice frozen, or use your fridge to make ice

Product works great fortunately I I found the same make model number 491 $30 cheaper and it has a water feed in it shop around folks

Product arrived when promised, in great condition and was used for a party of about 50 guests and performed as described beautifully. Would recommend it for home or outdoor use to handle any demand.

Love the product. Thank you.