Countertop Ice Maker Machine: My $300 Verdict

Four months ago I did something I had been resisting for two years: I bought a countertop ice maker machine and gave it a permanent spot on my kitchen counter, between the coffee maker and the toaster. The trigger was embarrassingly simple — a Saturday afternoon, six people coming over, and me standing there chipping ice out of a plastic tray with the back of a screwdriver because the freezer had not refilled since breakfast. My wife watched for about ten seconds and said, “We are forty. Buy the ice machine.” She had a point. Four months later, here is the honest review: the specs, the math, and the downsides nobody puts on the product page.

What this $300 countertop ice maker machine actually does

Let us start with the facts, because the product page at FLNORW MALL is unusually specific. This is the Simple Deluxe Ice Maker Machine for Countertop, a compressor-based unit with a 2024-upgraded compressor. It makes 9 ice cubes every 6 to 8 minutes and can produce up to 26 pounds of ice per day. It runs at a rated 35 decibels — quieter than most refrigerators — and it has a self-cleaning mode: hold the ON/OFF button for five seconds and it rinses its own water lines.

The footprint is about 9.84 inches wide, 12.2 inches deep, and 12.6 inches tall, and it weighs around 13.7 pounds, so one person can carry it to the counter, the patio, or the RV without a second thought. You fill the tank with up to 1.2 liters of water, press ON, and an infrared sensor stops production when the basket is full (about 1.3 pounds) or the water runs low, with an indicator light telling you which one. The lid is transparent, so you can watch the water level and the ice pile without opening it. It comes in black or silvery, and FLNORW MALL ships it with the scoop and ice basket in the box. No plumbing, no installation, no water line. Plug it into a normal outlet and it starts working.

Why I bought a portable ice maker instead of more ice trays

Four months ago I was standing in my kitchen chipping ice out of a plastic tray with the back of a screwdriver because the freezer had not refilled since breakfast. We had six people coming over. My wife watched for about ten seconds and said, “We are forty. Buy the ice machine.” She had a point.

Here is the thing about freezer trays: they take a full day to refreeze, they stack badly and spill, and everything in your freezer seasons the ice. I once served guests water that tasted faintly of garlic bagels, and I am still not over it. My fridge has a built-in icemaker too, but it dribbles out a handful of cubes a day and dumps them whenever it feels like it — useless when you need four pounds by six o’clock.

A portable ice maker solves a different problem than a freezer does. A freezer stores cold; this machine makes it, on demand, from a compressor, the same way a window AC makes cold air. Six minutes after I press the button, nine cubes drop into the basket. I gave it the counter spot between the coffee maker and the toaster, and it has not moved since. It takes up roughly the footprint of a bread maker — bigger than it looks in photos, I will warn you, but not room-eating.

The bagged-ice math: when a 26-lb ice maker pays for itself

Rough math, flagged as rough, because your numbers will differ. At my grocery store a 10-pound bag of ice runs about $3 (estimate). From May through September, we host something every other weekend — a backyard cookout, the kids’ birthday, neighbors for the game. Each of those used to cost me two or three bags, so call it $9 a party, about 12 parties a summer: roughly $108 a summer on frozen water alone, plus the gas-station stops when I forgot to buy ahead.

The machine cost $300. Two summers of hosting like we actually do, and the ice pays for the machine. After that, every cube is free. If you are the person who grabs a $3 bag before every fishing trip or tailgate, run your own version of this — the breakeven arrives sooner than you expect for anyone who ices drinks more than twice a week.

Electricity? The compressor sips power per cycle — estimates vary, but we are talking pennies per batch, a rounding error next to the bagged-ice bill. And the cubes you make at home do not ride around in a gas-station freezer for a week before reaching your drink, which is a small quality-of-life upgrade I did not anticipate caring about.

Four months of home-bar weekends: where it earns its keep

This is the ice maker for home bar people, even if you do not have a bar — just a counter and friends. My routine on a Friday is now boringly reliable: start the machine at five, make dinner, and by six the basket is full enough to load the cooler for the evening. Old fashioneds get three cubes each. The kids get lemonade with the soft, hollow bullet ice, which they have decided is “the good kind.”

Other scenarios that came up in four months: a birthday party where I started the machine an hour before the guests arrived and bagged batches into freezer bags as they came; a day trip where I filled the basket before leaving and dumped it into the cooler bag on the way out the door; a playoff night where the drinks never went warm because I could refill the bucket at halftime. The included scoop and basket make the transfer part painless, and the transparent lid means I am not guessing when it is time to bag.

Pairing tip from our house: the machine plus a foldable ping-pong table and the IPX7 waterproof Bluetooth speaker (30 hours of battery, thirty bucks shy of a hundred) is our entire summer-hosting setup. Ice, music, a game — the house does the rest.

35 decibels is quieter than I expected

The product page says 35 decibels, and I measured it the only way a normal person can: I ran it in the room where we watch TV. It sounds like a small fan. During a cycle you hear water sloshing, then a soft clunk when the cubes drop into the basket. For reference, a normal conversation is about 60 dB and a refrigerator hum is around 40 dB, so this sits comfortably below both. Nobody has ever asked “what is that buzzing.” My old dehumidifier was louder by a mile, and that thing had no excuse.

The cooling fan that dissipates heat from the compressor is part of the quiet design — the page mentions it specifically — and in practice the machine never gets hot to the touch. It just hums along on the counter like it is minding its own business, which it is.

The self-cleaning cycle — what five seconds really buys you

Press and hold ON/OFF for five seconds and the self-cleaning ice maker mode kicks in, circulating water through its lines and tank. Honest take: it rinses, it does not scrub. The product page even suggests adding a little lemon or soda water for a better clean, which tells you exactly what the mode is — a flush, not a deep clean. That is fine. A flush is ninety percent of what these machines need.

My routine takes two minutes: run the self-clean cycle, dump the water, wipe the basket and lid with a dish towel. Once a week in heavy summer use, less in winter when it sits mostly idle. The see-through lid earns its keep here — you can spot tired-looking tank water without opening anything. If you have ever owned a humidifier that turned into a swamp, you will appreciate how low-maintenance this is by comparison.

Bullet ice melts fast: the honest downsides

No review is honest without the other side. Four months in, here is what I would tell you before you buy:

Bullet ice melts faster than solid freezer cubes. The cubes are soft with a hollow-ish center — the kids love the texture, but your drink dilutes quicker. For whiskey neat, use big silicone cubes; I will die on this hill.
It makes ice; it does not keep it cold. Cubes left in the basket eventually melt back down, and the water recycles into the tank for the next batch. Bag what you need and move it to the freezer.
26 pounds a day is a maximum, not a promise. The basket only holds about 1.3 pounds, so the output depends on you emptying it. On a party day I realistically pull four to six pounds — plenty for drinks, but know the number.
Measure your counter. It is bigger than the photos suggest. I did not measure, and it barely fits under my cabinets — at 12.6 inches tall it clears standard 18-inch cabinet clearance, but only just.
No water filter. Tap water in means slightly cloudy cubes. I use fridge-filtered water and the cubes come out clearer.

Specs worth checking before you buy

26 lbs/day maximum output; 9 cubes per 6–8 minute cycle
1.2L water tank; basket holds about 1.3 lbs; infrared sensor stops production when full or water is low
35 dB — roughly refrigerator-hum level
Self-cleaning mode (hold the power button 5 seconds); page suggests lemon or soda water for a better rinse
About 9.84″ × 12.2″ × 12.6″, 13.7–14.8 lbs; black or silvery; ABS body
Includes scoop and ice basket; no plumbing needed — fill, press ON, done
Price: $300 on FLNORW MALL

The verdict

Four months in, the machine has not moved from its counter spot, and that is the review. The $300 paid for itself in the most boring possible way — no more $3 gas-station bags, no more screwdriver-and-tray Saturdays, no more garlic-bagel water. It hums quietly, rinses itself, and hands me nine fresh cubes every six minutes whenever someone walks through the door. For a household that hosts, that is not a gadget. That is infrastructure.

Ready to stop buying bagged ice? See the full spec sheet and photos of the countertop ice maker machine at FLNORW MALL — $300, scoop and basket included.