GE Profile Opal | Countertop Nugget Ice Maker with Side Tank | Portable Ice Machine with Bluetooth Connectivity | Smart Home Kitchen Essentials | Stainless Steel Finish | Up to 24 lbs. of Ice Per Day

Update: Stopped working, I called GE, and they said they would send me a refurbished one, but it will take around six weeks. That was about four weeks ago. Less than a year old, using only RO water, and it has crapped out on me. I really love this ice maker when it is working. Received a refurbished unit as a replacement. It took over 6 weeks to get here though the warranty was not extended at all for the time I was missing an ice maker. I really hate that I like this ice so much as I don't like the ice maker, the warranty, or the customer service. Original review: I have looked at this ice maker for over a year, but the bad reviews held me back. Finally, hubby convinced me to order, and now I can't believe it took so long. I was afraid it wouldn't produce enough ice to be worthwhile, but now I'm wondering what I am going to do with all of it. We have six people in the house at the moment (think Texas in August), and there is more ice than we have used. In fact, in the last two days, I have filled three-gallon ziplock bags with ice that are sitting in the freezer untouched. The ice is amazing. Perfect! Fabulous! This is not a freezer, so the ice will slowly melt and recirculate. The bin has holes in the bottom to let the water drain, so the ice stays fresh and crunchy. We have not turned it off since plugging it in. Cons: The machine is a bit loud. Still, it is in an open kitchen with a couch 6 feet away, and we don't turn it off to watch TV. so it's not horribly loud. The machine is heavy and bulky. You are supposed to drain and clean every week, or so so I am keeping it close to the kitchen sink. We would have preferred to put it in a different location, but that is not practical. It was also too tall to find under our counter. Pay close attention to the measurements if you need to put it on a counter with a cabinet above. Overall I am extremely pleased with the quality of ice, the noise level, and the ease of setup. If my opinion changes, I will update this review.

I've only been using the ice maker for two weeks but like it very much so far. It arrived in excellent condition and was easy to get it started. I have not yet hooked up the side reservoir so can't speak to how well that works. I only notice the noise when the machine is actually making ice but it's in a room that's far enough away from the general living area so I am not bothered by it at all. It is a little bit loud but not unbearable but I would not want it making ice in the same room where people are watching tv or having a conversation. Never had Sonic ice to which a lot of people compare the ice from this machine so I can't say if it is similar or not but I do like the ice produced with the Opal. It is light and crunchy making it easy to chew. Ice nuggets that stick together are very easily separated with a gentle scrape of the scoop. I am replacing the scoop that came with the ice maker because it is made of plastic and I do worry that it will chip when scooping out ice. I am replacing it with a small stainless steel scoop. At first I didn't see the point of the drip pan but I tend to make a mess sometimes when scooping ice from the bin and transferring it to a thermos and the drip pan catches some of the ice that misses the mouth of the thermos--my fault, not the machine's. The pan is also good for resting the scoop when not in use. It looks really good and very inviting when the light is on. When it needs more water the circle on the face of the machine turns blue so I never have to worry about running out of ice unless guests are over and using a lot of it. If the bin gets low on ice it automatically starts making more and it takes about 15 minutes. Overall, I like this ice maker a lot. At $500+ I'm not convinced yet that it is worth that amount of money and it will take a while to pay for itself compared to the money saved from not needing to buy bags of ice at the grocery. If the machine lasts that long I will be happy. Best thing about it is that I am drinking a lot more water these days because I like the ice a lot and it is so easy to scoop (grocery ice gets stuck together and requires an ice pick to separate or a hard drop of the bag onto the floor) and always available.

Nugget ice is great, I admit it and my wife really wanted this in the house so I finally broke down and bought her this, but its been a bad experience. I’ve never written a product review, but have been so dissatisfied and frustrated with GE / Opal that I felt I needed to write this to vent and in the hope you can make the best decision about whether its worth the hassles for you. First, I knew there would be some noise, but it was annoying enough we needed to move the ice maker from our bar area (preferred location for access for us) to as far around the corner in our kitchen as possible so as not to have to have the TV cranked to hear it over the din of the ice maker. It pretty much runs all day if you use ice and as it regenerates the melting ice in the bin. OK, I expected some noise going in so we accept that. I also knew it would put out heat, it has to in order to make ice. So it warms the room its in, for us thats the kitchen / living room level of our townhouse. Again, we knew that going in and accepted it. I’m not sure what it costs in electricity to run the unit, then for your A/C to further exhaust that heat from your home. We live in Texas and A/C is nearly a year round thing. My guess is you’re looking at $25 - $50/month in additional electricity cost ... but this is just a guess TBH. Then you have the maintenance ... which is where the real nightmares starts. Ice makers are tricky and hard to maintain. First it’s weekly cleaning the involves 5 drain and refill cycles, plus cleaning all the bin(s) and components. If you hurry through it you can do it in under an hour and its possible to multi task with dinner or whatever, but thats best case. Trust me, its an ongoing pain. Never the less, I performed the cleaning religiously not wanting any “slim in the ice machine”. We only used Brita filtered water in the unit. However, what I learned after the unit crapped out in 4 months was that that doing the “demineralization” (which the manual sort of glosses over) may be more important than they lead you to believe in the owner manual. Also, once i got into problems the Opal maintenance people said one should be using distilled water, not just filtered water ... at that point I’m like wait a second here, where was all this advice when I read through the owners manual? In the end it probably wasn’t mineral buildup that caused the unit to fail anyway. Point is if you want it to last you probably should use distilled water. However, in my case there was little/no evidence of mineral buildup and none of the demineralization fix process helped. As mentioned before - a small ice maker (any ice maker) is hard thing to keep running correctly, there’s a lot that can fail. If that was all you’d never have heard from me, but the real nightmare begins with trying to get warranty repairs. If you’re outside the 1 year warranty, I’d for sure just junk it and move on - I would not waste money trying to repair this type appliance. Our ice maker quit making ice about 4 months after we bought it and I called Opal, but no answer “heavier than normal call volume” ... Please companies, quit hiding behind that using the pandemic as an excuse. Since Opal was unavailable I tried GE appliances which is offered as an alternate route. GE customer service was very polite and helpful ... I thought. The nice GE lady took all my information and asked about whether I wanted a GE person to come out and fix it (2 weeks wait) or whether a quicker available local contractor was ok. I said the contractor would be fine and got an appointment time, contractor’s name and contact info etc and thought i was all set for 3 days later. What the nice GE lady didn’t know about her own system/company was they don’t come fix Opal ice makers like they do other GE appliances, you send it back. So unbeknownst to me they just cancelled my ticket about 18 hours later. I was never notified of this due to email address mix up (an honest mistake of a dot left out of the address), but there was no other effort / method of getting me notice than their email attempt and nobody on GE’s end noticing the email got kicked back. So come Monday the repair guy/company never shows up, so I call back to find out what’s up only to learn the ticket was canceled and I need to open a new ticket with Opal which I did. First thing Opal service does is question about the unit and your maintenance - OK i get it and had all along been offering to try any recommended fixes that had. However, the Opal guy came off as condescending like it was my fault their POS failed. We got through that call and then they send you a series of email asking to to do various things; prove your ownership and purchase date, unit ID and finally a multi part troubleshooting which is mostly about masking sure the unit isn’t “mineralized up”. Frankly the web site they have you use, Onpoint, sucks and they don’t even trust it. Best they have I guess. You can’t even register your own unit for instance, they have to do it. Anyway, after working through all the suggested fixes in their email, and re-trying unit to no avail, they will replace your unit. Unfortunately, I had more delays in this process. They won’t resend a new (reconditioned) unit until you check all the boxes, including paying them another $300 which they supposedly will return once you return the old unit. I tried several times over a two week + period to initiate the replacement process to no avail, and each time after a week or so had to call again only to find out it was still pending things on my end. Of course there is no follow-up from Opal or GE to say the process is stuck, its all on you to fight through the process. So as we sit today I’m super frustrated and still wondering when I’ll receive a replacement and how that will go. I’m sorry I ever got into this mess and would just say stick with ice from your refrigerator or go by Sonic or some who has pellet ice and save the headache.

So I have waited a while to post this review, giving time to see how the machine holds up. I got this unit in June late. It started out working perfectly. Left it on all day, and turned it off at night. There would always be enough ice left over that I would still have probably 30oz of ice left to start my day with. Then in early July, I left it on all night one night, and the next day it sounded like it was struggling. Then the screech of death started (see video). Oh man. I was devastated. I splurged and got this machine for my disabled mom, and certainly didn't have the money for another one, or even to deal with shipping costs to send it back for a replacement. So I let it squeal for about a day, and then it stopped making ice. I tried running an extended cleaning cycle to no avail. Then I decided to take a stab in the dark with it... I ran a cleaning cycle through with a solution of about 20/80 white vinegar and water. The screach got a little quieter. I did the cleaning cycle again. Got a little quieter again. Then started making ice with it. It kept sounding like it was struggling, so I ran another cleaning cycle with 60/40 white vinegar and water solution. Followed some tips I found online about putting a paper towel soaked in vinegar up inside the extruder area. Let it sit for a few hours then started the cleaning cycle again. Ran a bunch of rinse cycles though and BAM! No more sounds of a struggling machine. Since then it has stopped making ice twice. Both times were my fault, as they were well over a month of me not doing a cleaning cycle like suggested (I DO only used filtered water in it, so it might need more cleaning cycles if you use tap water). Each time it stopped making ice, I run a cleaning cycle with a little vinegar and water, and it just starts working fine again when I leave cleaning mode. It's now November, and it works perfectly. No more squealing, only issues if I don't do cleaning cycles on time. And even then, it starts working again just fine once I clean it. I hope this review helps someone make their choice. And hopefully helps a few people out of they do get the squeal of death. This machine has been a wonderful addition to my home. Anyone on the fence about getting it, get off the fence and just do it already!

I have used this ice maker for the past two weeks and have been fairly impressed by the operation. I can tend to be a bit noisy but my unit has been working well. It delivers a harder ice than you would find at Sonic but still great and chewable. I have read in other reviews that their product was squeaking. This is actually in the manual and does happen if the unit elements start to freeze. It has an automatic defrost function that it will use if it needs to, but I have found that if you let it be for a little while after it stops making ice (tray fills up), it thaws plenty and I rarely get any squeaking unless we are using loads of ice. Also be aware of the water that you use because bad water in can harm your machine and will result in poor ice. The attached water reservoir works as advertised and when I first started the machine it used nearly the full gallon to make an entire bucket of ice. There is no refrigeration in the basket area but any ice that melts gets recycled back into the machine to make new ice so you can pretty much just make sure it has water and you will always have ice. It will automatically make ice when the tray isn't full and shut off when it is. Definitely got what I expected here. UPDATE: I've had this for over two years now and it's still running strong. Any issues that I have are resolved with a thorough cleaning. Make sure you are using distilled water and cleaning the unit. I probably run more cycles than needed, but I'm paranoid and don't want the unit to fail. I run through multiple bleach cycles, followed by multiple white vinegar cycles, and finally a few distilled water cycles to clear everything out. There is still very little noise unless it's freezing or needs cleaned.

***ONE MONTH UPDATE*** I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! This review is for everyone considering an Opal AND those having issues with their Opal. Please try these steps and see if it resolves the blue light/not making ice issue!! So I received my Opal Saturday (a day earlier than expected). The box nor device were damaged, unlike some buyers, so I guess I was lucky there. It appeared to be completed new, not refurbished. The setup was a bit..... tedious. Running the cleaning cycle a few times took a lot of time but in hindsight, it also helped me understand the mechanics of the ice maker, which came in handy today. (More on that layer) The last 5 days have been crushed ice lovers BLISSSSSS! I swear, it’s been everything I dreamed of. “Sonic ice” available at my will. I almost wrote a glorious review Monday. (Glad I waited) Up until this morning, it was making ice perfectly. When I left this morning, I noticed it wasn’t and tried setting the schedule from my phone on the way out the door, expecting it would be fine when I returned from work. No such luck. I walked in to a completely empty ice bin despite the water being full . SAD-NESS ensued. I immediately began googling the “Opal Ice Make blue light” topic but let me save you a step. The suggestion of running a cleaning cycle didn’t work so I came here for help, only to find a HELLUVA lot of awful reviews (on this listing and some others). Decided to review the Owners Manual for help (thankfully I didn’t trash it), and read the steps about cleaning mineral deposits, something something. Basically, I ran two cleaning cycles with a lot of white vinegar and water and THEN I actually started an ice making cycle with the vinegar water. Wouldn’t you know, the water FINALLY began pumping thru the machine again! GLOORRRRYYY! So yeah, upon getting the water pumping again, I switched it back to cleaning mode, and pumped another two rounds of FILTERED water thru the machine and it’s now happily (and loudly) making ice again. Is it a darn shame it took all this to make it work beyond 6 days?? YES. But am I truly thankful to hear that ice dropping again? HELL YES!! My takeaway here is that I should probably always use filtered water going forward (and not the tap water I was using). I’ll check back in with any updates if things change but for now, it’s working again. And to anyone thinking about getting one of these ice makers, I guess we’ll see if it’s worth the money in the long run. If I could afford the countertop Follett ice maker ($3K+), that would’ve been my first choice. (They have it at my car dealership and the ice is DIVINE but it’s hard connected to your water line so it requires professional installation, too). So for me and my budget this $550 was a stretch, but if you got coins to spend and want the real thing, look into the Follett 7CI100A-IW-NF-ST-00 7 Series Air Cooled Countertop Ice Maker and Water Dispenser. Hope this helps someone craving ice right now! I’m about to go get a cup! ☺️

The good. It's not excessively loud. It makes good ice quickly. The ice is super fun for drinks and makes the beverage wicked cold. It recirculates melting ice so you always have ice being made. We've been plowing through the ice since getting it a few weeks back. The quirky. From time to time, it stops making ice, with the bin full indicator on, even though it's clearly not full. To clear it, I simply have to open and close the bin. Bam. The ice making resumes. Obviously that's not cool. Additionally, if you let it sit long enough in that state, it simply turns off. It's done this since the third day in use and has occurred probably eight times far. I assume that calling GE will be fruitless so so far I haven't bothered. I've also seen it develop air bubbles on two occasions, where the pump gets loud. I check it, and there's no water in the main reservoir, but the side tank has plenty. I've just "messed" with it on those two occasions and it restarted. Actually, the second time I added water to the main. Somehow it randomly gets an air bubble I'm guessing. Finally, I had a strong feeling that something like this would be finicky, if not outright failing at some point, so I got the extended warranty from Amazon. I never do that, but I'm glad that I did here.

We’ve been wanting an pellet ice maker for years. Every time we go to a restaurant that has pellet ice we state that we want a machine. Well we finally had the money to invest in one and researched several. We were confused why it seems why people either seemed to give it 1 star and complained about the loud noise it makes or 5 stars stating it was not very loud and awesome. We are definitely the 5 star awesome crowd. As you see in the video it makes a low volume hum similar to a refrigerator or dishwasher. I find it calming. However, we believe we have figured out the issue. Once the water cycles through in the reservoir it will try to suck up water to make the ice and will make a loud gurgling/screeching noise. Once you put more water in the reservoir the loud sound goes away instantly. Think of a large mouth trying to suck up a tiny amount of water. Give the poor beautiful machine something to drink people! If you don’t want to make more ice then just hit the pretty, big, illuminated button at the top. We turn off the machine over night and it still has ice in the bin the next morning. Some ice does melt but it the water doesn’t sit at the bottom of the tray because the ice bin has drainage holes in the bottom and the water just goes in the water reservoir. If you want to make more ice and need to fill up the ice machine again then just dump/scoop the ice into a gallon ziplock or another tray to put into your freezer. This thing is awesome and I think it looks great. It fits on most any countertop but is large and it should be for this type of quality. The unit is packaged very securely. It even has a plywood base at the bottom and is bottom heavy to avoid being shipped/delivered/stored upside down (of course you’ll have a dumb dumb put it upside down). The way you have to unbox the unit avoids any thinking of turning it upside down. Please note that if the unit still makes a loud noise and the water reservoir isn’t empty then you may have a faulty machine. We’ve read that if the unit is turned upside down it can damage it. This machine is worth the large price tag and honestly I think it’s a great value for the quality and design of this unit. GE doesn’t make junk. We love love love this ice maker and enjoy the delicious ice it makes. Now go and buy it and start crunching some ice!