While having ice on demand does not exactly fall within Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there’s a certain appeal to having ice to cool your favorite beverage at any given moment. From beverages like lemonade and cocktails to traditionally hot drinks like coffee and milk tea, ice is essential for many drinks and sometimes can be the difference between a good drink and an amazing one. If you’re looking to get ice on hand as quickly as possible and find those refrigerators with built-in ice makers a bit too pricey, we’ve got some good news for you. There are plenty of affordable, portable, and convenient ways to get ice on demand and AGLucky’s Countertop Ice Maker is one of them. I recently ordered one of these portable ice makers from Amazon to see what it does, how fast it makes ice, what the cubes are like and how the device stores the ice. All so I can share if I can recommend this ice machine for you in my full review.
AGLucky ice maker
Summary
Overall, this is a pretty handy gadget if you live in a hot climate or you use a lot of ice. It produces ice quickly, and it’s easy to set up and use. The machine is a reasonable size given everything that’s going on and I was able to find an out-of-the-way spot for it in my laundry room. There’s really no work from you involved in making the ice aside from scooping out the basket when you need it, and ensuring the water reservoir is full.
Pros
- Makes ice in minutes!
- Easy to use
- Easy set up
- Different ice sizes (kinda)
- Compact design
Cons
- Ice can be soft
- Machine isn’t a freezer; limited cooling
- Smaller cubes melt faster
AGLucky Countertop Ice Maker review: Size and portability
With dimensions of 12.3 x 8.7 x 12.6 inches, the AGLucky Countertop Ice Maker is not much bigger than your typical drip coffee machine. Its small footprint will not take up too much space on your countertop. It’s also portable, weighing a nominal 16.4 pounds. It also comes in a variety of fun colours.
The power cord is also long, at 2 meters, so you can place the unit on your counter without any problem. The long-ish cord also helps if you plan to use it outdoors where power outlets are scarce. So, whether it’s a small garden party or use on your RV road trip, you can easily have fresh ice at the ready.
Watch it in action: my hands on video review
Set up
When it comes to set up, there’s not really much involved at all. Unpack the device and plug it in. The company warns you to ensure you leave it sitting upright indoors for two hours before turning it on so the coolant inside has time to settle after shipping. When the clock runs out, just fill the bottom of the ice machine with water to the fill line. Then turn it on and choose your cube size. There’s a basket inside to collect the ice and a scoop to remove it.
I was pleasantly surprised when not even 10 minutes later, I started hearing ice dropping into the storage basket.
Production Capacity & speed
The AGLucky Countertop Ice Maker is compact enough to fit on any countertop but not so small that it can’t make up to 26 lbs of ice daily. The production rate is also quite impressive at nine pieces every 6 – 8 minutes.
Ice Shape and Size
If you’re wondering, there’s a compelling reason why I haven’t mentioned ice “cube” yet. That’s because the AGLucky Countertop Ice Maker doesn’t produce cubes. Instead, it produces bullet-shaped or cup-shaped ice. This shape allows maximum contact on the nine metal cooling rods, facilitating the freezing process so you get faster ice.
While this bullet shape will keep your drink cold, it’s not the ideal shape for certain drinks. For example, if you’re using it to keep your bourbon or whiskey cold, then you’ll notice that it dilutes the drink very quickly. This is because the bullet-shaped ice melts faster than the preferred ice spheres or giant cubes.
On the other hand, for fruit juices that people tend to drink quicker, the bullet-shaped ice is perfect because people usually finish their drinks by the time the ice starts melting.
The ice does seem a little bit on the soft side, and will perhaps, melt faster than your standard refrigerator, ice cube tray blocks, but the objective here is fast ice, and you can certainly take it from the icemakers storage bin and pop it into your freezer or deep freeze for firmer ice or to fill up a cooler or wine chiller.
One last note on the ice production; there is not actually a lot of difference in size from the large cubes to the small cubes. You can imagine it’s not that easy to have two different size freezing trays in the back of this machine. I mainly opted to use the larger cubes just so they would melt slower, but there is not a lot of difference like I say.
Ease of Use
One of the reasons for getting an ice maker is the convenience of having ice at the ready on-site without having to go through the tedious process of manually pouring water into a mold, waiting for it to freeze, and doing it all over again to make more ice.
The easiest option is to buy pre-made ice and use it in your drink, but this isn’t something most people want to do, especially when you’re already in the middle of a party. So, having the AGLucky ice maker at your disposal is the next best thing.
Controls
AGlucky countertop ice maker machine is refreshingly easy to use and doesn’t require special knowledge or skills. There are only a few buttons on the machine – Power On, which doubles as a self-cleaning button, and the Size Selection buttons, which lets you choose between small or big ice bullets.
Infrared Sensors
The AGLucky ice maker has a built-in infrared sensor that lets you know when the ice basket is full, so there’s no need to worry about overloading the system. Similarly, it will also tell you when it’s running low on water. If you keep the reservoir full, you can have a basket full of ice 24-7.
Ice storage; like a cooler, not a freezer
When it comes to the ice storage, the basket holds about 3 cups of ice cubes. The lid on top keeps the air out so the ice cubes stay fresh and chilled. Worth pointing out, however is this is not a freezer; after a time, the ice cubes do start to melt, but fortunately, as they do, they will drip into the water tray, and eventually become ice once again. I would love to see some additional freezing capabilities in a device like this to help keep the ice, firm and cold, but since it replaces ice quickly with new ice, it’s rarely a major concern.
Overall review: AG Lucky automatic ice maker
Overall, this is a pretty smart home gadget if you live in a hot climate or you use a lot of ice. It produces ice quickly, and it’s easy to set up and use. The machine is a reasonable size given everything that’s going on and I was able to find an out-of-the-way spot for it in my laundry room. There’s really no work from you involved in making the ice aside from scooping out the basket when you need it, and ensuring the water reservoir is full.
Downsides? The ice can be a little on the soft side, and the cubes are a bit smaller and cup shaped, which means they will melt faster than larger blocks.
But if ice volume and not cocktail bar quality is your goal, this is a great icemaker to have on hand. It sells for$109USD/$269CAD and you can get it, as I did from Amazon.
