Customer Reviews

Haier HPIM35W Portable/Countertop Ice Maker

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After so many bad things said about different ice makers, I was concerned about machine odors and bad tasting ice cubes. We dumped the 1st couple of trays just to be safe. We experienced no issues at all. I am really impressed with this machine. I hope to get many seasons of use.

This machine is truly amazing! I am a serious iced tea addict and even my refrigerator couldn't keep up with me. I got this to keep in my home office to avoid my frequent treks to the kitchen. It churns out ice way faster than even I can use it. It is a much more substantial machine than I had expected for the price... a true small version of an industrial model. I couldn't be more pleased.

UPDATE: About 6 months after I got the machine, it pooped out. The people at Haier couldn't have been more helpful. They replaced the machine immediately and even sent a call tag to pick up the defective one. The new one is going great guns about 7 months later now.

Makes ice quickly and although it is not clear, it has no odor or bad taste. Unfortunately it does not store the ice so have been accumulating the ice in a plastic bag in freezer to use later. It works great!

I love the ice maker. It makes a lot of ice quickly and is very easy to maintain. The only problem I encountered is that the ice cubes stick together when moved from the basket in the ice maker to a freezer container. I resolved this problem by breaking the ice cubes apart with a hammer (insise a plastic bag). Aside from this I highly recommend the Maier Ice Maker. Convenient and easy to use. Well worth it's value.

We use this ice maker in a small office with 10 employees. It works just as described. No problems.

I received the package, unpacked it, filled it with water and plugged it in. A short 7 minutes later my first ice cubes began to roll out. It quietly cranks out a large quantity of ice, and even has a built in timer so your ice can be ready when you are.

This unit is simply amazing for the price. Seems to be designed well and built to last. I look forward to it providing ice for my home bar for many years to come!

I use this product once per day, for ice for myself alone. I make ice for about 1 and 1/2 hours in the morning and then have ice in the basket for the whole day. The excess just melts away back into the water storage and remakes the next day.

I have a fancy water filtration system under my sink, but would have to use ice cube trays in order to get ice out of that quality water. Now, I just pour that filtered water in here and get the purest ice in smaller ice pieces. On the smallest ice piece setting, it makes perfect ice for just munching on during hot weather.

I can make 35 lbs of ice for just over $3.00 in electricity, so this actually makes ice cheaper than I can buy it at the grocery/convenience stores, but you would need to consult your electric bill and find out what you pay per kilowatt hour to determine if this would be cost effective for you, as well.

I have also discovered that since this machine only uses 250 watts, it can be used with an inverter attached to your vehicle's car battery. This would make it incredibly desirable to have in the case of electrical failures, aftermath of hurricanes, severe weather, etc, when ice gets really hard to come by and is necessary to maintain certain medications, avoid overheating, etc.

I love this machine and will update if anything goes awry, but I'm not counting on it. It appears to be well made and I expect years of happy use.

******
UPDATE September 20, 2008
SURVIVED HURRICANE IKE - 8 Days, No Power
*****
I gave it a whirl by running an extension cord out to my truck and using my Vector 750 watt inverter. IT WORKED!!!! I was making ice off my truck battery while everyone else in Houston sat in 4-6 hour lines looking for ice and gas for generators. I must have been prophetic when I wrote my earlier review! Just know, it did work! I had to crank my truck every 45 minutes to keep my battery from getting too low, but me and hubby had ice two days after the storm, when nobody had ice! While this didn't pump out enough to share, we had plenty of ice for the two of us and hubby was thrilled to be able to keep his beer cold!

Cute little ice maker works as advertised. You need to use the largest cube setting if you want the cubes to last long enough to cool your drink. The mid and small size cubes are so thin they melt almost immediately. The storage area for the cubes is somewhat small. However, this is not a freezer, as soon as the cubes are made they will start to melt. The melted water is just recycled into more cubes, so it is not lost.

If you have a large group or are making blender drinks you will not be happy with this unit. It just will not keep up. That being said, if you have a small group, stay away from the blender and use the large cubes, the unit should keep you in cold drinks.

Overall, I am happy with the ice maker and would recommend it.

June 2010, After about a year the unit shuts down after about eight hours use and displays "E001". According to Haier customer service this message is displaed when a key is stuck. Their solution, turn the unit off then wait about two minutes and turn the unit back on. This does work and you are good to go for another eight hours. Needless to say this problem did not occur until the unit was out of warrenty. This is not a big deal during the day but if you want to leave the unit running overnight, you are out of luck. I feel that this unit should be problem free for more than a year or, at least, carry a longer warranty. Based on this annoying problem, I am changing my original four star rating to two stars. It's not a bad ice maker for the money but I think that you can do better. When this one finally dies, I will most likely buy another brand.

November 20 2010, I have finally tracked down the cause of the dreaded error "E001". This error will occur when the time to cycle between the two internal limit switches exceeds a preset amount. This will occur if a) the limit switches are not set correctly or b) you allow the machine too make more ice cubes than the receiving tray can hold. Once the capacity of the tray is exceeded to machine is unable to eject the next batch of cubes. These cubes will remain in the freezer area where they will jam up the system. When the system jams the cycle will fail to complete within the preset time and than shutdown with error E001. Once the cubes are removed or melt you can cycle the power and the machine will run just fine until the next time the tray capacity is exceeded.

The solution, either do not put enough water in the machine so it can not make more cubes than the tray can hold or use the ice cubes as they are made. You really can not blame the machine for the E001 error. It is just trying to protect itself from a jam. You can blame the support folks at Haier for not including this information in the manual or worst yet, not having a clue as to the cause of this problem.

Based on this latest finding I am changing my rating to three stars. If Haier technical support were at all competent, I would give it four starts.

This ice maker is great. It produces large quantities of ice, both small and large. It was of big help to me in my outdoor party. Great for entertainment. I like it alot and recommend it.

This ice machine worked well for long periods of time and put out a large volume of ice to supplement the home ice maker. Especially like the idea that ice left for long period of time re-melts into the water resevoir.

Here's another easy fix for Haier E001 error code. In this instance you'll see that the water box and ice pusher continues to cycle back and forth a few times, then a E001 error code is displayed. This is caused by 2 sensor switches on the left side of the ice machine.
1. remove the 2 screws on top back and the 8 screws on bottom back section.
2. Lift ice machine up and back cover DOWN. Wiggle it a bit to remove tabs from the other front metal section.
3. Carefully plug in ice maker and fill with enough water to try one cycle of ice.
4 Watch sensor switches and small plastic actuator arm. You should hear both switches turn off and on as it touches each metal tab.
5. If the arm does not result in a switch being tripped, then gently bend the metal piece to more easiely trip it.

Once the actuator arm trips each switch off and on properly, the ice machine will continue to work as expected.