Customer Reviews

Sunpentown IM-101S Portable Ice Maker with LCD with Stainless Steel Body

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Some advice if you are thinking of buying one of these:

First, go buy a bag of ice at the store for $2, see how long it lasts, and ask yourself if you really need an icemaker for $200. That's a lot of bags of ice, and you still have to pay for electricity and fill it up and clean it! If you can get by with a $2 bag once or twice a month for 5 months out of the year, this may not be the product for you!

We decided on this one because it looked like the best one after looking at the comments of other reviewers. We noted that ice makers in general have a pretty high breakdown rate, and so for the first time in my life, I actually bought an extended warranty that all consumer magazines tell you are a waste of money. We'll see.

If you buy it, while it's on its way, go buy a quart size container of vinegar. The plastic smell this thing generates when you first get it is pretty strong. That's just the smell AROUND the unit when it's on, I didn't even bother tasting the ice.

Dump the vinegar and an equal amount of water in it and press the self clean button. Run it twice then as it makes ice, throw the ice out.

Now you have a second problem: the vinegar will smell even though you got rid of all the ice. That's because there is 4 cups of water left in the thing when it looks empty. The only way to get rid of the 4 cups of vinegar-smelling water is to drain it using the drain on the lower left. Fill it again, run it, toss out the ice, drain and repeat until the ice stops smelling like vinegar. We had to run it through several times. It took several days.

And then: it makes ice. Enough to fill 5 large ice tea glasses in about 3 hours. As another reviewer noted, the ice stays in an insulated bucket with holes in it that sits above the water reservoir. When the ice melts, the melted ice drips into the reservoir. When the level of ice is less than full, it makes more.

The reviewer stating that he can't tell when it's on is absolutely nuts. It sounds like a modestly quiet dishwasher in the rinse cycle. You can tell when its on from 20 feet away. It runs continuously until the ice bucket is full then stops and then it is silent until enough ice melts for another batch to be made to refill it.

It's a fairly large appliance, but most of its size is dedicated to insulation that you WANT, so it's large in a good way. 13" wide by 16" high by 16" deep. About the size of a big office printer.

It's more energy efficient than you'd expect. It uses 2.4 amps to make the ice and 3.5 amps for the minute it takes when it's pushing the ice from where it gets made into the bucket. 2.4 amps x 120 volts means it uses about .290 kilowatts. If you figure it runs about 4 hours per day, that's about 1.152 kilowatt hours per day, about 12 cents per day or $3.60 per month.

A child can operate it. Once it's set up, you just fill the tank with water (about 10 cups max), push a power button and it will run all day by itself, stopping and starting as needed to make more ice until you shut it off or it runs out of water. They give you a shovel to scoop ice out of the basket, and the basket has handles s that you can lift the whole thing out and dump it into another container.

The interior is made out of the same stuff any cooler is made out of and is easy to clean.

We're happy with it. If it breaks, I'll be back to report it and I'll also report whether the extended warranty was worth it or not.

I recently moved into a small but wonderful apartment. The refridgerator with freezer is sufficient but quite small. Buying that 10 lb bag of ice at the supermarket as usual is no longer viable. It takes up too much space in the freezer.

I use a lot of ice in a huge mug for water and such and it must be filtered as is my water. Well, I must say that this particular Ice Maker continues to be a pleasant surprise.

It's sturdy and attractive and makes ice continually. It doesn't have to be connected to anything other than one electric socket. I pour in a gallon of fresh filtered water and within minutes ice is formed.

It's quite ingenious. As the stored ice very slowly melts in the basket the water goes right back into the system to be made into ice again.

It makes a basket full of ice then stops until the ice is taken and the basket needs to be topped off keeping the basket full to the brim with ice.

The freezing compressor only runs for a few minutes to freeze the ice than turns itself off until needed. It's so quiet that we don't even know that it's there at all.

I followed the instructions on set up and ran vinegar and lemon juice through to clean any machine taste out, and it truly is as advertised.

Go ahead and feel good about this purchase. Few things we buy in this world will serve us as long or as well as this Sunpentown Ice Maker. Enjoy!

This ice maker was rated at 5 stars so, we bought two - one for the office and one for home. The one at home worked well for 10 months and then the ice shovel broke. A piece of plastic that conected the shovel to the motor that rotated the shovel broke off. The shovel won't work so, no more ice. The part can not be bought so, as a result I am out the cost of the machine for a cheap piece of plastic. Remember, I said we bought 2 machines. The ice machine at the office made it 6 months before the exact same thing happened. This is the worst investment I have made in a long time. I have read the reviews of the other ice makers and there are others with the same complaint about other brands as well. My advice is don't buy this type of ice maker no matter who makes it.

Yes, filling ice cube trays. What a joy. Fill the tray, walk to the freezer, put tray in freezer. Repeat. Wipe water off of floor and feet from the water that decided it didn't want to remain in the ice cube tray.
Enough of that!
I was a bit skeptical about buying this unit, only because of reviews I have read. Very mixed reviews. People either loved it or thought it was junk. I went to various department stores, just to examine some other models. Then, I decided, and bought the Sunpertown.
Although I've never heard of their name, I checked their website, and decided to give it a shot. What's in a brand name these days? Heck, a few years ago most people had never heard of LG.
I must say I am extremely pleased with the unit.
Does it make ice? Yep, and very quickly. I leave my unit on all the time. I purposely did not use any ice one day to see how many cycles it ran on 'it's own' and how fast the ice melted. I was impressed that it only had to run 3 times in one day.
Obviously, it runs more often when ice is being used. It does an excellent job. Regardless of other reviews, there is a difference in size between the small, medium and large sizes. The large cubes melt the slowest, so that's the size I generally use. If you need ice for mixed drinks, the small size is easier to crush.
The unit is built sturdy, is visually appealing (although a few friends have insulted me because they thought it was a breadmaker...LOL)

Does this unit make a lot of noise? Well, the fan makes the most noise, but it is less of an irritation than the sounds of a microwave oven.
It is, unbelieveably, very energy efficient for this type of appliance.
My microwave uses five times the power.
So, in closing, I highly recommend this product if you are thinking of an icemaker.

Despite the stupid-sounding name (Sunpentown, come on!) of this ice maker, it works just as the sales information stated. I use it every day and love the compact design and ability to make ice without a water line, or permanently installed drain. At the price, you can't beat it!

Yes, it smells at first (but not after a day or two of use). Yes, it is a tad noisy, but not extremely noisy.

After about 10 days of experience, I can say that it performs as expected. By my measurements, it creates 1.2 pounds per hour of small-size ice cubes. However, it will not do that all night unless you empty the ice and add water every two or three hours.

The stainless steel version looks nice.

The display and controls could be better. My complaint is that the display light is off unless you hit a button. If you hit a button to turn on the light so you can see indicator icons, then you change something like ice cube size, which needs to be reset to the desired size. (The display LED only draws a very small fraction of a watt, so why don't they just leave it on.)

I purchased the three year warranty because the reviews say that these units sometimes die. Be aware that there are details in the insurance plan that they do not tell you before you buy. For example, insurance does not kick in until 60 days after purchase, even though you paid for the first 60 days (as part of the three years).

Shipping and initial product condition were just fine.

I read many of the reviews on Amazon regarding portable ice makers, and I selected this one based on those reviews, among other things. The biggest problem (per my interpretation of the reviews) with any of these ice makers is that they break down more frequently and die a lot sooner than they should (according to consumer expectations).

The unit I purchased (Sunpentown IM-101S) stopped working after 8 days. It just stopped, and the LCD was inoperable. I sent the unit back to Amazon and received a replacement within a week. So far, the 'new' unit is working OK. I say 'new' because I suspect that I received a refurbished unit - which may not be such a bad thing.

When it works, it is fantastic. It makes ice and keeps up with 3 iced tea drinkers in the middle of summer. I have removed the piece of crap ice maker that is in my freezer, which has freed up some space in there - nice!

A few negatives: When the unit is not idle, the motor and the fan are LOUD. I have no solution for this. Also, under most lighting conditions and points of view, the LCD is unreadable. I literally have to grab a flashlight and crouch down to the level of the LCD in order to read it. The LCD rarely gets used, so it is not a huge deal. Finally, the only way to add water to the unit is to remove the ice basket, which leaves a trail of drips to wherever you set it. And there is no "low water" indicator. Perhaps there is a low water indicator on the LCD, but it is unreadable, so worthless.

As long as the unit gives me a good solid 3 years of service with no problems, I will be happy and I will put up with the other things. I will let you know if/when this unit fails.

This is my second ice maker as the first one was NewAir sold through Amazon. That was returned because it was damaged inside. But I had ordered this one to replace it right away. This one is a bit louder with the FAN. But the ice is plenty that is made from it. So much I had to give the rest to the dogs. When you get this you have to clean it. I use the clean cycle that is programmed into it. First I add 1 cup of lemon juice with 4x 4 cups of water or until it fills. Run the clean cycle then when finish drain out the water. Then fill it up again with just clean water only. The run the clean cycle again. Once that is finished drain all the water out. Now your ready to use the ice maker. I say every 5 days run the clean cycle or when you're not using the ice maker for long periods of time. Then repeat the process.

This unit uses 2 more cups water than the New Air model did. Frankly I just wanted a unit to make the ice as the Whirlpool side-by-side refrigerator ice maker had stopped working. I didn't feel like to spend up to $100 or more bucks in parts just to wait 24 hours to make 12 cubes of ice. So now I can get 12 cubes of any size small, medium or large in just 6 minutes. It the unit is huge but will fit on any counter space you got. Now what I do is just make enough ice to fill the extra large ice storage box in the Whirlpool since that dispenser for ice still works for cubes or crunched ice. Anyway I use filter water from the tap water to make the ice. So the water I use to drink is the same water that is filtered by PUR is what's on the sink tap and the Whirlpool 3 & 6 stage. Anyway if you want a very good ice maker this one is the way to go!

Our local judges chipped in and bought the Sunpentown IM-101S for the use of our jurors and court personnel. The first icemaker shipped was defective, but Sunpentown immediately sent a replacement. Although the first few batches had an unpleasant taste, the problem went away in a short time. Our icemaker is making several batches per day, is maintenance-free, and is easy to use. Recommended by the people at the courthouse in Anoka County, Minnesota.

I live in a rural S.E. US area where the ground water is not up to par as far as taste is concerned, even with filtration and water softening. The ice cubes carry the bad taste into your beverages. When this little gem arrived I plugged it in, loaded the water reservoir with distilled water, and within minutes I was enjoying beautiful ice in my cold drink. I have been buying large bags of ice from in town and now I no longer have to make that long journey into town for ice. Great ice maker for the money.