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4.5
Review is for the Frigidaire EFIC452-SSRED XL Maker, Makes 40 Lbs. of Clear Square Ice Cubes A DaySo I just received this today....we have been using a Frigidaire brand "bullet" style ice maker and it just can't keep up with our ice consumption, this....despite a fridge/freezer with two ice makers....go figure. Got this, Red one....rinsed it out, cleaned everything, and filled all the way with water. I figured, since I had to wait at least one hour for the oil in the compressor to settle, I would give it a good cleaning, and run water through it. Put the end over the sink, removed the drain plug and ... NOTHING. No water is draining. NOTHING AT ALL, despite the reservoir being completely full of water. Must be clogged, or the tube from the reservoir must be blocked or pinched. Checked the manual. Nothing to do except take out the drain plug. (there is a screw on cap, then a silicone "plug"...yep I removed it) So, what to do. I figured it must be a twisted or blocked tube, SO I TOOK THE WHOLE BACK METAL COVER OFF, so I could take a look at the tubes and see if there was a block. Its not hard to take off the metal cover....10 screws and then shimmy it off. Be careful. The metal is thin and sharp. Looked around....NO water in any of the tubes, despite it being full. Checked the drain "filter" in the reservoir and took it out, just in case. Nope, no water coming out. Checked all the tubes. Not blocked. GUESS WHAT IT WAS?? I plugged in the ice maker, just in case....NOTHING is said in the manual. The pump started working right away, and VOILA! water started running out the back drain, which was still open. Apparently to fully drain this, you must have it plugged in...(I didn't turn it on, just plugged it in) I believe the pump will close the lines so it can't drain, once it is shut off. NOTHING IN THE MANUAL TELLS YOU THIS!!..So if this happens to you, don't return it because it won't drain. Just plug it in, and it will start draining after the plug is taken out. Hope this little trick helps you. Now onto the ICE. First batch set on +4 took like over 20 minutes, and it makes pretty thick ice at this setting. Changed it to 0 and it took about 15 minutes. We use chilled, filtered water in our fridge, since using cold water makes ice faster, so the machine doesn't need to chill it down as much. The way this ice machine works is the water from the reservoir is constantly dripped over the square metal grid, which is chilled by the ice maker. This means that the all the water in the machine is constantly "cycled" over this grid, bringing the temp down on all the water. Might as well start with chilled water to help the process. Even on a setting of 0 the ice coming out of this machine is thick and clear for the most part. Love it so far. Its not "loud" but its constant "on" like a mini fridge, until it cycles when the ice is ready. Because of the thickness of the sheet of ice that dumps out, its quite loud when it dumps. I love that it dumps in a sheet. This makes it super easy to bag it up in sheets for storage to use later. This ice is SOLID, and since its clear, it doesn't have hardly any air in it, unlike the bullet style ice makers. This thing is going to get a lot of use, so will see how long it lasts. The price is about double what you would pay for the bullet ones, but so far I think its worth it. Time will tell.*Update* 10/6/22 - well...its been a few days of almost constant use. The ice that this makes is almost clear....for the most part it is, and its SOLID ice, not full of air and cloudy. The bullet style ice makers, make ice with a lot of air in the ice, so that ice doesn't last too long, melts fast. This ice makers ice lasts a good long time, probably double the amount of time for the same "amount" of ice than the bullet ones. The only down sides I can see with this ice maker is...1. that loud noise when the ice "drops" out of the grids. Its pretty loud when it lands in the "bucket" when there is little to no ice in there. Once you get a couple of drops of ice in there, then its almost silent when it drops. 2. You could view this as a negative and or positive. The ice drops most times in a sheet, that you then need to break up. I don't mind this....makes for easy storage. To break it up, we put it in a zip lock bag and then just bash it. It breaks right away, and I don't mind doing this extra step, since the ice lasts so long, and you can get long strands of ice too that fit nicely in your flask or large cup etc. This machine is a little larger than the bullet type, so keep that in mind. I tried +4, 0 and -4 for ice settings, and didn't notice any difference in the ice made, so now just leave it on a default setting of 0. Plug it in, fill with chilled water, and hit the power button and thats it. You don't need to use chilled water, and often times I will put some ice in the water, just to keep it colder in the beginning, to speed up the first batch, which seems to take the longest. Recommended. We have lots of ice now, and with this running, can stock up.*UPDATE* - Love this ice maker. First batch takes a while to chill down the water, but the amount of solid ice you get out of this is a big WIN. Solid ice "cube sheets", but very easy to break up.The ice lasts a good long time in drinks, since the ice doesn't contain much air, since its clear. Just get this. I don't think you will be disappointed!! I still get startled when the ice drops....LOL!*UPDATE 12/12/22* Have had this a while now, and use this almost daily. This ice maker is a WIN! The ice lasts a good long time, and even if you let it run until the bin is full, not that much ice melts in the bin. We do this and then bag it, check the water - add whats needed and continue on making ice. Couple of TIPS- While the ice maker cycles all the water in the machine from the top reservoir where you add fresh water, drips over the grid, then drops into the bottom holding bin to be sucked up and cycled over the grid again, this ice maker will not pull water and empty the bottom holding bin. If you forget to empty the ice from the bottom, and all that ice melts into the bottom holding bin, I have found that it will stay full of water. So don't panic, just start scooping the water from the bottom bin, into the top bin manually to lower the level to under the Ice bin, then continue to make ice. Haven't had any issues with this ice maker yet.*time for another update* 10/26/24...wow its been over 2 years of use and still going strong. This machine makes a lot of ice, and we use it almost daily. I have been using filtered water always, but still clean it about every 6 months, if I notice the water leaving residue. Cleans up very easily with this product: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCJQ5SZX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 This stuff is a win! Easy to use, I dump it in and let it sit a while, then just run the machine like normal, letting the water solution circulate and make ice. I make ice for a couple batches, and keep running water through the machine...once the ice becomes clear again, then I fill up the reservoir and empty from the drain plug. I do this a couple of times, then all done. Of course this type of ice maker is loud when the ice drops, but other than that, it has lasted very well for us in almost constant operation.
