My daughter was studying in her masters in University of Florida and she told me on phone that she and her friends need a counter top ice maker for her hostel. Her requirements was that the ice make should be able to serve a large number of students for longer periods.
As she was aware that I was writing reviews on kitchen related electronic gadgets, so she asked me to find a heavy duty ice maker that can be placed on counter top and that can produce ice cubes at fast rate to fulfill needs of all the students at the university hostel. Another requirement is that the ice maker should be able to hold a lot of ice cubes at a time so students can pick them during their lunch or tea break without waiting.
After lot of comparisons and reading reviews at Amazon I shortlisted Frigidaire ice maker model no EFIC103-AMZ-SC.
Ordering and delivery experience
We ordered Frigidaire ice maker on 15th January 2021 and got it delivered at our home in Florida right after 3 days. We were lucky enough to get a Christmas discount at got it in just 150 dollars.
The ice-maker was very nicely wrapped and packing was enough to make it safe from any damages that may occur during delivery.
Power consumption
My husband was keen to calculate the power consumption of ice maker. So he instantly tested it and found it satisfactory. Average electricity price in United States is 14.20 cents per kilo watt. And this units consumes almost 0.65 kilo watt per day. And in whole month it will consume almost 20 kilo watts which is almost 3 dollars a month.
Straight off the bat, the Frigidaire Ice maker stood out from the rest of the crowd based simply on it’s incredibly cheap price tag. Almost a quarter of the price of most of the other ice makers in the market, this was a wonderfully pleasant find for us for the college dorm if our daughter. It is simple to use, convenient to store and fairly reliable piece of machinery that gets the best job done in the least amount of time possible.
On the product description it boasts a whooping 6 minute time to produce about a kilogram or 2 pounds of ice. From our testing, it’s not quite as amazing as that makes it sound. Usually the time comes up to around 10 minutes if you want to get ice cubes with a good shape and structure. One detail that was a bit annoying was the fact that it didn’t store the ice very well. It stopped running after it was finished with the ice making process which lead to the ice melting and the machine starting up again. So this is definitely an ice machine meant to be fired up and used soon after which really sways me to say that this might be the best out of this list of top 5 ice makers but it seems a bit too early to decide yet.
Frequent production of ice cubes
One more thing my daughter told me that in her university, a batch batch of 10 to 15 students arrives in the cafeteria after every half an hour. And the ice maker produces 9 fresh ice cubes after every 7 to 8 minutes. so for every batch of students there are always abundant amount of ice cubes available.
Multiple size ice cubes
Another feature which was liked by all the students, was that ice cubes can be of different sizes. Some students don’t like much colder beverages. In such case small size ice cubes are perfect option.
Once there was a concert at the University and the attendance was much more and people needed a lot of ice cubes to put in water. In such harsh climate the ice maker proved to be a very good ice maker.
Super Quiet
Many ice makers produce a lot of noise while making ice cubers. However such an ice maker is certainly not suitable for university cafeteria or indoor use. Frigidaire ice maker is super quiet and even when it is making ice cubes it produces a very low noise which is quite bearable.
Durability
Almost a year has passed we have purchased this ice maker and still now it has not given any major issue. Just once there is an electrical socket issue but other than that there is no issue at all. So according to me its quite a durable ice maker in such a small price range under 150 dollars.
Customer service
It was once when the ice maker malfunctioned and the customer service was also up to the mark. They listened to our issues and just in two days a person from their team visited and resolved the issue. Actually water was moving but ice cubes were not forming quickly but its working perfect now.
Paint
Even after one year of rough use at the university the paint of the ice maker has not fainted. Just you move a damp cloth over it and its just like brand new. So it is another plus point of it.
Weight comparison
Frigidaire weights very less just 19.8 lbs which is very less as compared to its competitors Whytner ice maker that weighs 47.6 lbs and EUHomy ice maker that is 100 lbs weight.So that is a very plus point as you can carry it easily while you are traveling to other tourist destinations or even camping.
Drawback
Overall I would say that the Frigidaire ice maker is definitely the most bang for the buck you can hope for in a product specialized for luxury and convenience like an ice maker. One of the main caveats we found was the terrible customer service that they offer. It is more worth your time to simply go and buy another ice maker or take it to an external repair center if this particular ice maker seems to malfunction. It started showing issues after extended use but they were easily fixable for the most part for anyone with some technical experience.
However there are only few occurrences that Frigidaire malfunctions, so we decided to give it a try as there is no other brand that gives so much functions in that price range.
