If you’ve done any investigating online you know that there is a problem with smaller chillers and refrigerators that use thermoelectric cooling at their core.  And I’m not really sure what it is but I tend to think it has to do with over heating of some sort.  One fellow reported that he has a Magic Chef like those at www.countertopicemaker.net.  It just stopped working.  It was 12 months old when it quit.  But he did not get a hold of the company because he hadn’t mailed the warranty papers and hadn’t kept track of his receipt.  So he didn’t figure it would do any good. He thought it could be a clogged filter, but he couldn’t figure out how to get into the filter, so it has just sit for around 6 months.

That’s a sad story, but it’s told all too often.  I know that a lot of the machines similar to this use a thermal fuse and when it overloads the ice maker goes dead.  Sometimes they are reset thermostats and the machine will work after is cools off.  I have also found that most of these machines are made in China and you can not even take them apart let alone fix one.  They are all put together and you have to break the plastic to get them apart.  Check the label and if it is made in China you probably are out of luck.

Always call the store on any machine that is still in warranty as they all have to stamp a date code of manufacture on every machine.  They can use this data to see if your ice maker is still under warranty even if you do not have a receipt.  Some companies will replace the machine even if it is a little out of warranty.

Here’s another report from a new customer saying that a new Countertop Crushed Ice Maker should do what it is advertised to do; make ice and lots of it. Problem is, the ice tastes like melting plastic. In spite of running the clean cycle several times (the instructions say just once), cleaning the unit with baking soda, and leaving a box of baking soda in the unit over night, ice can still taste of plastic. Thinking it might be the tap water, we ran Evian through it. The ice still tastes like plastic. 

Hopefully, this will pass over time, but buyer beware…if you want to use your ice maker immediately, you may not be able to. It should work right out of the box, but may not.

On a first attempt some got a “Low Water” error. The problem happened when it was full. So I went through all of the self cleaning and manual cleaning recommendations in the manual. It would run through One Cycle, make the cubes and then return the “Low Water” error. Make sure you have a return policy, however you may have to pay the shipping and a re-stocking fee.