Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Ice cold magic

When you want or need ice at home for cooling down your drink, chances are you already have something in your home that makes ice for you to use. In fact, just about every single home in the country probably has this appliance. I am, of course, referring to the freezer. That ice-cold storage box where you place all of your frozen foods. To my knowledge, every fridge/freezer combination has an ice maker built in. Here’s the problem with those, especially on older units that have been around for decades. They just don’t make ice as well.

I can’t say this is the case for all freezers. I haven’t used every single freezer on the market, and I haven’t had Ice from all of them. However, speaking from my experiences with ice from any freezer I’ve ever owned, it always ends up either tasting like freezer-burned ice or the ice comes out in these large cubes. This is where the Costway Nugget Ice Maker becomes a surprisingly useful countertop appliance. Do you probably already have a way of making ice without this machine? Sure. Most people likely do.

That being said, is the Costway Nugget Ice Maker a better and more convenient way of making ice? Quite possibly. It really all depends on who you’re talking to. I’m sure there are some really fancy fridge/freezer units that make more than a few types of ice. But for the average homeowner or apartment renter, this machine just might be your new favorite appliance. Costway was kind enough to send this over for us to check out and review, so let’s take a closer look at it and see if it’s worth your money.

Costway Nugget Ice Maker

Rating

From $206

The Costway Nugget Ice Maker is the kind of countertop appliance you get if you want superior ice for all of your drinks. Whether you just love ice cold drinks or you often host parties and will need ice on hand, the Costway Nugget Ice Maker is ready to ensure you will have the ice you need. This convenient little machine doesn’t take up a lot of space on the counter which makes it easy to leave out, and it makes a considerable amount of ice in about two hours.

So, you aren’t waiting around for it to get the job done. You also don’t have to rely on several ice trays, which could take all day or longer to make the ice you need.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Cleaning mode with water draining system
• Easy to use one-touch operation
• Small countertop footprint
• Up to 44 lbs. of ice per day
• Can refill the water tank without removing the ice bucket
• Comes with ice scoop
• Pretty quiet operation during ice making and cleaning modes

Cons

• No built-in place to keep the ice scoop
• Ice is a tiny bit wet after production

Disclaimer

Costway sent us over the Nugget Ice Maker with Soft Chewable Pellet Ice for review, and we’ve spent the past couple of weeks or so using it to help keep our drinks cold. Costway did not have any editorial input with this review.

What makes this ice maker special?

What makes the Costway Nugget Ice Maker special is more than just one thing. It’s several things that work together to give the user they will no doubt need at some point. As an ice maker it might not seem like an exciting countertop appliance, but you’d be surprised how much you might like this thing if it were sitting on your counter at home. It delivers a convenience that is hard not to love, and the ice it produces is considerably better than the large cubes you’ll generally get with most conventional ice makers that come with your freezer. It’s certainly more convenient than using ice trays.

It comes with its own scoop for transferring the ice to your glass or a larger ice bucket that you keep in the freezer. It also produces quite a bit of ice in 24 hours, which ends up being about 44 lbs., or just under 2.7 lbs. every couple of hours or so. What really makes it special is that it’s relatively quiet while it’s running. That’s regardless of whether it’s running in its self-cleaning mode or making ice. Both the water container and the ice bucket are also removable. Of course, the fact that it also takes up very little space on the countertop is a huge plus. This could easily fit on the counters of most smaller apartments or homes. You could even use it in a dorm room, and that versatility is really what makes it a great product on top of the other nice features.

Features

Removable water tank and ice bucket

Makes up to 44 lbs. of ice in 24 hours

Self-cleaning mode

Included ice scoop

Built-in germicidal light

One-touch operation

Runs quiet

Door opens from the front to make grabbing ice easy

Buy from Costway

Buy from

Specs

Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Hardware and Design

When it comes to hardware and design of the Nugget Ice Maker from Costway, it’s both plain and simple, and yet a little sleek. On a surface level, it’s a box. A box that makes ice, and despite its incredibly useful nature and many handy features, at the end of the day, it’s a box. So, from a style standpoint, there’s nothing over-the-top exciting about the style. However, in terms of design, Costway has done things rather smartly. For example, you can open the door to the ice bucket and grab ice rather handily, and if you need more water in the water tank, you can slide the tank out without having to remove the ice bucket. I think this is a nice touch.

The other really smart design move was putting the drain plug on the bottom of this machine. You just slide the machine over the side of the sink and pull the drain plug. Then just let the water drain out. You’ll only need to do this when you use the machine’s clean function. Otherwise, any water you put into the tank will be used to make the ice when you tap that function. The one thing you need to keep in mind is that when you operate the machine’s clean function every so often, you’ll need to unplug it when it’s done, then take the ice maker over to the sink if it isn’t already sitting next to it.

In my case, the ice maker is kind of on the other side of the kitchen. So I have to carry it over there every time I run the clean setting. At first, this bothered me a little bit. Then I realized I wasn’t going to be doing this every single day, and it stopped being an issue for me. If you can get over this factor, draining the water after a cleaning is super simple.

I also really like the lights, as they add a cool effect to the design, which looks a little more cool at night. These also serve a completely functional purpose. The lights in the ice bucket are germicidal, which helps to keep the ice bucket cleaner. So, it doesn’t just look cool when in use.

When it comes to hardware, you have the ice bucket and water tank, both of which are removable. The ice bucket sits inside these little rails on the backside of the front-loading door, making it easy to pull out and put back in. There’s also a drip tray that slides out from below the front-loading door, an air vent on the right side of the machine, and the ice scoop. You’ll find three buttons lining the top edge of the ice maker. One for the Ice function, one for the Clean function, and one for turning in the lights. There’s also a tiny LCD display that will label which function is in use just to the left of the buttons. My only gripe with the design is that there is no built-in way to store the ice scoop. A small compartment on the side would have been a nice addition, or perhaps making it magnetic so it simply sticks to the side.

Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Performance

So, how well does the Costway Nugget Ice maker actually make ice? Pretty well. So far in the time that I’ve used it, it operates exactly as Costway describes in their product pages and marketing. It takes about 6 minutes or so for the machine to start producing ice, and after about 15 minutes, you should have one full serving of ice. In other words, at least enough for one glass. For me, it was maybe 17 minutes or so for enough ice to fill my glass up halfway. It takes about two hours to get a completely full ice bucket. So, if you need a lot of ice, then start the machine and walk away. Let it do its thing while you do other stuff.

I did this multiple times, and each time I would start the machine at around 8:15 in the morning, then come back just after 10:15, and the bucket was basically full. So, Costway is spot on with the timing here. The ice comes out nice and, as advertised, it’s soft and chewable. If you like to crunch on ice, then you’ll love this thing. I personally don’t sit and chew on ice unless it’s in a drink first. Having said that, if I have a nice cold soda (which is very rare) or I want some iced tea, or any other drink that would benefit from ice, it’s nice to have a sip of that drink and be able to chew the ice as I do so.

In terms of the cleaning, I have tested it and it seems to do its job perfectly fine, but I haven’t really had this long enough to NEED the cleaning just yet, so I’m not 100% clear on how good a job it will really do when the time comes that the cleaning function is actually necessary. Based on my testing, I can assume it’ll do more than a decent job.

Overall, I think the machine performs really well. It makes ice just as intended, and it does this in the amount of time one might expect to have some ice. If I could change one thing, it would be to have the ice come out colder so it isn’t slightly wet. Then again, this really only becomes a minor issue, and only if you plan to move the ice to a dispenser, as it’ll end up freezing more and sticking together. If you’re simply going to continue scooping right from the machine’s ice bucket, the ice being a little wet is better in my opinion, because that means there’s less frozen water to dilute your drink.

Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Ease of Use

This machine couldn’t be easier to use. You open the front-loading ice bucket door, you slide out the water tank that sits above the ice bucket, then you fill it with water close to the top, and slide it back into the ice maker. From there, you can hit the ice button, and the machine will get to work right away. For most of your time with this machine, that’s what your experience would be like. Simple and completed in just a few steps.

The only part that people might find a little off-putting would be the draining system. It’s easy to use, but you’ll perhaps want to think about where you set this thing up. It’s much easier to have it right next to the sink, because all you’d have to do is turn it and slide it a little over the edge. Then pull out the drain plug to drain the water used during cleaning. This is as opposed to my setup, where it’s across the kitchen and I have to unplug the ice maker, then carry it over. If you don’t feel like doing this after every time you run the cleaning function, then think about placement. Everything else is pretty straightforward. I still recommend reading the instructions that come with the box. That shouldn’t take more than five minutes, though.

Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Cleaning the machine

Costway has made this pretty simple; in fact, it might be just as simple as using the machine to make ice. It mostly consists of tapping the cleaning function button, letting it run (this takes around 20 minutes), and then draining the water from the bottom of the machine by removing the drain plug.

You’re supposed to do a cleaning about once a month. Since I haven’t had this for that long, I’m not so sure that the cleaning was necessary this early on, as the machine looked pretty clean even after about 10 days of use.

Nevertheless, I ran the cleaning function anyway to see how things work. Before you start anything, you’ll want to inspect the ice bucket and water tank and use a brush or a damp cloth to wipe them down if necessary. It’s recommended that you use a solution of white vinegar and water and pour it into the secondary water tank, which you’ll find a lid for at the back of the machine.

After I was done with this step, I had to run the same function two more times, only this time with fresh water. This completes the cleaning cycle and altogether takes about an hour to do. You might need to do this more than once a month if you live in an area that has particularly hard water, as hard water deposits may build up on the inside of the machine. All in all, the cleaning function seems to work well, and as long as you don’t slack on this, everything should operate as intended for quite some time.

Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Is there value in owning such a machine?

This really all depends on the use case and what sort of environment it’s for, not to mention several other factors. I think the Costway Nugget Ice Maker has plenty of value for everyone, from a single person living in a small one-bedroom apartment to an office with 20 people on staff. It all sort of hinges on whether you already have an efficient way of making ice. Note that I said efficient, as filling up an ice tray and waiting several hours for 12-16 cubes is not efficient.

It’s also worth considering the fact that your fridge and freezer combo may already make ice within the unit and include a dispenser to get it whenever you want. In most cases, you’ll always have ice at the ready this way. However, I think there is a lot of value in this machine regardless of your situation.

At a special promotional price that’s not much more than $200, this machine is affordable enough for a wide range of consumers. You get larger bits of ice than you would with crushed ice, but not some massive ice cube either. And it doesn’t take long to get ice, so it’s not like you’re having to wait around half the day. The ice is ready in less than 20 minutes. I do think a machine like this is a hard sell at the original listed price on Costway’s website, which is $597. At $206, however, which is how much it costs right now, it’s much more reasonable. It’s also currently $239.99 at Costway’s Amazon shop.

Should You Buy The Costway Nugget Ice Maker?

The Costway Nugget Ice Maker is definitely a convenience that isn’t necessary to own, as most people will almost certainly have a means of making ice without such a countertop appliance. However, that doesn’t mean that this isn’t something you should spend the money on. At the end of the day, whether or not you should buy this depends on what you value and whether or not you want a more convenient way of making the ice you need. For the money, especially with this promotional pricing that Costway is offering, I would say that it’s definitely worth buying if you want a better way of making ice than what your freezer probably offers.

You should buy the Costway Nugget Ice Maker if:

• You want a more convenient way of making ice
• Your freezer doesn’t have a built-in ice maker
• You prefer nugget ice to the larger ice cubes

You shouldn’t buy the Costway Nugget Ice Maker if:

• Your freezer’s ice maker already makes a good amount of nugget ice quickly
• You need an ice maker that produces more ice in a 24-hour period

The post Costway Nugget Ice Maker Review: Ice cold magic appeared first on Android Headlines.

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