The Best Nugget Ice Makers, According to Our Tests

Our Favorite Nugget Ice Maker

We named the Frigidaire Countertop Nugget Ice Maker V2 the best nugget ice maker overall due to its sleek design, compact footprint, and ice yield for its size. And while the GE Profile Opal 2.0 Countertop Nugget Ice Maker is worth the splurge, we'd recommend the AGLucky Countertop Nugget Ice Maker if you're looking for great performance at a fair price.

How We Tested Nugget Ice Makers

We tested five of the most popular nugget ice makers on the market. Our tests included the popular GE Profile Opal 2.0 Countertop Nugget Ice Maker, the slightly more affordable Frigidaire Countertop Crunchy Chewable Nugget Ice Maker V2, and the Frigidaire Gallery Countertop Nugget Ice Maker. We evaluated each nugget ice maker based on these metrics:

• Design: We observed each ice maker's design, paying close attention to each model's overall aesthetic, water reservoir capacity, noise, hopper insulation, and portability.
• Ease of use: We evaluated the setup process and how easy or difficult it was. We also noted any additional features, settings, or lights that made the ice maker quicker or easier to use. During our tests, we also noted how easy is the ice maker to operate, add water to the reservoir, remove ice, remove the ice container (if applicable), and use the controls.
• Performance: During our tests, we noted how long the hopper took to fill with ice. After the ice hopper was full, we observed how much water was left in the reservoir. We noted how long each batch of ice took to make, the yield of each batch of ice, and how long it took to melt. We also noted the shape, size, clarity, texture, and flavor of the ice and compared it to Sonic ice.
• Margarita test: To further test melting times in an everyday format, we filled a margarita glass with ice and observed how much ice was left in the margarita after 20 minutes.

After hours of testing (and several margaritas later), we revealed the price of each nugget ice maker to determine if the price was reflective of the product’s overall value. The nugget ice makers we tested ranged in price from $170 to $629, with an average price of $400.

Factors to Consider

Installation Type

All five of these nugget ice makers just require an electrical outlet. They’re meant to sit on the countertop and get to work straight away. Some other nugget or countertop ice makers may require an additional water line, but none of the models we tested required this.

Ice Yield

All of the ice machines we’ve recommended here can produce between 24 and 44 pounds of ice in 24 hours. Unless you’re regularly throwing parties, you likely won’t have to worry about capacity. That said, they’re all fairly bulky machines, so choose based on the yield that makes the most sense for you.

Ease of Cleaning

These nugget ice machines are all self-cleaning and operate either with the touch of a button or an LCD screen. With that said, we did find some models to have an easier-to-remove water reservoir that made cleaning and sanitizing much quicker. Flip quickly through the user manual after setup, and you should be on your way to nugget ice in no time. 

Footprint

If you're investing in a nugget ice maker, you'll want to be sure you have enough space on your countertop if you plan to keep it out on display. For safety purposes, you'll also want to ensure there's plenty of clearance around the appliance. We recommend following your manufacturer's instructions to determine how much space is required before setup.

Other Nugget Ice Makers We Tested

Strong Contenders

Frigidaire Gallery Countertop Nugget Ice Maker ($309 at Amazon)

An earlier model of the Frigidaire V2, the Frigidaire Gallery Nugget Ice Maker scored highly in all of our tests in terms of ice quality, ice yield, and performance. We liked the generous size of the 1-gallon water reservoir, and we found that this machine produced a significant amount of ice per cycle. However, it's quite tall and boxy, and we noted that it's difficult to move. We docked points for portability, plus the fact that this model does not auto-recycle leftover water from melted ice.

Newair Nugget Countertop Ice Maker ($400 at Amazon)

One of the sleekest models we tested, we immediately loved the design of the Newair Nugget Countertop Ice Maker and noted that we'd proudly leave it out on display in our kitchens. However, this was one of the loudest nugget ice makers we tested, and the sound of the ice cubes dropping was particularly loud and distracting. We also found the insulation of the hopper to be lacking, which led to ice at the bottom of the hopper melting quicker than we'd like.

Our Expertise

• This article was written by Summer Rylander, a food and travel journalist who has written about food, beverage, and cooking products for Food & Wine, Allrecipes, Serious Eats, and The Kitchn.
• Arnesia Young, Food & Wine's Associate Commerce Editor, helped test these models in our testing lab. Her contributed insights helped inform the selections that made it to the page.