I am having the same issue: I never use ice, and I hate the through-the-door ice and water dispensers because they negate the whole best thing about French door refrigerators, the fact that the storage most often used is at eye-level. Plus I find them ugly. Three strikes, you’re out! EXCEPT: thanks to the pandemic and the subsequent shortages and trucking delays, the only refrigerators available as French door models mostly have through-the-door options. I bought one, a Frigidaire Gallery, and I love the design, the lighting, and the fact that the freezer second inner drawer has it’s own metal drawer glides, and not sitting on top of the freezer door’s plastic sides. However, the left side of the fridge compartment has about 1/3 of the space wasted by the ice and water through-the-door unit. My previous Samsung at another house was great, and no through the door feature, just a small discreet interior water dispenser and ice maker in the freezer’s top drawer (with separate metal drawer glides), and I never hooked the water lines up. However, after 13 years it died, and the next Samsung I bought did NOT have the durable second drawer glides for the freezer interior drawer, and although I have not had too many issues with it, those inner drawers that sit on the bottom freezer’s plastic are famous for going off the tracks. So, because of this quality feature of separate drawer glides in the freezer, and the fact that it was on sale, I decided to get the through-the-door Frigidaire gallery fridge. I did not hook up the water line, and now, the fridge is going to be returned 29 days after it was purchased!!! (Lowes gives you 30 days to return from purchase date, NOT delivery date and it must be in their store by that 30 days, not just return requested!) Why am I returning it? Because every couple of hours the refrigerator makes an enormously loud buzzing noise that wakes me up at 4 am and jolts me several other times throughout the day… Why! Because the ice maker (that I don’t want) is calling for water! I don’t want to hook it up, but if it is going to make THAT much racket, I can’t keep it. I have no idea if the noise would stop if it was hooked up, or if this unit is defective, and I don’t know whether to replace it with the same refrigerator, now no longer on sale but I would be exchanging it, or get the Samsung without the nice freezer drawer hardware, or take a chance on the LG with the see-through right-hand door. There are ONLY three choices available in store now without a through-the-door feature, the last is a Hisense, which, although I LOVE the styling, has a reputation for uneven temperatures in the freezer… which is very unhealthy! So, Samsung with junky drawer, LG which costs $700 more and although it has that funky-cool glass door with the easy reach, I don’t know about their reliability, or replace the fridge with the last remaining same model available in the store right now. The Frigidaire does have beautiful lighting, but crap shelves, the LG shelves are okay, in the Samsung they really cheaped out on the interior shelves now, much less nice than even my replacement Samsung at my other house. Thoughts?

petlady1, I have not posted the distributor's name here because I wanted to give them the opportunity to do me right, first off and I considered a lawsuit. U-Line knows which small distributor I bought them from and if they want to deal with them, then fine. I kept wondering whether or not I would take the local company to small claims court here, but they are in another county over and I was too busy to mess with it. After having a lawsuit over my cabinets within the past two years, which delayed my kitchen by as long, then add the time to fix all of the compromised issues, I was just too tired to fight this year. My daughter lost a baby and moved in, moved out, moved in, moved out, and then again. She's been a handful....so when Dean's email came that morning, it was like a huge hug of "it's going to be O.K.". Can you even imagine? It was like Dean's phone call popped an emotional cork in me because having help with these units was one of the kindest things that has ever happened. Anyway, Dean and his staff has made this transition of units and disposing of the others easy. Pat from his company even asked me if we could install the machines or did we need someone to install them? Of course, we could install them! I mean to tell you, they were so very kind and I am impressed. clinresga, thank you for dropping Dean a note. He has made my kitchen life 100% better! My husband could not believe he actually did this either. When I told him about Dean's email, he laughed. He said, "R-r-r-ight. Sure they're going to replace those units. I TOLD you not to buy from that company (meaning the local distributor because of the area of town they are located, not nice like the other distributors locations). I don't believe he'll come through for you." Well, Dean, has shocked my husband! :) He's very impressed with Dean and the U-Line Corporation, too!

Connie - that machine is pretty nice if you really want pellet ice but the OP said: "Do any of the residential, under-counter ice makers make this type of ice? " Manitowoc is pretty much a commercial operation now that they sold the Monogram divising directly to GE, that unit is a commercial unit, it'll require some creative drain strategies if you want to use in on your counter in a residential setting. What kind of cabinetry are you placing beneath it? Are they going to honor their warranty in a resi. setting, not all co.'s do? Also, do you mind sharing the "street" price - it list at 6000 bucks according to one restarunt supply house in ATL, they've a little wiggle room but even at half off it'd be the most expensive residential ice machine by about double. Please keep us posted, I'd be especially interested in the noise it makes ad how much it operates.

When we built our home, we were told that Scotsman ice makers were the choice for most commercial applications so that's what we got for our kitchen. But unlike ice makers in a refrigerator where the ice is kept frozen in a refrigerated space, their ice makers dispense the ice into an UNrefrigerated, insulated reservoir where they slowly melt. As the ice pile shrinks, new ice is deposited on top. In a hot outdoor space, the rate of melting might possibly exceed the rate at which the ice maker can replenish the ice. And even if it can keep up, there a reasonable possibility that it would have trouble producing ice fast enough to meet your needs when you're removing ice AND it's melting faster than it would in a conditioned space. But there are outdoor bars in the hottest of climates and I have to believe that commercial ice makers are made which can perform under such conditions. I'd start with Scotsman and then do a Google search unless someone here at GW can't give you specific leads. And if you're in an area that gets freezing temperatures in winter, don't forget to find out if it can be effectively winterized to prevent water pipes from bursting. We have an ice maker in the outdoor refrigerator in our lanai but its capacity is limited. For large gatherings, we typically supplement it using an ice chest filled by our kitchen ice maker's ice. With electricity costing us 36 cents/KWH, it's much easier on the wallet, too. Bob