Hi, Just bought and installed one of these (Hoshizaki C-100BAF, about $2700 with the drain pump, vivco-ice.com, salesman was John S - they are very helpful, I asked questions for over a year and they were always patient). The ice is amazing. It is a little louder than I expected, but still a little quieter than a regular mid-priced dishwasher and it doesn't make any noise when it's full and not making ice. I think you do not need a drain pump if you can drain via gravity (I installed mine in a bar area that had a sink - so I needed the pump). Overall, we are very happy with it (but do wish it was a little quieter). Hope this helps, Mnovas

You can buy a countertop ice machine that will make a small amount of ice for about $200. Then you can buy an ice crusher machine for another $100 or so. The ice maker won't have a hookup to a water line, so you'll have to manually add water when you want ice. It won't store the ice in a freezer section either, it'll just melt and be reused to freeze again. The "storage" is just a small bin that you'll have to dump to put in your freezer if you want to accumulate any stockpile of ice larger than a soda bottle. The ice crusher can do about a drink's worth of ice at a time, and you'll have to either leave both small appliances on the counter all the time or drag them out when you want ice and crushed ice. If you want a restaurant type ice maker/crusher, you'll spend $4k or so and it'll be noisy, unservicable in your home, need a drain, and be a big energy hog as it won't store ice in a freezer compartment either. Now, you can get a domestic ice maker for undercounter installation, but they aren't that quiet or energy efficient, and none store the ice in a freezer compartment either. They will keep producing ice all day long though, so you will have a "unlimited" amount of ice available. All will require a water hookup, and will need some type of drain, either gravity or an optional pump purchased. There is always the manual ice tray that you pop the cubes out of, and then buy a separate ice crusher for those few occasions you want crushed ice. My mother lives with such a fridge even now and refuses to go to a in fridge ice maker. Having been spoiled by an in fridge one, I'll never go back, but that's just me. Ice makers are on homeowner refrigerator freezers because of the convenience factor. Yes, they break more often than any other portion of the refrigerator. But, to get any other type of setup requires a lot of money and space and inconvenience of different types. It's cheaper to just pay the service call on a domestic model regular ice maker when it breaks than to dedicate the money/time/space to any other setup.

I have read through the whole manual and it says nothing about mold in the drain tube. I called Marvel today and they recommended something called "nickel safe cleaner" so I'm gonna try that. When they sell these undercounter ice cube makers they don't mention how often you have to clean them. It looks like this one is every 2 months. I am hoping this gets rid of the mold since bleach is not recommended.

I have no experience with it, but I would see if you can check out the Perlick. I have their fridge drawers in my breakfast room. They are very quiet and I would expect the ice machines would use the same refrigeration technology. Can't tell you how well the dump factor would be insulated.