GE Profile Opal 2.0 with 0.75 Gallon Tank, Chewable Crunchable Countertop Nugget Ice Maker, Scoop included, 38 lbs in 24 hours, Pellet Ice Machine with WiFi & Smart Connected, Stainless Steel

UPDATE 10/4/2025 Week 61 Just to update you all about the cleaning maintenance requirements for this thing... I use this ice machine several hours 1-2 time a week for the most of the year and refill it from a gallon bottle of DISTILLED WATER. I have forgotten to clean (flush the system) since I did it on the first day. I have not de-scaled it or whatever that means. I have only wiped it down and twice washed the nozzle of the reservoir container. I leave the scooper out of the bin and nothing dirty or used ever touches the ice in the machine (no cups, no dusty scooper, NO HANDS). Over 1 year later there is no sign anywhere of dirt buildup, mildew, no odor or taste changes, it's basically perfect still. Maybe I am gross and you would do a much better job of routine maintenance and if you use tap water you'll likely need to, but this is just one person's experience and I wanted to let you know. If you have the money I still highly recommend this fancy, expensive and indulgent countertop ice machine. UPDATE 12/17/2024 Week 18 We use it every couple days and even let it sit for a week or so sometimes and so far after 4months it's still perfect. I have yet to clean or descale or whatever. I also pour the ice into gallon zip locks and leave them in the freezer so there's always extra. The bubble that gets into the line causing the Add Water light to kick on is still an issue but it makes a noise now about 2 minutes before that happens (as it "runs out of water") and I just run over and do the lift-the-tank thing for about a minute and it's all good. 8/8/2024 Week 1: I'll start off by mentioning the things I learned after actually using it. The water in the Tank (if you got the tank) drains into the space under the ice bucket, from there it goes through the strainer and up to make ice. If you don't have the tank, you must pull out the ice bucket and pour water in there instead. If at first it's not draining into that space or you get the "REFILL WATER" light when the tank is clearly full of water: remove the ice bucket so you can see inside the machine, grab the whole side Tank assembly and lift it up as high as you can for a few seconds with the hose connected to clear any air bubbles. You will see the water slowly starting to fill. Secondly, since I despise maintenance and was worried about descaling this thing each month I buy 5 gallon distilled jugs and got a cheap battery powered pump and refill the ice maker with that. We leave ours in the laundry room and just carry the side tank over there to fill it periodically. Third, IF YOU TURN IT ON and there is still ice in it, it will be gone because the machine circulates a lot of water through the ice bucket and back into the reservoir underneath each time it is turned on. Grab that ice you need before you turn it back on so you don't need to wait. The ice melt kinda fast, it's pretty well insulated but the ice is soft so it melts quick. I turn it on a 4pm and off at 7 or so and it keeps 2-3 people in ice drinks. The rest of the stuff it covered in other reviews, the sound is about dishwasher level and I only have it on when I need so I never even notice it.

========== Final update: 7/25/2023: OnPoint responded to the BBB complaint. I was offered to continue waiting an undetermined amount of time for a 3rd new unit, I opted to get completely out of this mess. The 2nd unit is being shipped back right now and upon receipt, GE is providing a full refund. Meanwhile I already have an Opal 1 in its place and quite happy, and it was about 1/2 the price. So what would you gain by going the Opal 2 route (other than a giant headache)? A front panel that lights up letting you know, by words, what is going on with the ice maker. The Opal 1 has an LED ring that pulses or changes color and you kinda have to decipher it but it isn't any big deal. The 2 also has the app and you can schedule the ice maker to turn on and off at certain times or even tap a button on your phone to turn it on or off. I kinda liked that so what I've already done is programmed a smart plug to work on a schedule and it can be controlled via app as well so nothing lost there. 'Sonic' ice is absolutely spectacular. There are now lots of these ice makers on the market. My biggest advice is to make sure to get one that includes a side tank or is directly plumbed to your R/O system otherwise you'll forever be jumping up and refilling small amounts of water. =========== Another update: 7/17/2023: I submitted a complaint with the BBB over the weekend regarding OnPoint Warranty Solutions LLC which is the official support group for GE Opal. I also offered to provide 33 emails I've had with support (sent/received). I have still not had any communication returned from support. Buyer beware if you need any product support, which you most likely will. Working on figuring out a contact directly with GE to discuss the product and experience with support. I had actually requested this information from Onpoint but have not had a response. =========== Update 7/13/2023: nothing to report. GE Opal "advanced" support has gone completely dark. No tracking info on a replacement unit (which by the way would be Unit #3 since March). I've requested tracking info multiple times on the 3rd unit and they are non-responsive. I think these Opal units are like playing craps, sometimes you run hot and have a great time, but most of the time you end up heading back to your hotel room early with nothing in your pocket because the casino drained you. Not sure what else to say. Tomorrow I will be contacting the BBB. Shoddy engineering on product, worse on support. To recent purchasers, enjoy the ice, it is indeed fantastic. Just be ready to have your experience take a 180 on you. Then I wish you the best of luck with your giant paperweight. I'm still holding onto hope that I'll be able to provide a much better update on this. ========== Review written by my husband. DO NOT BUY. Absolutely terrible product and terrible support. Yes when it works the ice is spectacular, but go buy the Opal 1 version. I know multiple people who have the Opal 1, never use distilled water and never descale and never have problems. The GE developers got this product wrong. Purchased March 11, 2023. Plain and simple, this product has issues and support is terrible. Within a couple of weeks of purchasing we noticed some strange noises coming from the unit. Not much longer the noise became overwhelming and we simply had to just turn the unit completely off (see video that support requested from me). Too late to return so we worked with Opal support. The experience overall has been terrible. The number one thing that support says is to always use distilled water. Yet nowhere on the product does it state this and I don't know anyone who would buy an expensive ice maker to also have to always purchase special water to use in it. We have an R/O system in place and always use that. The other thing that support will say is that every two weeks you have to descale the unit. This means removing all ice and draining all water, adding in a mixture of water and vinegar and running that through the cleaning cycle several times, then flush that all out, wiping everything down good, make several batches of ice and throw that away to make sure you are not mixing all that vinegar in with your icewater or drink. The descaling process basically take overnight as you have to stuff a rag or sponge up into the unit and let it sit during this downtime process. We also purchased the official GE Opal filter. This makes no difference in operation of this unit and is a waste of money. After working with support for weeks and weeks, they finally said they would send a replacement unit. Their standard process for replacement is to send a refurbished unit. So now you pay lots of money for a product that doesn't work right only to get a unit that someone else had a problem with and was returned? Upon receipt of this 'new' replacement unit, the instructions state that there could be some leftover crud from their cleaning process. Yeah, okay, see the next picture. I spent two hours trying to clean that crap out of the unit, flushed several cycles through, tossed ice, that stuff is still everywhere. I decided to keep trying to clean it anyway. BUT, when I then proceeded to connect the unit to my home network, the password printed on the label on the back of the unit didn't work. I struggled for some time before reaching out to support and providing that information plus the picture of the disgusting unit. The manager seemed a bit shocked and personally called me, the unit should never have been shipped that way and it was obvious and acknowledged that they completely messed up repairing someone else's returned unit that had wifi problems and wasn't cleaned right and then sent to me. The outcome of this: I was told I would be receiving a brand new replacement unit. Flash forward 2 1/2 weeks later, I still have not received any shipping/tracking information and unit #2 that I have at the house now sits dark on the counter. When I asked repeatedly for tracking information I was asked to have patience as the supply chain was having issues. At this point I specifically requested a full refund as it has been several months with nothing but a crappy experience and very little ice to enjoy along the way. We'll see how this all pans out but my advice based on my personal experience with this product and their support is to avoid it completely. I was going to suggest to purchase the extra coverage but I can't in good conscience advise anyone to pay for this product period. Go out and google opal ice maker noise, or why does my opal ice maker scream like a banshee, something along those lines. You'll see lots of people sharing. For many this occurs after the warranty period (you know, that time where they'll gladly send you a used replacement) and they tear the thing apart and try to experiment with different ideas to solve the problem. One post I read even said the buyer eventually just tossed it in his garage because it is unusable. I'll update this review once I hear something back from support. But this purchase has been nothing but pure frustration and a huge time waster. The simple fact that they say you have to use distilled water and a full descaling/cleaning with downtime every two weeks should create a class action suit as nowhere does the product state this when considering a purchase. I'm mad as hell about this purchase but it sure looks like GE doesn't care, or stand by it's products.

Set up is easy. Ice maker should be near a sink. I can not imagine having it without the extra tank. We fill the tank at least once a day for a family of 4. (Get the tank!) I had to try about 10 times to get WIFi App to sink up. We shut the ice maker off at 9pm and it still has ice in when we turn it at 6am. We have an open floor plan so it is a little louder than I had hoped but I feel like you just get used to it. A few days after use it said I need to descale it even though we have a water softener. GE said to unplug it let it rest. The Error went a way. I did purchase the extended warranty. Lots of good ytube videos on how to open it up and clean the inside. Will update this review in a few month. The ice is perfect and makes drink cold fast with little foam. Not hard to chew and is helping me get more daily water intake. The drip tray is my only complaint so far. When you open the ice drawer it drips so you need a paper towel. 12/12/22- had to set it to cycle off every few hours otherwise it starts squealing. The internal defrost cycle does not seem to work that great. So I would not advise trying to run it for 16 hours straight. 12/26/22- so still dealing with squealing. I have been playing around with the schedule to give it more chances to defrost. I think the squealing comes from it not being about to push the frozen ice out. Still love the ice so not giving up yet. 12/28/22- did several cleaning cycles with bleach. Set up running time for hour on then and hour off. Moved it so it has good ventilation on both sides. No squealing so far after changes. 1/14/23- to sync up to phone app pull up a chair and sit right next to it with your phone. Any further away does not seem to work. My machine has been working fine as long as it has several off cycles between run times. If I try to leave it on for more than a few hours it always start making unpleasant noises. It has lost WiFi twice and each when it keeps running without programming it starts making all kinds of bad noises. Just my personal experiences. Keep with a on/off hourly schedule.

I love, love, love my Opal icemaker! It was expensive, but I saved up to buy one after I saw one at my friend's house. It is so neat! It makes the ice like you get in your drink at Sonic. It's tiny and crunchy and perfect for all my drinks. It is a little bit noisy, but it only runs until the ice bin is full, then it stops on its own. I imagine I could empty the bin into another container to keep in my freezer so I could have tons and tons of this great ice to use at a party. The bin on the icemaker doesn't hold a lot, so when the item description says it will make 38 pounds in 24 hours, I would HAVE to do that. The place where you pour in water (without the side tank) isn't very big and would only support filling the bin up about halfway. You need the side tank or you'll be filling it up every hour or so. I like that I can turn the light off or have it bright or dim. I haven't messed with the WiFi or voice control, so I can't speak to that. I don't know why anyone would give it fewer than 5 stars. Buy one! You'll like it.

UPDATE: I got the third unit and IT'S ALSO DEFECTIVE. I'm convinced there is ZERO quality control going on at GE, and I am extremely dissatisfied with the service. It takes AGES to get anything done, and their support phone line closes before I get off work most days, so it's near impossible to reach them on top of that. I can't use the actual word here, but enborkification is very real, and I will not be purchasing from GE anytime soon. TL;DR: Great machine if you can get a good one. I got three defective units in a row, one of which appears to have been used before. Currently waiting for a FOURTH replacement unit. Customer service has inconvenient hours and seemingly can't play most video files (.mov with h.264 seems to work best for them). 2/3 of the reps I spoke to were great, the other one being frankly pretty rude. For now, I'd recommend getting a 'dumb' nugget ice maker, a cheap outlet timer (like the ones for fish tank lights) if you need the scheduling feature, and set calendar alerts for cleaning and descaling. I want to start off by saying I love this ice maker. Nugget ice is great, I love the smart features, I love the design, and I love how easy it is to use. The instructions, especially in the app, are clear and thorough. The machine tells you exactly what it needs on both its display and through push notifications to your phone. The scheduling feature is great, and allows me to have ice in the morning and when I get home without wasting energy when I'm away. It's decently quiet for the amount of ice it pumps out with the occasional fit of light noise, mostly quiet squeaking every now and then. That is if you get one that works properly. Now, for how expensive this thing is, I would expect some good QC. My first unit developed a rapid tapping noise whenever it was running within the first couple of months. Since this was near a major living area in my home, this was unacceptable. I do not have hard water where I live, and I only ever put filtered water through it. I cleaned it whenever the cleaning light came on, and I took very good care of it. After some fruitless troubleshooting, I decided to contact customer support only to find out you can only CALL them since Opal apparently has its own support separate from GE. This would have been fine, except I had to take time off work to contact them, as their business hours lined up perfectly with my own work schedule, not that I could have known that going in since Opal Support doesn't have its hours posted anywhere at time of writing. Having done that, they actually took my call quite quickly and were pretty friendly and attentive despite connection issues from a storm at their office at the time. They sent me an email so I could reply with the information they needed. Their computers seem to have trouble with certain video files, so if you need to send them videos, make sure you sufficiently compress them and do NOT use HVEC encoding or the MP4 video format. After working through the technical difficulties in communication, they sent me an advance replacement, which was great and more than I was expecting. I thought that'd be the end of it, but I had issues with the replacement immediately. The replacement I got looked used (not refurbished), and since I initially paid for a NEW unit, I was pretty disappointed. There was a large scratch across the top panel, a scuff on one of the sides, and a chip in the front control panel that could be seen from across the room. Even after bringing this up with support in a follow-up email, they said I still had to send the first one back since the RMA was tied to its serial number and I would need to initiate another exchange, so I set up the second ice maker and cleaned it thoroughly. After turning the second one on, it was noticeably louder than the initial one. It buzzed loudly like a power transformer, but that wasn't even the worst thing about this one. On top of making ice more slowly than the first one, it shuts off and refuses to make ice seemingly at random. Every time this happens, it needs to be unplugged for 20-ish seconds, then plugged back in and have the power button pressed, which is tough on my knees since it's plugged in under my counter. Consequently, the scheduling feature, one of my favorite things about this machine, is no longer reliable since no one knows when it will decide to go on strike. I tried to contact support via email again, but even after a few attempts over the course of just over a week, I didn't get a response, so I had to take more time off work to call their support line again to talk to a rep. This time, I was on hold for about 15 minutes with an estimated wait time of 0 before being connected to a rep. This rep, unlike the first, made me feel like I was inconveniencing her by seeking support, and like I was an idiot for asking clarifying questions to make sure we were on the same page. She also seemed like she wanted to pass me off to Opal WiFi support (which is bafflingly ALSO its own separate service) to troubleshoot the "connection issues" I wasn't having with this device. I was told to send more info to our existing email chain and the rep hung up to "let me do that" rather than just hanging on the line while I did. After sending the info, I was connected to a different rep and had a better experience similar to my first contact (no wait time, friendly rep), which was a relief. A second exchange is now arranged, but this time I'm not getting an advance replacement and I will be without ice for about two weeks. For something this expensive, this level of QC is frankly embarrassing. I bought it in May of 2024 and still don't have an acceptable unit. I'm starting to think they're taking this long on purpose to dodge honoring their 1-year warranty. With service and QC like this, I cannot in good faith recommend this product, as much as I liked it the first month I had it.

The setup is relatively easy, but there is a cleaning process that takes a while. Once you set it up and get it running, it does a good job producing ice and it does so relatively quickly. We have 3 people in our home and we're not extremely heavy ice users, but we all use ice. We have not gotten low yet. For a party, we would probably need to save a batch or two of ice and put it in the freezer. The small nuggets produced by the Opal make my wife happy. She's an ice cruncher. The ice taste is good. I will say that we fill the reservoir tank from the filtered water from our refrigerator. Also, we have had the Opal running every day for around 3 weeks now and the cleaning indicator came on for the first time yesterday. I believe that means it has run for 100 hours and they recommend doing a descaling. I started the process yesterday around noon. It takes a while and requires almost a half gallon of vinegar. I finished the descaling process this morning. It takes around 18 hours because they want the vinegar to break down any calcium build up. Our water is not super hard, but I could definitely see a bit of crust starting to form in the water reservoir inside the unit, so I will continue to do the descaling process when I can. If you have very hard water, you might find that you have to do this every other week or more. That's not the unit's fault. I have a friend who also has the Opal. I think he has had his for almost a year and he says he has never descaled his. I worry that it would become so crusted up at some point that it could do damage to the unit, so I will continue to do the cleaning process. As far as the app, it works okay, but I don't find it particularly useful. I have set a schedule so the unit doesn't run all night long when no one is using it. It goes off around 8pm and turns on around 3am so there is fresh ice for us to use in the morning. You can also turn it on or off remotely, but ...why would I need to? It's another thing to have on my phone that takes up memory and requires updates and logins. Just make all the same functions available in the unit. I guess the app is easier for them to update than the unit.

Had this ice machine for 2 years now. It’s been excellent in making ice quickly and consistently. We do have to fill up the side tank once a day (we use a lot of ice daily), but the ice is always perfect. The cleaning/maintenance for it is done every 2-3 weeks, and it does remind you when it is time to clean. We haven’t had any issues with it and it stays running all the time. Even after finishing cleaning, and we dump out any remaining ice left in from before we ran the cleaning cycles, going from empty to full of ice takes around 30 mins or less. It has been an absolutely amazing addition to our kitchen.

I would suggest purchasing an extra filter and anything else that you might need for your icemaker when you buy it I did not get the extended warranty. I think the unit will be fine even though I did purchase one and it made a lot of noise and had to return it to buy another one this one is fantastic. Makes a lot of Eyes best thing you have to do is just push the ice forward to the Front and leave the back empty and the icemaker will automatically make more ice. Sometimes I take the ice and put it in a Ziploc gallon bag and put it in the freezer. If I don’t feel like running the machine all the time it’s always an option. It doesn’t freeze the eyes or keep the eyes frozen when it’s in there eventually will melt, but melt back into the water reservoir, where the ice where the water goes to make the ice if you love chewing on ice you’ll love this unit. It’s beautiful stylish fits in a little corner, even though it is large still fits as a side tank, which you take off and fill with good water.. that’s really easy to do I just love it got it for a lower price on prime day's. Great buy will update if I find issues but it works very nice not looking for any issues. I think the machine is great. Don’t settle for less by the best.!