REVIEW – We’re drinking fancy tonight! Meet the HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker. This device is designed to deliver crystal clear balls of ice for your drinks & cocktails like you’ll find in those classy bars & restaurants. How does it work? Is it really crystal clear? Let’s find out. To the review!
⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $540.99
Where to buy: Amazon
What is it?
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker is a countertop ice maker designed to deliver clear ice balls for drinks and cocktails.
What’s included?
You’ll get the ice maker, a custom funnel for loading the water container, a pair of tongs, and an extra filter.
Tech specs
16″ tall by 9.8″ wide by 17″ deep (including drip tray)
24 pounds
44 ounce water reservoir
8-10 piece ice container capacity
Self cleaning
Design and features
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker is a beefy beast of a unit, weighing in at 24 pounds. The 16″ tall by 9.8″ wide by 17″ deep footprint does fit under standard cabinet heights. It’s an elegant design made from deep black plastics, some chrome highlights, and a bit of fancy beveled cornering that add style to the piece. You won’t be ashamed to have this hanging out on your countertop or bar.
That 17″ depth includes the drip tray as you can see in the side profile pic below.
Here’s a shot of the backside, where you’ll find the fan and the drain tube. I did not see any notes about allowing space around the unit for air flow, but I set it up with an inch or two all around on my counter. This unit is not designed for outdoor use.
While it may not be rated for outdoor use, I wouldn’t hesitate to put this on my bar. The build is rock-solid with rubberized seals and gaskets to avoid leakage. We haven’t seen a drop of water (or external condensation) on our counter in the month I’ve been testing it. I’ve been very impressed with how all the components feel overbuilt to ensure longevity.
The startup process requires you to fill the water container. You’ll begin by removing the ice tray, which itself is made of heavy plastic. You’ll pull the tray to slide it out, then tip it to release the tray. The second pic below shows how the tray rails integrate that upward sweep to hook around the plastic posts on the inside of the unit. I like this bit because there are no extra components that could rust or break over time.
Included in your unit is a funnel designed to facilitate loading water into the unit. The mounting bracket is designed so that it slides firmly into place over that ledge seen in the second pic.
This allows for easy filling of the water chamber without spilling. The unit itself has a 44 ounce max water limit for a full fill, which will get you about a dozen frozen spheres before refilling.
Once you have filled the chamber, you’ll return the ice tray to its position to get to work.
The controls are blissfully simple, You have two functioning buttons on this device: the play/pause button, and the cleaning button. Push the play/pause button to start. The power fires up, and the machine goes to work.
It takes between 40-70 minutes to produce a pair of clear ice balls. During that time, you’ll hear the machine growling and whooshing as the pumps and fans do their work. Then it will stop, and you’ll hear the “crack!” as the ice drops into the tray.
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker will keep chugging away, producing ice until it runs out of water (in which case the “add water” light comes on the control panel), or the ice tray is full (triggering the “ice full” light to pop on). You empty the tray or fill the water hopper to continue.
The drip tray slides out and can be taken apart for easy cleaning.
There is an automated cleaning function that the manufacturer recommends you do once a week if you’re using it frequently. Fill the water reservoir and push the “clean” button that looks like a brush on the control panel.
The unit will go through a 3 minute self cleaning process. When it stops, you can drain the unit and replace the water.
Draining the unit is simple. The drain hose has a combination plug/bracket on the end that hooks to the back of the ice maker.
Pop that loose, drop the tube into the sink, and pull the plug to drain all the water from the reservoir.
The user manual recommends adding citric acid to the water and running the cleaning process several times to flush it, refreshing the water between cycles. I was unable to find any specifics about how much citric acid should be added, however.
Performance
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker gets a lot of the fundamentals right, starting with the style. It’s a great looking appliance that’s streamlined and elegant without standing out like a sore thumb.
The build is excellent. The heavy-duty materials and parts all feel solid and well-made. As I mentioned in the design walkthrough, I haven’t seen any hint of a leak since we started using it. While the ice tray is not climate-controlled, the heavy plastics add a bit of insulation to keep your spheres cold if you don’t get to emptying it right away. Any excess liquid or melt drains back into the water reservoir to re-freeze in the next batch.
I love the simple usability of this ice maker. You have two buttons, a well-designed ice tray, and everything is easy to clean. The custom funnel addition is super clever to avoid spills when refilling. There’s clearly been some thought put into making the experience and quality stand out here compared to cheaper countertop ice makers.
The performance is fine for a home appliance. I find myself running it for a 6-8 hour period to pop out 12-16 ice balls, which I transfer to a container in the freezer. Sometimes these stick together a little bit as there is no refrigeration in the ice tray, but it’s not a huge issue. Just keep in mind that the spheres will start to sweat/melt pretty quickly in the tray if you leave them in there for a while.
While the ice maker does truly create clear spheres of ice, there are some caveats. Here’s one of the spheres that came out when I fired up the unit to get started. You can see some cloudiness there. This is typical for the first couple of spheres that it produces during any freezing session.
After it gets working, however, you’ll see subsequent batches get much clearer.
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker does not make perfect ice spheres. If you look closely at those previous pics, you’ll see that there’s a bit of a stem/nub and some seams that appear on each sphere from the freezing process. That’s not to say that they aren’t lovely. Look how good it looks in my drink!
I also found that the device is rather noisy in operation. It grunts and hisses and whirls while it does its business.
Final thoughts
The HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker gets a lot of things right with a tasteful design, top-notch build quality, and effortless usability. My only caveat about recommending this device is the price point. At $550 retail, I think it’s important to know that it produces clear balls of ice… but they’re not perfect. It takes some time to make ice with a run time of 40-70 minutes per pair depending on your environment, and there is no additional freezing feature in the ice tray. If these things aren’t concerns for you, there’s a lot to like in this unit as an addition to your bar or kitchen.
What I like about the HiCOZY Clear Ice Ball Maker
- Simple to operate
- Excellent detail in the design
- Well made and easy to clean/maintain
What needs to be improved?
- The ice balls are clear, but not perfect
- Slow operation
- No additional chilling option for the ice tray
Price: $540.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by HiCOZY. HiCOZY did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
Check out these other ice machine reviews!
- Ecozy 451B Countertop Nugget Ice Maker review – Crunchy nugget ice, quick and easy
- Costway Portable Nugget Ice Maker review – Easy ice in a jiffy!
JcBlaon Outlet Extender Surge Protector - 6 Outlet Splitter with 4 USB Ports (2 USB C), Multiple Plug Expander Wall Charger, 3 Sided Multi Plug Wall Adapter Power Strip for Home Office Kitchen Travel
$9.99 (as of September 16, 2025 07:25 GMT -04:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
