Vividmoo Countertop Nugget Ice Maker review

REVIEW – Let’s face it. Refrigerator ice is gross. The ice is huge, and at least with our refrigerator, using the ice crusher is extremely loud. Enter the Vividmoo Countertop Nugget Ice Maker. This countertop ice-making machine has taken over the job of making ice for our drinks. Fill it up, and in just a few minutes, tiny little ice cubes start dropping out. Our fridge is envious.

⬇︎ Jump to summary (pros/cons)
Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Amazon

What is it?

The Vividmoo Countertop Nugget Ice Maker is a very simple, compact countertop ice maker that makes nugget-style, chewable ice. It is primarily for use in the home or a small office. It can produce up to 33 pounds of ice in 24 hours, has a single-button operation, and even cleans itself, with just minimal manual effort.

What’s included?

• Ice maker unit
• Removable ice basket
• Ice scoop
• User manual/instruction booklet

Tech specs

Model: HZB-15N/S
Exterior material: Stainless steel
Reservoir capacity: 1.1 liters
Water fill per use: Up to 0.3 gallons per session for initial fill
Ice production capacity: ~ 34 lbs nugget ice / 24 hours
Time to first batch: ~ 5 minutes for the first round after starting (depending on ambient and water temperatures)
Automatic shut-off features: When the basket is full, and when there is insufficient water.
Self-cleaning function: About 15 minutes
Temperature / ambient conditions: > 41°F (5°C) ambient temperature
Electrical / Power: Voltage: 115 V AC, 60 Hz, 2.7 A max,192 watts
Refrigerant: R600a, ~0.570 oz (about 16 g)
Dimensions: (W x D x H): 8.7 x 11.3 x 12.7 in. (220 × 287 × 322 mm)
Ventilation: Requires about 6 inches (15 cm) clearance on all sides
Weight (empty): 19.5 lb (8.85 kg)

Design and features

The Vividmoo Nugget Countertop Ice Maker is a mostly stainless steel appliance with a plastic lid, inner reservoir, and ice-catching basket. The stainless steel is brushed and fits in nicely with our other stainless steel appliances. There is a single button for starting/stopping the ice-making and cleaning operations. The ice maker also has two status lights, but does not have any kind of display, just a ring light around the button that indicates if it’s running or not.

The ice maker comes with a handle for easy transport, especially if it is stored in a cabinet or needs to be used elsewhere.

The ice maker requires 6 inches (15 cm) of clearance on all sides during ice making and cleaning. When not in operation, it can be stored inside a cabinet, or flush up against a cabinet/wall or another appliance. The instructions warn against tilting it too much when moving it from a storage location to a countertop for ice making or cleaning. We have ours placed between our sink and a countertop air fryer/stove. We try not to use the stove and the ice maker at the same time, as the heat from the stove slows the ice-making down quite a bit.

The ice maker can hold up to 1.1 liters (about 37 ounces) of water at a time. This is just enough to fill the basket with ice after a full cycle of ice making. There is a MAX FILL line on the side of the reservoir. This seemed like too much water, because when the reservoir is full, the bottom of the basket is touching the top of the water. However, once the ice-making starts, the water is pulled in, and the water level drops below the basket.

There is a single button to start/stop ice making and the cleaning cycle. This single button is surrounded by a ring light for conveying whether the machine is idle (red) or running (green).

There are two small LEDs to indicate if the ice basket is full or the water level is low. Both of these conditions will stop ice making to prevent harm to the machine. During our use, both of these worked as designed.

Once the reservoir has water (it does not have to be full to start making ice), a single press of the button begins the cycle. The first thing I noticed was the sound level from the machine. I compare it to a small microwave running. It is somewhat noisier than I would like. After about 4-5 minutes, the first nuggets of ice would begin to fall into the basket. Every 10 seconds or so, another nugget would fall.

An entire batch, from a full reservoir, took about 2 1/2 hours. The basket had to be emptied midway through the cycle. All in all, it made enough ice for 4-5 regular-sized glasses, or about 2 pounds of ice. I doubt the stated 33 pounds within 24 hours could be reached. At the rate I observed, only about 19.5 pounds could be made in 24 hours. The reservoir would have to be filled over nine times, and the basket emptied 18 times. Is this enough for a small family? Probably. Is it enough for a party? Probably not.

If more ice is needed, the basket can be emptied and more water added to the reservoir. Ice emptied from the basket can be stored in the refrigerator freezer for use later. We did notice the ice tended to freeze together in the refrigerator freezer, and had to be broken up for use. The Vividmoo ice maker does not make hard, solid ice like a refrigerator ice maker would. The Vividmoo ice maker makes chewable ice, which isn’t quite as solid, and “softer”.

The instruction manual states that ice will stay frozen in the ice maker basket for up to 18 hours, depending on the room temperature. This was definitely on the high end of estimates. After about 1-2 hours, the ice had melted to the point that the ice in the basket had congealed to a blob of unusable ice.

When ice making is done for the day, the machine needs to be drained. At the very bottom of the ice maker is a silicone drain plug. We would slide the ice maker to the sink (which was right next to it) and position the drain plug over the sink, leaving the bulk of the ice maker on the counter still. Pulling the drain plug drains the water in the reservoir and the water left in the ice-making part of the machine. After draining was finished, returning the drain plug to its proper place was easy enough.

Once a week, or depending on the frequency of use, the machine should be cleaned. This was very easy to do. The process is to just fill the machine and run the cleaning cycle (long-press on the start/stop button) a couple of times in a row. The water gets cycled vigorously through the machine, without freezing, for 15 minutes. Again, depending on use, once a month, it is recommended to use white vinegar for a cleaning cycle to remove any hard water deposits. Then run clean water through a cleaning cycle to remove any left over vinegar.

Setup

The ice maker comes very well packed in styrofoam and requires a little assembly before the first use. The removable lid gets snapped on the top, and the handle gets put into the holes on the sides of the main body.

Once assembly is done, and because the machine gets jostled from shipping and assembly, it needs to just sit for at least 2 hours to let any refrigerant to settle before first use. After this resting period, a first use cleaning cycle needed to be run. I did a deep cleaning with white vinegar to make sure all construction oils and just from the factory are thoroughly cleaned out of the reservoir and inner workings.

Final thoughts

For a super-simple ice maker, the Vividmoo Countertop Nugget Ice Maker does its job. It’s kind of pricey and a little noisy, but it produces ice that is the perfect size and texture for my liking. It would be good for a small family’s use, but it would struggle to keep up beyond that.

What I like about the Vividmoo Nugget Ice Maker

• Ice is a good sized nugget
• Ice is not completely solid – very chewable
• Very easy to clean
• Fits in with our other stainless steel appliances

What needs to be improved?

• It’s on the more expensive side
• Noisy
• Ice melts faster than the instruction manual states
• Stated 24-hour ice production is exaggerated

Price: $179.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Vividmoo. Vividmoo did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.

Check out these other ice maker 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!