Let’s start by saying this item is not cheap. This is serious money to put out but you do get what you pay for and while there are many cheaper options, they are far inferior to a product like this. They have 24Hr timers you have to turn on daily, hook up to a faucet (that’s strange), zero parts availability for down the road, no support and are basically throw aways and if you evaluate feedback from those types of machines, they burn out after a year. So do you want to spend $500 a year, every year for who knows how long or purchase a reputable brand with a ton of support and parts if you need it. This is a very nice machine. This is an upgrade from an Edgestar that ran for 13 years 24/7. I have a large home bar and do a lot of entertaining plus the summers for filling coolers for the pool, etc. Machine is well built and worked perfectly. The instructions don’t mention or picture the switch on the front which is odd because at first I thought it didn’t work but after a finding a video on you tube, I was on a wash cycle. After putting the switch on the right selection, it took about 25min to get my first harvest. Understand, the unit, the bin were all at room temperature. After the unit chilled down inside, ice production was much faster. A great machine. No complaints and highly recommend.