EUHOMY 15" Commercial Ice Maker Review: a compact ice factory for your kitchen or bar

I’ve been using this EUHOMY 15" under-counter ice maker for a little while now, mainly for a home bar setup and weekend get-togethers. Before this, I bounced between those small countertop ice makers and bags of ice from the gas station. Both options were kind of annoying: the tiny machines died fast, and buying ice all the time is just throwing money and time out the window. So I wanted something more serious, but still small enough to fit under a standard counter.

This model is sold as a “commercial” unit that makes up to 90 pounds of ice per day with a 24-pound bin. In practice, that means it’s way more powerful than any portable unit, but it’s still realistic for home use if you have a water line and a drain nearby. It’s not plug-and-play like a countertop maker; you do need to think about plumbing and where the drain water will go. If you expect something you just drop on the counter and fill with a jug of water, this is not it.

My use case is pretty simple: drinks for the family, parties every few weeks, plus filling a cooler sometimes. I’m not running a restaurant, but I wanted to stop worrying about running out of ice. From that angle, it does what it says: it pumps out a lot of ice and keeps up easily, even when a few people are constantly refilling glasses. The cooling system and compressor feel closer to what you find in a small appliance for a bar, not a toy.

It’s not perfect though. The gravity drain requirement is a bit of a pain, the included plumbing fitting is not ideal for a typical U.S. home setup, and it’s not silent. But if you’re okay dealing with basic installation and you’re tired of babying small machines, this is a pretty solid middle ground between cheap countertop units and very pricey restaurant machines.

In terms of value, this ice maker sits in an interesting spot. It’s more expensive than the little countertop units you see everywhere, but much cheaper than full-blown restaurant machines from big commercial brands. The question is whether the jump in price over a portable unit is worth it. If you’re the type who only needs a bit of ice occasionally, probably not. But if you’re regularly buying bags of ice or burning through cheap machines every year, this starts to look like a decent deal over time.

Think about it this way: if you’re buying a few bags of ice every week for parties, coolers, or a busy household, the cost adds up quickly over a year or two. With this machine, you pay once, plus some water and electricity, and you basically have a small ice factory under your counter. The 90 lbs/day capacity is more than a typical household will ever need, so you’re not going to outgrow it anytime soon. For small bars, Airbnb hosts, or people who host a lot, the math gets even better because it saves both time and hassle.

On the downside, there are hidden costs you should consider. You’ll likely need a few plumbing bits (extra fittings, splitter, hose) because the supplied connection doesn’t match the most common 1/2" U.S. sink fittings. That means a trip to the hardware store and maybe an hour or two of installation time. If you don’t have a convenient gravity drain, you might need a small pump or a plumber, which bumps up the total cost. And if you’re picky about taste, an in-line water filter is basically mandatory, which adds a bit more to the bill.

Overall, I’d call the value pretty solid for the right user. If you just want a bit of ice and don’t mind refilling a tank, get a cheap countertop unit. If you’re tired of replacing those or buying ice at the store, this EUHOMY makes sense. It’s not the cheapest option, but you’re paying for higher capacity, better reliability, and less daily hassle. For a busy home or a small commercial setup, that trade-off is reasonable. For someone who only uses ice once in a while, it’s probably overkill.

From a design point of view, this ice maker is pretty straightforward. It’s about 15 inches wide, 18.5 inches deep, and 34 inches high including the adjustable feet. That means it will slide under most standard kitchen or bar counters without drama. I like that it can be used either as a built-in or freestanding unit; I started with it freestanding in the garage to test everything before sliding it into its final spot. The stainless steel look is basic but clean, and it doesn’t scream “commercial kitchen” the way some big units do.

The reversible door is a nice touch. You can mount it to open left or right, which helps a lot depending on where your cabinets or fridge are. It’s not a fancy soft-close door; it’s just a solid, simple panel with a handle that feels decent. Inside, the bin is plastic with a metal sensor hanging down that detects the ice level. It’s a very simple system: pile of ice gets high enough, machine stops; ice melts and drops away from the sensor, machine starts again. No complicated mechanics, which I actually see as a plus for long-term reliability.

Installation is where the design is less friendly for casual users. You need three things: power, a water line, and a drain. The power is easy; it’s just a standard plug. The water line is where a lot of people will hit a wall. Out of the box, the included fitting is not a standard 1/2" U.S. residential sink fitting, so you may end up at the hardware store getting a 1/2" SharkBite, a splitter for your cold water line, and a proper hose. It’s not rocket science, but if you’ve never installed an appliance before, plan some time and at least one extra trip to the store.

The gravity drain is the other design limitation. The hose needs to slope continuously down from the machine to the drain. If your nearest drain is at the same height or higher, you’ll either have to relocate the unit, install a small drain pump, or hack together something that probably won’t be reliable. For people with a floor drain or a low standpipe in a bar cabinet, it’s easy. For a typical kitchen island without a proper drain, it’s more annoying. Overall, the design feels practical and serviceable, but it’s clearly aimed at people willing to think a bit about installation rather than just dropping it on a countertop and pressing “ON.”

Durability is always hard to judge early on, but you can get a feel from the build and from how simple or overcomplicated the thing is. This EUHOMY unit is pretty straightforward mechanically. Stainless steel shell, plastic interior bin, a basic sensor, a compressor, and a gravity drain. There are no fancy pumps to constantly recirculate meltwater back up into the ice-making area, which is exactly the part that tends to die on a lot of smaller countertop machines. One verified buyer even mentioned their past drainless machines failing three out of three times, while this more basic design inspires more confidence.

The stainless housing feels decent and not flimsy. It’s not restaurant-heavy-duty level, but for home or light commercial use it should hold up fine. The door hinges and handle don’t feel like they’ll snap off unless you’re really rough with them. Inside, the plastic bin is pretty standard – not luxurious, but easy to wipe down. I prefer that over some over-engineered tub that’s hard to reach into. The simplicity of the level sensor (just a metal thermocouple hanging down into the bin) is also a plus: less to break, and if something does go wrong, it’s easier to understand what’s happening.

Where durability can go downhill fast is maintenance and water quality. If your water is hard or has a lot of minerals, and you never run the cleaning cycle, you’ll get scale buildup and maybe funky smells over time. One user added an in-line water filter, which I think is a smart move for taste and for the machine’s lifespan. Regularly using the self-cleaning function and occasionally doing a deeper clean with proper ice machine cleaner will likely add years to its life. Ignoring that and just letting it run 24/7 with dirty water is how you kill any ice maker early.

Also, because it’s a gravity drain system, you really need to ensure the drain line is installed correctly. A sagging hose that traps water or a drain that’s too high can cause standing water, backflow, and other issues that stress the machine. Follow the basic rule: hose sloping down all the way, no kinks, no weird loops. If you do that and clean it somewhat regularly, there’s nothing in the design that screams “this will die in a year.” Based on other EUHOMY owners saying they’ve used similar units for over a year and a half without problems, I’d say the durability is promising, but like any appliance, it depends a lot on how you treat it.

Performance-wise, this is where the EUHOMY actually earns its keep. The brand claims 90 lbs of ice per 24 hours and about 40 cubes every 10–18 minutes. In real use, I never sat there with a stopwatch, but the production rate is clearly in that ballpark. From empty, the bin goes from nothing to basically full in a few hours. Once you hit the 24 lb storage capacity, it keeps the pile topped up without any stress, even when several people are using it. For a household or a small bar, that’s more than enough.

The ice quality is solid. The cubes are clear when you feed it filtered water, and they don’t have weird tastes or smells. They’re not those hollow bullet-style pieces you get from cheap machines; they’re closer to classic clear cubes. You can adjust the thickness in the control panel by tweaking the cycle time. Shorter time gives you slightly softer, smaller cubes; longer time gives you thicker, harder ones. I ended up adding a couple of minutes to get cubes that last longer in drinks and don’t water everything down too fast. For mixed drinks, sodas, and filling coolers, it works well.

On the noise side, it’s roughly comparable to a small fridge or a portable ice maker. You hear the compressor and the water cycling, but it’s not obnoxious. One reviewer said it’s the same or quieter than their previous countertop units, and I’d agree. You’ll notice it in a very quiet kitchen, but during normal life with people talking, music, or TV, it sort of fades into the background. If you want complete silence in an open-concept living room, you might be annoyed, but for a bar, garage, or regular kitchen, it’s fine.

The only performance catch is the non-refrigerated bin. The insulation does a decent job, but if you leave ice sitting for hours with no use, some of it will melt and get remade. That’s how these machines work. If you’re planning to produce a lot of ice ahead of time for an event, the best move is to bag it and move it to a chest freezer or your main freezer. For daily use, the cycle of melt/remake doesn’t really matter, but you should know that this isn’t a freezer and it’s not meant to store ice for days at a time.

On paper, the EUHOMY 15" commercial under-counter ice maker looks like a compact workhorse: 90 lbs of ice per day, a 24 lb storage bin, stainless steel housing, auto-cleaning, and a 24-hour timer. In real life, the headline numbers aren’t just marketing fluff; it really does pump out ice quickly enough that you stop thinking about it. I never hit a moment where I thought, “We’re going to run out,” even with several people filling large cups and topping off coolers. The bin fills up in a few hours from empty and then just cycles to keep that mound of ice topped off.

It uses a gravity drain, which basically means the drain hose has to run downhill the whole way to wherever your water goes (floor drain, trapped standpipe, or a branch off the sink drain). There is no built-in pump to push water uphill, so if your drain is higher than the machine’s outlet, you’ll either need an external pump or a different model. EUHOMY does warn about keeping the drain pipe below the drain, and they’re not kidding: if you mess this up, water will sit and you’ll hate it.

The control panel is a small LCD with a few buttons. It shows ambient temperature, lets you adjust ice thickness (basically how long each cycle runs), and you can set a 24-hour timer to start or stop. It’s not smart-home connected or anything; it’s simple and functional. I found the default settings fine, but I did tweak the thickness a bit to get slightly denser cubes. The self-cleaning function is triggered by holding the “Timer Clean” button for 5 seconds, which then runs a rinse cycle. It doesn’t magically scrub everything, but it does help if you actually use it regularly.

One thing the specs don’t highlight enough is that the storage bin is not actively refrigerated. The ice compartment is insulated, and the 3-layer housing keeps things cold for a while, but it’s not a freezer. The machine just keeps making ice, the mound hits the sensor, then it stops. As the ice slowly melts, the temperature at the sensor changes and it kicks back on. So you don’t store ice in there for days; you either use it, move it to bags/another freezer, or accept that some will melt and be remade. That’s normal for this style of machine, but worth knowing before you buy.

In day-to-day use, the big question is simple: do you stop worrying about ice? For me, yes. Compared to buying bags or running a small countertop machine that constantly needed refilling and cleaning, this thing just sits there and quietly does its job. When people come over, I don’t think about whether we have enough ice for drinks or coolers. The bin is always piled up, and if we hammer it for an hour, it recovers fast enough that it never feels like a problem.

The self-cleaning function is useful, but you still need to be realistic. Holding the “Timer Clean” button for 5 seconds kicks off a rinse cycle that flushes the system. That helps reduce buildup and keeps the lines fresher, but it doesn’t replace actually wiping down the bin, checking the drain, and occasionally running a proper cleaning solution if you’re in a hard-water area. The user reviews complaining about bacteria with drainless machines are on point: any ice maker that recirculates water and is hard to clean tends to get gross. This design, with a drain and a simple internal layout, is easier to keep decent, as long as you don’t ignore it for months.

The LCD controls and timer are okay, nothing fancy. I messed with the timer a bit but honestly, I just leave the machine on when I know I’ll be using it regularly. The 24-hour timer is more useful if you’re in a small commercial setting and want it to start before opening and shut off overnight. For home use, the bigger win is the adjustable ice thickness. That actually changes the feel of the ice in drinks, and I liked being able to fine-tune it without diving into some weird service menu.

Overall, in terms of effectiveness, it does what I wanted: it replaces regular ice runs and babysitting small machines. It’s not maintenance-free, it’s not silent, and installation takes some thought, but once it’s in place, it’s basically a background appliance that just keeps producing. If you’re currently buying several bags of ice a week or fighting with a tiny nugget machine that keeps dying, this is a big step up in practicality.