HOMCOM 20kg/Day Ice Maker Review: a chunky little cube factory for people who are sick of ice trays

I picked up the HOMCOM 20kg/day ice maker because I was fed up with constantly refilling ice cube trays and buying bags of ice whenever we had people over. I wanted something that could sit on the counter, churn out a decent amount of ice, and not sound like a jet engine in the kitchen. I’ve used bullet-style machines before, but I wanted more solid cubes this time, closer to what you get in supermarket bags.

After a few weeks of use, my quick take is this: it does the job if you want a regular supply of ice and you’re happy to babysit it a bit. It’s not perfect, it’s not super high-end, but for the price bracket it’s in, it’s pretty solid as long as you understand its quirks. If you expect a commercial-grade machine for around a hundred quid, you’ll be disappointed. If you just want to stop running out of ice every time friends show up, it’s much more realistic.

The main thing to know is that the machine makes small square cubes in slabs. So you don’t get loose cubes falling nicely into the basket every time; you often get a block that looks like a bar of chocolate, and you have to break it up. If that already sounds annoying to you, this probably isn’t your machine. Personally, I can live with it, but it’s not as plug-and-forget as the description might suggest.

Noise and reliability are the two big question marks. When it’s new, the noise level is okay for a kitchen, but it’s not silent. And reading other owners’ reviews, you do see stories of units getting much louder and starting to fail around the 10-month mark, with a pretty short 6‑month warranty from the brand itself. So my mindset with this one is: cheap workhorse while it lasts, not a long-term “buy once, keep for years” appliance.

Price-wise, the HOMCOM sits in that budget to mid-range zone for countertop ice makers. It’s cheaper than most commercial-style machines with big cubes and built-in plumbing, and usually a bit more expensive than the really basic bullet-ice machines. For that extra bit of money over a bullet machine, you get solid square cubes that many people prefer, a slightly bigger water tank, and the option to hook up a 5 L bottle on top. If you go through a lot of ice and like proper cubes, that’s a decent trade-off.

Compared to buying supermarket bags of ice all summer, this can pay for itself fairly quickly if you actually use it. If you’re paying a couple of quid a bag and you’re buying several a week, the maths isn’t hard. The running cost (electricity) is there, but if you’re only running it a couple of hours a day, it’s not ridiculous. The main “cost” is more the space it takes and the noise, not the power bill.

Where the value is a bit shaky is the warranty and potential failure. A short 6‑month warranty on something with moving parts is not great. If you factor in the risk that you might need to replace it after a year or so, the perceived value drops. On the other hand, plenty of buyers are happy and say it “just works” and does exactly what they bought it for. So it’s a bit of a lottery: if you get a good unit, it’s good value for money; if you get a dud, it feels like you’ve paid for a disposable gadget.

Overall, I’d call it decent value if you: drink a lot of cold drinks, host often, or have a home/garden bar, and you’re okay with the idea that this isn’t a forever appliance. If you’re only going to use it a couple of times a year, honestly, you’re probably better off just buying ice bags when you need them and saving the counter space and the hassle.

Design-wise, this thing is very much “appliance first, pretty second”. It’s a compact cube roughly 36 cm deep, 25.2 cm wide and 37.1 cm high, so it’s a bit bigger than a standard bread maker and noticeably heavier at around 9.5 kg. It’s not something you’ll want to drag in and out of a cupboard every day. Once it’s on the counter, it’s basically living there. The stainless-steel look is fine, it blends in with other kitchen gear, but it’s not exactly stylish. It just looks like what it is: a metal box that makes ice.

The front panel has the LCD and buttons, which are straightforward. No fiddly touch controls, just old-school buttons that do what they say. The top has a clear window so you can see the ice slab forming, which is actually useful to check if it’s stuck or if the basket is full without opening the lid and messing with the temperature. One thing that’s a bit annoying is the drain plug placement: it’s on the bottom front, so to fully drain it you basically need it hanging over the edge of the counter into a bowl or directly over the sink. Not the end of the world, but it could have been designed better.

The footprint is okay for a normal kitchen, but in a small flat or cramped counter space, it’s a bit of a bully. It also needs decent airflow around it, especially at the back, so you can’t just wedge it tight under a cupboard and forget about it. If you’re thinking of using it in a garden bar or on an outdoor counter, it actually makes more sense: you leave it in one spot, plug it in when needed, and don’t care too much about the space it hogs.

Overall, the design is practical but not clever. It’s easy enough to understand and use, but little details like the drain position and the weight mean you should think where it’ll live before buying. If you’re okay with a chunky stainless box sitting next to your kettle, you’ll be fine. If you’re very picky about clean counters and minimal clutter, it’ll probably annoy you pretty fast.

The machine is mostly stainless steel and plastic, with copper inside for the cooling system and R290a refrigerant. The stainless steel outer shell feels reasonably solid for the price; it doesn’t flex much if you press on it, and it’s easy to wipe down with a damp cloth. It’s not luxury-grade metal, but for a budget ice maker, it’s good enough. It doesn’t feel like a toy, which is already a win at this price point.

Inside, it’s more plastic, especially the ice basket, water tank area, and the internal walls around the ice tray. The plastic doesn’t feel premium, but it also doesn’t feel super flimsy. I wouldn’t go yanking the basket in and out aggressively every five minutes, but in regular use it holds up. The scoop is basic, light plastic – it does the job, but if you’re picky you’ll probably replace it with a metal one after a while.

Where I’m a bit more cautious is the moving parts and the fan. A few owners reported that the fan noise went up a lot after several months, which usually means bearings or cheap components. Also, the fact that failed units are apparently just replaced under warranty and never repaired doesn’t scream “built to last”. With this kind of construction, I’d treat it like a mid-range gadget: fine for a couple of summers, but I wouldn’t assume it’ll still be going strong in five years.

In short, the materials are good enough for casual home use, not something you baby, but also not something you abuse. If you’re expecting restaurant-grade stainless thickness and industrial parts, this isn’t it. For home parties, daily drinks, and BBQs, the build is acceptable as long as you’re realistic about the price and don’t treat it like a commercial kitchen workhorse.

This is where the HOMCOM starts to look less attractive. On the surface, it feels decently built for the money, but durability and support are the weak points. One reviewer found out the hard way that the manufacturer’s warranty is apparently only 6 months, which is short for an appliance with moving parts and a compressor. That short period isn’t clearly highlighted in the manual, and there’s no proper repair option – failed units are just swapped if they die within the warranty window, and after that you’re basically on your own.

The reports of machines getting much louder around the 10-month mark, plus issues like sensors misbehaving and ice production dropping, suggest that quality control is a bit hit-and-miss. Some people run theirs daily and are happy after months, others see problems creeping in. That’s typical of cheaper appliances, but the short warranty doesn’t give much confidence. If you buy it, I’d seriously consider paying for a third-party extended warranty if the seller offers one, just for peace of mind.

From a maintenance point of view, you’re supposed to run the auto-clean function regularly and occasionally drain it using the plug at the bottom. That helps keep the internal pipes from clogging and should extend its life a bit, especially if you live in a hard water area. But even with regular cleaning, there are reports of machines misbehaving, so cleaning isn’t a magic fix. It just reduces the risk a bit.

In my head, this is a “2–3 summers” kind of product if you’re lucky, not a 10-year appliance. If you get two or three years of regular use out of it, you’ve probably had your money’s worth. If it dies just after the 6-month manufacturer warranty and you didn’t add extra cover, it’ll feel like a waste. So I’d say durability is the biggest gamble with this model, more than performance or design.

In actual use, the HOMCOM does produce ice fairly quickly, but not at the fantasy level the “20 kg/day” spec suggests. Realistically, from cold start, you get your first batch of 24 cubes in about 15–20 minutes. If you keep emptying the basket into a bag in the freezer and let it run, you can stockpile a few kilos over a couple of hours, which is plenty for a family BBQ or a small party. But you’re not hitting 20 kg unless you babysit it all day and night, which nobody sane is doing.

The ice itself is quite good for home use. You get roughly 2 cm square cubes, but they often come out as a connected slab, like a bar of chocolate. That means you have to crack them apart by bashing the slab with the scoop or hitting the bag against the counter. It sounds annoying, but the upside is you end up with nice chunky pieces and some bigger clumps, which cool drinks well and melt slower than hollow bullet ice. Several users, me included, ended up doing this routine: run a few cycles, dump the slabs into a freezer bag, smack them once or twice, and store them in the freezer to harden properly.

Noise-wise, when new, it’s noticeable but acceptable. You can talk over it in the kitchen without shouting, but you’ll definitely hear the fan and the compressor cycling. If you’re sensitive to noise and like a super quiet kitchen, you might find it a bit irritating after a while. The worrying bit is that some people report the noise creeping up over months, reaching around 64 dB, which is pretty loud for something sitting a metre away on the counter. That sounds like a quality control or durability issue with the fan.

One big red flag from another user is the drop in performance over time: ice getting stuck, only falling when half melted, the “ice full” sensor triggering when the basket is empty, and overall production dropping to about 0.5 kg/day. If you’re unlucky and get one of those units, it’s a pain. If you’re lucky and get a good one, it can be a solid little ice machine that you run an hour or two a day and forget about. So performance is good when it behaves, but the consistency across units doesn’t look perfect based on reviews.

On paper, the HOMCOM countertop ice maker looks pretty decent for the price. It claims up to 20 kg of ice per day, with batches of 24 square cubes every 14–18 minutes. The water tank holds around 3.2 L, and you can also stick a 5 L bottle upside down on top to feed it, which is handy if you don’t want to keep topping it up. Power-wise, it runs at 240 V and 253 W, so it’s fine on a normal UK socket, but you’ll notice it on your energy bill if you leave it running constantly.

Controls are basic but not stupid: you get an LCD display that tells you when the basket is full or the water is low, buttons to adjust ice cube thickness (which is basically how solid the cubes are), and a TIMER/CLEAN button. The timer can delay the start by up to 8 hours, and holding the same button for 5 seconds launches an automatic cleaning cycle. There’s also a transparent window on top so you can stare at it making ice instead of doing something useful.

The official noise spec is around 48 dB, which more or less matches what my ears heard when it was new: clearly audible but not insane, about like a fan or a quiet dishwasher. However, at least one long-term user measured it at 64 dB after several months when the fan started to go, which is a lot more intrusive. So on the spec sheet it looks fine, but in real life it depends heavily on whether you get a good unit or one that starts to whine after a while.

Out of the box, you get the machine, an ice basket, and a scoop. No fancy extras, but you don’t really need more. It’s basically a small ice factory: pour water in, wait 15–20 minutes, dump the cubes into a bag or use them straight away. Just don’t take the “20 kg/day” claim literally unless you plan to stand next to it all day, emptying the basket on repeat like it’s a part-time job.

In terms of pure usefulness, the HOMCOM does what most people buying it want: it gives you a regular stream of ice without having to rely on freezer trays or supermarket bags. If you run it for an hour in the morning, like one reviewer mentioned, it can fill the basket with slabs that, once broken up and moved to the freezer, pretty much cover a day’s worth of drinks for a couple or a small family. For garden bars, it’s even more handy – you plug it in before people arrive, and you’ve got a decent stash by the time the first drinks are poured.

The adjustable “cube size” setting is a bit misleading. You’re not really changing the physical size of the cubes; you’re mostly changing how hollow or solid they are. On the smaller/thinner setting, they freeze quicker and are a bit lighter. On the thicker setting, they’re denser and last longer in the glass. It’s not a huge difference, but it’s there. For cocktails or drinks you don’t want to water down too fast, the thicker setting makes more sense. For quickly chilling soft drinks, the default is fine.

The LCD alerts for “basket full” and “low water” are handy when they work properly. When the sensors behave, you can just glance at the screen and know if you need to top up or empty the basket. But at least one user reported the full-basket symbol lighting up even when the bucket was empty, forcing them to power-cycle and wait. That kind of glitch takes away from the “set it and forget it” idea and turns it into “poke it every so often to check it hasn’t had a tantrum”.

Overall, I’d say it’s effective at reducing the everyday hassle of ice, but it’s not completely hands-off. You still need to: fill water, empty the slabs, break them up, sometimes drain it, and occasionally run the cleaning cycle. If you’re okay with that level of involvement, it’s a helpful gadget. If you wanted something as invisible as a built-in fridge ice maker, this is more manual and a bit more fiddly.