Nugget ice is awesome – it’s chewable, melts slower, and even chills your Duff Beer much faster. And appliances that can make them have been out for a bit, both for commercial and residential uses. If, for some reason, you’re not quite sold with the current products available in the market, you might want to check out Opal.
Made by GE’s co-creation outfit FirstBuild, it’s a countertop ice maker that can produce up to 24 pounds of nugget ice per day. No more shopping for bags of pellet ice from groceries and restaurants – just leave the machine on for the day and scoop out a glassful whenever you need one.
The Opal measures 16.5 x 10.5 x 14 inches (h x w x d), making it easy to find room for in most kitchen countertops. A transparent, insulated ice bucket allows you to see how much ice you have left at any time, with a drawer mechanism that lets you easily pull out the bucket to scoop out a load. Up to three pounds of ice can be kept in the machine at a time (it has sensors that will automatically shut down the ice maker when it detects a full bucket), with any melted ice water flowing straight back into the water reservoir, where it’s once again turned into tiny, frozen pellets. It comes in a stainless steel enclosure, with a single capacitive-touch button for powering the machine on and off.
An Indiegogo campaign is currently running for Opal. Pledges to reserve a unit starts at $349.