GE Profile Opal 2.0 Ultra Nugget Ice Maker Review: The Coolest New Smart Kitchen Gadget

Some smart home gadgets can be considered essentials. A smart thermostat can save you money, and a smart door lock can prevent you from locking yourself out. But unlike these gadgets, it’s hard to argue that need GE Profile Opal Ultra 2.0 Smart Nugget Ice Maker ($579 or $629 with side tank). However, you can to want this gadget — because it makes The Good Ice.

Yes, 630 is a lot of money for any kitchen gadget, let alone one that simply freezes water. Spending that kind of money on a connected gadget whose intelligence is mostly limited to scheduling and asking Alexa to make more ice seems like an even bigger stretch. But lump ice is the hill many will die on — my family included. It just makes drinks taste better, they cry. Anything that encourages my kids to stay hydrated is a huge win for me.

In case you’re not familiar with nugget ice (also known as chewable ice, Sonic ice, pellet ice, or as my family calls it, “the good ice”), it’s small pieces of ice made from layers of flake ice frozen together. It’s seriously addictive and goes well in everything from a tall glass of water to iced tea to lemonade. It’s practically essential if you’re making Tiki cocktails.

Nugget ice can turn a room temperature drink into a cold drink in seconds and doesn’t melt as quickly as crushed ice. It’s also really nice to chew. My daughter likes to fill her glass with ice and eat it.

Unfortunately, there is no fridge that can make real, lump ice. Samsung makes one that makes “ice bites,” which are small ice cubes, but apparently they are not the same. So either go to a bar or a drive-in.

Over the course of a week, Opal has become my family’s favorite kitchen gadget as they sit on the counter. They love scooping nuggets of it into a tall glass of lemonade or filling a Tervis mug before braving the summer heat.

The Opal is super easy to set up, simple to use, and makes ice very quickly—up to 38 pounds per day. It doesn’t require plumbing, just power, but you’ll need the optional water tank if you want a constant supply of ice. We have to refill it about every other day, and we have more than enough ice for all four of us.

The biggest downside to the Opal Ultra is that it’s noisy. The tube makes a high-pitched, squeaky sound as water flows through it, and the ice-making makes a gentle clatter. But that’s where those smart features come in handy – you can schedule when the ice-making machine makes ice in the Smart HQ app so it doesn’t clash with your movie time – or just tell Alexa or Google to turn it off.

The Opal was first introduced in 2015, and the Ultra is the fourth version of GE Profile’s popular nugget ice maker. It has several improvements that make it easier to clean. These include a new anti-scale water filter, a reusable air filter, and alerts to let you know when to sanitize or descale (on the device and in the app).

All of these improvements theoretically translate into longer periods between cleaning/descaling, and should keep your ice tasting better for longer. (The good news for current Opal owners is that the new water filter is compatible with existing models.)

The cleaning/descaling process is lengthy. It requires a special solution (or vinegar, if you prefer) and up to a day of downtime while the product does its job. And you have to do it if you want the machine to produce fresh ice. No descaling alerts appeared during my brief testing of the machine, but there was a disinfection alert that comes after 25 hours of ice production.

The sanitizing process was largely painless, taking about 30 minutes. However, when combined with descaling—which you’ll need to do every two weeks to four months, depending on your water hardness—this gadget requires a lot of maintenance. (GE Profile notes that if you use distilled water in the Opal, you likely won’t need to descaling it, but you’ll still need to sanitize and clean it.)

Other updates to the Ultra from the current Opal 2.0 include new colors (white or black in addition to stainless steel) and an improved touchscreen display for turning on/off, connecting to Wi-Fi, and checking status. There’s also now a magnetic dustpan holder and a stainless steel dustpan — which makes it easier to store the dustpan on the side of the unit and should help with cleaning.

If you can get the Opal 2.0 on sale, that’s probably the way to go. Overall, the Ultra’s improvements seem to be aesthetic and quality-of-life improvements. You still have to manually clean the machine, even if potentially not as often. You can also buy a new water filter and a new spoon with handle separately from August and use them with the Opal 2.0, although that may wipe out most of your savings.

The Opal 2.0 Ultra is very expensive, requires a lot of maintenance, and takes up a lot of my kitchen counter space. But it does a great job of making fresh, chewy, crunchy ice that makes any drink taste better. It’s also one of the few smart gadgets I’ve brought into the house that everyone in my family loves—which is saying a lot.

If you also crave good ice and you know that you will have to work hard to get it, then this gadget will satisfy you very much.

Photos by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge