I've had a contessa model for about 5 years but decided to upgrade to this one as my old one was a bit noisy and did not produce ice fast enough. A friend of mine had this one for about 6 months and said she was very happy with it and it was easy to use and was quiet compared to my contessa so I thought I would get one myself. The delivery was well packaged and it arrived the day after I placed the order which I thought was great service. When it arrived, I just plugged it in, filled with water, selected the ice cube size, and in 10 minutes it had done it's stuff. A lot of my friends that have seen it think it is plumbed into my water supply, but it isn't and just sits on my kitchen worktop. I think in relation to the price it would be hard to find a better ice maker. It is relatively small in size, and has a nice and stylish design. I like the way I can select from 4 different ice cube sizes and the control panel is easy to use. It takes about 10 minutes to make ice from scratch and when I need to make a lot of ice for a party it can produce 18kg in a day. The only slight negative I can find is that it does beep when the water compartment is empty or it has finished making ice, but when you turn it off this does stop. Overall very happy with it, and with 32 degree's weather predicted this weekend glad I have it!