I love this machine! It is very well built and other than a small hum, the only noise you hear is when the ice cubes drop. I waited 2 hours after delivery to run it as suggested bec it is winter here and the box was cold. I did go on youtube to verify I was doing it correctly bec it seemed odd to add water how it instructs. I purchased a gallon of good drinking water from the store in preparation of this machine. It is on the heavier side, so if you have a smaller kitchen, you may want to make a bunch of ice cubes and then store it somewhere. The cubes it makes are the cylinder shape w/a hole thru the middle. I highly recommend!