Quick Answer: Follett is the original commercial Chewblet nugget-ice brand — trademarked since 1977 — but it does not sell to home consumers. Per Follett’s own site, sales go exclusively through foodservice, healthcare, hospitality, and workplace channels, and even the smallest model, the 15 Series countertop dispenser, produces up to 125 lbs of ice per day (over 3x a home nugget maker’s output) starting around $4,272 new, with refurbished units still running $1,999+ on the used-equipment market. If you searched “Follett ice maker” wanting chewable ice at home, the GE Profile Opal 2.0 makes the same style of nugget ice for a fraction of the price and footprint.
“Follett ice maker” pulls real search volume, and it’s easy to see why: Follett invented the commercial Chewblet ice that Sonic, Chick-fil-A, and countless restaurants and hospitals have served for decades, so the brand name carries genuine authority with anyone chasing that specific texture of ice. What most of those searchers find, though, is a foodservice-equipment company with no home-appliance division at all.
Follett’s actual lineup — and why it’s commercial-only
| Series | Ice type | Output | Storage | Starting price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15 Series (countertop) | Chewblet nugget | Up to 125 lbs/day | 15 lbs | ~$4,272 new (dealer) |
| Undercounter Nugget | Chewblet nugget | Up to 340 lbs/day | 100 lbs | Dealer-quoted |
| Maestro Plus | Chewblet nugget | Up to 425 lbs/day | Bin-dependent | Dealer-quoted |
| Horizon Elite | Chewblet nugget | 662-2,039 lbs/day | Bin-dependent | Dealer-quoted, up to ~$40,000 |
Follett Chewblet Nugget Ice — Commercial Equipment
- Follett Products LLC is a subsidiary of Middleby Corporation and sells only to foodservice, healthcare, hospitality, and workplace customers through dealers — not a consumer retail channel.
- Even Follett's smallest countertop unit (the 15 Series) is engineered to serve up to 50 people per day, not a household.
- Third-party industrial-equipment sellers list some Follett units on Amazon (mostly larger 425-lb+ dispensers aimed at offices and break rooms), but pricing and sizing stay commercial-grade.
Restocking cocktail mixers or bar tools while you sort out what ice maker actually fits your kitchen? Try Amazon Fresh for grocery delivery in the meantime.
Why the search doesn’t match the product
Follett trademarked “Chewblet” in 1977 after acquiring an earlier diced-ice-machine patent, and it has spent nearly 50 years building the commercial nugget-ice category — the soft, compressed pellets served at Sonic and Chick-fil-A trace back to this same style of machine. That history is exactly why the brand name shows up in home-shopper searches. But Follett’s own website lists only foodservice, healthcare, hospitality, and workplace as its markets, with no residential product line or direct-to-consumer store. There’s no confusing product-page mislabel here like some brands have — Follett is simply not in the home-appliance business.
Price and output: built for 50 people, not a kitchen
Follett’s most compact model, the 15 Series countertop ice and water dispenser (15CL100A), produces up to 125 lbs of Chewblet ice per day with 15 lbs of on-board storage — a size Follett itself markets as sufficient “to serve up to 50 people.” New units start around $4,272 through commercial-kitchen-equipment dealers, according to industry pricing guides, and climb toward $40,000 for the largest Horizon Elite machines that produce over a ton of ice daily. Even the secondary market stays well above home-appliance pricing: a refurbished 15CL100A was recently listed at $1,999 on a used-restaurant-equipment site — still roughly 5x what a new GE Opal 2.0 costs, for a machine designed around commercial daily volume, not a kitchen counter.
Follett vs. the home alternatives
- vs. GE Profile Opal 2.0 (countertop, no plumbing): The Opal produces up to 38 lbs/day — plenty for a household — with no water-line install, for around $399-$419. It’s the practical answer for anyone who wants Chewblet-style texture without commercial pricing or plumbing. Full details in our GE Opal 2.0 review.
- vs. Scotsman Brilliance (undercounter, commercial-grade): Scotsman sells a scaled-down commercial nugget line that at least reaches home installers through appliance dealers, at roughly $2,000+ — still a plumbed-in purchase, but closer to residential territory than Follett. See our Scotsman ice maker review.
- vs. KitchenAid undercounter (clear ice, not nugget): A different ice type entirely, but a useful contrast — KitchenAid at least sells through Best Buy, Lowe’s, and Home Depot as a built-in kitchen appliance rather than exclusively through foodservice dealers. See our KitchenAid ice maker review.
- Full brand rankings: see our best ice maker brands guide for how every major name on this site compares.
Who should actually buy Follett?
Follett makes sense for its intended customers: restaurants, hospitals, hotels, and offices that need hundreds to thousands of pounds of nugget ice per day and are buying through a commercial-kitchen dealer with installation and service included. It is the wrong choice for anyone shopping for a home kitchen, home bar, or RV — the output, price, and sales channel are all built around volume no household needs.
The bottom line
Follett earned the search volume — it’s the company that made Chewblet nugget ice a category in the first place — but it never built a consumer product to match the demand. If “Follett ice maker” brought you here hoping for that Sonic-style crunch at home, the GE Opal 2.0 or Euhomy Lyra S1 will deliver the same texture for a fraction of Follett’s commercial pricing and without a dealer install.
Last updated: September 14, 2026.