Yes they make a little noise
We use a gallon of water, make ice until the machine stops
We bag the ice in zip lock bags and put it in the freezer
Before we run out we do it again, twice maybe three times a week during the summer
it's gets plenty hard in the freezer
15 minutes after we put It in the freezer, we remove bag and tap on it to make sure ice is not all stuck together, and then put back in freezer
This keeps it from becoming one big frozen block