The ice is not in a clump, and it comes down the shoot. The problem is that it makes ice, but the ice stays on the plastic ice sticks on the ice stripper, it does not push off, so I have to manually pull the ice down, it falls no problem and the stripper goes around again... this happens almost every time, so I never have a full ice bucket, we always have to remember to walk by and flick the ice down. It does not even really feel as though it is really stuck on too much.