Ice machine

[Opa 1]

Not exactly a 5er question but we have found a need to have an ice maker. Anyone have a band that works really well for their 5er?

[chuckster57]

We use an Emerson from Walmart. When the ice melts in the cooler I use that water since it’s cold, helps the ice maker make new ice faster.

[JRTJH]

Costco and Sam's Club have a countertop Frigidaire which is a "clone" of the
Igloo model we have. Ours (and those) make about 25 pounds of ice per day and hold it in a "drain bucket" that will contain about 2 pounds of ice. As it melts, the water drains back into the reservoir and is refrozen to make more ice.

So, if you remove each "drain bucket" of new ice as it is dumped from the mold, you can get about 20-25 pounds daily. If you leave it in the "drain bucket" you'll only get a fraction of that.

In an RV, at least in ours, there's precious little counter space, so we don't have room for a larger portable ice maker that could produce more ice, simply because there's no place to put it.

Right now, Sam's has a limited supply and I can't get a reading on availability at Costco. It's the end of the "summer season" so those stores are not resupplying seasonal summer items. In most of the WalMarts, Target and other stores, countertop ice makers are available, but not in great supply.

I'd make an "uneducated guess" that most of the countertop ice makers that are on store shelves are clones of each other and the only significant difference is the access door and control panel. The actual cooling section and ice delivery section are very likely interchangeable. So it's more about price and color than it is about durability or functional improvements.

[sourdough]

I had a Dometic for several years, about 25-30lbs. a day as I recall. It went on the fritz so bought a new one, a Newair from Amazon. The Dometic was discontinued but the Newair was an identical clone inside and outside. Used it about 3 mos. then bought this trailer with an ice maker so the almost new Newair sits in the barn looking for a reason to "exist".

They are great but take up a little space. We were fortunate in the last trailer to have enough space at the end of the island. They all seem to work about the same way; make ice, ice melts and goes into reservoir, melted water is then refroze and makes more ice. Maximum ice comes by taking it out and using it once it is frozen and drops. We reserved a corner of the freezer to hold 1-2 gallon freezer bags of ice for what ifs. There are only 2 of us so if trying to keep up with a large group I would suggest pulling that ice as it's made.

[flybouy]

As others have stated I don't think there's much difference in the compact economical (low eend) units. They pressy much all work the same, are built in the same country, etc. We bought a $100 unit on sale ( can't recall brand) about 8 yrs ago. It's still going strong. I figure at $100 it doesn't owe me anything and has paid for itself many times over.

We also bag the ice in Zip Lock bags and primarily store it in the outside kitchen freezer. As an aside, a Zip Lock bag of ice in the freezer is a good tool to indicate if the fridge/freezer was off for an extended time. In our inside fridge (LP/120vac) we have remote tstats the display highest/lowest temp as well as current temp. The outside fridge I use a bag of ice cubes as a miner's canary. If you have a bag with one big fat ice block then you know it thawed then re-froze.

[Camping family]

Purchased ours from Walmart works as it should. Makes ice in a short time a lot better then using ice trays.

[Opa 1]

Thank y’all

[rhagfo]

We have an Emerson also and works great. We don’t use in a cooler just for drinks. We have a small refer for keeping soda and beer cold.