Icemaker

[Chawes]

Looking for tabetop icemachine. Best for boat?
Any experience recommendation. Looking for durability low energy-efficient.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

[Kenomac]

Originally Posted by Chawes

Looking for tabetop icemachine. Best for boat?
Any experience recommendation. Looking for durability low energy-efficient.
Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

Honestly, these are what we use.

[ErikFinn]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Honestly, these are what we use.

Are those the soft ones, silicon like sorta ones?
But yea, I'd also like to know more about electric icemakers, any good ones that stand out and not cost more than say 200 bucks?

[Kenomac]

No, they're just the cheap plastic somewhat flexible ones, probably purchased at Bed Bath and Beyond. We actually have a U-Line icemaker onboard, but when the icemaker part quit, we never fixed it. We now just use it as a backup freezer, or quick freezer.

[a64pilot]

I bought one off of amazon.com, $99 at the time, works really well. Draws 60 watts at 120 VAC.
It and the vacuum food sealer were according to my wife, the best things we have bought.
One we got was an ivation but I think they are all about the same, shop by price.

These things take a little while to get into their stride, the way they work is a little bucket gets filled with water and there are metal fingers that stick down in the water, ice freezes on these fingers and then they are heated a little and the ice falls off. The extra water flows back into the water tank and if any ice melts, that water too goes into the tank. This makes the water very cold and the colder the water, the faster ice is made. So after the first 30 min or so, it gets to making ice fast. It beeps to let you know the ice hopper is full and beeps to let you know it's low on water.
We make ice and store it in gallon zip loc freezer bags, best to make ice when there is excess power, like when motoring or plugged in, generator running etc.


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[maxingout]

If we ever have ice on board Exit Only, it will be because we are sailing by mistake in the high southern or northern latitudes!

[rourkeh]

Bought one of these EdgeStar units in 2010 and it is still going strong.

https://www.amazon.com/Edgestar-IP21.../dp/B000QDU8JE

It is a little slow but makes good ice and was not much money. I do not have the space for full size u-line type machine.

[StuM]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I bought one off of amazon.com, $99 at the time, works really well. Draws 60 watts at 120 VAC.

It probably draws about 60 Watts at 240VAC and at 12VDC as well.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by StuM

It probably draws about 60 Watts at 240VAC and at 12VDC as well.

That is why I like watts, cause watts is watts, I greatly dislike amps, cause amps vary with voltage of course. I threw the 120 VAC in there to emphasize you need it, it's not a 12VDC machine.
I'd hate to get someone to buy something they think they can use, if they can't.


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[S/V Illusion]

We have one of those 120v ice makers in the cockpit locker and it works great at fairly low current draw when used off the inverter. As I recall, about .5 amp- hours which is close to what others stated at 120v.

It is an essential piece of boating equipment unless you are a beer drinker.

[CAELESTIS]

Wifey bought me this https://www.amazon.com/Dometic-HZB-1...etic+ice+maker

We love it! Throws ice out in less than 10 minutes and uses negligible power.

[Chawes]

Thanks. We settled on RCA igloo. 149.00 canadian.
My wife and I are trying it out tonight. Pussers pain killers!

[Hakuna Matata]

Thanks for the advice on ice makers. We are thinking of buying one before we sail to the Bahamas in a few weeks. Your insights are greatly appreciated as we consider our options.

[Tetepare]

I decided I needed one eight months ago and did a ton of research on the table top units (such as those linked to in previous posts.) It turns out that there are several forms and each is marketed by a half dozen companies, all with different prices- and, oddly, different reviews. To make things more complicated if you look at Amazon AUS you'll find the same thing with different reviews.

In the end I became so frustrated because they all had bad reviews. And I've had enough bad experienced with Chinese appliances I didn't want to suffer the headache.

It sure as heck would be nice to have an ice maker. I spend about $10/weekend on ice.

[zboss]

We keep a portable one on the boat. They work fine but the ice doesn't last long. Uses a lot of power but make ice quickly. It's been our experience that we are probably better off power-wise with a small Engel set aside specifically for making ice. The overall amp hour consumption in a day is about the same as the Ice maker but you get much better longer lasting ice. Plus, you can use it for other things besides making ice.