Very Small, Very Efficient Ice Cube Maker Wanted for Sundowners

[Fuss]

Is there such a thing that could make maybe 4 cubes in 5 minutes with very low amp draw. 4 cubes in 5 minutes is about all you need.
Maybe a refridgeration engineer could comment... is it possible to make such a device? Or does such a device exist?
John

[GordMay]

I don't know how efficient, but this one has about your specified capacity:
Haier HPIM33S Portable Ice Maker 33 Lbs.

[SaucySailoress]

And whilst we're at it, is there such a thing that could make maybe 4 dollars in 5 minutes, using low amps. I'm not greedy, so I'd only run it for half the day to give myself a daily income of $288. That's all I'd need.

Perhaps a printing engineer could comment... Is it possible to make such a device? Or does such a device exist?

[SaucySailoress]

GordMay - Are you human, or are you a fountain of knowledge and wisdom?? Your replies are always so informative and useful.... You are amazing. Thank you.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by Aaza Dana

And whilst we're at it, is there such a thing that could make maybe 4 dollars in 5 minutes, using low amps. I'm not greedy, so I'd only run it for half the day to give myself a daily income of $288. That's all I'd need.

Perhaps a printing engineer could comment... Is it possible to make such a device? Or does such a device exist?

Sure there are such things. There are also things that make license plates pretty cheap as well. One will probably get you the other.

Perhaps a Federal agent could comment....

[bludden]

In the old days of vending machines before they just spat you out a can of your choice you had machines that dropped a paper cup, filled it with ice, concentrated syrup and carbonated water. The ice maker was a SS tube (evaporator) in a water bath with a scraper that lifted the ice crystals out of the bath and into your cup and had to be capable of continous output...It was a marvel of engineering to my young eyes...We're talking perhaps a cup of ice shavings every 20 seconds...the compressor (from memory) was just a normal fridge sealed unit I think...Don't know about energy use or "warm up" time but drinks in the cockpit would never be the same with one of those suckers aboard!

[Starbuck]

The Haier says it will make a dozen small cubes in 6 minutes, and I think I saw an advertised amperage draw of 4.4a. Assuming those numbers are accurate:

4.4 x .1 hour (6 minutes: gives "small" cubes") = .44 amp-hours.
4.4 x .15 hr (9 minutes: gives "medium" cubes) = .66 amp-hours.
4.4 x .5 hr (12 minutes: gives "large" cubes) = .88 amp-hours.

Of course, the Haier is AC, so you'll need an inverter and will lose some efficiency there, so if you want to be extremely conservative and let the theoretical inverter waste 20%, you can figure a bit more than one amp hour of battery capacity for 12 ice cubes."

$175 or so for the machine, I don't know how much for the inverter. But it'll do-her.

If all you want is to cool a couple of drinks occasionally, this would be much cheaper than installing refrigeration.

Others: please feel free to point out blunders in my math.

[DeepFrz]

Others: please feel free to point out blunders in my math.

Multiply by 10 to get the dc draw from the batteries, add the inefficiency of the inverter. So 9 - 10 amps draw from the battery bank.

[daddle]

You're under by 10X on the Amp-hours. That's 4.4A at 120v, no?

4.4A * 120v / 6m = 528W/6m = 53Wh

53Wh / 12v = 4.5Ah

4.5 * (some inverter loss) = ~6Ah per batch of small cubes

[michaelmrc]

Originally Posted by Aaza Dana

GordMay - Are you human, or are you a fountain of knowledge and wisdom?? Your replies are always so informative and useful.... You are amazing. Thank you.

you realize that gordmay is not a real human being but a hightech highly advanced microprocessor with artificial intelligence always learning always updating always knowing.
good
old fashioned
research
may you
always seek
your truth
GORDMAY

we thank you for all your expertise, your links to valuable information and most of all for being on the cruisers forum.

[Starbuck]

Oh, yeah: I missed the AC/DC conversion. My math is always suspect: thanks for the corrections


Now that the numbers are more reality-based, that's the electrical cost for a cold drink or two. 5 amp-hours (conservatively). For many of us, that's lost in our daily consumption & battery capacity.

Problem is, once you have a source of cold, you keep thinking up more uses for those little cold cubes. I think in the military they call this "mission creep."

[Fuss]

Originally Posted by GordMay

I don't know how efficient, but this one has about your specified capacity:
Haier HPIM33S Portable Ice Maker 33 Lbs.

Thanks for the replies so far.....
I looked at the specs and the watts are not specified.... anyway its too big and I guess too inefficient.
What I meant was something very efficient that makes just a few ice cubes.... I am sure that if some refridgeration engineer made this, then many cruisers would want it.
Very efficient and just a few ice cubes.

Is this possible to make?

thanks again
John

[daddle]

Originally Posted by john Fussell

Very efficient and just a few ice cubes.
Is this possible to make?

Tell me how many ounces of ice and I'll tell you the minimum energy required.

My fridge makes (unwanted) ice. Never occurred to me to put it in the Sundowner.

On this subject: Old school aluminum ice trays make ice really fast when set on the evaporator. Bozo modern plastic ones not so much. Anyone seen aluminum ice trays for sale?

[SaucySailoress]

Ok, this might be a really over the top suggestion - but how about a small freezer? We built one with our fridge, and it doesn't use much power (the two solar panels feed both the fridge/freezer and the nav station and housekeeping....)

I remember once reading a very clever suggestion about using ice-cube bags to maximise space...

[kmason]

Originally Posted by Aaza Dana

And whilst we're at it, is there such a thing that could make maybe 4 dollars in 5 minutes, using low amps. I'm not greedy, so I'd only run it for half the day to give myself a daily income of $288. That's all I'd need.

Perhaps a printing engineer could comment... Is it possible to make such a device? Or does such a device exist?

I think what you are looking for would be called a "job". However, I don't think you should look for anything involving math skills.

$4 X 5 Minutes = $48 per hour

Normal work day of 8 hours = $384
Half day (12 hours) = $576