Can a household ice maker be used in marine environment

[winschwab]

Lots of good advice above. I've used a similar one run on a cheap 1000 watt inverter or an 1800 watt generator for about five years(in cabin in salt water environment). Believe you can still buy one for around $100. Best use is ice for drinks right now or ice to be stored in freezer. Not practical to make ice to keep food cool. Too little ice, too wet/warm ice, too much power consumption.

[Moontide]

If your talking one of the countertop ice makers, they work fine. Before ours died from too many years at sea it worked great. Enough ice for a couple of drinks in 15 minutes. One downside is that the countertop ones don't have cold temps where the ice drops so it will melt if left there. We just pulled from there and put in refrig or freezer. It makes cubes much faster than our regular freezer.


Used to have an builtin/under counter one. That was not as good as they are designed for constant power. Very thin insulation so they draw a lot of juice. Ended up stopping the use of the builtin one and getting the countertop model.

[DefinitelyMe]

I would have thought that running an ice maker to make ice to put in a cooler to keep food cold would be less efficient than simply running a refrigerator to cool the provisions directly. Either way you've got to transfer the same amount of thermal energy but more steps has to be less efficient. I think you'll find yourself running the ice maker for long periods, struggling with power and still not getting enough ice.

Yes you need gloves to handle dry ice.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Capt. Steve1

I should have mentioned I’m Italian and rarely if ever add ice to a drink that’s already cool, it’s a European thing.

Main objective is to keep 3-4 days provisions and caught stuff fresh in coolers and fish bags.

The one gallon jugs actuely are reduced to around 30% of orginal for 3 days in the main cooler that is only opened a couple times a day. This cooler is advertised as a 5 day cooler.this 3 days is a average of outside temps. Cooler temps time is extended a tad.

The thing is, the other coolers which are constantly opened speeds the melting process by three times.

Dry ice is a option are rubber gloves required to handle DI?
I believe the Publics food stores sell it. Will a little dry ice in each cooler extend the life of my block ice? I’ve been experimenting w/ the reusable ice in blue containers not sure but I think they melt well before the quart jugs.

I’m also considering a small freigerater (future plans) for provisions and kept the smell in the coolers & bags however these are pricey and require constant power.
Thanks Guys for advice.

We do drink most of our water cold from the fridge w/o ice cubes, but on some days (>110F heat index) it's nice to have some cubes.
Will agree w/others the countertop ice maker will not be enough to add to the cooler to keep food cold or to chill down large fresh caught fish efficiently.
We had "extreme" coolers last at least 5 days in very warm temps w/2 frozen 1 gal. jugs of frozen water. You are correct if you constantly go in/ out the contents w/get warmer quicker. Also if you are trying to add warm water to chill down water for drinking that will also reduce the efficiency of the frozen jugs.

Hate using loose ice in coolers unless your food is well contained in leak proof containers and drips all over when you pull them out. Most zip lock bags will eventually leak and ruin/water log your food when the ice melts. If you remove water as the ice melts, you lose your efficiency from the ice cold water.

We've used dry ice in a highly customized extreme cooler to create our Frankenfreezer. The dry ice is very cold and 10 lbs of DI will keep food frozen at < -45F (max. range of our internal electronic temp freezer probe) for 5 days (hot outside temps), then starts to slowly "warm up" to normal freezer temps (don't open for max efficiency). While it works great, the real problem is finding more dry ice while out.

The DI will not work that well in a food cooler for several reasons. It is too cold and any vegetables that come in contact w/it will freeze/be ruined. Unless the DI is well insulated, it will quickly go from solid to gas in a matter of hours, so it will be of little benefit except to create a spooky science experiment. If you do use dry ice always use thick gloves to handle it safely (surface temp of DI is approx. -109F) otherwise it will cause a nasty "burn". Also while on the topic of safety, DI is carbon dioxide and when it thaws out it releases relatively large mounts of CO2 and can reduce O2 levels in sealed areas. Typically in a small cooler w/small amounts of DI this is a non-issue, but to be thorough am mentioning it.

Eventually for convenience you'll probably get a fridge and deal w/the power consumption w/solar.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by DefinitelyMe

I would have thought that running an ice maker to make ice to put in a cooler to keep food cold would be less efficient than simply running a refrigerator to cool the provisions directly. Either way you've got to transfer the same amount of thermal energy but more steps has to be less efficient. I think you'll find yourself running the ice maker for long periods, struggling with power and still not getting enough ice.

Yes you need gloves to handle dry ice.

Your correct it’s much less efficient to make ice to keep food cold.
Dry ice is often wrapped in newspaper to make it last longer and so you can handle it, and keep it from freeze burning the food.
For a few days, dry ice is a much better idea in my opinion.

Besides the countertop ice makers ice is barely frozen, not hard frozen so it does melt quickly if not hard frozen from being in a freezer.
Now many who eat ice like the soft, not hawed frozen ice they make, so it’s up to you, but they are meant I believe and best used off making ice for drinks.

Many people ask about making ice in their Engle to keep the cooler cold, and besides being inefficient, it simply doesn’t work as well as putting food in the Engle