Icemaker

[Seeking Solace]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

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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I got a good laugh out of that comment. I guess watts is watts, amps is amps, volts is volts, and ohms is ohms. I'm pretty sure they are all tied together. P in the chart equals watts. I never have understood why people want to put AC devices on their boats when you've got so much loss converting DC to AC. If there's a DC version available it's going to be more efficient out of the gate since there is no loss in making the power.

How much ice on average a day do one of these ice makers produce? I rarely use ice, but my wife loves the stuff. My experience is everytime I use it , it shifts at the most inopportune time and makes me look like I need a sippy cup. Ice is good with straws or just a couple pieces for me, but a tall glass of ice is a precarious situation. 2 pieces in the bottom of a two finger glass of whiskey is always nice.

[a64pilot]

I dislike conversions myself, even went out of the way to find a TV and DVD player that used a "brick" to convert 120 VAC to 12 VDC to power them, threw the brick away, wired them direct and took a chance that they would live on varying voltages between 12 and 14.3 VDC, they have been fine, even worked at 15.1 during equalization, which was a foolish risk.

All 12 VDC icemakers I have seen are terribly expensive, as it seems most 12 VDC appliances are, by an unbelievable factor of sometimes as high as 10, so to save the $ I gave up and use 120 VAC appliances and accept the conversion loss. (its only about 10%, I think?)

As has been said, from an energy consumption standpoint, you would likely be better off with an Engel, in fact I am sure you would be. But have you priced an Engle? Expensive ice maker.

Best way to use the table top ice maker, is to make ice when you have an excess amount of power, when motoring or running a generator, bag the ice in 1 gl zip lock freezer bags and put it in the freezer.

The longer it runs, the faster it makes ice. The way it works is the ice it makes dumps into a basket, and as it melts the melt water drains back into the reservoir which of course means you end up with pretty cold water in the reservoir, you can make more ice from cold water than warm water of course, so after about a half an hour it really starts making ice pretty fast, then you refill it with warm water and the cycle repeats.
I have not tried starting with chilled water from the fridge, but bet that would help a lot

[Seeking Solace]

I saw on other posts where people were looking for DC televisions and the topic came up about finding one that used a transformer.

The sad truth is that unless it has an electric motor it's a DC item. The only think I know of that uses AC is heating elements and motors. Everything else converts the AC to DC with a power supply. I think that charging 10x more for doing less is pretty silly of manufacturers. Having that AC available is nice and I think the amount of loss in conversion can be vastly different depending on the design of the inverter.

The #1 reason I think I'd use the inverter for would be the coffee maker. Although it's easy enough to make coffee on the stove. I'm just not a fan of instant coffee at all. Although if given a choice of no coffee or instant I will almost always choose the instant.

In my house I don't worry too much about the icemaker. I used to maintain ice machines when I worked in the AC industry and I can say that these things are pretty nasty and gross in commercial settings. If you're live aboard I can see it getting a good amount of use. Do you filter the water you put through them? How often do you sanitize and clean the icemaker?

[a64pilot]

You have to see one of these things, everything except the pump and line are out in the open and easy to clean, the pump self drains when the reservoir is empty.
A little tray fills with water and is lifted to metal fingers that get cold, I surmise the ice is removed from the fingers by heating the fingers for a few seconds as the ice just drops off and is pushed into the basket by the same bucket that holds water, the bucket is repositioned under the fingers, is filled with water and the cycle begins anew.

Ours gets a work out in our July vacation as its often hot as Hades and nearly windless and we are motoring to get somewhere cause its hard to sail with three kts of breeze

[StuM]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Best way to use the table top ice maker, is to make ice when you have an excess amount of power, when motoring or running a generator, bag the ice in 1 gl zip lock freezer bags and put it in the freezer.

If you've got a freezer, what's the advantage of a separate ice maker?

I just make my ice in the freezer. (And I'm sure it's a lot colder than what comes out of one of those ice makers)

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by StuM

If you've got a freezer, what's the advantage of a separate ice maker?

I just make my ice in the freezer. (And I'm sure it's a lot colder than what comes out of one of those ice makers)

Ice maker makes it in nice neat little cubes that are way easier than ice trays, and at a rate that you just can't with a freezer, plus if you try to make say more than a gallon of ice with a freezer, its not happening in any kind of hurry, least not in mine, bunch of heat in a gallon of water.
I can make a couple of gallons of ice cubes in a few hours, now ice cubes have a lot of air space so that is not like making a gallon of water into ice, they claim 26 lbs of ice per "day". I assume a day is 24 hours? My little cooler that I like to put into the dinghy and go on rides in the afternoon holds a gallon bag of cubes to keep the contents good and cold.
Its just nice to have, a luxury that doesn't cost much for what you get.

Oh and ice will most likely be at 32F, 0c pretty darn quick at sea level, its the phase change from liquid to solid of course that absorbs lots of energy, after its solid you get very little from making it colder.

[Chawes]

We are like Pavlov's Dogs. If we are in the cockpit and here ice drop into the bucket we shake our glass and say "are you ready for another? !.
Not always good.
Haha