How many amps will this ice maker draw?

[paccrest]

Can anyone tell me how many amps this 110v ice maker will draw if I run this off of my Xantrex Pro XM1800 inverter? Here are the stats on the ice maker.

Avalon Bay
Model: AB-ICE26S
UPC: 863724000028
Product Type: Portable Ice Maker
Voltage: 115 volts
Watts: 230 watts
Amps: 2.0 amps
Frequency: 60 Hz

Thank you in advance! Also, what calculation did you use to get the amp useage?

Bret
SV Liahona

[motion30]

2 amps ac. = 20 amps dc + the inverter, so. 22 25 amps

[steve77]

I agree with motion30, 25 Amps.

Watts = Volts * Amps

For all the technical types, we are ignoring power factor.

If your device pulls 230 Watts, then 230 Watts/12 Volts = 19.2 Amps.

I would assume 80% efficiency of your inverter, so 19.2/0.80 -24 Amps.

I would doubt that you would run the ice maker with battery voltage below 12 Volts, so this gives conservatism. In practice, I would think the battery voltage will be higher, and thus your current would be less.

If you are doing any kind of load calculation or tabulation on the batteries, I would count on 25 Amps of current draw.

[denverd0n]

As has been said, I would assume about 20-25 amps when running. But it won't run continuously. How many total amp-hours it will draw from your batteries in an average day will depend entirely on how well it is insulated and how much ice you use from it.

How much ice you will use, of course, is not a question that anyone else can answer for you.

[kellymj]

We have a similar sized 3 year old Dometic portable ice maker, that resides in our guest shower. I run it off our 2000W inverter and Its tough to tell what it really draws, our specs are similar, but its like any compressor, going on and off. When the compressor first starts running I see it draw around 20+ amps and that will fall as the machine gets cold. Once it's made its first couple of batches, the draw is less than half of that and it bounces up and down with the running of the compressor. Once it's cold, I would estimate that draw is less than 10 amps. We run totally off solar and are in the Caribbean, we make about 3-4 pounds of ice a day, generally start in the morning around 9:00 and turn off when we have the ice we need (between 2-4 baskets).

Hope this helps!

Marty
S/V True Colors
Currently Prickly Bay, Grenada


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[jreiter190]

For making reasonable amounts of ice and having a stash of frozen steaks, an Engel looks good to me. People who have larger ones than I have room for, tell me they draw 2-3 amps on average. In port, they can be set to only be a fridge. Don't have any 1st.hand experience with them yet. I'll get one no bigger than 20 qts. Anyone?

[leftbrainstuff]

Originally Posted by paccrest

Can anyone tell me how many amps this 110v ice maker will draw if I run this off of my Xantrex Pro XM1800 inverter? Here are the stats on the ice maker.

Avalon Bay
Model:AB-ICE26S
UPC:863724000028
Product Type:Portable Ice Maker
Voltage:115 volts
Watts:230 watts
Amps:2.0 amps
Frequency:60 Hz

Thank you in advance! Also, what calculation did you use to get the amp useage?

Bret
SV Liahona

Others have given the calculation including power factor. 25A.

To validate check current draw on 110V AC. Calculated and actual current draw can vary substantially.

Ia there a peak current draw on startup? Does the unit have higher or lower actual current draw? Is it new or old? Any of these variables may affect its usability on your inverter.

An inductive AC ammeter will give you ballpark current draw.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by jreiter190

For making reasonable amounts of ice and having a stash of frozen steaks, an Engel looks good to me. People who have larger ones than I have room for, tell me they draw 2-3 amps on average. In port, they can be set to only be a fridge. Don't have any 1st.hand experience with them yet. I'll get one no bigger than 20 qts. Anyone?

I've been considering that exactly.
I started a thread about the Engel specifically as I didn't want to hijack this one, but I'd love some discussion about that specific concept.

[Thin Line]

This is precisely what we use for making ice, all this ice maker talk cracks me up. We have the Engel 45QT that we use as a freezer and ice maker, it draws 2.7 amps and when we start a trip it makes 2 trays of ice a day while keeping all our meats and stores frozen solid. As things deplete we then make 4 trays of ice per day. What normally happens is we end up with a huge freezer bag full of ice, trays full of ice and we run out of room we have so much of it. Between this Engel and the large one we have as a main fridge (largest one they sell) we draw barely over 5 amps total, all while making ice and storing a bunch of food. Win/Win in my opinion. Energy efficient, rock solid units, you can keep your ice maker! ;-)

[zboss]

I have a different model... a NewAir AI-100R and it has two amp ratings:

Ice Making Current: 1.9 Amps
Ice Harvest Current: 2.7 amps

This is 115 volt.

It takes about 30 seconds for the ice harvesting because an additional motor runs.

So at peak - at least 310 watts plus inrush current plus inverter losses... so maybe 27 amps?

In two hours it will make about 2 pounds of ice - which is plenty for sundowners. However, we won't be taking it with us on our next trip. We find that our engle does a fine job at freezing up 1 gallon zip lock bags of ice overnight which we then crack with a hammer, yielding a lot more ice and not using as much power.

[a64pilot]

Speaking of ice, in Germany they sold plastic bags that when filled looked like a waffle pattern or similar, but anyway they made individual cubes in bags you filled with water, being bags they didn't spill and my vertical ice trays are difficult to get the ice out of.
Anyone seen these bags? Odd that I saw them in Germany as they don't use ice in their drinks, I think they believe it to be un-healthy.

On edit, Google is your friend

http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Cub.../dp/B00DP6P6R8

[zboss]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Speaking of ice, in Germany they sold plastic bags that when filled looked like a waffle pattern or similar, but anyway they made individual cubes in bags you filled with water, being bags they didn't spill and my vertical ice trays are difficult to get the ice out of.
Anyone seen these bags? Odd that I saw them in Germany as they don't use ice in their drinks, I think they believe it to be un-healthy.

On edit, Google is your friend

http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Cub.../dp/B00DP6P6R8

A friend of ours on s\v Moonsong taught us to keep our plastic bottles and fill them with water, freeze, chop them into frozen slices, and viola...

We find the big slices are good for two mixed drinks.

[RobertLeask]

I have a Magic Chef countertop ice machine which I use almost every day. Once it cools down it doesn't use much power, but I can't run it on the inverter because there is a heavy power drain about 2 minutes after its started. It conks out my 1500 w inverter and almost stalls my 2 kw Honda generator. Is this normal for this type of machine?

[fallingeggs]

Originally Posted by RobertLeask

I have a Magic Chef countertop ice machine which I use almost every day. Once it cools down it doesn't use much power, but I can't run it on the inverter because there is a heavy power drain about 2 minutes after its started. It conks out my 1500 w inverter and almost stalls my 2 kw Honda generator. Is this normal for this type of machine?

I don't own one, but because I am thinking about it, I searched for how many watts it draws. I found 150. No way you should be tripping a 1500 watt inverter or the Honda. I wouldn't even think a malfunctioning one could do that!

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Speaking of ice, in Germany they sold plastic bags that when filled looked like a waffle pattern or similar, but anyway they made individual cubes in bags you filled with water, being bags they didn't spill and my vertical ice trays are difficult to get the ice out of.
Anyone seen these bags? Odd that I saw them in Germany as they don't use ice in their drinks, I think they believe it to be un-healthy.

On edit, Google is your friend

http://www.amazon.com/Disposable-Cub.../dp/B00DP6P6R8

I used a bunch of these last summer on a trip. They work well. It's a little bit of a chore to pop the pill-shaped "cubes" out of the bag. The best way I found was to cut along the strip between the pills and squeeze them out. They froze pretty quickly in our standard Norcold marine fridge.

I also just bought an Igloo countertop ice maker (WalMart, $75, can't go wrong) and it's been pumping out a new batch of 9 ice "fingers" about every 5 minutes since I plugged it in. We don't use a lot of ice, but it's nice to have sometimes. This seems like it'll meet our needs and then some.

I should mention that this unit is not going to work when heeled or even in any kind of seas. The ice is produced on "fingers" of evaporator coils dipped into a pan of water. So keeping the water more or less level would appear to be important.