Portable Ice maker

[Fish and Dear]

Originally Posted by Calman

Keep it inside and you'll keep your ice longer.

Not concerned with it keeping the ice. I'm just curious if it needs a certain ambient temp to function properly.

[The Gritz Carlton]

Originally Posted by Fish and Dear

Not concerned with it keeping the ice. I'm just curious if it needs a certain ambient temp to function properly.

That's the biggest issue I had. It's not an ice freezer...just an ice maker. It works good for on demand ice and you can transfer ice to the freezer soon as it's done, but it will melt or get really wet if you let it sit in the bin. The ice seemed to come out really wet and would freeze in huge "clumps" when put in freezer. I would imaging this effect would be exaggerated if used outdoors when it's warmer than inside. That's the drama I was referring to in my earlier post.

[Popfla]

Originally Posted by BandG

It cranks out ice pretty quickly & we really like the convenience of having of it, can even use it at our sticks & bricks home for bigger parties.

Ours came in handy at home when the fridge's ice maker decided it didn't want to work.

[Shawn62]

We bought some ice cube trays that are covered. Don’t have to worry about spillage. Sometimes we freeze coffee in them for iced coffee. We removed the built in ice maker to store more food items.

[Bob Denman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh271FAVZ0o

[gailc57]

I use my counter top ice maker all the time it never gets put away! I drink ice water all day long so I have to have a lot of ice. I was sick of pulling into a site and remembering we didn't buy ice, so I bought an igloo ice maker at Wal-Mart. I put the ice in gallon freezer ziploc bags and always have ice in the freezer.

[Jhsgls]

I used the same model as popfl above until we got our new RV with ice maker. It worked great. I would make ice one day amd put it in the freezer them put it under the sink for two days until we ran out. I still use it daily in my classroom and it cranks out a lot of ice every day.

[phkennedy]

We have a portable counter top Igloo icemaker. It produces the first cup of ice
in about 15 minutes from when it is plugged in and continues so about every 15 minutes. You just pour about a quart of water in it and it will continue until the water is gone and then it will notify you. Any ice in it when you finish for the day will melt back into the water supply for the next day. I believe we paid either $69 or $89 for it on sale. No problems with it so far about a year.
Pat k

[roy stone]

Originally Posted by Fish and Dear

Does anyone use one of the counter-top portable ice makers? What brand? What do you think of it?

Get one, it's worth it, but comparison shop for the best price. They are not expensive. It can also be handy on the deck or patio at the house. Convenient, not expensive, very handy, I've used my "Igloo" in the RV and around various entertainment areas of the house for about sixteen years. It serves my purpose, as a portable, inexpensive and convenient source of ice.

[Karilyn]

Originally Posted by Fish and Dear

Does anyone use one of the counter-top portable ice makers? What brand? What do you think of it?

We use one, especially at the beach. We got ours at Walmart. We run it for a while, empty the ice into a large Ziploc bag and keep it.in the freezer since the ice maker doesn't keep it cold. Has saved us a lot of $$$! We used the ice for drinks and for the cooler we use on the beach. We like it! We set ours up on the cocktail table between the driver and passenger seats.

[Chuck and Mary Ann]

Used one in our 5th wheel and it was great and saved a bunch of money. We used a Majic Chef, and still have another one new in the box for sale.

[Tejas]

As one Navy vet to another, get one. But others said shop around for the best price. We use ours everyday due to frig ice maker doesn't keep up.

My dear wife makes me iced tea to drink almost daily, plus I drink lots of iced water daily. Now that I am retired, I do not have the free ice I had at the office for all of the iced water or tea I drink daily. So the frig makes ice for the tea maker she uses and I use the other for my iced drinks. I rarely run low on ice needs now.

When we travel, the portable one goes with us. It can be plugged inside or out since it continues to make ice as long as it has water to make ice with. If you don't empty the ice holding basket, the ice just melts and the machine makes more, whether inside or out.

[Homer3]

We have a portable ice maker we received from using our credit card "rewards" points to purchase. We have only used it a few times because it requires nearly constant attention and took away from our "doing' nothing'" time. We freeze 1/2 gallon cartons that orange juice, limeade, milk etc come in and use those for our ice chest (beer, water, soda). The ice maker is okay but I don't think I will buy another one.

[The Gritz Carlton]

"We freeze 1/2 gallon cartons that orange juice, limeade, milk etc come in and use those for our ice chest (beer, water, soda)."

Neat trick for sure! Our MH has an ice maker so we don't need a portable. It throws ice pretty quick. For all day excursions or for the boat cooler, we fill Solo Cups and freeze them overnight. A little water run over the outside lets the block slide right out and the "blocks" will last all day. Many times, I've removed the partially melted chunks and put them in zip-locks for reuse the next day.

[roy stone]

Originally Posted by roy stone

Get one, it's worth it, but comparison shop for the best price. They are not expensive. It can also be handy on the deck or patio at the house. Convenient, not expensive, very handy, I've used my "Igloo" in the RV and around various entertainment areas of the house for about sixteen years. It serves my purpose, as a portable, inexpensive and convenient source of ice.

I hope the bottom line message I posted earlier to your succinct question regarding the kind, use, and convenience of a portable ice maker will be helpful. Again try one, I think you will find it convenient and useful. After all it is a counter top ice maker and is designed for such. The controls will provide you with how to operate it, when to refill, add water etc. to have continuous ice making. It is not designed to make ice for refrigeration purposes.

[Cwray]

We are usually RV’ing with friends and the portable ice maker is very convenient. Even though have an ice maker in our residential fridge, it doesn’t put out enough ice, fast enough. The ice bin usually isn’t “nicely filled” until the morning we are leaving.

We are a family of 5, plus a dog. So our freezer is usually packed with food. So no room to store additional bags of ice.

Our favorite place for the ice maker? 3” to the left of our mini-fridge in the outdoor kitchen. That ice goes mostly into cups for drinks. So I couldn’t care less if it’s wet or not. If you don’t get to the tray after four or five dumps, it stops making cubes because the pile has broken an eye beam sensor. If you don’t get to it for a while (to either knock the pile down to get more or to get some out)—no big deal. Yeah, they melt....right back into the water tray to make more. Not sure where there’s a fuss about it.

Mine spits out 12 cubes every 8 minutes. Having it outdoors keeps the kids from going in/out of our RV wasting the a/c and letting bugs inside. (Why is hard to understand that one should keep a door closed when in a park???) It’s also hella-convenient to get ice when your sitting outside. I also don’t mind throwing that spare ice into a soft cooler if we head to the beach. 8 minutes later there will be more.