freestanding ice maker question

[dalangdon]

I was at the Sears outlet today (never a good idea for me) and they had a freestanding ice maker for a ridiculously low price, so I bought it.

When I got home and read the manual, it talks about the need for a drain - something that should have been obvious, but somehow didn't occur to me.

Does anyone know how much water these things drain? I'm assuming it's more than your average refrigerator does, but how much more?

 

[mulls]

Drain a must

They drain quite a bit.Most models have an optional pump so you can connect to a drain higher up,you might want to see how much the kit is.These things are really cool-they make clear "bar ice".
Tom

 

[gansky1]

A client/friend of mine has two of these in his house, one in the kitchen and one in the bar. I've always thought they were so neat - beautiful, clear ice always ready and not smelling of the normal refrigerator/freezer smells. He had one go bad, too expensive to repair so replaced it with another KitchenAid. He did some research and found they use a shocking amount of water because of the constant melting and replenishing cycles.

I do love "bar" ice though...

 

[petek]

Is it plumbed to the water supply? I've seen ones by Danby that are more tabletop size that I think you have to fill manually
Here it is at Target

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/602-0915115-3040649?ASIN=B0007XKIRU&AFID=Froogle&LNM=B0007XKIRU|Danby_White_Portable_Ice_Maker_-_dim1524w&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=B0007XKIRU&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

 

[fa_f3_20]

It is plumbed to the water supply. And yes, they do go through a lot of water. Also, you need to be careful that you route the drain through a warm area. My stepfather has one, and the drain was routed through an insulated ceiling in the basement. The water that drains is just barely above freezing, and one day when the house was cool, the drain froze up and the ice maker overflowed and damaged the floor around it.

 

[dalangdon]

Supposedly, this ice maker has a "low" and "high" setting, where you can control how much ice is being made. I'm hooking it up later today, and will see how that works out.

We do a lot of camping and a lot of entertaining, so the extra ice will come in handy. But if it's one of those things where it wastes a lot of water, I might keep it mothballed unless we really need it. While water is not scarce around these parts, I still hate to waste it.

 

[super32]

Word to the wise

You talked about mothballing it til you need it, DONT! Clear ice machines dont like to sit. If they are use then disconnceted for a period of time, their pumps like to freeze/seize. On the other hand like everyone else has mentioned, they do use a good bit of water. The other unfortunate note is they can be tempermental. I wanted one for the longest time but but, for these reasons i have decided not to. Just a little friendly advice.

Scott

 

[gansky1]

Reliability

My friend that has two in his house calculated that he uses about 40,000 gallons of water per year running them both.

The KitchenAid model in the bar is the one that went bad, he called a local servicer that he uses for all his high-end stuff and they didn't even come look at it. Diagnosed it over the phone and told him to buy a new one. She told him they must have 90-100 of them in the course of a year with leaky refrigerant systems that are too costly to repair.

 

[pturo]

Sounds to me like it would be better to get a small refrigerator with an icemaker, keep beer and sodas on the bottom and keep nothing smelly in the freezer and make ice that way.

Who needs another Rube Goldberg invention that makes you go out of your way to take care of it, feed it, and pay for it's ineffecient ways.

Or hey, buy a freeking bag of ice for a buck and a quarter for those "special occasions"

 

[dalangdon]

Oh, thanks for the buzzkill, guys! ;-)

It looks like this thing will make way too much ice for our needs (25lbs per day!) on a normal setting, and double that on "twice ice".

Maybe I could start a cold storage. Or a mortuary. Or something.

I wonder what would happen if I put a flow limiter on it? Would it break it?

Maybe I'll sell it on Craigslist. Somebody must need that much ice.

 

[petek]

Put in on Anchorage Craigslist for a laugh

and go by one of those nice little compact Danby icemakers. I secretly want one. The fridge that came with this house is a full size Danby all-fridge, zero freezer in it but we have a chest freezer in the laundry. So unless one of us goes and buys some ice there's zip in the house,, which is most of the time. LOL I hear of too many fridges with ice makers problems I don't want to go there.