Portable ice makers

WyoTraveler wrote:
We just removed ours. It gives us a lot more room in the freezer.They are easily removed, just pluged in and a couple of screws. We make a few ice cubes in a tray or two and it is enough for us.

I like it, keeping it simple and skimping on just a tad of extra weight. Every bit adds up.

Buy the cheapest portable you can find. The $99 one is the same as the $299 one. We have an Emerson that we bought on sale for under $100 7 years ago. Still pumps out ice like the day we bought it. One tip is to always use distiller water, keeps you from getting a chemical build-up.

We have a U-Line that is built into the bottom of one of our galley cabinets (seems to have came that way from the factory). It worked great for the first three years or so when we first purchased the rig. Although, for the past year or two, has been nothing more than a headache. Can't get it working and a replacement unit of the same or similar is several hundred dollars. Needless to say, I can buy a lot of bags of ice for several hundred dollars.

We have been without use if it for about a season and a half now, and truthfully, didn't really miss it (at least, not enough to spend several hundred dollars on). A bag of ice in the freezer and more in the cooler has been working out just fine.

I may take it out and take it to a local appliance repair place to see if they can repair it for a reasonable price. If not, I'll just put a matching cabinet door over the existing opening and use the space vacated by the ice maker for added storage. We'll then just stick with bagged ice.

We just removed ours. It gives us a lot more room in the freezer.They are easily removed, just pluged in and a couple of screws. We make a few ice cubes in a tray or two and it is enough for us.

There all probably made in the same Chinese factory, so pick what you like. We have been pleased with prices and speed of delivery with Compact Appliances.
Just remember, they all make soft ice. You still need to harden it in a freezer to be of real use.

We bought the Magic Chef Counter top Ice makers when they first came out. One for the house and one for the RV.

They work very well. We use a lot of ice daily. We don't use the machines all the time. For example the machine in the RV is used only when camping (one weekend a month) and for a 3 month long stay during the summer each year.
The one at home is used primarily on the patio each weekend.

The machines make ice every 7 minutes so they can even keep up with a party of up to 10 people.

The ice is held in a basket inside the machine. As it melts the water drips down into the water reservoir and recycles to become ice again. We have to fill the water reservoir about every two days if we are using the ice daily.

We did have one machine stop working within two years we replaced it with another. We've had them for about 10 years.

Search for this: Magic Chef MCIM22TS 27lb Ice Maker Stainless

Five years to wear out the "ice-N-easy"
Now using an Emerson
It you want one that stores the ice, you are going to have to up the price to $300~$400

We carry our on the kitchen floor with original box as a cover
Only uncover when using it, bag two or three one gallon bags
Put the new soft bagged ice in the fridge freezer
Then cover it up

Of you are at a hook up site, you can just let it run 24/7 and not freeze any

We have a GE, purchased from Home Depot two years ago for $99. Works great but as previous poster said it does keep the ice frozen but makes more ice than we can use. On our old fiver we kept a cooler outside with drinks and just kept dumping the excess ice in it. Never buy ice again.

The DW thought it would be a good idea to buy a Mr. Freeze automatic ice maker. We have not used it in "production", just in a small "QA" test. The first thing I found was while it does make ice, it does not store ice. So as soon as it makes ice you have to move it to a freezer otherwise you just end up with water. It seems it's actually more work than filling ice trays. The second thing I learned is once again I'm having to rearrange some storage bins to make room for the ice maker.

Much better off either just keeping a few ice trays in the freezer, or buying a small bag of ice from time to time.

There may be other options, just reporting on mine. Read the box...