Portable Ice Maker recommendations?

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Just take it back to Walley World to the return department. They will give you a refund.

My Daughter used to work in returns, they took back used diapers. No joke!

I called walley world and they told me to contact the manufacturer. Said I had it too long and they couldn't do anything about it. :(

Have the dometic from CW picked up on sale one year. Makes good drinking ice, but not good blending ice. The ice hopper handles melt by allowing the ice to melt back into the water resevoir, so just fill it and let it run. Eventually pick up the ice catch and refil when it complains it wants more water.

JamesBr wrote:
Have the dometic from CW picked up on sale one year. Makes good drinking ice, but not good blending ice. The ice hopper handles melt by allowing the ice to melt back into the water resevoir, so just fill it and let it run. Eventually pick up the ice catch and refil when it complains it wants more water.

We put the ice in a bin in the freezer. The ice gets really cold and hard and lasts longer in the glass. :)

cm11599ps wrote:
How much ice can I expect a unit to make? We just got in from a water only CG and kept a cooler outside for drinks. 2 bags (10 lbs each) of that crappy hollow ice cost $9.50 Having our own ice maker would be awesome.

So how much ice can I expect? How much water does it hold and how much ice does it hold before needing to be emptied?

We have had the Igloo brand model that Walmart sold on line for abut two years now. I have not measured how much water it holds, but based on the fact that I fill it from a Britta Pitcher, my guess is about one gallon. I also have never measured how much ice it makes before the hopper is full, but my guess is about 4 8oz glasses full. As has been mentioned the ice is not all that hard and melts pretty quickly if it is not placed in a regular freezer. The few times we have used it in a cooler it did not last nearly as long as a commercial bag.

We have a Magic Chef- but I agree that the major difference in them is the name stamped on the front. At any rate, we love ours- works way better than we expected.

blantonmr wrote:

Cummins12V98 wrote:
Just take it back to Walley World to the return department. They will give you a refund.

My Daughter used to work in returns, they took back used diapers. No joke!

I called walley world and they told me to contact the manufacturer. Said I had it too long and they couldn't do anything about it. :(

Bummer!

Probably better off just getting another one. Good luck!

Go to Walmart.com and they have an Emerson on-line for $69. Almost the same one at camping world (doesn't run on 12 volt) that they sell for over $200. It's on my list for next year.

I have thought that would be a good thing to have in our OFF-ROAD POPUP camper. It would have to run low wattage for running from an Inverter or generator for us. Maybe they have a 12VDC version to produce ice cubes...

Having one that made ice within the three hour generator run time window would be nice too but I'm sure that is wishful thinking...

Usually when we are camping off the power grid "NO" Ice is the big complaint I keep hearing.

Roy Ken

RoyB wrote:
I have thought that would be a good thing to have in our OFF-ROAD POPUP camper. It would have to run low wattage for running from an Inverter or generator for us. Maybe they have a 12VDC version to produce ice cubes...

Having one that made ice within the three hour generator run time window would be nice too but I'm sure that is wishful thinking...

Usually when we are camping off the power grid "NO" Ice is the big complaint I keep hearing.

Roy Ken

I haven't seen a 12 volt dc one that is cheap. Norcold has a private labeled freezer you could make ice cubes in made, by Engel I think but as I recall it costs about $1000. It works on 12 vdc or 120 vac. On dc it draws about 7 amps as I recall. We had one made by Engel that lasted over 20 years but it started making funny noises so we got a 3.2 cubic for residential freezer.
I see some 12 vdc freezers $600 or so.

The portable ice makers make a batch of ice every ten minutes or so
and you could get a fair amount of ice in 2 or 3 hours.
The manual that came with mine said not to run it on a modified sine wave inverter but my friend Bud who had one just like mine ran his on a MSW inverter for a lot of hours each year for 8 years before it finally died and it was the water pump that went not the compressor.

I have a U-Line built in that i never use. We used it a couple times the first year but not since. I don't like the strange taste of all the different water that we get in CGs. I would rather buy a bag of ice and know it is tasteless than make my own.