By Russ and Tiña De Maris
A summer day without ice in your drink can make your hot day even hotter! Ice is nice, but if you don’t have an ice maker in your RV refrigerator, here’s how to make a portable ice maker work for you.
Cheaper than buying ice at the store?
When we moved our home base to Arizona’s Sonoran Desert, it didn’t take long for us formerly Pacific Northwesterners to learn how much ice meant in everyday life. And with the price of ice hotter than a fritter and no ice maker in our fridge, we crunched the numbers. Spending a few bucks on a portable ice maker would soon pay off when comparing how much we’d spend at the not-so-convenient convenience store.
But stuffing a portable ice maker into the close confines of your typical travel trailer was the sticky part. Friends of ours with a big Tiffin Class A just put theirs on the kitchen counter. Our counter space is bigger than a postage stamp—but not by much. We could put the machine on the floor, but when it came time to break camp and move, we’d have to pick the thing up and tuck it someplace away from the shore power plug. They may be small, but even at about 15 pounds, picking the thing up wasn’t a pleasant thought for our tired-out backs.
Rolling platform for RVing with a portable ice maker
Solution? We measured the footprint of the ice maker. Then we cut a piece of ¼” plywood a bit bigger than that footprint. We secured four small casters (two equipped with locking levers) onto the plywood base. To keep the ice maker on the platform, we attached four 1” lath strips to act as a tiny fence to keep the ice maker in place. The project was completed with multiple coats of clear wood finish.
In use, the ice maker sits next to our dinette, near a shore power outlet. When traveling, the sliding platform would create problems, so we roll the ice maker on its platform to its travel location and lock down two of its casters to keep it secure.
Care and feeding
That handles the logistical end of the matter. But what about the care and feeding of a portable ice maker? Since these little portable units don’t have a refrigeration system, other than the one that makes the cubes, the ice they produce will melt down in time.
Ours produces 26 pounds of ice per day, if you keep it running and filled with water. That’s more than we can use, and we’ve found that the ice product of the ice maker, particularly on hot weather days, doesn’t have the “muscle” we’d like. So when the ice maker gets full, we simply dump the fresh ice into a gallon zip freezer bag and stick it into our RV fridge’s freezer. We “feed” our glasses from the bag, as they’re colder, and let the ice maker prep ice for later fill-ups.
Why not a solid container in the freezer? We’ve done that, too. But we find that the bag can be tucked in smaller areas than a solid box. And instead of having to get out an ice pick to break up the ice in the box, we can just whack the freezer bag on the counter to quickly break up ice for our glasses.
Portable ice makers come with built-in fans to shake off the heat produced by the ice-making process. If you make sure to keep the fan outlet pointed—not toward a wall, but rather to the open room area—you’ll make ice much faster. And if you fill it up with room-temperature water on a hot day, you’ll wait a long time for ice.
Algae? Yuck!
Maintenance is straightforward. Keep the water level in the ice maker up to snuff and the power turned on, and you’ll have ice. Occasionally, look at the inside of the water reservoir. Depending on local conditions, you’ll eventually see algae building up. Yuck! Shut down the ice maker and drain the unit.
For us, that means rolling the ice maker over to the doorway, yanking the “front end” off the platform, and letting that edge hang out the door. Underneath the unit, there’s typically a rubber plug that, when pulled, drains the water out. We then use a cloth dipped in water and mild vinegar solution to de-algae-fy the reservoir.
Reverse order the take-down and refill with water, and you’re ready to go. You may need to dump the first batch of new ice as it could taste a bit acidic. If you wrap a cloth around, say, a screwdriver tip, you can get in the corners.
What brand should you buy?
What kind of ice maker should you buy? You’ll find a story here with some suggestions. We’ve had two different brands of ice makers, but our suspicions tell us that one company probably builds several different ice makers, each with its own “label.”
One we bought through Walmart lasted a couple of months and conked out. We complained to the third-party seller, who promptly sent another. It lasted a couple of weeks and it, too, died. We went through three of these hoodoo units, and this time, customer service said they’d make sure we got a machine from a different manufacturing batch. Sure enough, it worked great and is still chugging out ice, three years down the road.
We have two RVs, and transferring ice makers back and forth got old. So for our home base, we bought an “ecozy” brand machine from Amazon awhile back. No problems with it, other than it gets lonely when we’re out on research trips in the other RV.
Can you manage a portable ice maker if you’re a boondocker? If you’re a solar “purist,” know that the maximum draw of our ice maker is 100 watts at peak. We haven’t analyzed the ups and downs of power usage as we (gasp!) fire up our generator to handle other needs. We’ll crank on the ice maker while the genny runs and stash the output in the freezer for later use.
A tale of two cubes
When shopping for ice makers, there are two different styles of ice. One is the typical cube-shaped product. But many ice makers produce “bullet” ice. These non-cube cubes are bullet-shaped, with a hole in the center of the “gun” end of the ice. These ice shapes tend to melt faster than a “Borg ship” product, but the machines are more expensive. We’re happy refilling a little more often, knowing our machine cost less than $70.
Is it all worth it? Depends on how much ice you go through. No way we could get by on the old-fashioned “ice tray in the freezer” trick. Finding room for a 10-pound bag of ice in our minuscule freezer is a non-starter. Our portable ice maker is cost-effective and space-saving. And sweat-saving on a hot day.
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RVDT2708
Icemaker ice melts as fast as it’s made. For it to be of any value, you’d have to store it in your freezer. In this case, you may as well use traditional ice cube trays and free up valuable counter/floor space.
I have used a portable ice machine for over 3 years now and I do exactly like you
described. And as you said, put it in a bag in the freezer and you always have ice.
One of the first things I plug in after setting up camp. Never a (hot drink).
Absolutely LOVE our portable ice maker. We keep it in the front storage (entry side) of our fifth wheel. We do have an ice maker in the freezer but it doesnt keep up with use…the portable ice maker is a game changer! Have had the same brand for many years…still works perfectly. Highly recommend!
Sally, please share what brand you are using. Ours lasts about 1 1/2 years.
I dont understand the need for an ice maker in either the home freezer or the RV. In both instances they take up a lot of space, leak and grow mold. In an RV when you start talking about adding weight, building containers, moving around when you pack up that is simply not worth the trouble. In the winter we keep one tray of ice and in the summer 2 which are stack-able. We do have 2 very good insulated cups which cost $20/each. We keep them clean and they have lasted about 5 years now. The ice last in these insulated cups for 24 hours no matter the ambient temp. When we go to bed I make sure the ice is “cooking” in the freezer and if its really hot outside I put the cups in the refrig.
Ice is a waste of time and energy.
Drinking cold beverages dulls our taste buds to sweetness. It’s one reason we eat so much sugar and gain so much weight.
When there is denial involved, I always think of thumbs down as thumbs up 🙂 So you are welcome and have a blessed day 🙂
We store our countertop ice maker in the kitchen sink wash bucket for travel days. Easy peasy.
We use our portable ice maker outside on a table we set up next to the RV. Filled with cold water from the fridge, it works on all but the hottest days, in which case we move it inside. It is necessary to put a cover over the clear door portion or the sun shine will make the unit think it’s full. The cover also cuts WAY down on mold growth. We are able to keep our outside cooler stocked with ice (and cold adult beverages!) A true money saver.
We have been using portable ice makers since we started full-time RV’ing in 2011. In fact we just purchased a new one a few months ago. I also put the ice in a plastic bag and put in fridge. After allowing the ice to get really frozen, they are great in your drinks! We have 2 bags going; one with newly produced ice and one with the really frozen cubes. We are never out of ice!
In our 5th wheel, our ice maker sits on a counter on non-skid material. It never moves from that spot when we’re stopped or when we travel. We have an ice maker in our freezer but don’t use it because of the space the bucket would take in the freezer and the need to winterize it is a pain. As well we use a lot of ice, the freezer can’t keep up, we would need to be opening and closing the freezer door constantly and water raises the temperature in the freezer. We had a 26 lb/day ice maker that didn’t meet our needs and we went to the 45 lb/day model. In the morning when I fill it, it usually takes 2 qts of water. Yup we love our ice. It’s on Amazon dot com at https://shorturl.at/YX5g7
It seems like a lot of work and inconvenience using a portable ice-maker and also taking up valuable floor or counter space. We took the ice-maker out of our freezer. We just buy a 7lb bag of ice for $2.99 at almost any mini-mart which will last us a week or two. No muss, no fuss.
Our ice maker is a simple joy at our music festivals. If it’s too hot outside, then the cubes can melt as soon as they drop. So, we just place it in the shower during the day. The ice cube bin stays full! Cheers.
We have a Frigiadaire brand ice maker that we’ve been using both while camping and at home for the last 3 years or so. It’s a big one that can make up to 40 pounds of ice in 24 hours (we originally got it because we were tired of going out to buy ice for our cooler). We always bring 1-gallon jugs of purified drinking water to use in it when we go camping, and water from our reverse-osmosis filtration system when we’re at home, to avoid mineral build up. Other than peeling paint it’s just fine for all the use it’s had! 🙂
Thank you for the comprehensive discussion, Russ and Tina! Have a great day and safe travels!