Remember the days when RVs didn’t have extra appliances like ice makers? Or four TVs? Or three A/Cs, two bathtubs and a fireplace? We do. Do we miss those days? Sometimes… but not really.
Most RVs made today come with built-in ice makers, thanks to the demand of laziness… But maybe you have an older RV or you bought one without an ice maker. Either way, will you tell us in the poll below. Leave a comment too if you’re happy that your RV has one, or if you wish it didn’t (or if you wish your current RV had one). Thanks!
We haven’t found the need for an ice maker. I’d rather use that space for something else. It’s just me and my husband. I have 4 ice trays that I empty out every day and that has worked for us.
Most RV REFERS Do NOT have ICE MAKERS in them, unless they are RESIDENTIAL Fridges.
Gas Absorption REFERS usually don’t offer that feature!
I love my little Igloo table top ice maker! (a $100 appliance gadget from Sam’s Club) It makes all the ice the 3 of us ever need, even down here in the hot and humid southern states.
Ours came with an ice maker but we took it out. We prefer having additional freezer space and just use an ice cube tray.
My Travel Trailer Norcold does have an Ice Maker, the Motor Home Dometic doesn’t have one. Wish I could swap them around
No ice maker and the trays always seemed to be a pain. So this year are using a little portable table top unit. So far it’s been a whole lot nicer and with more ice than can use. I built a drawer under sink for it so even when not set up anywhere (which I set on a table outside) just open drawer add water make ice
No ice maker. Rather, we put ice from home in a couple of gallon size zip-loc bags. Takes care of us for our week-long campouts.
Our 2012 Discovery has a residential frig … ice & water through the freezer door. As full-timers it suits us perfectly, especially when we seasonally camp in Florida and entertain friends for Wine Time.
no and I don’t need or want one. not enough room in freezer as it is . And I don’t use much ice anyway, don’t see a need to water down my drinks.
Don’t have an ice maker and wouldn’t want one. When I bought a new refrigerator for our summer home in Maine, I couldn’t find one without an ice maker. We didn’t hook it up to water and use 4 cube trays for ice. The ice storage tray that came in the freezer, is used in the refrigerator as a storage drawer for cheese and cold cuts.
Removed ice maker for more storage.
Our Montana has a residential refrigerator with an ice maker and we love it. After two previous travel trailers with RV fridges that were a constant struggle to keep things cold, not having to worry about things staying cold is a huge relief.
Not only do we have an ice-maker in our rig, but it makes FAR better ice than the one in our relatively new, three-door fridge at home!
My KZ Sportsman has a small fridge and freezer. I freeze a couple of ice cube trays daily and that is usually good for the day.
Here’s my opinion (and maybe a tip): I’ve never owned a fridge that had a trouble-free ice maker! Most of the time I can fix them myself but sooner or later problems happen again. Most of the friends I know have had issues too- both rv’ers and non. We do however like ice makers, and that’s why I have one in our rig. It’s a portable one that has been remarkably trouble-free. I’d suggest anyone ordering a new rv or someone needing to replace their current fridge get one without a built in ice maker and just buy a portable one. The built-ins have a reputation for leaking water lines as well- just fyi.
Being in a B+, freezer space is precious and countertop space is very limited. We bring a heavy duty ice chest that keeps ice solid for about 4 days before it becomes liquid. We keep it in the shower (dry bath). Easy to get to, don’t sacrifice freezer temps just to get ice out, and easy to move around when it’s shower time. At end of trip, we dump the ice/water and use the ice chest to move refrigerated items back to the house.
Ours is a residential fridge with ice maker and that’s great for us. I carry a tumbler of ice water around with me all day, plus ice for tea, so I use a lot of ice. The comments mentioning happy they don’t have one because of freezer space it uses, and saying they use multiple trays instead, are puzzling to me. Several trays and an ice bin for the cubes likely take up only fractionally less space. I’ll go with the convenience for such a high use item!
Original Norcold had ice maker. We converted to a residential refer w/ice maker, although we keep it turned off. Using the added freezer space makes more sense to us. Years ago I got used to drinking warm everything – except beer -, DW enjoys either. Sometimes we’ll maintain a small bag of commercial ice for a special occasion.
Have one…never use it. Never been a big ice guy. Like my drinks straight up.
We have one of those “portable” ice makers (it’s 40lbs) that makes enough ice for us. I bet I’ve bought maybe 4 bags of ice in 14 years! The ice maker is wonderful!
We never use the water feature nor the ice. All our water goes through the Berkey filter
No, and neither one of my house refrigerators has a built-in icemaker either.
My wife loves it, myself don’t care one way or the other. I prefer my water at tap temp and I dont drink
anything that needs ice.
Our 8.5 cubic foot Norcold has an ice maker, and we love it! Yes, it does take a bit of freezer space, but it is worth it!
Answered “No” because our three-cubic-foot refrigerator is lucky to have a freezer compartment, much less an ice-maker. But it will freeze two small ice cube trays, and that is enough to keep our drinks cold when we stop for the night.
Yes. We have a residential refrigerator with ice maker. Bottom freezer with upper double doors. Ice is actually in refrigerator with door dispenser. More space in freezer. Wish I didn’t have a side by side at home . We winter in Mesa AZ so do not need to bring pork products with us as we found the Pork Shop somewhere near Gilbert or Chandler. Rural area. Find it and try it if you are in the area.
My Super-C has a 22 cubic foot residential, three door refrigerator with ice & water on the door which I am VERY happy to have. When I had my previous fiberglass “egg” trailer, I had a stand alone countertop ice maker which did a great job as long as I had 110VAC power available. Having ice is nice!
Never use it, except when I winterize.
It has one but we don.’t use it. Kept getting contamination in the water line
There was one in it when we purchased the RV new, but removed it when we couldn’t stop it from leaking and icing up the whole freezer.
Our former motorhome had an ice maker, virtually didn’t use it at all, present motorhome doesn’t have one and we don’t miss it at all.
We have a 2019 Forest River 5er with 10 cu ft 12v fridge. No ice maker, but it freezes silicone ice trays in no time. Would rather have the freezer space than ice machine.
But we keep it sanitized, but don’t normally use it. Need to flush line, turn off valve. we also don’t use water in door, just another point of failure.
Say what you will – we love ours. Just be sure to winterize it!
We took our ice maker out, preferred the additional freezer space for food!
WE did the same after my fighting it for 7 years. Plenty of excess freezer space now. Coach is ’12 Phaeton with Dometic refrigerator.
We do not use ours. A bag of ice works best for us.
We have an ice maker, but it’s not in the freezer. It is a separate unit I installed.
Ice is for skating on, not to water down drinks, or shock a 98.6 degree body with 32 degrees
I’m still wondering how useful that would be. Don’t really use the one at home even.
We love our ice maker. Unlike a previous poster who stated using ice is some how wrong we use it daily for water, lemonade, soda and tea. We find it refreshing and a good way to stay hydrated. Maybe because we don’t drink coffee or beer. Beats having to break up the chunks in bag ice. It was an extra we did not expect but I would look for it if we were to buy a newer RV
We have a counter top ice maker (and countertop room) which works great. I like having the extra room in the freezer without an installed ice maker.
Even though I don’t have one in my fifth wheel I own now, I have had other rvs that had an ice maker in it but when dealing with rv mechanics they were asking if I wanted it fixed before purchasing and I asked a question instead. Is it worth fixing? His response was not really. Being that they need certain compression and rv parks have different water pressures, they tend not to keep working, I have talked to different people with a rv with an icemaker in freezer and theirs is always requiring fixing. So I rather just buy a bag and splitting it into smaller bags to ulitize ice in my drinks or medical reasons.
Residential fridge with ice and water in door. We use both daily. Wouldn’t ever want to be without one.
We have a built-in ice maker that came with our Class A motorhome. Love it, love it love it!!! It is in an RV refrigerator as I would NEVER have a residential fridge in an RV. It just works and works, never giving us a problem. There’s a skinny space below it that accommodates an old fashioned ice try for when we are boondocking as the icemaker requires electricity. In fairness, my wife wishes she had more freezer space but most of the time it is not an issue.
Can you tell me what brand that refrigerator is? We want to buy one.
thanks, Julia