Post #747057 by AceExplorer on Tue, Jul 14, 2015 12:07 PM

One more very important thing --- "chewable" nugget ice is light and very low density. This means it will dissolve quickly and dilute your drinks more quickly than the traditional hard ice. That's highly undesirable in most cases for cocktails, and underscores how you need to understand ice and how it's made and how it works in cocktails. My new 50 lb scratch-and-dent machine makes hard ice.

Ignore the Opal's review about paying "thousands" for a home ice machine. That's too salesy for me to agree with, and you'll see what I mean when you research other existing countertop machines and other under-counter machines which are similar to my ice maker. That's an exaggeration.

Here's a photo of what I have - it's slightly smaller than an under-counter trash compactor. They come in 15" and 18" wide models. Shop your closest Sears Outlet for scratch-and-dent stuff. These babies are rarely cleared out by Lowe's or Home Despot because they rarely have special orders for ice machines, and even more rarely damage damage one. I got lucky and saved $100-$200 from what I would have paid for the same thing at a Sears Outlet store.