I think I want a portable ice maker

we entertain alot and I'd like to have a portable icemaker that I can store when not in use so I can have fresh ice alot or a little depending on how many guests we have.

I find I hemorrhage ice with the shaker and blender in high gear...I never seem to have enough.

Does anyone have a portable ice maker and how do you like it?...

I saw one at costco a couple of months ago and it was only $150 or so. I regret not getting it then. I can't seem to find a home store that sells them locally, any suggestions?..maybe I'm not looking in the right place?

If you own one already, any reviews offered would be greatly appreciated, these are untested waters for me.

I'd rather not buy online in case I want to return it.

I bought this model on the internet:

http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Edgestar_Portable_Ice_Maker___Titanium/itemID.15757/itemType.PRODUCT/iMainCat.27/iSubCat.61/iProductID.15757/qx/shopping/product/IP210TI.htm

It works really well but, although it is insulated, it does not keep the ice refrigerated, so it tends to melt fairly quickly. I have it on top of a portable freezer behind my bar, and I just put the ice in the freezer as it gets made. I've had it over a year and have never had a problem. It makes ice very quickly- first batch in about 5 minutes. You have to make sure you drain the water out if you are not going to use it for a day or two, to keep it clean, but there's a drain plug on the side and it's no big deal. HTH

On 2007-08-16 09:19, Urban Tiki wrote:
I bought this model on the internet:

http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Edgestar_Portable_Ice_Maker___Titanium/itemID.15757/itemType.PRODUCT/iMainCat.27/iSubCat.61/iProductID.15757/qx/shopping/product/IP210TI.htm

It works really well but, although it is insulated, it does not keep the ice refrigerated, so it tends to melt fairly quickly. I have it on top of a portable freezer behind my bar, and I just put the ice in the freezer as it gets made. I've had it over a year and have never had a problem. It makes ice very quickly- first batch in about 5 minutes. You have to make sure you drain the water out if you are not going to use it for a day or two, to keep it clean, but there's a drain plug on the side and it's no big deal. HTH

I just found that the same site had the model above this one (stainless steel) at a cheaper price, refurbished:
http://www.compactappliance.com/xq/JSP.detailmain/Edgestar_Portable_Ice_Maker_With_Digital_Display___Stainless_Steel_Open_Box/itemID.14654/itemType.PRODUCT/iMainCat.548/iSubCat.772/iProductID.14654/qx/shopping/product/IP201SS_OB.htm

Hello, I have a Magic Chef portable ice maker. I purchased my ice maker at Home Depot late last year. I think it was on sale for $149, I had a home depot coupon so ended up paying less than this. It seems Home Depots prices fluctuate often on this item. Some days I go in and it is $199 and other days I go in and it is back down to the $149 price. Over all I am happy with the machine. I usually have an ice making day and just make ice till the bottom drawer of the freezer is full. My only complaint and this isn't much of a complaint would be having to remove the water that wasn't used when I am done. Hope this helps.

Well I've searched high and low locally to find the elusive portable
ice maker. I checked Home Depot, BBB, Linens and Things, Macy's,
Fortunoff's and Bloomies.

So far the only place I've actually seen it is at Fortunoff's
to the tune of 400 smackers..ouch.

I've resigned myself to paying the 1.50 per bag of ice till I
can lay my hot little hands on one of these babies
(found locally and for under
300$ please).

I purchased (during my shopping excursion today) a many
number of sweet things to make my newest passion a little
easier...one of which was the neat little good grips mango
splitter I posted about earlier, an automatic ice crusher
and a cuisinart citrus juicer...yeah...I'm really gettin'
into this boy.

love ~ love ~ luuuurrrv the ice crusher thingie.
made by Deni (Macy's)

http://tinyurl.com/yrx72h

I think I paid 35$ for it and man is it kewl.

enjoying a mai tai with crushed ice as we speak..yumm-er-licious

Haven't tried the citrus juicer (Linens and Things) as yet
though but I've got a 10# bag of limes (thank you costco)....bet
I can make that thing say uncle before midnight.

did I mention the pineapple corer thingie I got too?...well
between the mango cubes, fresh pinapple slices and slushy
cocktails let's just say we'll be havin' a high time at my
house this weekend, despite the lack of endless ice.

what'd you do today? :)

be kind to dragons for thou art crunchy and go well with brie.

[ Edited by: hookilau 2007-08-17 16:49 ]

On 2007-08-17 16:47, hookilau wrote:
...love ~ love ~ luuuurrrv the ice crusher thingie.
made by Deni (Macy's)

http://tinyurl.com/yrx72h

How loud is this little thing? And how 'even' does it crush?

funny you should ask. I read the reviews after I had tried it for myself and was quite puzzled by the reviewer who deemed it 'noisy'.

well of COURSE it's noisy-----it's crushing ice! :o

really though, it's only noisy when it's doing the actual crushing
which I totally expected...but I suppose the reviewer hadn't counted on.

You drop ice in the little trap door on top and then turn it on,
the little blue light goes on and it crushes the ice
(noisily but not with more noise than can be expected when ice
comes in contact with the blade I imagine is in there) then when
there's no more ice in the chamber (as it's being crushed,
it's being delivered into a small clear receptacle) the machine
itself gives off a low barely discernable hummmm.

and as soon as you drop in more ice, it gets noisy again but only
as it's crushing the ice.

as for the size of the ice, it's probably 1/4" sized bits. I have
to say though, when added to my cocktail glass I had frost on the outside
of the glass within minutes and it kept my cocktail frosty and truly
delicious. I had a Painkiller ala Grog Log and built the cocktail
in the glass so the ingredients were warm as in not chilled during the
shaking process. (woops---forgot I had that mai tai first, prolly should've
stopped at one cocktail)

in my opinion, it was well worth the 35$ I spent for it as I did'nt really
think it would make that big of a difference in the enjoyability of the drink.
but it kept my drink frosty and less watered down.

oh yeah and as for the even-ness, since this is my first experience
with an ice crusher, all the ice came out to be 1/4" bits at the largest,
accompanied by a negligable amount of 'snow'.

The picture on the box (which is the same picture in the link given above) was a very accurate rendering of the finished ice
in size and texture. :)

[ Edited by: hookilau 2007-08-18 16:27 ]

I bought a Deni ice crusher last summer, and after a few uses have relegated to the back shelf. I found I needed to use the cocktail ice with the holes through the middle..."solid" cocktail ice or bigger ice cubes took too long and was too much of a strain on the motor. The ice that comes out is closer to shaved ice than crushed ice, IMHO. And using my manual "swing away" ice crusher is much faster.

Try Costco,

this one is rather cheap.

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11126318&whse=BC&topnav=&browse=&lang=en-US&s=1

thanks for the costco tip...I'm going to try one more time this weekend and
if it can't be had locally, I'll probably order it from them.
I wonder if it was the same one they had in my local store for $150
that I can't stop kicking myself for not picking it up then.

As for the Deni ice crusher, (shrugging shoulders) since I've never
owned a gadget like this, I have nothing to compare it to. It works
fine for me and I used solid ice cubes. I suppose (as I've heard) the
portable ice makers yield hollow cubes so I'm not really worried about
the motor in the future.

In the meantime, I was able to fill my icebucket halfway with crushed ice
in a little over 5 minutes. The resulting ice kept myself and a
girlfriend in frosty cocktails for the evening and I've still some
left over. Probably because we serve cocktails in small 4 oz cocktail
glasses. They slide down pretty quick round here (sooo darn tasty) and
no one's been able to keep the limit under 2, this way we're able
to enjoy a few cocktails without being layed out too quickly.

thanks for your input