Manual Ice Crushers

Thanks for joining TC, nice first post!

Tell us more about your ice. Ice made from tap water made at home? From bagged ice from a store? Also, what is the condition of your crusher -- new-ish and clean vintage, or has it been around the block and corroded here-and-there?

I have a couple new vintage Oster crushers which attach to my blender base and I never have had flavor problems. Usually the ice is so hard that it is an effective cleaning agent for your crusher if you run a few trays of ice through it.

Again, glad to have you here on TC! I think you'll enjoy it and will learn a lot.

On 2014-06-20 13:57, AceExplorer wrote:
Thanks for joining TC, nice first post!

Tell us more about your ice. Ice made from tap water made at home? From bagged ice from a store? Also, what is the condition of your crusher -- new-ish and clean vintage, or has it been around the block and corroded here-and-there?

I have a couple new vintage Oster crushers which attach to my blender base and I never have had flavor problems. Usually the ice is so hard that it is an effective cleaning agent for your crusher if you run a few trays of ice through it.

Again, glad to have you here on TC! I think you'll enjoy it and will learn a lot.

Thanks Ace, excited to be here!

It is ice from the tap, and the crusher came in clean vintage, no visible signs of wear. I'll just keep putting a few trays through it and hope that it works! Thanks for the tip.

If you smell the ice crusher itself, does it smell funny? What about the ice?

I use a Waring Pro ice crusher for my general ice crushing and a vintage Oster "Snowflake" left over from the 1960' for my super-fine snow-like crushed ice. I have also removed the ice maker from my freezer to make more room and only use 20Lb bags of store-bought crystal clear ice. I have a separate chest freezer that I use to keep about 80 pounds of ice. I never liked the cloudy cubes the ice maker in a home freezer makes - I like the crystal clear. One of these days I'll buy a stand alone Ice maker that makes those clear cubes . . . one of these days.
By the way I still have two Lewis Bag ice crushing thingies but the mini baseball bat thing is so beaten up that I've replaced it with a nylon muddler . . . works just as well. I only use the Lewis bag for show. . . or exercise.

RyanTheTerrible: Try making some ice cubes with baking soda in them and run them through your Snowflake. That should clear up the smell and funny taste.

I bet you feel more like you do now now than you did when you came in.

GENT

[ Edited by: GentleHangman 2014-06-20 15:08 ]

Well, if you don't mind the little extra work you might just start making coolers of clear ice.

Anyway, smelly ice crusher... what kind of smell does it have? It could be that you need to clean inside the crusher (not sure if you can) as trapped water has made it musty smelling, or your ice just has a weird smell from the water and the larger surface area makes it smell.

On 2014-06-20 14:49, TikiTacky wrote:
If you smell the ice crusher itself, does it smell funny? What about the ice?

It does! I used some vinegar and it lessened.

Gentleman, trying the baking powder!

No! Baking soda!

Hmmmm... Sounds like your ice crusher is actually clean, would you agree? If not, I would definitely try the baking soda suggestion, then possibly a rinse in hydrogen peroxide, and finally try a weak solution of 1:20 bleach for about 5 minutes. After each of these, dry thoroughly.

I can't remember if your ice crusher is all metal, but you could also heat it slowly and carefully to about 150-180F degrees ("F" for the benefit of our metric readers, ha) which would also kill any living organisms. Be careful if you use heat - you don't want to ruin any greased or oiled bearings - so think that option through before you start and then find you've done something bad to the lube in the device. So don't heat it unless you can also easily restore lubrication.

So there ya go - I said "lubrication" in a tiki thread! hahahaha...

I'm looking for an automatic ice crusher and I was disappointed to find that the recommended Waring IC70 was discontinued a couple of years ago. I realize this is an old thread, but does anyone know of a good replacement?

I found this one on Amazon, but I'm a bit skeptical. Appears to be a Chinese Waring knockoff and reviews are mixed. Anyone have experience with this one?:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B074L29WHD/ref=ox_sc_act_image_3?smid=A17W5VZEPRAUKL&psc=1

[ Edited by: Jj69 2018-06-10 20:39 ]

"I'm looking for an automatic ice crusher"

Get a vintage Oster "Snowflake" ice crusher.
You can find them at thrift stores every now and then.
They cost about $9.00 bucks when I do see em.

Or ebay will have people selling the ones they found at a thrift store for a profit.
They work really well, I have two as I can't pass up a really mint one when I see them.

"but the ice smells funny"
Have you tried Febreze? I kid.
My Oster "Snowflake" ice crushers have no smell to them or give one to the ice.

I wonder if you put mint through the ice crusher would it give your ice a minty smell.

I can't believe this thread has gone on for four pages without anyone saying what I'm about to say:

Toss out all your manual crushers. THEY'RE CRAP. Sell your electric crushers, donate them, or put 'em on a shelf. (Some are ok but most are junky and slow.)

Go get yourselves a mallet and Lewis Bag. It's faster, better, offers more control over ice texture, and the bag soaks up the water meaning dryer, colder ice.

You can get a Schmallet and bag at Cocktail Kingdom for a little more than 20 bucks and you'll never look back. Drop another $5.99 and get two bags so you can have one in the wash.

https://www.cocktailkingdom.com/schmallet-lewis-bag

Thank me later.

I have a glass bar top, so the Lewis Bag, while lots of fun and great showmanship, is not a good option for me.

(I know, I know... "get a new bar!") Ha.

I'm kind of surprised no one here has experience with the Amazon model I linked above. Was hoping for some tiki enthusiast feedback.

That IS the machine I have at my bar, but I have the earlier version, with the Waring name plate. I believe I posted my thoughts elsewhere a year or so back. But in a nutshell:

1. VERY quiet.
2. Decent sized crushed ice container for about 4 or 5 drinks. Less if you're shaking/straining with crushed ice and then also filling the drinkware with crushed ice. Making crushed ice can be a considerable chore no matter how you do it.
3. If you feed it too quickly, the hopper and throat tends to clog with ice when using the typical crescent-shaped ice from home fridges. If the cubes freeze together in the hopper, can take a bit of work to clear out. So I try to use different cube sizes and shapes.

Overall it works very well as long as you don't overfeed it, but that's typical for any crusher. (Except, maybe, for a giant Lewis Bag run over by a 4WD pickup.)

I bought at half-price a dented (at the rear where you don't see it) 50-60lb capacity Kitchenaid ice maker but haven't plumbed a water line to it yet. The Kitchenaid would solve many of my ice problems AND give me smaller and clearer cubes to feed into my crusher. Or in some cases the Kitchenaid cube size is small enough to eliminate the need for truly "crushed" ice, so I'm hoping for big convenience and time savings there. Really need to get the water line fished down the wall soon, but my attic is so hot this time of year...

Hope that helps.

On 2018-06-12 08:07, jj69 wrote:
I'm kind of surprised no one here has experience with the Amazon model I linked above. Was hoping for some tiki enthusiast feedback.

That thing is over a hundred bucks after shipping.
The reviews online about it are not great.

Sooo buy like 10 vintage Oster "Snowflake" ice crushers for that price or 5 of those bag things.

Heck if you want the Waring Pro ice crusher like the Amazon one get it off eBay or etsy.
An ice crusher is one of those things that most people just don't use that much.

If you get a bad one you will lose like 10, 20 bucks.
Just don't buy a used one from a tiki nut, or AceExplorer as it will have been used a lot.

Here are three on eBay right now, that Vintage Waring Electric Ice Crusher even looks cool.
These are all about $20.00 bucks to your door ship and all.
Damn the more people talk about being green and cutting waste the more it looks like they just want new shiny stuff.

Vintage Waring Electric Ice Crusher Model I004 Works Great
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Waring-Electric-Ice-Crusher-Model-I004-Works-Great/163076358425?hash=item25f81bc119:g:tG0AAOSw-YZa708W

VINTAGE Magic Hostess ice crusher model 5810A works great
https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-Magic-Hostess-ice-crusher-model-5810A-works-great/332681935514?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D52569%26meid%3D7c28e27e3ef5438a89ebe74686016b47%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D6%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D163076358425%26itm%3D332681935514&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

Vintage Oster Ice Crusher 564A Almond Beige with Ice Tray
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Oster-Ice-Crusher-564A-Almond-Beige-with-Ice-Tray/263716504411?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D52569%26meid%3Da1495408d9a94a91ad7ef90ecf736198%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D5%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D163076358425%26itm%3D263716504411&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

PLUS the Vintage Waring Electric Ice Crusher Model I004, has a 360 watt motor as the Waring Pro IC70 Professional ice crusher you listed has a 150 watt motor.
The Snow flakers have a 75 watt motor.

Here is a review of the Waring Pro IC70 Professional ice crusher that says it all to me.

"I don't really HATE this unit -- it works great...until the design defect gets you. It WILL happen to you if you use it regularly with ice cubes any larger than tiny. It crushes fine, until one day when the BUILT-IN OBSOLESCENCE kicks in. One of the flimsy nylon spacers between the teeth will give way, and your nice looking otherwise-fine crusher will be of NO USE anymore.

You might get a year, maybe even two years, but it WILL happen. All those good reviews here either don't use it much or only use it with tiny cubes. Read all of the "1" and "2" reviews to see how common this problem is. It's as if Waring intentionally wants to make sure that you buy another one every year or two."

I bought mine used, and cheap.

What home machine is intended to crush huge cubes? I dunno. Cube size is an issue as I stated earlier.

I don’t use mine very often, so I’ve not run into the spacers wearing out - yet. But I do plan on having my big ice maker running in the future.

Skip is right - buy it used and have fun with it.

"What home machine is intended to crush huge cubes?"

The Snoflaker does ok with em.
BUT you are right, so buy a cheap one burn it up and toss it.

Thanks for all the info. I was initially weary of buying used because I read some posts here where people had various problems like finding their ice stained with rust, or strange odors coming from the machine.

Most of the really "vintage" electric crushers out there like the Waring I004 suggested above appear rusty on the outside, and those listing that include a good photo of the blades inside appear to have some really funky looking yellow buildup on them.

Does anyone have experience with the Waring 11CR10 model? It appears to be a later 70s or 80s model manufactured in Japan. There are quite a few of these on eBay, some nearly new with original box and manuals, for example:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-NICE-IN-BOX-Waring-Electric-Ice-Crusher-Model-11CR10-Kitchen-Tool/263590311901?hash=item3d5f34f7dd:g:04wAAOSwe1xavV~e

Just wondering if these are any good?

I love the little Oster Sno Flakes. They're compact and cut nice sized pieces. Most have settings for "course" or "fine," so it could also give you shaved ice. I've gone through several of them, usually getting a good year or two of regular use out of them before they crap out, then picking up another one for around 20 bucks.

Last year I finally decided to go bigger and found a Waring Pro IC70 on Craigslist for $60. As Ace said, you gotta not over-jam the thing or it stops working. I honestly thought the thing was a dud the first time I used it til I got the hang of how to feed it. The plastic bin holds right around the amount of ice the tray in my freezer produces each day. What I typically do is crush that amount, put it all in a gallon sized freezer bag, and stick the crushed ice back in the freezer. It's typically enough ice to get me through my week of drinking unless we're entertaining, then I'll do a bag each day leading up to it. When it's cocktail time, I just pull the freezer bag out, the ice will have solidified a little, so I just whack it with the ice scoop and it breaks back up into perfect sized pieces. Scoop out what I need, then put it back in the freezer for tomorrow, or round two.

I used to break out the Oster every time I was making drinks, for years, until this method finally dawned on me. Crushed ice always at the ready. It's certainly life changing. You're welcome.

Mike, that’s really an awesome methodology. Cheers to you and the missus!

On 2018-06-12 07:29, Quince_at_Dannys wrote:
Go get yourselves a mallet and Lewis Bag.

I concur with Quince; after limping along for a while with a cloth napkin and rubber mallet, I finally got the Schmallet set from Cocktail Kingdom and regret not doing so much sooner. In addition to the aforementioned benefits, it’s mighty satisfying to smash ice by hand with a large wooden mallet. I use a cutting board under the Lewis bag to help absorb the shock of each blow.

Plus, one can still “batch” crushed ice like Mike suggests; that’s what the bartenders at Hidden Idol in Denver do.

I also prefer the lewis bag method over mechanical ice crushers. However, I found a better alternative to Cocktail Kingdom's Schmallet. I think the Schmallet's face is too small and the whole thing too light. Instead, I found the most amazing mallet at Japanesewoodworker.com. It is amazing and makes quick work of a bag of ice. Of course it costs more, but there is no price too high for great ice!

https://www.japanwoodworker.com/products/90mm-katate-kakeya

Very cool, great tip, robojoe!

Very cool, great tip, robojoe!

Has anyone used a vintage Alaska Ice Crusher no 1 for tiki drinks. I think it would make a cool addition to my tiki bar and was thinking of getting one, but was wondering if the ice was too coarse for your typical tiki drinks.

Ok so the Alaska Ice Crusher no 1 is the COOLEST ice crusher ever.
This one wins.

I can see Cary Grant showing how to make a proper Mai Tai using that thing.

"First you need crushed ice my dear" "The crushed ice is very important, very important indeed"

Now I'm going to look all over to find that thing and I don't need it.

They also have other cool ones like that one from that time frame, the one with the old wood bucket would look cool at the house from Christmas in Connecticut.

Man that is my dream house.

This one is the model 37 and it's like $45.00 bucks to your door on eBay right now.

I'm very late to this party, but my bar has a vintage Dazey ice crusher in copper and turquoise that came with the house.
It's screwed to one of the support legs of the bar. Yields very nice ice using the finer (clockwise) turning.

I've noticed that I'm developing a hole in my Cocktail Kingdom Lewis bag. I use silicon ice trays that make 1 inch square cubes, so I wonder if the sharp edges are cutting into the fabric when I crush it with the mallet. Anybody experience this?