Ice maker - refrigerator plus portable?

[s106300]

Just gave hubby a NewAir AI-100R portable icemaker - for Valentine's Day. It makes up to 28 lbs of ice per day. He was coveting one of these when we were looking at fifth wheels with 12 cu ft refrigerators. Now that we have pretty much settled on a DRV that will come with a residential refrigerator and an icemaker, he is questioning if the portable is really necessary. We do plan on plenty of boon docking with generator, inverter, and probably solar as well as going to places with hook ups. Any thoughts on whether or not it makes sense to keep the portable?

[grumpydoc]

Dear Dreamers, we too used one of the portables when we had a RV fridge in our previous rig. Our new rig has a very nice residential fridge with an ice maker and we find we no longer use the portable one since the fridge does such a good job. I would guess it comes down to how much ice you might routinely use. Three rocks and three fingers of bourbon will get me through the evening, DW on the other hand uses a large Tervis tumbler full of ice for her ice water and goes through several in a day. Actually I lied, on most days I have two drinks so double my ice consumption!! Best wishes, Jay

[Yarome]

Since you already have it, and you plan on a fair amount of boondocking, I would check the energy draw of your fridges ice maker and go from there. If it is significantly higher than the 1.9 amps the portable drinks then I might consider hanging on to it. Then again... they are a bit spendy. If you can get a full refund then you might be ahead of the game to return it.

 

The one thing I really love about the portables is ice on demand without having to store a whole bin. Just run it for 10-15 minutes and I'm good for the night.

[horizon36]

We have a residential fridge in our coach and it makes lots and lots of ice. We are currently dry camping in Quartzsite and at night we turn the ice maker off to save battery power. During the day it's on as we have almost 400 watts of solar, so no power problems at all.

 

You probably won't need the portable ice maker.

[skp51443]

Most of the power draw of a built in ice maker is during the thaw cycle just before the wands rotate to push out the ice cubes. Turning your off at night will keep that from happening and not cost you that much ice making.

[Smitty77_7]

A few ice trays for us, as we feel ice makers take up too much room. We don't fish, so no need to create ice for keeping the fish cool. We do consume a few adult beverages Sun-Thur, and find that we use one tray of ice every two days. Fri&Sat? Well, we go knock on the neighbors door and bum some ice:::!!!!

 

And we can also add a few ice trays if needed. And the good ones, that don't have the ice stick to them. Another tip - if we know we have an extra heavy demand ahead, we bag a few trays of ice to be ready. Less energy, less filter changes, less water lines to worry about - and again, more freezer space for the bulk of the time...

 

But that's just what we like. For those into ice makers, make your water be frozen!!

 

Best to all,

Smitty

[s106300]

But what about the neighbors who knock on YOUR door to bum ice? And the "block parties"?

[Chalkie]

I haven't seen a residential fridge that can fully keep up with our ice demands, especially in summer. The DW drinks a lot of water and doesn't believe that a few cubes will cool it adequately and therefore packs the glass with ice. There have times that we have carted the portable icemaker from the trailer to the S&B just to keep up, especially when we have company.

 

My opinion, for what it is worth, is hang on to the portable if you have the room.

[s106300]

I am most concerned about entertaining personally - not much of an ice girl myself - unless you are talking frozen margaritas

Thanks for the guidance everyone! Still trying to figure out acronyms - DW - d'wife? Is there an acronym code book somewhere? Or is this the stuff legends are made of?

[Chalkie]

- DW - d'wife?

 

That would work! But I have always thought it meant Dear Wife.

[Yarome]

One other thing you might consider.. I don't know if you've had cubes from those portables, but the "quality" leaves a little to be desired. It's a bit softer than what you will get out of your reefer and they melt rather quickly. If you don't HAVE a residential, any ice is good ice, but for the amount of space and weight, if you can return it for a full refund, I would probably do that.

 

For entertaining and block parties, a $1 bag of ice is reasonable and probably a better quality ice cube. Besides.. for the price tag.. that's a LOT of bags of ice. If you plan ahead a bit, you could always stock pile cubes in freezer bags from your residential as well.

[RickS]

We seem to do a lot of entertaining when out RV'ing. We had Excel install a U-line ice maker in the end of our island cabinet. It makes a lot of ice and with 700 watts of solar on the roof we just let it run as long as we need ice. We did not want a residential fridge and ordered 2 x 40lb bottles which will run the RV fridge for months with no power requirements. I carried portable ice makers of different brands for many years and the traveling would take a toll on them usually having to replace them every year. Costco has great warranty. Here is a picture of the ice maker on the end of the island.

 

[Mike and Claudia]

The nice thing about RVing is: We can do whatever we wnt to do!

 

If you want an ice maker; Get an ice maker. If you don't. don't. My DW enjoys having a big glass of iced tea at her ever-ready. We have a portable ice maker. They don't last a real long time, I have NEVER had te neighbors ask to borrow ice.

 

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