Wednesday, July 23, 2014

RV Ice Making

One of the problems we have when RVing in hot weather is getting ice for a refreshing drink in the evening. The freezer section of our RV fridge is normally loaded to overflowing with frozen food so there is no room for bulky ice trays. Our solution has been to buy a bag of ice when we need it. These bags contain way more ice than we need so after we fill a couple of sandwich size bags and cram them into the freezer, the rest of the bag is either given away or goes to waste. These bags average three dollars each so after adding the price of gas needed to go and get them, it becomes an inconvenient, expensive affair.

Recently London Drugs had an Igloo brand portable ice maker on sale for $99 (reg $149) so we bought one. Yesterday we unpacked it and tried it out. It will be a great addition to the RV! It turned out the first batch of nine ice cubes in about twelve minutes and then nine more every seven or eight minutes after that until the internal bin was full. We dumped those into a Ziploc bag, refilled the machine with water and away it went again. After repeating this for eight hours we had several bags of ice in the house freezer, ready for our weekend party.

We now have one of the new electric "smart meters" so I went online and checked our power consumption for the hours the machine was on, comparing it to those same hours on a normal day. It looks like it costs about five cents per hour to make ice. Forty cents to make ice that would probably cost $6 plus gas to go out and buy. Not bad. Life is good with a cold drink in hand and the tinkling sound of even more ice being made!


Posted by at

17 comments:

  1. Kevin ReadJuly 23, 2014 at 9:28 AM

    Great price! I love when people get a deal, and you got one there!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CroftJuly 23, 2014 at 11:17 AM

      They were regularly $149 so, yes it was a good deal.

      Delete
  2. Betsy BrownJuly 23, 2014 at 9:34 AM

    Thanks for this. We've been talking about an ice maker. Husband is now busy researching.....

    ReplyDelete
  3. RaeJuly 23, 2014 at 11:50 AM

    Your RV is turning into a 'party bus'! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. René and Jeanette GenereuxJuly 23, 2014 at 4:53 PM

    Nice ice maker. It will come in handy for deck & RV hosting. The good weather is slated for your Saturday party.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CroftJuly 23, 2014 at 8:42 PM

      I hope the weather smartens up. There are usually too many people to move it inside.

      Delete
  5. our awesome travelsJuly 23, 2014 at 5:29 PM

    Good deal on the ice maker.
    Not for us though we don't use much ice. Maybe bought 1 or two bags in 9 years on the road and that was only for company.

    ReplyDelete
  6. RickJuly 23, 2014 at 7:01 PM

    Good deal, Croft. An ice maker is on our list too - wish I'd seen that deal at London Drugs! We want one to make ice for an outside cooler while we're in Palm Springs so we can store water instead of it filling up our RV fridge.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CroftJuly 23, 2014 at 8:43 PM

      It is going to make things much easier down south.

      Delete
  7. living.boondockingmexicoJuly 24, 2014 at 4:39 AM

    I guess you won't need us anymore :( Looks like a good addition! Nothing like a vodka on the rocks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CroftJuly 24, 2014 at 7:42 AM

      We still need you Chris, but no more "borrowing" ice! We can now make our own "rocks".

      Delete
  8. Sue and BrianJuly 24, 2014 at 8:27 AM

    Now you are going to have to start drinking faster to keep up with the icemaker!

    ReplyDelete
  9. CalypsoJuly 24, 2014 at 8:48 AM

    What model specifically Croft? Runs on 12 volt and AC ???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. CroftJuly 24, 2014 at 9:02 AM

      Igloo model ICE101 AC only but the inverter should handle it while we are traveling. 120 watts or +/- 1 amp current draw.

      http://www.amazon.com/Igloo-Portable-Ice-Maker-Black/dp/B00JK06ODI

      Delete
    2. CroftJuly 25, 2014 at 9:03 AM

      Correction. It says 1.7 amps on the unit.

      Delete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)