Ice Maker and a Prius...?

[krly]

I was thinking of using an ice maker to continually provide new ice for my ice chest. Looks like they can make up to 26 pounds/day. My Prius could easily handle the power needs. I was wondering if anyone else has tried this ? Opinions ?
KRLY

[some seeing eye]

+easy ice, no wait or logistics
+can use icemaker machine at home
+don't need bike or wagon to fetch ice

-need to bring water to run it
-how many hours, schedule, fuel for Prius, overheating Prius - don't run out of fuel for your trip home
-won't have the fun of waiting in line and chatting at Artica
-machine may be ruined by the dust

People with access to generators do bring chest freezers.

[TT120]

I'm assuming your Prius has a 110 volt inverter in it and that what you plan on running this with. If you use this without running the gasoline engine in the Prius, it will quickly run the battery down. You could hook it up to a genny as well but I'm not sure it makes enough ice to warrant the power use. I'd just buy some ice every other morning at Artica.

[test517]

I have actually tried this a few years ago with a bank of 4 of these. Three things you need to be aware of.
1. They have a temp sensor that gets fouled by the dust, so find that and just plan on cleaning it. It the silver tube that is connected to the board by a wire here:
http://www.edgestar.com/Replacement-Cir ... lt,pd.html

2. The start up draw is pretty impressive (like most freezers). Running it only takes around 100w ,but on start up, 2 of them would kill my 2000W yamaha generator. Plan for this.

3. The lids are not dust tight, so protect them from the dust storms or you will get mud clogging up the plumbing here.


In the end it was more work than it was worth, you only get 4 bags of ice out of it a day and that means someone has to be watching it all day as they are not insulated. Getting ice was just easier for us, but please feel free to try it and let us know. If you have one of these already, plug it in and see what happens. If you are in the Seattle area, I can lend you one to test with before you buy if you like.

Cheers
H

[Just_Joe]

Don't forget , you'll need to buy 25 gallons of containers, fill, pack and then transport the 200 lbs of water.

[Captain Goddammit]

I bring all sorts of shit to BRC. Generators, air compressor, power tools air conditioners etc. I'm not against bringing the machinery to live in BRC with all the comforts of home.
I've thought about ice makers. Most are very troublesome, not reliable, and with the easy availability of ice from Arctica I came to the conclusion they just aren't worth messing with. Your efforts are better spent on a slick method of ice transport.
I do keep a few ice cube trays in my freezer.
But no ice maker machine. Too much weight and bulk and complication to solve a problem that doesn't exist.

[AntiM]

Mod note: moved to Food and Drink as that is a better fit than Open Discussion.

Also though about Power and Illumination forum....

[Captain Goddammit]

I think it's more about the machinery?

[GreyCoyote]

You'll be hauling the same amount of weight either way: 200 lbs of water makes 200 lbs of ice. So why not just haul-in 200 lbs of ice in a chest freezer? Or bring a chest freezer and use it for ice storage once you are there since you have power to run it?

FWIW, we bring several chest freezers chock full of camp food and tamales for gifting. As we empty the first freezer, we send a team over to Arctica with a wagon to haul back 15-20 bags and plonk them in the now empty freezer. This makes for one trip to Artica for the entire burn. It works for us rather nicely.

[mudpuppy000]

You'll be hauling the same amount of weight either way: 200 lbs of water makes 200 lbs of ice. So why not just haul-in 200 lbs of ice in a chest freezer? Or bring a chest freezer and use it for ice storage once you are there since you have power to run it?

Or just put whatever you were going to chill with the ice... in the chest freezer.