The big challenge is finding a big ice bin to catch the ice. They are hard to find and I would buy that as soon as you see one for sale on craigslist or Ebay. 600 lb is a good size and will fill at least two 150 qt. coolers or a half tote. I got lucky and caught a gas station doing a remodel buying the ice bin they had.

I bought a salvaged scottsman 600 that makes cube ice and set it up outside. It is air cooled and runs on 110 VAC. This is the third or fourth one now and it is going on the 7th season. You probably already know the retail price is crazy. Buy a salvaged machine. Businesses swap them out after just a few years, still working but no longer perfect or making ice suited for hotel or starbucks. Then the installer sells them for a much reduced price, 10% of new to whoever they can find to buy them.

What I recommend is to avoid the water cooled icemaker. It will use alot of water. The air cooled type will heat up an enclosed space. If you have the ability to set up a 220 VAC circuit I would get the higher voltage unit since it will draw less current and you can avoid issues with heating the power cord.

Our icemaker has been running since July. Two to three days a week and the power bill went up about $30 a month average.

 

Great advice there. Had to move mine when we sold the house. Don't have the new place ready yet, being built. My buddy who went "halves" on it set it up in his shop. You need a place for melt water to go, the ice is always melting, and in between cycles water is discharged. His shop gets very warm in the summer when that thing was making ice. Didn't notice it as much when it was in my uninsulated garage. I run it year round, but in the winter turn off between bin fills. Never took the time to check the $$ on the electricity costs. I find it well worth the cost. Just this year we picked up this freezer, I was pretty stoked with this find.

 

I have mine sitting on a tote, with plywood on top to hold it. Probably not as nice as a real ice bin but the price was right. I also have a big chest freezer right next to this and bag the ice then put it in the freezer till it is needed.

 

I have a small I bought from Amazon. It makes 30 pounds of ice a day.

 

Get your neighbor to buy and set one up. Then just use his...

 

I just have the ice drop into an old 150 qt cooler. It takes about 6 or 8 hours to fill the cooler enought that it stops the ice maker. I try to bag and freeze the ice often enough that the cooler doesn't get full. Ice goes in a large dedicated chest freezer. Pretty easy.

 

I just have the ice drop into an old 150 qt cooler. It takes about 6 or 8 hours to fill the cooler enough that it stops the ice maker. I try to bag and freeze the ice often enough that the cooler doesn't get full. Ice goes in a large dedicated chest freezer. Pretty easy.

Grim.. IIonPilgrimg here...
You and my bro have fished together and ... if you ever need #500 lb/dy advance notice... send me a PM.
#500 lb / 24 hrs ... two boats means we need 48 hrs to brew up a tuna party!
(and I'd ride w/ you any day!)
Then... there's the freezer to keep it all cold!

 

So, I'm a little ignorant on all the designs here.

I saw this model that seems to be a stand-alone unit that appears to be the maker and the bin all in one unit - (Description says, its able to produce as much as 51 lbs of ice a day, this model comes with a storage bin that can hold an additional 22 lbs of ice at a time.)
Is there anything wrong with this kind? Its an undercounter Hoshizaki model.

Then the question remains, what type of cubes is best? I like the shaved ice from some of marina's...as its easier to spread around fish and also to make a slurry...but not sure how this balances out with price of ice maker and maintenance of the maker?

-J

 

Guessing you will need to bag the ice and move into a freezer alot, 22# is not much for storage, that's one bag. I know nothing about that type of machine but does look all self contained. Like I mentioned mine needs to be hooked to drain (or in a place where a hose can be routed to constantly drain). What kind of price? That seems pretty small to me more for like a wet bar in a man cave. Mine makes half cubes which have worked fine for years for us.

 

50# a day is not much production. We would burn that just doing one load of crab. Not sure what your use will be. I make 1/2 cubes and need 600# every Friday to take to the fish camp. We chill crab after cooking. At times up to 20 TUNA! get iced on the boat and then the cut fish packed to go home. No one buys ice at fish camp if I can help it.

We don't use at that rate every weekend but I bring the ice anyway. It always gets used somewhere. Later this fall I will use the ice to chill shock the yeast out of 5 gallon carboys of homemade cider to clarify it. An Ice machine is like a pickup truck. You will have many uses for it. Most of those you will have no clue about until after you get the ice machine. 600# a day ice machine will produce that amount of ice in 1 to 1-1/2 days depending on how hot it is outside. On hot days I only get good production at night and shut it down during the hot part of the day.

 

I have a Hoshizaki(believe it makes #1100 lbs in 24 hours)? It's huge(7-8' tall) and is 240v. Set-up in my shop indoors. Came out of a Burger King remodel. Apparently they are sensitive to too much water pressure(likes #20-#25). Had to install a regulator and gauge on incoming water. A lot of water cycles thru the unit and drains out. I start it about April and stop it about now. Clean it well when shut down. The bin will fill 5 huge ice chests and then some. If looking for one keep your eye on fast food/restaurant remodels/closures. It uses a **** ton of power. Our bill sky rockets when it's on(we just installed solar). The convenience is worth the price.

 

Way too small at 50lbs a day. Ice machine rating are true when it is 65 degrees outside, but when it is 90+ the production drops significantly.

I have a 500lb machine with a 300lb bin. I wish I had a 1000lb bin but they can be hard to come by.

Stay air cooled and 120v or 240v depending on what you have available. I would try to find at least a 300lb machine. I have seen people use old chest freezers for ice bins, so I may go down that route. Cube style is not that important, most machines are half cube machine that you find. Flake is great but it can't be loaded into bags and froze, it turns into a brick.

Last piece of advice, install the machine in a location it is easy to get a cooler too. Mine is in my garage in the back, so mid season when I have a disaster in my garage from fishing season it is a pain to load ice into the truck or boat.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

So, I'm hearing...no less than a 300# machine?

How long does the ice typically last in the bin? I assume the bin is just a glorified cooler...there is no refrigerate lines on those bins to keep the ice from slowly melting? Again, I'm ignorant on these ice machines; so any details is much appreciated.

Thanks,

-J

 

You are correct, it will slowly melt over time. My machine cycles a few times a day with a full bin unless it is very hot outside.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

 

You are correct, it will slowly melt over time. My machine cycles a few times a day with a full bin unless it is very hot outside.
Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

That's the thing... you must tune your ice machine for the condition in which it will operate... and you need storage capacity
(colder the better)
Plus (HanSolo) there is melt-off which must be controlled
The more ice you produce, the more efficiency matters
Any wonder ... the price of ice climbs?

 

I see a Scotsman CME256A which does a little over 300# a day, used for $999 & a bin for $200. So ~$1200...is that a good price for a used unit?

 

ee a Scotsman CME256A which does a little over 300# a day, used for $999 & a bin for $200. So ~$1200...is that a good price for a used unit?

YEs that is a good price

 

Love this... " An Ice machine is like a pickup truck. You will have many uses for it."

 

Thanks folks. This has been helpful.

J

 

Have you checked with Automatic Ice co? They get used machines and bins. That's where I purchased mine. Very happy with the machine and the service.

 

I haven't check with Automatic Ice co. Will do that.

What about outside locations for the Ice Maker? I see this at some marina's and such.

I have a metal garage for the boat and would like to mount this on the back concrete pad under an eave. That would be ideal - so that I'm not heating the inside of the building with this thing. Easy access for me to bring the coolers to /from that location. Also looking at getting a stainless steel cleaning station near the vicinity...so it makes ideal to put it there. But not sure what all the ramifications are for putting it outside. Bugs? Higher humidity? Is it just a plain bad idea?

-J

 

Only issue I see with that would be freezing conditions. I put heat tape on my water line and drain line to keep them from freezing. Or just turn off and drain for the winter. That was also what I did when I knew we were goin to have a prolonged cold snap (this was in an uninsulated garage)

 

Drain for winter is the more likely option for me.

How about bugs? Or do these have decent screens to keep the bugs and critters out?

 

A large chest freezer works well as an ice bin, use ¾" plywood for the top with cutouts where needed. good to make it two pieces so it's easy to bucket the ice out of the freezer/ice bin. Ours is in an old utility trailer outside, only slightly better than a roof over it with no walls. It gets hot in the trailer during the summer even at the coast, so we keep the side door open and the back doors slightly open. Having a large freezer to keep bagged ice in would be ideal but if the bin is large enough you can get by without the extra freezer for ice. Don't plug the chest freezer in, it'll just make all the ice into one big ice block. Old chest freezers should not be difficult to find, I paid $25 for ours but that was probably 8 to 10 years ago.

It's really nice to be able to get the boat (or the truck) close to the ice bin for loading up ice, esp for a tuna trip when you're loading 500# of ice in the boat. One of the few times it's easier to have the boat on a trailer rather than moored. For moored boats, at least in Newport, going to the Community ice plant would be much easier and while the cube ice works well, the flake ice works better and is colder, much colder. It's also got some salt in it so it cools the fish better too (lower melting point). I think most of the types of ice cubes world work about the same (smaller would be slightly better) except for the hollow cubes, I would not buy a machine that made hollow cubes.

As stated above, make sure you have a good place for the rinse water to drain and also the melt water.

If you have a large freezer or two to store bagged ice, then a smaller machine will work IF you have the time and dedication to bag ice often starting in early summer.
ron m