Anyone have any suggestions for good, affordable, standalone ice makers?

Following. Everything I've ever heard is that they are nightmares.

Yeah I have one more year left of school and the small, old house I'm moving into in August doesn't have an icemaker so I'm trying to find one. But I know water supply, leaks, cleaning, etc. are all issues.

Fair enough, ideally quick ice production though

pdr0627 said:

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Yeah I have one more year left of school and the small, old house I'm moving into in August doesn't have an icemaker so I'm trying to find one. But I know water supply, leaks, cleaning, etc. are all issues.

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Missed the word small in the original post. Was thinking this was more industrial. Carry on

We bought a GE Opal counter top since we kept running out in the new fridges that have micro ice bins.

No real issues.

Its amazing how long a 20lb bag of ice will last you in a smaller deep freeze that you can also use for all your extra meat... a whole lot cheaper with none of the "ice maker issues"

When remodeling our kitchen I did homework to find a decently reliable one that makes sonic ice. We ended up buying an Ice-o-matic pictured here next to my bar.
All of them are 2700-5000 in cost for under cabinet ice makers. All of them require periodic maintenance so they don't get noisy (which we perform ourselves). If the one you buy doesn't have a pump to actively drain the melting ice water out then you will have slimy slushee not ice. Some companies sell the pump included some don't. My pump was separate and the tech that installed the ice maker installed the pump too.
It's awesome in a lot of ways - much more volume, backup to the fridge ice maker, you buy less ice because you can fill a cooler before you leave the house, etc.

I decided ice sitting in an ice maker wasn't worth spending the money.

I got a 40# Frigidaire bar top ice maker. Generally only need it for parties. Much more cost effective to buy a bag of ice for the freezer when needed otherwise.

I won't be paying to replace the ice maker in my frig.

In the house or in the shop?

Where are you located?

After my third Scotsman under cabinet ice maker, I said never again. Replaced the ice maker with a wine fridge and never looked back. A bag of ice lasts a couple of weeks.

I'm at work and I don't remember the model, but I have an undercounter Kitchen Aid. It was several years old when I bought the house. We have now been there 2 1/2 years and it has been trouble free.

Makes plenty of ice for parties. Needs filter changes about 6-9 months. About every quarter, I empty it and give it a thorough cleaning.

I love it.

Ice0Matic is an inexpensive unit compared to most others. I'm in fast food and go through them, and have had them all. A plain flaker is least maintenance and most trouble free. I run Sonic ice (pelletized) which is a PIA but customers like it.

For home I run a Scotsman 350# demo I found on sale and bought a used 350# bin, and no the output and bin size don't have to match. It just happened that way. Like other appliances, 110 or 230v are a consideration.

pdr0627 said:

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Anyone have any suggestions for good, affordable, standalone ice makers?

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Go to a used restaurant equipment vendor and look for a 50# Manitowoc.

Howdy Dammit said:

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Following. Everything I've ever heard is that they are nightmares.

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My dad owned an HVAC company for 40 years. He loved ice machines. They constantly need something fixed and he got to work on them in the A/C, not in an attic.

I have one of the older style 2 door fridges in my laundry room, it was $700 and has a huge ice bin. That was a whole lot cheaper and more reliable than an ice machine. The icemaker on the kitchen $3,000 Samsung French Door fridge with the micro ice bin crapped out after 6 months. Obviously a second fridge only works if you have the space.

We've got whatever countertop one they sell at Walmart for about $100 in lunch room at work. No issues in over two years of use.

Mine just went out and I'm not replacing it either. I buy a bag of ice every 5-6 days and this is heavy use for us.

I have GEMU090 from Ice-O-Matic and I love it.

We have a Kitchen Aid and Scotsman tophat ice maker. The Scotsman is great for alcoholic drinks.

We have the Kitchenaid 15" under counter ice maker. Makes little cubes. Lots and lots of little cubes. They are around $2,800 for one with a pump, which you almost certainly will need. This is one of my favorite things about our house and it is fantastic for entertaining, which we do often. Even with a house full for several days, we don't run out of ice when its set to max. Have not had a single issue with it. I have a basic canister filter for the bar faucet and ice maker to improve taste and reduce sediment, etc. We clean it when it tells us to or when its been a while. Everyone warned us before we bought this one that they are not worth the trouble, loud, prone to failure, etc. We love this thing and it has been absolutely no trouble in the 5 or so years we've had it.

We're in the process of building a bar in the basement of our second house. I will buy this exact same ice maker again for that project. Friends up the street just built a bar and got the 18" version and they love theirs, as well.

One thing to be aware of, these things use more energy than you might expect because it is constantly making ice. It uses 3X as much power as our main fridge/freezer in the kitchen and is the single largest energy using appliance after the AC unit. It's about $15/mo of power, which is more than worth it to me.

Thanks, but for a college student renting a house for 9 months, this seems unrealistic

Oh, reading comprehension fail on my part! Yeah, get a countertop ice maker. We use to have one of those and it worked pretty well - just have to fill it back up with water occasionally.

All good! Do you have a brand you suggest? Appreciate all the help

Assume you get what you pay for, but does anyone have experience with the MAXX brand? Closer to $1000 and available from Lowes among other places and has the built in pump. We're getting close to building a new house and wife brought up the under-counter freezer "want" last night. Shazzam, here the topic is on TA today.

We stayed in a house in Brenham for a game weekend this past fall and they had one of these ice makers in the bar. It was very loud and we didn't like the ice it made. Notice how the ice making part is mounted vertically in the back of the cabinet. It makes a different style of ice due to that. I think this is how a lot of the cheaper ice makers on Amazon are made, too. Just didn't seem to work very well for the limited time we tried to use it. Maybe if it had time to run for a while and stabilize? Looks like they get decent reviews on the Lowe's website so....?

Got a Scotsman this year to replace a Kitchenaide that crapped out after 4 years. 5 year warranty and make big cubes pretty fast.

I have Scotsman ice makers and they are solid. A few things to consider if getting an ice maker, they are loud when filling up, they are not freezers so the ice starts melting immediately after its made, and clear ice makers are nicer if using ice for drinks.

AnScAggie said:

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I have Scotsman ice makers and they are solid. A few things to consider if getting an ice maker, they are loud when filling up, they are not freezers so the ice starts melting immediately after its made, and clear ice makers are nicer if using ice for drinks.

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Facts ^^ it's noticeably louder than other ice makers, but makes solid ice faster. Having the bigger cubes works great for bourbon drinks. Melts much slower than other ice styles.

We bought about 1 counter top ice maker a year for several years. Ice maker in new refrigerator died at 1 year and 1 month just out of warranty. Typically bought what we could find at Lowes or SAMs for $100ish After 3 or so bought Opal nugget. It died on day 3! We got money back and just buy bagged ice now.

tamc93 said:

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We bought a GE Opal counter top since we kept running out in the new fridges that have micro ice bins.

No real issues.

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If you like Sonic ice the Opal is awesome. It's great for drinks, not something you would want to use to fill an ice chest, but you can do that with the freezer ice machine.

We had the original for several years and it crapped out. In that time GE bought the Opal brand and their quality control was a big improvement.

Bought a GE Opal a month ago. Returned it last week. It worked for about 21 days.

CactusThomas said:

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Bought a GE Opal a month ago. Returned it last week. It worked for about 21 days.

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Well so much for that GE quality control I just mentioned........

I've had a Viking Sonic I've maker for 5 years. No issues.