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kittysmitty
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# Posted: 27 Dec 2018 11:04am - Edited by: kittysmitty
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Went Christmas visiting a friend and they received one of these for Christmas.
Specs say 200 watts. I'm wondering if anyone has done any testing as to how much power is actually used. I would think similar to a fridge there would be a cycle, it would not draw 200 watts 24/7. Also, I understand that it would depend on how much ice is used.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/frigidaire-portable-copper-ice-maker-26-lb-0430924 p.0430924.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAjZLhBRCAARIsAFHWpbGBiOVLT_tSwxsCEekG4wE1-17uHCJb3UKYR8Br c-5HTD5rtMnek5waAg1JEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds#store=465
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kittysmitty
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# Posted: 28 Dec 2018 02:51pm
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OK, lets see if anyone agrees with my calculations.
11.8 kg in 24 hours, so approx .5 kg per hour.
Unit holds 1.2 kg, so it would run for 2.4 hours to fill
so to produce 1.2kg, 2.4 hours x 200 watts equals 480 watts.
now, once the ice is made and the unit is full, it would just run to maintain the ice.
Am I on the right track?
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ICC
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# Posted: 28 Dec 2018 03:29pm
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Heading in the right direction.
The best answer would be to have a meter like the Kill-a-watt available and run a real world test. There are other brand meters available but the Kill-a-watt was the original. I find them quite handy when you have the device already and can run a real world test for a 24 hour period or longer.
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kittysmitty
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# Posted: 28 Dec 2018 03:37pm
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Hello ICC, and yes I have 2 kill-a-watt meters, but I do not have an ice maker, I was hoping someone else had done some testing, before I buy an ice maker. Not sure if I can afford it. Not the cost of the unit, but the amount of power consumed from my solar setup.
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skootamattaschmidty
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2018 11:53am
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I have a similar ice maker that I use at the cabin. I cannot help you with actual power numbers etc but i can tell you that i have a 1000w inverter and it will run it no problem so the surge watts are below that.
The machine runs until the ice basket is full and then it turns off until its emptied. So the machine itself does not stay running, nor does it keep ice frozen, once made. We will use ours and make ice for drinks etc and for the cooler. We are very happy with ours and have been using it about 4 years now and have not bought ice at the cabin.
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Nate R
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# Posted: 29 Dec 2018 04:50pm
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I've read about these and thought about them as an alternative to refrigeration. A low-cost easy option to add ice to a cooler maybe on hot/sunny days (plenty of solar those days)? I don't have hard data on power usage, unfortunately.
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silverwaterlady
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# Posted: 30 Dec 2018 09:19pm
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I thought about purchasing one of them before I had a freezer.
Went to Amazon and read the reviews. Hard to clean and longevity were the biggest issues. Didn't think it was worth the hassle.
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travlrxl
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# Posted: 13 May 2020 07:14am
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I have IKICH Ice Maker for a 2 years now. Nothing to complain about.
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Ontario lakeside
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# Posted: 13 May 2020 11:26am
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We have one, it runs on our system without issues. I don't have a way to measure its consumption.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0mGgOi6I8o
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offgrididaho
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# Posted: 14 May 2020 10:42am
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Just bought one because we need more freezer space for frozen food. It arrives today will try to remember to post what I find when I plug it into the Killawatt.
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offgrididaho
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# Posted: 22 May 2020 03:41pm
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Here's the one I bought on Amazon, I imagine they all work mostly the same but I only have experience with this specific one:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L3CZCMZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00
Tested it with the Killawatt, averages right around 100 watts while running (Killawatt showed exactly 200 watt hours over a 2 hour period). When the compressor kicks in I did see ~250 watts as a surge so you'd want an inverter that could handle that. When the power is on but it's not cooling (i.e. the ice bin is full) it pulls 3-4 watts... pleasantly when you turn the power off it appears to have no ghost load and shows 0 watts (although I don't know exactly how sensitive a Killawatt is).
It's not the quietest thing in the world but it's not too bad... measured with a smartphone app it was ~47db at 1 foot / 27db at 5 feet.
Cubes aren't like you'd get from your freezer ice maker or ice trays, but on the "large" setting they're decent sized... it filled its bin from scratch in right around 2 hours:
Overall I think it's going to be an economic way for us to make some ice and not use the freezer... we have a propane fridge/freezer combo but the freezer is pretty small, when we are at the cabin for a few weeks at a time we use all that space for frozen food and we don't have space to make ice so we're going to use this... mostly want ice in the afternoon / evening for drinks, figure run this for a few hours when our batteries are already topped off and it's free energy 
-- Bass
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gcrank1
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# Posted: 3 Jul 2021 05:24pm
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Ideally you would run it during a good solar day so you are not running off the fully recharged bat-bank, just off the free excess solar; ie, timing is everything.
With a good load or maybe even two of ice each day you should be pretty well set? I know I would be.
Fwiw, the last couple of hot, hard work days at the cabin building deck I was thinking some ice for my thermal water cup would have been great!
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shingobeek
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# Posted: 6 Jul 2021 06:07pm
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S silly question, do you hook water line to it, or put water in it?
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toofewweekends
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# Posted: 6 Jul 2021 09:25pm
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Just pour water in, maybe a half gallon? Mine's at the cabin, 120 miles away, so it's a guess. If you have a choice, use cold water to start. And keep the fan area clear. We've had ours maybe 9 years, no issues. We make sure to drain it completely before we leave. I run it off solar in the sunniest part of the day, as gcrank1 suggested
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darz5150
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# Posted: 7 Jul 2021 10:08pm
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@toofew
Do you use a pure sine wave inverter?
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razmichael
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# Posted: 8 Jul 2021 10:51am
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I've been using a master Chef brand for two seasons. As grank1 notes, we only turn it on on sunny days (although this is just over cautious). I generally use ice blocks in our main cooler but the ice maker does extend the time needed for the 30 minute drive to the corner store for ice by keeping us in cubes for drinks. i am impressed how quickly it starts producing ice and how much it can make in a day.
I do use a modified Sine Wave inverter (HF1800) which does not cause any obvious issue (although may shorten the life of the ice maker). As much as I would like to switch to a pure sine wave, the ice maker and a vacuum are the only 120v things we use so I hard to justify the cost until the HF1800 dies (going on 10 or so years so far).
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