Hubby is considering a nice size cabana/tiki bar area to be built alongside the deck of our above ground pool. We have enough other projects we should be doing, but his one seems to be pulling to the top of his list. We've been dreaming up all the things we'd like to include in this build and one of the things I'd like to have is an icemaker. We've talked about having a small refrigerator already, but I'm a frozen beverage kind of gal and hate the idea of running to the house for more ice all the time. Last year we just went back and forth to the kitchen (our first pool season) and we got tired of all the water being brought in by people too impatient to dry off a bit before running inside.... Plus, an outdoor bar space would just be so nice for our entertaining.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience with stand alone ice makers. We won't have room for a standard fridge/freezer combo. I've considered a countertop ice maker, but for the cost am not sure about them. Don't know if they kind of ice they make would make a nice blended beverage or not. Also not sure about them keeping up. Just noticed that there are units that are the size of an apartment fridge, but very few reviews on them and they all seem to make the large crescent cubes... which my magic bullet has a hard time with.

Any suggestions or reviews of ice maker possibilities are much appreciated!! Also, anyone who has an outdoor space like a cabana... any must have's or ideas welcomed to

I have a Scottsman. They are a good brand. Manatowac makes a good line of home ice makers too. How much you want to spend on one? One the size of an apartment fridge with a dedicated water supply isnt too cheap. My Scottsman was $1500 if I remember right.

Ebay is your friend! There's a bout a zillion portable ice machines.......(one less since I bought one).............listed there. Picked up a new Magic Chef for about 119 bucks I think. Did a dry run on it before pool season for a weekend. It'll kick out some cubes! 3 different sizes of "soft" ice.........kinda bullet shaped hollow center. Nothing you're going to chip a tooth crunching on for sure. Should be good support for the old frozen concoction maker. Gonna melt pretty quick as it produces-----the hopper is not insulated, so keep a good small ice chest handy.

Suzi,

Are you looking for a standalone or a counter top?

I had a counter top like this that was ok,



but wanted something more permenant like this that i didnt have to keep filling with water.

I appreciate the comments... unsure yet as to whether countertop or stand alone at this point. I can see pluses and minuses to both. We could make the room for the stand alone I think, but the cost is a bit salty. Counter top would work too as it could be made to fit on a shelf, etc, but can't plumb it in and like woodyp said it doesn't have an insulated storage container.

I love the "pellet" ice, but know I'm never going to find that out by my pool anytime soon unless I visit the local pizza shop that sells it & I would quickly spend the $ for a counter top machine doing that for the summer!

They make those pellet ice machines too. Really any kind/shape of ice you want. But, they are the stand alone machines that run around $1000 or so.

I thought about it at our tiki bar also, but decided that it would be running all the time in the heat of summer, and wouldn't be very efficient. We have an ice maker in the fridge, which is pretty quick. When the hopper is full I dump it in a bag and stick it in the chest freezer. When we are entertaining I'll dump the bag of ice in the cooler/ice bucket at the tiki bar for the night. If we run out, we know the hopper is full in the kitchen.

We don't usually run out, as there will be 4-5 bags full of ice in the chest freezer.

Molson... I considered bagging it from my kitchen ice maker and taking it out in a cooler.. problem is our ice maker barely keeps up with our household demands so there would be little ice for pool time use. Aside from that, it just bit the dust... again, terrible luck with the things.. they never get a break at our house. Problem is we have people over all the time and I'm constantly making fresh iced tea that takes lots of ice. We've had the fridge in the kitchen for probably 13 years and it's second ice maker just died. We have been considering updating our kitchen and I'm looking at upgrading appliances. Hubby said we can make room for the fridge in the garage if I want to keep it. Maybe an option would be to plumb a water line to the garage and fix the ice maker in it for summer time use. Our garage is insulated but not heated, so would have to disconnect the water in the winter but don't use ice in the same kinds of volume in the winter anyway.

I will keep thinking about it. You all have been very helpful in giving ideas... Thank you! I would love to have the pellet ice like I said, but can"t manage the expense or the space for one of those units as I believe they are larger yet. My girlfriends would never leave either if I had one of those ice machines! Between the pool and the "good ice"... who needs anything else?

Hubby's not too concerned about having enough ice around but he's not the one that's always asking someone to pick some up on the way over.. or heading out to get a bag, although I did have him do that yesterday

I got a Kitchen Aid stand alone off craigslist. Stole it from the guy for 100 bucks. Makes up to 50 lb of ice a day and stores something like 25 lbs. The ice is crystal clear, clean ice that is wet and not frozen hard. I don't use my fridge ice anymore. Can't stand it.

I put it in the garage so it will be accessible year round (garage is close to the kitchen. I used the water softener loop and drain plumbing. Best thing I have done in a while.

Since it is not at the pool I use a bucket like this, or a cooler:


There is a pretty common design out there that is produced by many manufacturers. I think the original was Whirlpool. Documentation can be found here: http://www.truetex.com/icemachine.htm

Mine looks like this: