Undercounter Ice Maker?

[statsman 5675]

Please educate me. We are remodeling kitchen and need an undercounter ice maker. We already have a water line to the location. 
Any tips on a reliable ice maker (for undercounter installation, not portable) that is a good value (cannot imagine what goes into a Scotsman ice cube to make it three times more costly than a Whirlpool ice cube)? Looking for reliability, value and esthetics (combo of steel and glass). Thanks 

[CooterBrown 18272]

I’ve always heard Hoshizaki makes the best ice makers. Anecdotally, I’ve never seen our Hoshizaki ice machines at work being repaired once in 12 years. The Whirlpool one was repaired annually.

I would do this one since it produces nugget ice. The smaller the cubes, the better, IMO.

https://www.katom.com/440-C80BAJAD.html?gclid=CjwKCAjwlqOXBhBqEiwA-hhitJ0Jm9HLg_gvOjozljIN5o6hv9ERc7Q1ZzzfEEPOPIAvSpdxHV3MjRoChxEQAvD_BwE

[bborange 10338]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:09 AM, statsman said:

Please educate me. We are remodeling kitchen and need an undercounter ice maker. We already have a water line to the location. 
Any tips on a reliable ice maker (for undercounter installation, not portable) that is a good value (cannot imagine what goes into a Scotsman ice cube to make it three times more costly than a Whirlpool ice cube)? Looking for reliability, value and esthetics (combo of steel and glass). Thanks 

 

We purchased and installed a Scotsmand undercounter cube ice maker over 7 years ago.  It makes perfect cube ice and we researched a lot before buying as we were spending too much money on bags of ice.   I think we paid about $2200 for the ice maker and installation back in early 2015.   No issues with it so far and it is a great ice maker.  

Only negative so far is it can be loud so we limit when we run it to make more ice.  Normally, we run it overnight.  I would suggest putting some sound proofing the area where you install it.   Next house in a couple of years, we will change where we put it and the pantry right now is the leading location.     

[statsman 5675]

Thanks. Honestly, I was hoping to get something more in the $1k range, maybe a few hundred more. I know those are the lesser brands. Any knowledge of them?

[Native Horn 3569]

Only thing I'll add is to figure out if the icemaker you settle on requires a floor drain.  Some do, some don't.  

I had a GE Profile undercounter - it was pretty decent.  

[oSuJeff97 3438]

I'm kind of curious - what is the draw of the undercounter ice maker?

Is it that you need that much ice? Is this from entertaining all of the time? Lots of kids?

About the only time I've ever felt like I needed more ice than what my ice maker in my freezer makes is when we were hosting a good-sized party at my house and then I would just run down to QT and grab 3-4 bags of ice and be good to go.  So I guess if I was doing something like that almost every weekend it would be nice to have the auxiliary ice maker, but outside of that I don't see how I would need that much ice....?

So what I'm saying is tell me why I need to go buy one right now so I can let the wife know we are getting and undercounter ice maker.

 

 

[Gene Parmesan 4062]

6 minutes ago, oSuJeff97 said:

I'm kind of curious - what is the draw of the undercounter ice maker?

Is it that you need that much ice? Is this from entertaining all of the time? Lots of kids?

About the only time I've ever felt like I needed more ice than what my ice maker in my freezer makes is when we were hosting a good-sized party at my house and then I would just run down to QT and grab 3-4 bags of ice and be good to go.  So I guess if I was doing something like that almost every weekend it would be nice to have the auxiliary ice maker, but outside of that I don't see how I would need that much ice....?

So what I'm saying is tell me why I need to go buy one right now so I can let the wife know we are getting and undercounter ice maker.

 

 

I didn't go with undercounter because there are more cost effective ways to get a lot of ice, but I did look into them.  Fridge ice maker couldn't keep up with demand from wife and 3 kids.  When schools opened back up the wife and kids would drain the fridge maker completely in the morning feeling up water bottles.  Throw in we were still buying ice for lake trips on the weekends.  I have a counter top that's paid for itself already just in bagged ice savings.  I'll store reserves in the deep freeze in the garage.  An undercounter would be more of just the ultimate convenience.  They also generally make a prettier cube than you typical fridge.  Like I said it's a flex more than anything.

[oSuJeff97 3438]

Just now, Gene Parmesan said:

I didn't go with undercounter because there are more cost effective ways to get a lot of ice, but I did look into them.  Fridge ice maker couldn't keep up with demand from wife and 3 kids.  When schools opened back up the wife and kids would drain the fridge maker completely in the morning feeling up water bottles.  Throw in we were still buying ice for lake trips on the weekends.  I have a counter top that's paid for itself already just in bagged ice savings.  I'll store reserves in the deep freeze in the garage.  An undercounter would be more of just the ultimate convenience.  They also generally make a prettier cube than you typical fridge.  Like I said it's a flex more than anything.

Thanks that makes sense.

We just don't go through that much only having a newborn and toddler... I assume as the kids get older our ice demand will increase significantly.

[Gene Parmesan 4062]

2 minutes ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Thanks that makes sense.

We just don't go through that much only having a newborn and toddler... I assume as the kids get older our ice demand will increase significantly.

My kids are shitheads.  They'll find the biggest glass they can find to fill with ice for a sip of water and never touch it again.  Plus my fridge is a Samsung so I just shut the ice maker off once we get countertop one because I was tired of dealing with it.  If I were building or remodeling, I'd would opt for an undercounter just for the convenience, but I can't justify as a stand alone purchase.

[You don't know me 1163]

8 minutes ago, Gene Parmesan said:

My kids are shitheads.  They'll find the biggest glass they can find to fill with ice for a sip of water and never touch it again.  Plus my fridge is a Samsung so I just shut the ice maker off once we get countertop one because I was tired of dealing with it.  If I were building or remodeling, I'd would opt for an undercounter just for the convenience, but I can't justify as a stand alone purchase.

Correction:  All kids are shitheads.  They'll find the biggest glass.....

[Updawg 2378]

And then get a new one 10 mins later

[Dutchrudder 11228]

2 hours ago, Gene Parmesan said:

My kids are shitheads.  They'll find the biggest glass they can find to fill with ice for a sip of water and never touch it again.  Plus my fridge is a Samsung so I just shut the ice maker off once we get countertop one because I was tired of dealing with it.  If I were building or remodeling, I'd would opt for an undercounter just for the convenience, but I can't justify as a stand alone purchase.

You should hire an actor to spectacularly slip and fall on one of the puddles created by the condensation of the kids glass. Have him really play it up, screaming, flailing and falling to the ground. Maybe have his arm fly off in the process. Then as the kids are screaming their asses off at this trainwreck of an accident, have him stand up get in their faces and completely deadpan say, "And that's why we don't leave big glasses of water all over the house."

I bet it would scare them straight.

Edited August 4, 2022 by Dutchrudder

[Dutchrudder 11228]

On the subject of ice makers (this may or may not be what you need), I recently purchased a GE Profile 2.0 from Costco for my wife's birthday.  She loves Sonic ice, and this thing really does make it that way. Soft ice, good crunch and in small pieces is ideal for ice chewers.  She loves it, told all her friends about it, and uses it every day now. It sits on our appliance counter top, and runs 1.5 hours 3 times a day (each meal time) to make ice for her.  It uses a separate tank for water filling, but it's easy to refill.  Only issue with it is the noise it sometimes makes, kind of an intermittent rattle. If you want soft ice, it's great.  

[Dutchrudder 11228]

Sorry, meant GE Profile Opal 2.0.  Here's a link to it:

GE Profile Opal 2.0 | Countertop Nugget Ice Maker with Side Tank | Ice Machine with WiFi Connectivity | Smart Home Kitchen Essentials | Stainless Steel https://a.co/d/iuFkBHB

[statsman 5675]

Thanks. The reason for the purchase? Our remodel’s esthetics drove us to a counter depth refrigerator, so we have less ice capacity. This will fix that. 

[bborange 10338]

On 8/3/2022 at 9:39 PM, statsman said:

Thanks. Honestly, I was hoping to get something more in the $1k range, maybe a few hundred more. I know those are the lesser brands. Any knowledge of them?

Where we currently live, I have the Scotsman in the kitchen, but we do have a GE model in our bar area.   The Scotsman is what we mostly used, but the previous owner had the 2 GE Ice makers so we removed one and put the Scotsman as we prefer that model.  GE works fine and my guess they are a lower priced option.   The GE model make ice flakes.

 

Edited August 5, 2022 by bborange

[dcbc 14643]

On 8/2/2022 at 8:34 AM, CooterBrown said:

I would do this one since it produces nugget ice

[CSB]My parents used to have an in wall ice maker in the hallway to their kitchen which produced ice I can only link on the web to something referred to as "gourmet ice."  It was cylindrical with a dimple on the top that pressed that end of the cube into a slight lip.  It was quite good, but I never thought to look up how to describe it.[/CSB]

Edited August 5, 2022 by dcbc

[dcbc 14643]

On 8/4/2022 at 10:52 AM, Updawg said:

And then get a new one 10 mins later

And fill it with all the ice.

[dcbc 14643]

On 8/4/2022 at 12:50 PM, Dutchrudder said:

Sorry, meant GE Profile Opal 2.0.  Here's a link to it:

GE Profile Opal 2.0 | Countertop Nugget Ice Maker with Side Tank | Ice Machine with WiFi Connectivity | Smart Home Kitchen Essentials | Stainless Steel https://a.co/d/iuFkBHB

That thing looks huge.  Is it?

[Gil Bang 26176]

On 8/4/2022 at 6:10 AM, Native Horn said:

Only thing I'll add is to figure out if the icemaker you settle on requires a floor drain.  Some do, some don't.  

I had a GE Profile undercounter - it was pretty decent.  

The workaround for that is a condensate pump, pumping the runoff into a (hopefully nearby) drain line.  But, you've gotta have room for the pump behind the icemaker. 

 

At our surgery centers, we always installed Scotsman, and they were really reliable.

[Dutchrudder 11228]

3 hours ago, dcbc said:

That thing looks huge.  Is it?

Yeah, it's kinda big. The unit itself is 17.5 tall x 13.43 deep x 16.5 inches wide. It's pretty heavy too, but once you get it setup, you only need to fill the water tank on the side.  I have it on a schedule to make ice for 1 hour at 6am, 11am and 5pm for meal times, otherwise it will make ice all day and night, which is a waste of energy.  

We do have a whole home water filter and softener, and I would recommend getting one of those for your house regardless, but this machine will perform much better if the water is filtered first. You could buy distilled water for $1 a gallon at the store and use that too, but either way, you need to keep scale and hardness out of the machine for longevity, and to reduce the frequency of cleaning. 

[Baboontyme 2875]

On 8/4/2022 at 10:52 AM, Gene Parmesan said:

I didn't go with undercounter because there are more cost effective ways to get a lot of ice, but I did look into them.  Fridge ice maker couldn't keep up with demand from wife and 3 kids.  When schools opened back up the wife and kids would drain the fridge maker completely in the morning feeling up water bottles.  Throw in we were still buying ice for lake trips on the weekends.  I have a counter top that's paid for itself already just in bagged ice savings.  I'll store reserves in the deep freeze in the garage.  An undercounter would be more of just the ultimate convenience.  They also generally make a prettier cube than you typical fridge.  Like I said it's a flex more than anything.

I am you, you are me.

I'm not looking for under counter. I'm fine with manually filling a counter top one. I see the GE Profile linked. Other recommendations? 

[Bevo 13825]

On 8/3/2022 at 8:53 PM, bborange said:

 

We purchased and installed a Scotsmand undercounter cube ice maker over 7 years ago.  It makes perfect cube ice and we researched a lot before buying as we were spending too much money on bags of ice.   I think we paid about $2200 for the ice maker and installation back in early 2015.   No issues with it so far and it is a great ice maker.  

Only negative so far is it can be loud so we limit when we run it to make more ice.  Normally, we run it overnight.  I would suggest putting some sound proofing the area where you install it.   Next house in a couple of years, we will change where we put it and the pantry right now is the leading location.     

That's probably the right answer. Follett makes some nice looking semi-compact countertop designs but I don't think they get great reviews for reliability. Thor has the best value for built-in ice makers but check with their reliability and noise levels. That is who I would probably go with, but I'm cheap.

[Horns99 172]

Kitchen aid here - just had to order a new one - $2400, if you get the 15” vs 18” it’s a little cheaper. The wife & kids love it. We don’t even have the ice maker in the fridge hooked up.