Home Ice Maker

from home-ice-makers.com

In most kitchens you will find a variety of machines - most people have a fridge, freezer, cooker and microwave, the basic modern essentials for home cooking. However, in recent years we have seen a plethora of new kitchen accessories and gadgets become available and many people have invested in them, finding them really useful. Good examples of these are the bread maker, electric ice cream maker, mini chocolate fountain and a portable ice maker. 

Some people might question the need for such an ice maker. After all, if you have a freezer, you can make ice cubes in it. A fair point and one worth deeper scrutiny. So let's take a look at why and when you might want ice at home.

1. General Entertaining - dinner parties, get-togethers and bbqs. 

Here you are likely to need a reasonable quantity of freshly made ice and if you have a lot of drinks to serve or if the weather is warm and your guests need lots of cool, refreshing drinks, then using your freezer to produce ice cubes from trays of water isn't going to work.  Why?

a) most people have their freezer quite full so it's difficult to make enough space to produce the quantity you are likely to require

b) even if you can find space, what if you haven't got enough ice and have to make more? It's not exactly a quick-fix!

c) some people only have small or chest freezer units or a fridge with a very small ice making compartment, so again there's not enough provision to make a decent quantity of ice cubes. 

With a home ice maker you can produce ice quickly and easily both in advance of your entertaining (storing it in bags in the freezer) and ongoing as and when you need it throughout the party.  Being quite small and not too heavy, a home ice maker is a portable unit so you can use it in the kitchen or utility room or indeed any room/space you wish. All you need is an electrical supply and tap water - you just plug the machine in, fill the water try, switch the machine on, select the size of ice nugget you require (3 sizes to choose from) and away you go!

2. Special Celebrations - Christmas, Anniversaries, Birthdays

All the above points apply here too of course but sometimes with special celebrations, people like to make 'special' drinks such as cocktails and there might be the odd bottle of champagne being served. Having plenty of crushed ice on hand will therefore be important - and that is in addition to the ice you need for chilling standard drinks! 

3. A Home Bar

If you have a small corner of the house with its own drinks cabinet or even perhaps a small bar, then a home ice maker is an ideal accessory. You can choose to display it as a countertop machine or have it under the bar counter (provided there is sufficient air circulation and access for proper use of course just like with any small fridge or bottle cooler). It means you will always have the option of freshly made ice within a matter of minutes whether for yourself, your family, visiting friends or guests. 

A HOME ICE MAKER 

This is a picture of a typical home ice maker. They tend to be stylish and compact in design so do not look out of place on the worktop on display in a kitchen.  Apart from being easy to use and offering all the advantages mentioned above, the home ice maker has another little 'secret' not listed in most of the advertising copy you might come across.

The ice that this particular home ice maker produces (as is the case with most other home ice makers) is nugget shaped - i.e. a cylindrical shape as shown in the photograph.  What's special about that? Well, if you want to store ice in bags in your freezer, this cylindrical nugget shaped ice shape will not tend to stick together as a solid block as much as happens with cube shaped ice. The ice nuggets generally need just a gentle tap to break them loose when they come out of the freezer.

This article has been online for some time now and, as things have moved on in the intervening years, it is considered by some to be far from comprehensive and somewhat outdated.  With this in mind I thought you may find the following article "Best Sonic Ice Machines and Nugget Ice Makers" informative.

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