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Questions on Ice Makers & Whole house generators

Doc

Doc

Bottoms Up
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Is an ice maker part of your preping?
During our recent power outage that included all the ice plants that service my area I realized how important an ice maker would be in a SHTF scenario.

I have an ice maker in my fridge/freezer but it is inadequate to keep up with my needs. Looking for recommendations for a self standing home ice maker.

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edit to add:
This started out primarily to be about ice makers but as the thread progressed we got more into whole house generators, so I added that to the title of the thread for easier searching.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

You might check your local Craigslist Doc under buisiness equipment for a good used Manitowoc commercial unit. :wink:

The older units like they have in bars and resturants are fairly easy to maintain if you have any handy man experience, and parts are plenty and reasonable. Here are some examples from Ebay. :smile:


http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=manitowoc+ice+machine
 
Re: Ice Makers?

That is a good idea Doc, but right now I do not have the extra electrical capacity to run one in an emergency.

My emergency electrical plans are centered around using as little gasoline as possible. I'm planning for long term outages and not willing to leave the fort unattended to go gas hunting. Fuel sipping inverter type gasoline generators with the capacity to parallel two or more units during peak demand times seems the most fuel efficient to me.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

My plan.

Using 1 gallon milk jugs (or anything that will hold water), fill with water and keep in your freezer. Since you have less air in your freezer, it'll work more efficiently. If the power goes out, those jugs will keep that freezer nice and cold for a really long time. Take a couple out and put in a fridge to keep it cold.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

bczoom said:
My plan.

Using 1 gallon milk jugs (or anything that will hold water), fill with water and keep in your freezer. Since you have less air in your freezer, it'll work more efficiently. If the power goes out, those jugs will keep that freezer nice and cold for a really long time. Take a couple out and put in a fridge to keep it cold.
Click to expand...

Excellent! :thumb:
 
Re: Ice Makers?

bczoom said:
My plan.

Using 1 gallon milk jugs (or anything that will hold water), fill with water and keep in your freezer. Since you have less air in your freezer, it'll work more efficiently. If the power goes out, those jugs will keep that freezer nice and cold for a really long time. Take a couple out and put in a fridge to keep it cold.
Click to expand...

Great idea. Kudos. :biggrin:
 
Re: Ice Makers?

bczoom said:
My plan.

Using 1 gallon milk jugs (or anything that will hold water), fill with water and keep in your freezer. Since you have less air in your freezer, it'll work more efficiently. If the power goes out, those jugs will keep that freezer nice and cold for a really long time. Take a couple out and put in a fridge to keep it cold.
Click to expand...

This is a really good idea for a short term situation. Keep in mind, though, that these will take up some room.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

PBinWA said:
What do you need an icemaker for? Don't you have a generator for your freezer and fridge?
Click to expand...

Have a generator but do not leave it running when I'm not home, nor when I'm sleeping. Stuff in freezer does not stay cold enough. If I made ice while the generator is running, I could keep stuff really cold in a cooler. Saves on fuel to. In a long term outage fuel savings could be important.

PBinWA said:
Propane Freezer/Fridge?
Click to expand...

Don't know. Still looking at all the options. I only knew of electric ice makers. If they have propane or other types that would sure be interesting. Yeah, I still have plenty of homework to do on this subject.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Rusty Shackleford said:
This is a really good idea for a short term situation. Keep in mind, though, that these will take up some room.
Click to expand...
Yes, they'll take up room. Not necessarily the best solution for a fridge/freezer combo that has a small freezer but for my setup with (3) 20-25 sq/ft deep freezers, there's almost always some space in there. Some freezers need less then others. E.g. a chest requires less then an upright. A freezer filled with bulk items like 1# packages of hamburger need less since those act like a block of ice themselves. The small/thin stuff is what will defrost first.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

bczoom said:
Yes, they'll take up room. Not necessarily the best solution for a fridge/freezer combo that has a small freezer but for my setup with (3) 20-25 sq/ft deep freezers, there's almost always some space in there. Some freezers need less then others. E.g. a chest requires less then an upright. A freezer filled with bulk items like 1# packages of hamburger need less since those act like a block of ice themselves. The small/thin stuff is what will defrost first.
Click to expand...

Right, I love how items like that become coolers themselves. I've noticed tubs of sherbet and ice cream work, too :yum:
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Ice makers = a pretty large draw of power when in the production or ice making cycle which in your case would be every moment the generator is running. Commercial units for the most part drop their ice into what is basically a non-refrigerated cooler where it then slowly melts down to water again, and they also require a drain for the melted ice water disposal.

IMO if concerned about the aspects of long term power outages and refrigeration I'd be leaning towards a power converter and batteries scaled towards my needs to run the required equipment deemed necessary. You could feasibly then run the generator for maybe as little as a few hours a day(?) to recharge the battery bank(S) thus conserving a considerable amount fuel which in itself a major consideration in power crisis. As far as $$ I can't say at the moment, more research would be required on my part but now I gotta go simply because work just called.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Good info Bamby. yeah, an ice maker might not be practical. I've procrastinated on getting a whole house generator hooked into my electrical box. That probably should be what I would be best to focus on, then my fridge and freezers can run 24 7 no problem.

I witnessed the frenzy for ice this past weekend and got me thinking that an ice maker sure would be handy ...even if it is not practical.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Damn it. Just lost a big, long post. Don't have time to re-type so here's the highlights.

Unless you buy a Dargo genset, you probably won't run your "whole house". My 15KW generac won't run the furnace or heat pump.

As I recall, a propane version uses more $ per hour compared to gas. I don't know about NG.

A 15KW won't buy you much more then a 7KW if you manage your breakers (so you rotate things). A 15KW will burn about a gallon an hour and the 7KW a little less then 1/2 of that. My 2KW inverter type runs something like 8 hours on 1 gallon. Get the right size for your needs. As I already posted, a couple gensets of various sizes works best for my needs.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Good info Brian. :tiphat:
Your furnace must be electric or else I suspect the 15kw unit would easily run it. And understood, by whole house I meant I could run most anything in the house, but not all at the same time.

So you are saying you could have two separate generators hooked into specific target zones of my electrical box for better efficiency? I understand what you are saying but have to digest that to get to the savings. I have a practically new 8kw generator that runs on gasoline. I would guess it used about 2 1/2 gallon in a 4 hour period, which would be just a tad more than 1/2 gallon an hour.

A guy running a bait and tackle shop near me installed a unit that comes on automatically when the power goes out, plus it starts up and runs for 1/2 hour once a week or once a month to keep things oiled and running. He has coolers full of stuff so the auto on feature was very important to him. He said all he has to do is change oil once a year and ensure the battery is good and otherwise it pretty much runs on it's own. Sweet setup, and as I understand it setups like that have gotten a whole lot cheaper than they used to be. He had less than 5k in the whole thing.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Yes, my furnace (and whole house) is electric.

No, I do NOT hook up 2 generators at a time to the house. The 2 bigger generators (7.5 and 15KW) are in a location where I can easily connect one or the other. I just choose the size based on the need at that time.

Example. Let's say the power is out for a week
7:00 - 9:00 AM
I get up in the morning, I run the 15KW for a couple hours. It runs all 6 fridges and freezers, heats the hot water (& we take our showers), makes the coffee, run the microwave for breakfast...

9:00 - 11:00 AM
At this point there's very little, if any demand. We normally run without generator for a couple hours.

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Turn off the breaker for the H/W tank.
Fire up the 7.5KW. Let this run for a couple hours to re-cool the fridges/freezers and enough spare to do anything else needed.

1:00 - 5:00 PM
At this point there's very little, if any demand. We normally run without generator for a few hours.

5:00 - 6:00 PM - Fire up the 7.5KW. Let this run for a couple hours to re-cool the fridges/freezers and enough spare to do anything else needed (like dinner) unless we're cooking outside.

6:00 - 8:00 - keep it off.

8:00 - 9:00 - Turn back on H/W tank and fire up the 15KW to get everything caught up before we shut down the house for the night.

9:00 - 11:00 PM (or whatever).
If it's winter or bad weather, run the 2KW to keep a couple lights and a radio running. Otherwise, inverter/battery, use candles or if outside, use lanterns.

That's being plenty generous with the electric. Almost as if you have commercial power. At the end of the day, I used about 5 gallons. If I wanted to scrimp (but still stay comfortable), I'd not run the 15KW at all and would consolidate fridges/freezers and only run the 7.5KW a couple hours a day and use the 2KW for anything else. This means cooking outside and such.
 
Re: Ice Makers?

Ahhh, I got ya. Well planned out strategy. I might very well do something similar.
 
If you evaluate your high load items and stagger their use you can get by with a lot less generator. For example I turn off all double pole breakers before I turn my panel over to generator power. Then after the freezers and fridge have run for a bit I turn on the pump breakers. Get the water you need and flush toilets etc. Now turn off the pump and turn on the water heater. It will heat up in a short while and then it gets shutdown and the pump goes back on and stays on. The important thing is to not have all the freezers and other things starting at once. I can easily run them all at once if I stagger the starts. I don't really need my electric water heater since I have an indirect off the propane boiler. I have not tried running the a/c unit off the generator but would in a situation like this heat wave. I could easily run it by turning off other things.
 
I sort of do the same thing Bill. In the last ppg of my previous post, I eluded to it but wasn't specific. When I fire up the 15KW, it has no problem starting all the freezers and such at the same time. I'd stagger some things on smaller gensets.
 
i ran a camp at a mine with a bank of batterys and an 8 k diesel gen set batterys were on an inverter the gen set came on about twice a day. and when a high demand load like the the dryer came on they burned about 175 gallons of diesel a year real slick system keep in mind here in alaska we have no need for lights at night till the end of the summer and heat is diesel. for back up heat it might be cheaper to buy a little toyo laser 73 and install it and run a smaller generator than try to heat off electric in an emegancy.
 
last year I got a new gas frig to replace the survel that was older than I.


Diamond Elite 19 Cu. Ft. Bisque Propane Gas Refrigerator


DD19QOpenLG.jpg


It uses 1/4 the gas that the survel did
 
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