Unitasker Wednesday: Portable ice maker

Need ice on the go? No problem! Skymall has you covered with its Portable Ice Maker. At a light 47.5 pounds, this baby sure is portable. Best of all, it works anywhere — anywhere there’s an electrical outlet. Sure, it only does one thing, but it does it well. It’ll make up to 30 pounds of ice! You’ll never be caught short wherever you go. Just bring along 30 pounds of water. Plus it only takes 24 hours to make ice! At just $399, why would you ever buy a mini-fridge (even at half the price).

Popularity: 6% [?]

Posted by Jerry on Jun 20, 2007 | Comments |

15 comments posted

  1. Posted by Tim - 06/20/2007

    Is a bag or two of ice and a cooler really all that hard?

  2. Posted by Betsbillabong - 06/20/2007

    OK, that is really funny…

  3. Posted by machei - 06/20/2007

    Ahahahaahaha!
    OK, this is the best unitasker yet. :)

  4. Posted by A Tentative Personal Finance Blog - 06/20/2007

    You have to plug it in somewhere don’t you?

  5. Posted by Erin - 06/20/2007

    I’ve been trying to figure out a time when someone would use this … just one single time … and I can’t do it. I can’t think of a single instance when someone would use this.

    Riotous, Jerry. Love it.

  6. Posted by Lulu - 06/20/2007

    BwaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH

    Good Post Dude!!

  7. Posted by nat - 06/20/2007

    HAHA! Who actually buys this stuff?

  8. Posted by Matt - 06/21/2007

    Definitely the best Unitasker thus far.

  9. Posted by Marcus - 06/21/2007

    If this isn’t a piece of clutter, I don’t know what is. Minus one point for unclutterer.com.

  10. Posted by Erin - 06/21/2007

    Marcus –

    The Unitasker Wednesday posts are all jokes.

  11. Posted by Marcus - 06/22/2007

    The jokes on me. I’m new to the site. Thanks for being nice to the newbie.

  12. Posted by Alan Thomas - 06/24/2007

    According to Consumer Reports, the #1 thing that breaks in a fridge is the ice maker, and they recommend buying fridges without them.

    So, following that advice, if you’ve gotta have ice, especially if you entertain often…

  13. Posted by Louise - 06/25/2007

    We have one of these and it is absolutely the right item FOR US for making ice. We live full-time in our RV which is less than 300 square feet. In order to save space in our living area, we have a very small, under the counter, fridge. The freezer part is tiny and we don’t make ice in it. The portable ice maker lives in our storage bay underneath the living area. It takes up less space than a cooler and is much smaller than a mini-fridge. When we have parties way out in a campground, we then make ice. For our lifestyle (admittedly unique) it is just right.

    Beats the heck out of me why OTHER people would buy one, though :-)

  14. Posted by Jerry Brito - 06/25/2007

    Louise- Thanks so much for your comment. Finally! Someone who gets that the solutions and critiques we offer here will work for some and not for others. Louise’s situation is one where this ice maker makes perfect sense. For most people, though, it’s insane, and it’s funny how Sky Mall tries to make it sound so practical.

    On another note, I think it’s incredibly cool you’re living in an RV. It’s a little fantasy of mine. I’ll certainly keep an eye on your blog.

  15. Posted by Alex - 07/10/2007

    Add me to the list of people with one of these (’though I only paid $130 new for mine at Target). Why have one? Because I entertain frequently and it’s far more convenient to have the ice right where the guests are. No waiting hours for ice from the freezer. Contrary to what the article here states, it pumps out the first batch of ice cubes in about 8-10 minutes, with the subsequent batches coming out in 6-7 minutes. 12 cubes each time. The one I bought is rated for 35 lbs of ice per day and I’d certainly believe it.

    For those wondering what else makes this much ice, many of the stand-alone ice makers only crank out 30 lbs of ice a day.

    With it only drawing ~180 watts while it’s running (jumps up to ~220 during the 1-2 minute harvest cycle), I can (and have!) run it off my car. I’m waiting for the hurricanes to arrive. Then every single cent I spent on this unit will be worth its weight in gold. After a hurricane, ice, running water, and electricity are in short supply. I already have a small, ultra-efficient generator, so this just adds one more tool in my arsenal against having to “rough it” just because everyone else is.

Subscribe to this entry's comments

Comments are closed for this entry.