Should you get a portable ice maker for your RV or boat? What’s the best ice maker available and what should you expect? Why not just make ice in your RV’s refrigerator?

We see these questions all the time and wanted to share our experience with a portable ice maker for our RV. Are these really worth it? We have the answers.

What is a portable RV ice maker

A portable ice maker is a relatively compact counter-top appliance that can make ice quickly. These smaller appliances work very well in RVs since there are very few RVs that have ice makers built into their refrigerators.

A portable ice maker is really easy to use. You pour in a predetermined amount of water, plug it into a household (120vac) outlet and, a few minutes later, you have ice. There is no need for plumbing or anything more than a typical household (120 volt) outlet.

Advantages of a portable ice maker

The nice thing about having a portable ice maker for your RV is that you get ice. Duh. But it also doesn’t take up any freezer space. Further, RV refrigerators and freezers aren’t the fastest things at making ice.

We have several Tupperware ice trays in the freezer of our RV and, even though we really like our Dometic DMC41010 RV refrigerator, it’s just not super speedy at making ice. If you’re enjoying the company of others and cold drinks are a part of that, the ice trays in our fridge aren’t likely to keep up.

Check out our review of the Dometic DMC4101 RV refrigerator.

Let’s be honest - we can use more ice in our drinks than the refrigerator could make unless we bought several dozen ice trays.

Another advantage of a portable ice maker is just that. It’s portable. So we can use ours inside our RV or we can bring it outside if we’re having company. We have a little table that slots into a railing on the side of our Rockwood Mini Lite and there’s a household power outlet directly underneath that.

It’s as if the darned thing was made for this ice maker.

We also bring it inside the house when we’re not on the road.

The ice donuts, or ice bullets, that a portable ice maker make are also easy for our Cuisinart Evolution X portable battery-powered blender to crush. This is great when I want to get that Margaritaville feeling but I’m boondocking. Or just making healthy smoothies for breakfast. Yeah, that’s it.

Our review of the Cuisinart Evolution X portable battery-powered blender

Specifications of our Countoure portable ice maker that we use in our RV

Can I run a portable ice maker on battery power?

You can actually run one of these ice makers on battery power. In fact you could run the ice maker we have using one of our solar generators, or portable power stations.

These portable ice makers are actually pretty efficient. Ours uses 1.7 amps while it’s making ice but then 2 amps while harvesting ice. I suspect what’s happening is that the ice making system actually heats up a bit to release the ice cubes.

Our review of the Ugreen portable power station

Our review of the Jackery 1500 portable power station

Disadvantages of a portable ice maker

The biggest disadvantage I can find on portable ice makers is that the ice it makes are almost like ice donuts rather than cubes. That’s because of how these things actually work.

The ice compartment is also not cooled, but is insulated. That means that the ice eventually melts. Unless you’re drinking chilled beverages and sharing those with friends.

Of course you need household power (120vac) to operate portable ice makers.

This also wouldn’t be a substitute for buying bags of ice for a cooler. The volume of ice a portable ice maker creates just wouldn’t keep most coolers cold, quite frankly.

This is why we love our Dometic CFX3 75DZ portable powered cooler. You plug it in and it keeps things cold. In fact it’s a larger unit so it has both a refrigerator and freezer compartment and we don’t have to worry about ice.

Our full review of the Dometic CFX3 75DZ portable powered cooler.

Our portable ice maker on a side table that we use while camping in our RV

How do portable ice makers work?

These ice makers are relatively simple. There’s a refrigeration system that freezes a collection of tubes and a water basket.

The refrigeration system freezes the metal tubes and a plastic bucket raises and fills with water. The water freezes around the tubes and, after a prescribed period of time, the water basket lowers.

Then the refrigeration system essentially reverses and the ice cubes drop into a basket. In many cases if the ice starts to melt in the basket it simply drains back into the water reservoir and the process starts over.

Things to look for in a portable ice maker for your RV

There are a few things I would look for if I were buying one of these today.

Easy to clean. I would want a machine that’s easy to clean, particularly in the back where the ice is being made. Ours also has a silicone drain plug so we can empty it out when the party’s over.
Automatic shut-off. Not all of these machines will stop making ice so you’ll want one that does when the ice hopper is full.
Ice size. Our machine can produce two sizes of ice - large and small. We like this feature quite a bit.
Indicator lights. I do like that ours has a light when the ice tray is full and when it’s time to add water.

So which ice maker do we have?

We have a Contoure portable ice maker but the reason we have it is that I got it when a customer didn’t want the ice maker that came with their RV. For whatever reason they simply had no use for an ice maker and asked us to take it out.

I got my trusty Leatherman, unscrewed the ice maker from their RV and brought it home. I’ve had it a number of years now and it still works fine.

I took ours out of a storage building on the property during the heat of summer, filled it with water, and had our first ice within seven minutes. It’s pretty quick.

Which brand is best?

To be very blunt here, brand almost doesn’t matter. Most of these offer pretty much the same functionality and run about the same price. Their performance, too, is pretty similar.

You pour in water and wait 5-10 minutes and get ice. Overall you can make about 20-30 pounds of ice in a day as long as you babysit the ice maker by keeping water in it. This is pretty easy to do.

When it runs out of water, it stops making ice. When the ice compartment is full, it stops making ice.

What I would do is shop for what’s available when it’s time to get a portable ice maker and look at reviews and value. Keep the features I mentioned in mind and shop value.

I love the reviews on Amazon and here is their list of the most highly reviewed portable ice makers.

With the similarity of the different models out there I think the smartest way to choose a portable ice maker is just look at the reviews, watch for a sale and plan to have chilled beverages in short order.