fridge with or without ice maker

[remcolent]

The PO installed a household fridge in my exella
I want to replace it with a RV fridge.
Dometic or nordcold.
is a fridge with a icemaker worth the extra $$

[overlander63]

Originally Posted by remcolent

The PO installed a household fridge in my excella
I want to replace it with a RV fridge.
Dometic or norcold.
is a fridge with a icemaker worth the extra $$

Remco, I don't think it's worth the extra money for the amount of ice you would make. You would have to run water lines to the ice maker, too. Usually by the time you have the fridge going long enough to make ice, it will be almost time to go home.

[cameront120]

If you had an ice maker, you'd be very popular during the cocktail hour!

[Jim Foster]

Friends of ours bought a new SOB motorhome a couple of years ago. He wanted an ice maker, she didn't. They got it. She is glad they did. On theirs, no mater what the refer is running on, propane, 12v, 110, the only time the ice maker dumps is on 110. Going down the road it is making ice. When they stop and plug in, or turn on the generator, they have ice. By the next morning, they have loads of ice. When they are boondocking, they turn on the generator before thy retire, first thing in the morning, noon and by evening they have all the ice they need. Boondocking, they need to run ther gen from time to time anyway.

And yes, they are very popular at happy hour. (they are popular anyway, nice folks.)

[Foiled Again]

Where CAN'T you buy a big bag of ice cubes if you want one? I agree, skip this feature. Extra water line equal extra place to have a leak. I usually make lots of extra ice or buy a bag right before I go out on a trip. I often run with the propane off, so a lot of ice in the freezer keeps whatever else is in there frozen, and a jug or two full of cubes keeps the reefer cold too.

If you are FULL-TIMING and enjoy iced beverages as a daily thing, it's a different matter. You know how you plan to use your new toy, you decide.

Paula Ford

[Minnie's Mate]

It seems like even a small built-in ice maker would take up a lot of valuable real estate in an already small freezer compartment. I have a portable table top ice maker that makes lots of ice, but it is noisy and the water has a funny taste after passing throught the drinking water hose even with a filter so I prefer to just by a bag of ice at the beginning of the trip and another mid-trip to have unfouled drinks while camping.

[azflycaster]

Here is our ice maker...

[TBRich]

Seems an ice maker id not worth the bother unless you were full-timing...and just something else to go south. We have a small frig in the Bambi, and though it works quite well, there's not a lot of room in the freezer. We found a square plastic jug with a large mouth and lid that fits in the end of the freezer compartment perfectly with the lid facing out so we don't even have to take it out to get ice...we fill it up with ice cubes when we leave and it stays frozen...we have never run out of ice yet...but then we are not big drinkers. If we did, we'd just buy a bag and refill the jug...and have a lot if iced tea with the rest or ice down a chest of sodas...

[lewster]

Both sides of the coin:

I full-timed for 5 years in a 40' diesel pusher. It had a 4 door Norcold box with ice maker. Yes, it would produce ice only when 120VAC was present, but the quality of the ice was not the best! Don't forget the taste of the ice colors the drinks since the water comes from your fresh tank, even if you filter it like I did.

Now, I work on them all of the time, and the ice maker is the #1 service call on the large MoHos that I work on. If I had to do it from scratch, I would rather buy a bag of ice and keep it in the freezer, or buy a dedicated ice maker (like the U-line models for RVs if I really needed to have my own ice machine ) before I would lose the dedicated freezer space that the ice mechanism requires.

YMMV!

[rawatt06]

Originally Posted by remcolent

The PO installed a household fridge in my exella
I want to replace it with a RV fridge.
Dometic or nordcold.
is a fridge with a icemaker worth the extra $$

Remcolent: We just bought a frig and did not pay that extra. I have to to agree with the others. I have been camping since I was a tot. Some of these places have some bad tasting water. We have always carried our own water in milk jugs. Back then there was not any bottled water and my parents has always used the filters and that does not help. Bag ice is the best, trust me. I still buy bag ice and I do buy bottle water but I still haul milk jugs of water because there is nothing like having water from home!

[overlander63]

Remco, here is a cost-effective alternative to a built-in ice maker. It doesn't hook up to city water, it just plugs in and quickly makes ice cubes. When not in use, it can be stowed away, and not take up freezer space:
Stainless Steel Portable Ice Maker - Camping World

[easyride]

I empty my home ice maker,stick it in freezer for cocktails,also all it will hold of bottled water a couple of days before leaving,run fridge on 12 v.to campsite,then go to 120 v. bottled water works great to cool cooler,and you can even drink it,if you run out of beer. Dave

[vswingfield]

I live in my Excella, so I recently bought a Norcold N841 with an icemaker. I am waiting on a Snyder vent kit to install, it shipped on the 2nd so another weekend before installation. I will be using one of these filters GE Lead/Cyst Quick Change Refrigerator Replacement Filter - GXRLQR at The Home Depot. I already have the same unit with a fixture on the sink replacing the original water filter, so I know that it works well.

Since I live in mine and use quite a bit of ice, I weighed Lew's advice on the service calls and the space taken against the space required for ice trays and a bucket. I found the attachment on another forum (Google turned it up). Someone with an identical Norcold N841 IM found a GE replacement at Lowe's that worked fine. This helped with the peace of mind when ordering. The Camping World in North Little Rock price matched for me, they now have a dedicated customer.

I will have to agree that unless you are spending a lot of time in your Airstream you probably don't need one. I am looking forward to mine, though!