Two things that make a house party successful are food and drinks. However, when it comes to serving drinks, it is quite impossible to do so without ice and still be called a good host. No one enjoys a warm drink and the only way to save the day is to have an ice maker at home.
Now the said ice maker can be of various types, it might be portable or it might need its own place like a refrigerator. Nevertheless, they are an important asset, and while purchasing an ice maker, here are some features that every consumer should look for.
- Size of the ice maker
The first thing to consider is the size of the ice maker. This is something that one has to choose depending on the amount of space that is available in the house for the said machine.
For people who would want it to occupy minimum space, it is best to go for a portable one that can be placed on the kitchen top or carried to a boat, and can be moved around when necessary. Thankfully they come in varying sizes but one thing to note is that the capacity varies with size.
- Capacity
This is the second factor that one should consider while purchasing the machine – producing and storing capacity of the ice maker. These factors are dependent on the size of the ice maker. One should not go for one that has a very small holding capacity because that is not helpful in the long run, and going for one that has a huge holding capacity does not necessarily serve household requirements either since it leads to waste. The ones with large holding and producing capacities might be useful for business organizations like a cafe. Thus, one must make a choice carefully.
- Working conditions
The optimum working conditions of the ice maker are generally included in the specs and should be easily available to the buyer. One should go for the ones that offer best service covering a wide temperature range. There are ice makers which work perfectly between 10 to 40 degrees even in humid weather, which is precisely the kind of performance that the buyers should be looking for.
- Speed
Another thing to consider is how fast it can make the ice. Understandably, one should go for the ones that requires the minimum amount of time to produce ice from water.
- Cost
The portable ice makers can cost anything between $100 to $250. The bigger ones cost more. The consumers should not compromise on the quality of the ice maker merely for the sake of the price. A lot of these machines that come at cheaper prices have low durability and begin to malfunction only after a while. It is better to compare the different available brands, their rating and prices before making a purchase.
- Self-cleaning
This is a very helpful feature that consumers should look out for. The ones that come with built-in self-cleaning feature reduce a great deal of work for the owner and must get a preference over the ones that do not have the feature.