Good Ice Crusher Recommendations?

[Scout_21]

Does anyone have some good ice crusher recommendations? I would prefer a manual machine either vintage or new. Cheers

Edited January 11, 2009 by Scout_21 (log)

[slkinsey]

Trust me, you do not want a manual ice crusher. Been there. Not going back.

What you want is a vintage Ice-O-Matic ice crusher by Rival, like this one. They can usually be found on eBay for a reasonable price. Just search for "ice crusher" and "rival." You want one of the deco-style ones.

Edited January 11, 2009 by slkinsey (log)

[ray goud]

Well, you could try what my mom used to do, and I did a few times: Put a clean dishtowel in the freezer about an hour before you need the ice. After the hour remove the towel and the ice-to-be-crushed, fold the ice into the towel on a rugged cutting board. Pound on the towel with a wooden mallet, dump the crushed ice into a container, and Voila! crushed ice. It works, requires no purchases, and feels good. The towel in the freezer keeps the crushed ice from sticking to the towel.

Ray

[heidih]

Based on your request for manual and possibly vintage I can recommend the Ice-O-Mat. I got mine for $10 at a flea market and a friend found one at a garage sale for $2. These are for one or two servings only- at least the models we found. Nice ice size, easy to turn.

[DerekW]

I'm fond of our Ice-O-Mat. Sure, it's a one drink at a time process but I enjoy it being 'part of the ritual'.

Made by Metrokane, I found ours remaindered.

[Scout_21]

Thanks everyone for the tips. I think I'll be getting that Rival Ice-o-matic as I didn't know that the manual models only made enough ice for 1-2 servings.

Cheers

[JasmineL]

I just had a flashback to childhood...so much effort...so little ice extracted from my Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker.Suffice to say, when I add an ice crusher to my kitchen...it will be automatic.

[weinoo]

I'm looking for a new ice crusher...a while back, slkinsey donated one to me, but it has since met its demise.

I seem to recall one being touted in a recent magazine (Bon Apetit, Food & Wine??) as being highly efficient and which attached to the counter top via a suction device. Looked and appeared to be good at the task. Anyone have any idea as to what I'm thinking of?

[mkayahara]

In another thread, I recommended the Swing-a-Way ice crusher, which got a good review in Imbibe Magazine. After a few months of use, though, I'm little ambivalent about it. It still works fine, but there's clearly some internal part that's started to rust, so I feel like I have to be more conscientious about rinsing it after use, and drying it as thoroughly as possible. Otherwise, I've been happy with its performance.

[slkinsey]

Go on eBay and get yourself a vintage Rival Ice-o-Matic.

[Chris Amirault]

My Rival Ice-O-Matic just died, and I grabbed one on eBay for six bucks -- but an 810A, not an 800A, which I've always had in the past. This thing is a beast, a bit slower but much more powerful. The ice is all one consistency (but, frankly, the adjustments on the 800A were always finicky to me), but it's less powdery than the 800A results. I love it.

[slkinsey]

Is that the one that looks like a Cylon head?

[Chris Amirault]

Yes. And I am not sure what to make of the fact that you made, and I got, that reference.

Pix tonight.

[Darren72]

Does anyone have experience with the Waring IC70? Amazon now has it for $50.

[thirtyoneknots]

Does anyone have experience with the Waring IC70? Amazon now has it for $50.

I have one of those, and it works very well indeed. The only two reservations I have are minor: One, the chute that ice travels towards the crushing mechanism is rather narrow, so if you have oddly shaped ice (even regular freezer cubes stuck together at angles) you will occasionally have to stick something in there to free it--turn it off first of course. Making sure your ice cubes are separated first mostly eliminates this. Two, and this is minor, it's a fairly coarse crush. This to me is fine for anything short of a julep, and if I'm making juleps I crush ice in my Waring first then run it through a hand crank job to get it really fine.

If you crush ice semi-regularly and have a place to store this thing then go for it.

[Kent Wang]

How loud are the electric crushers? I'm considering a manual one if it will be quieter. The folks at Tiki Central seem to find the manual ones fine.

I posted this over at the blender topic: could I use a Vita-Mix or Blendtec to crush ice, or will that only give me smoothie consistency ice?