Best Ice Maker for Home Bars: Portable, Lightweight, and Safe
Nowadays, most of us love to sit down and have a drinking session with our friends, family, or significant others in the comfort of our home. Having a home bar that is full of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages is not enough if you do not have the right appliances to use.
A refrigerator is essential for you to store ice, fruits, and drinks while a wine cooler is designed for your red and white wine bottles. Also, the best ice maker for home bars is an excellent alternative to making ice for your on-the-rocks drinks.
As an overview, an ice machine is a stand-alone product that has a refrigeration system, dispenser, and control buttons that is used to make ice quickly and conveniently. It must be connected to the electrical outlet for it to work and needs to be loaded with water.
You can find two types which are the portable or countertop and built-in or freestanding models. Thus, when you scout for a brand that you will place in your home bar, you will be overwhelmed since there are a lot.
With that in mind, to help you out and lessen your burden, we have chosen three of the best ice maker for home bars and evaluated them. As such, you can quickly select which one works for your needs, wants, and lifestyles.
Best Ice Maker for Home Bars: Our Top Picks
Below, we have listed the features, pros, and cons of three portable ice makers that can be used for small and large home bars.
Gourmia GI500 Electric Ice Maker
Gourmia is a New York-based company that has been committed to manufacturing small kitchen appliances for several decades. The Gourmia GI500 Electric Ice Makeris their smallest ice maker model that comes with a service warranty.
Features
- Size dimension is at 12.5 x 10 x 14.5 inches
- Weighs approximately 25.5 pounds
- Available Color: Silver
- The body is constructed using stainless steel material.
- Illuminated display screen
- Three-quart water tank
- Interior has an insulation system
- Ice storage capacity: 1.5 pounds
- Maximum weight or pieces of ice produced from 10 to 15 minutes: two pounds or nine pieces
- It can produce about 20 to 30 pounds of ice daily.
- Automated and easy-to-program control panels.
- Three cube sizes to choose from
- Equipped with a clock, timer, alarm, rubberized drain plug, and an auto-shutoff system
- Comes with a plastic ice scoop
Pros
- Lightweight, compact, and powerful
- Makes a sound when it needs to be refilled and when it is in standby mode
- Easy to use and program
- Programmable settings allow you to make various sizes of ice cubes
- No need to refill the water tank frequently
- Ice cubes made remain fresh, solid, and crisp
- Comes with a downloadable, PDF-format manual
Cons
- The drain plug’s quality is not that excellent and may require regular replacement.
- Display screen is located in front which may require you to kneel down to view it
hOmeLabs Portable Ice Maker
Home or homeLabs is a company that is known for producing modern and affordable kitchen appliances, air-conditioning systems, humidifiers, and dehumidifiers. ThehOmeLabs Portable Ice Maker is one of their products that have an ETL, CE-EMC, CE-LVD, FDA, and ROHS certifications.
Features
- Size dimension: 9.5 x 12.9 x 14 inches
- Approximate weight: 19 pounds
- Color: Silver
- The product’s body is made of BPA-free ABS plastic material.
- Daily ice output: 26 pounds
- Ice storage capacity: 1.5 pounds
- Makes nine pieces of bullet-shaped ice within a minimum of eight minutes and maximum of 12 minutes
- Comes with a plastic ice scoop and removable ice bucket
- Auto-shutoff system
- 30-day, no-questions-asked, money-back guarantee and two-year warranty offers
Pros
- Works quietly
- Lightweight and compact
- Ready and easy to use
- High capacity
- Produces ice quickly
- Display screen is located on top which makes it easier to view
Cons
- Made of plastic which makes it prone to breakages
- No insulation system to keep the ice frozen
- Only one size of ice can be made
Della Portable High Capacity Electric Ice Maker
Della is a USA-based company that is also known for manufacturing home and commercial kitchen appliances. Della Portable High Capacity Electric Ice Maker is one of their portable ice makers that have the simplest design.
Features
- Size dimension is at 15 x 18 x 19 inches
- Approximate weight is 26.1 pounds
- Silver stainless steel body
- Insulated interior
- LED display that has soft-to-touch control panels
- Comes with a plastic scoop and ice bucket that is removable
- Maximum daily ice output: 28 pounds
- Maximum ice storage capacity: two pounds
- Makes a maximum of nine pieces of bullet-shaped ice within six minutes
- Three cube sizes to choose from
- Comes with a manual
- Equipped with a clock, timer, and indicators
Pros
- Lightweight and compact
- Makes small, medium, and large ice cubes quickly
- Ice cubes made remain fresh, solid, and crisp when left inside the product
- Ready and easy to use
- Has indicators for a full bucket and low water level
- Equipped with an overflow protector system that works automatically
- Quiet operation
Cons
- Display screen is located in front which may require you to kneel down to view it
- May not last for two years if constantly used without proper maintenance
Our Verdict
An ice maker is an appliance that can complete your home bar and will ensure that you will not run out of ice while drinking with friends or having a party. The three countertop-type models we have evaluated above are all easy to carry, store, and use.
Hence, you can also use them in your RV, yacht, boat, or bring them to your beach and camping trips so long as there is an electrical outlet. In addition, they also work quietly and have transparent windows for you to view the ice cubes being made.
Amongst the three, the Della Portable High Capacity Electric Ice Maker is the fastest and has the highest ice-storing capacity. It is ideal for someone who cannot monitor the ice maker during operation since it is equipped with a lot of indicators. However, this is only for those who do not regularly need ice cubes for their bars.
On the other hand, the hOmeLabs Portable Ice Maker is recommended for those who do not have enough space in their home bar since it is the smallest amongst the three. The problem, though, is that it only makes one size of ice that should be used immediately since the bucket is not insulated.
With that in mind, if we were to choose, the Gourmia GI500 Electric Ice Maker is our top pick since it is durable and can make and store enough ice cubes of different sizes that will not melt quickly since the product is insulated.
