So you’re looking to have a house party and need more than just the ice in the fridge or a college student may need something better than an ice cube tray. RCA has a compact ice maker to help you out with making ice a bit faster to keep your drink ice cold. Check out the review below.
Specifications
- Enjoy a batch of ice in as little as 6 minutes
- 2.3 Quart Reservoir with Electronic LED Controls
- Produces 26lbs of ice per day
- Stores up to 1.5lbs of ice at a time
- Dimensions: 15″ x 11″ x 14.5″
- Weight: 20.2lbs
What’s in the box
- RCA Compact Ice maker
- Ice tray/ice scooper
- Manual
Design
As with any other ice makers out on the market today, RCA is following the trend of making them as compact as possible, but still keeping the look of knowing its an ice maker at a glance. There isn’t too much going on design wise because all the things you really need to know, such as the control buttons are up top. As far as buttons go, there’s only two: ON/OFF and Select (which changes ice size). Slightly above those two buttons are five (5) LED lights that’ll let you know the ice maker is powered on with a green flashing light, which size ice is being made (small or large), and another light letting you know to add water or that the ice tray is full.
Moving up from the lights is a plastic opening showing you how the ice is made and allows you to peek into the ice tray to see how much ice has been made so far. The rest of the top portion is plastic leading to the back of the unit. The entire top half is the lid with two small handles on the side allowing you to left it up and pour more water inside or take ice out.
RCA’s logo is front and center below the lid with the lights and buttons, while the left side is a blank slate and the right side has a vent for air flow. Rounding off to the back you’ll notice more vents to let air out and the power cord attachment.
Performance
When you think of an ice maker, you may start wondering if it’ll take as long to make ice as pouring water into a tray and putting it in the freezer or starting fresh with a dedicated ice tray that’s already in the fridge. During my testing with RCA’s unit, I was able to fill up the tray inside the ice maker within 30 minutes. There are two stages for making ice, the first 8-13 minutes is the water getting used to begin making the ice while the second stage is another 8-13 minutes of the ice forming on the teeth where the ice falls from.
After the ice is made, you’ll get 1.5lbs of ice, which isn’t too bad considering you had to wait about 30 minutes. If you continue to make ice until the end of the day, you’ll get up to 26lbs and that’s awesome versus using a fridge that may only hold about 5lbs. If you don’t want to empty the ice tray out, you will have up to 18 hours (per RCA manual) to use the ice or store it in the freezer. Unfortunately, I didn’t even reach 18 hours before the ice tray was halfway melted. It’s understanding that there’s no way to keep the ice cold with the ice maker powered on or off, or common sense to put the ice somewhere else, but I don’t believe RCA should state that the ice will stay frozen for up to 18 hours.
Price
RCA is pricing their countertop ice maker at $109USD on Amazon and comes in either a red or silver color. The price is a little too much since other ice makers are about $10-20USD less at Amazon, eBay, or Walmart. If it was a little less expensive, then I would say get this as it does the same as pretty much any other ice makers but otherwise, save your money.
Wrap Up
If you’re tired of using a cube tray every time you need to make ice, then definitely get this ice maker. The only drawback is the price of $109USD. I don’t think everyone is willing to put out that much money for something that’ll make ice in 30 minutes and start to melt shortly after.
