On various estimable recommendations, I picked up a Waring electric ice crusher to aid my current immersion in the world of Tiki/exotic drinks. The unit costs around $75 on the street. I've now been using it daily for a couple weeks. This machine is not the quietest ice crusher ever made—that distinction might belong to a unit I saw in Europe that had an extra plastic shell you lowered over the entire unit during operation—nor is it the loudest. It really isn't really any louder than the vintage hand-cranked ice-o-mat unit I've suffered with for years.
There isn't much to operation: you plug the device in, fully-insert the plastic bucket in the bottom, turn it on, and start dropping ice cubes in the hopper at the top. Your feed technique will depend on the nature of ice cubes at your disposal. My ice cubes are the half-rounded kind produced by my ice maker. The machine has no problem crushing these cubes, but because of their length, they can clog at the feed hole and require jostling with a spoon before falling through to the grinder.
There is nothing particularly uniform about the crushed ice that comes out of this device: you'll get a few large chunks and a fair amount of tiny bits in any mix. I suppose you could feed the larger chunks back through if you wanted. There is no control over the fineness of the crush, nor is the machine wood-chipper fast. I don't find it impractically slow for home use—it's certainly more efficient than a hand-crank—but I doubt this unit would suffice for commercial use, despite the "Pro" in the name.
The crushed ice I'm making has worked just fine for everything I've tried so far. Thumbs up!
Caveat: this device is not a solution for "shaved ice". There are other devices that shave ice, but I no experience with them.
A few tips:
I haven´t found good hand-crank Ice crushers in my area. Most of the ones I´ve had or seen around here are poorly build and barely stand home use (made with SAN plastic mainly). I haven´t used the electric ones as martin mentioned as they aren´t easy to find around here, but sound interesting. I´ve also seen blenders that have an ice crushing function (never owned one myself), some work fairly, some don't, in this case I also find a difficulty on controlling how fine the crush is. Haven´t found any that´s really worth the money here (specially for professional use). Can you recommend any blenders with that function that really work?
Lately I opted for a Louis Bag. It does all right to me for up to medium volume production. It also allows me to have a better control of how fine the crushed ice is to a certain point.
I wanted to hear your thoughts on the use of the bag. Do you use it? In what circumstances? For what volume of production? Pros and cons?
What about ice shavers? I never had one! Any recommendations?
Cheers,
Tony
A Boston tin and a good quality muddler does me. Smash away to order...
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Martin, thanks for your very helpful post. We are interested in getting an ice crusher - and have been considering the Waring IC-70, so your detailed report is quite useful and very timely. I take it you didn't find the non-uniform ice to be a problem for your drinks?
We have a similar need - for all those drinks that are served over crushed ice, however we aren't a bar, we are a commune*, and we throw one to four parties a month. Well, maybe more in the summer, but not 5 days a week. But if we are going to throw a party - in the back yard around the BBQ - it would be quite easy for us to serve 40 to 60 drinks in 2 or 3 hours, so doing it by hand doesn't seem feasible.
We have two approaches to appliances - cheap ones - like toasters - we wear them out in 3 to 4 months and then someone gives us a new one. Suprisingly those $19.95 juicers last forever - until we lose some part. But for something like this, I've been thinking it would be wise to spend a bit of money - go for commercial quality, and after reading your review, I'm wondering what would be the next step up in function/reliability and what would it cost - anyone have suggestions or ideas?
I've used one of the cheap 'shave ice' machines, they work quite well if you are shaving a block of ice frozen in the mold they give you, but they only gave me one mold, and no way to buy more.
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*yes, commune. "Intentional Community" to be more precise, we'll be celebrating our 41rst anniversary next month.
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Hands down, the best Ice Crusher I've ever used is THIS ONE
AlchemistGeorge:
Based on the volumes you're describing, my suspicion is that you need a true commercial ice crusher or perhaps—maybe better—a commercial pellet ice maker. (Clover Club in Brooklyn has added a pellet ice maker to their arsenal and are having great fun with it for juleps and the like.) About the only way you could use the Waring for one of your parties would be to stand there for at least an hour ahead of time crushing ice and transferring it to a bin in a freezer.
Martin
My home ice crusher is the electric Ice-O-Matic by Rival. I'd guess they stopped making these sometime in the 50s, from the styling. They can usually be found on eBay in the area of 35 bucks. Big powerful motor. Adjustable from a fairly fine crush to a coarse crack size. Good consistency of size. Looks cool (mine is in much better cosmetic shape than the one I linked to).
I believe the nugget ice machine at Clover Club is probably the same Scotsman machine they have at Death & Co. and Dutch Kills. They're cool, but I have to admit that I prefer a finer crush.
I used to have one of these when I was a kid. Would love to have one again these days to make folks Mint Julep's with. Wouldn't that be a kick :->
(click the picture to see the ad)
I used one of these at a seminar to demo the Navy Grog ice cone! Sno-Cone toys are GREAT for rendering shaved ice that can be molded into cones, shells, etc., per the old-school exotic drinks. The only problem is volume -- it would take forever to do more than a few drinks at a time.
I picked up an Ice-o-matic on E-Bay, the shipping was more than the cost of the unit Works great for small quantities of ice - 2 to 6 drinks worth
Samuel Lloyd Kinsey: My home ice crusher is the electric Ice-O-Matic by Rival. I'd guess they stopped making these sometime in the 50s, from the styling. They can usually be found on eBay in the area of 35 bucks. Big powerful motor. Adjustable from a fairly fine crush to a coarse crack size. Good consistency of size. Looks cool (mine is in much better cosmetic shape than the one I linked to).
Based solely on this recommendation, I bought one of these machines on ebay, getting lucky and finding one for less than $20 INCLUDING shipping! Boy is this thing great. Its low-level hum when idling is not the least bit bothersome, and it produces very consistent results, based on the size of grind you select. This must be the '68 Chevy of ice crushers, working reliably for decades and looking cool while doing it. Thanks Sam.
I'll have to check out the Ice-O-Matic, thanks for the tip!
I also got a handheld shaver recently at a restaurant equipment store. The owner says that they use these in South America? Basically I freeze a block of ice in a rubbermaid and then shave the top with this tool, it has a thick razor-type blade on the bottom and the shaved ice collects in the chamber. Once you're done shaving, pop the top! I would say it is about a cup of shaved ice, and it is a bit slow.
How fine is the crushed ice the Rival makes? Sounds like a cool little machine.
DaRiv18: I also got a handheld shaver recently at a restaurant equipment store.
I also got a handheld shaver recently at a restaurant equipment store.
What is it doing insed you microwave?
Haha, that's the only decent lighting I can find for my pics! I am operating from my camera phone. Last time, I used my freezer light but ended up with soggy ice for the night :-(