Fridges with ice makers - do you have one?

[Iris]

Hi all. Our faithful old fridge is falling apart at the seams and we've decided it is time it was retired to extra-drinks-at-parties duty. So we need to shop for a new one, probably at the post Christmas sales. DH and I are having a dispute about the ice making feature that some fridges have. I want one, he thinks it will be a waste of money. I agree that it probably isn't the best value in the world, but darnit I've wanted one of those fridges that make ice since I was about 7 years old, we won't buy another fridge until this one falls apart and we can afford it. DH is happy for me to get it if I really want it (he's good that way), so I'm not asking for adjudicators in a marital dispute here. I would, however, like a little more feedback before I go on.

So, for those Ehellions with an ice maker - do you use it? Does it make good ice? Would you buy it again on your next fridge? Any other comments/suggestions would be most welcome.

[JoW]

PLUMBING!  Don't forget the plumbing.  A refrigerator with an ice maker has to have a water line.  Many if not most refrigerators now come with a free ice maker.  If there's already a water line to the refrigerator location you might as well get the ice maker.  The same goes if the refrigerator and sink are on the same wall.  Its easy to run a water line from under the sink, through the back of the cupboards, and to the refrigerator.  But if, like in my current house, the refrigerator is diagonally across the room from the sink and the line would have to cross a doorway running the plumbing could cost as much as the refrigerator.

My previous home had a custom-built niche for the refrigerator.  We bought that fridge when when we bought the house.  It had an ice maker, but we used so little ice we lost most of it to evaporation.  We left that refrigerator behind when we moved.  Here I make ice in a separate freezer that is not frost-free.  The ice lasts a lot longer. 

[kckgirl]

I will NEVER have a refrigerator without an ice maker. NEVER. I got really really REALLY tired of being the only one who refilled the ice trays. My family would always leave one cube so the tray wasn't empty and they didn't have to fill it. The next fridge had an ice maker and I will always have one.

[Indigosails]

I love my ice maker and can not imagine not having one. Most fridges come with a filter for the ice maker and water dispenser. Mine can use the filter or not. It has a plug to put in place of the filter. We have wonderful well water and I don't use the filter. The replacement filters can be expensive, so check on that. When I used it I would order it on line for a better price than the dealer.

[suzieQ]

My fridge has TWO ice makers! Our old fridge had the ice maker die years ago, so when we replaced it, and I saw a fridge that had two ice makers I got it! It has one in the freezer and one in the fridge door. Makes 10 pounds of ice a day. I love it!!!!! No more being the only one to fill the ice trays and never getting any ice because everyone else uses the trays and leaves them empty.

We have this fridge: http://www.samsung.com/us/appliances/refrigerators/RF263TEAESR/AA

[magician5]

I am very fond of our ice-making fridge, but on installation we overlooked the option to bypass the water filter. It seems that, when the filter reaches the end of its scheduled service life, replacements are about $25, but buried in the manual are instructions for replacing the filter with an (included) little plug.

The water in our area is just fine, and I have no need to specially filter the ice-maker water. But we lost the little plug. It took $15 to order a replacement plug, which we installed ourselves, and there's no problem at all.

[agentsmith]

If you use your ice, I say go for it.  We don't use ice more than a couple times a year.  When we do, we have to dump/scrape/chip away all the old freezer burnt ice

[JenJay]

Love it! I fill my glass with filtered water far more often than I use the ice, but my kids love having a cup full of crushed ice to suck on - especially in the summer. The filters are spendy (I want to say about $30 for ours?) but they last for a year or so (the fridge will tell you when it needs to be changed).

[Outdoor Girl]

I used to love having an ice maker in the fridge, either just in the freezer or through the door.  It was just so convenient.

But then I got into the drinking water business.  The water that runs to your ice maker and water dispenser in the fridge tends to sit in the pipes, both the line leading to the fridge and in the rest of the house's plumbing, because the ice and water are 'on demand' and you don't run the water to get cold, and thus fresh, the way you would at the kitchen tap.

Water sitting in plastic piping may leach some of the plastisizers out of it; water sitting in copper piping will leach copper out of it and if the pluming is old enough, lead out of the solder.  Here in Ontario, lead solder was banned in 1990 but the lead solder is still available for non-potable water uses and not all plumbers are careful about which kind they grab, especially since the lead solder is easier to work with than the non-lead solder.

If you use the filter option, it will help take some of these things back out of the water.  The filter also removes the chlorine, if you are on a municipal water supply.

[misha412]

I have an ice maker and I love it. I lived for so long having to fill, refill, empty, and trash ice cube trays that it became a pain. I bought my first refrigerator with an icemaker 10 years ago and fell in love.

You have ice at your disposal when you need it. I like ice in my drinks and use it constantly. If you do not use a lot of ice, you can turn the icemaker on and off periodically to fill the tub when it gets low.

To the concerns about water sitting in plastic tubing, all of the water going into the icemaker in my refrigerator goes through a filter I replace every six months. I have had no issues with flavor or particulates in the ice water or ice I get.

[Chickadee]

I have an ice maker, and it's convenient. But.... as others have said the filters are pricey. Mine runs about $30, and we replace it twice a year. We're on well water, and in our area it really needs to be filtered. One more thing to consider (in my experience) is ice makers rarely last as long as the refrigerator. I've had my fridge 4 years, and I'm working on my third ice maker  . Of course, the brand of fridge may have a lot to do with it.

That being said, I love having ice and water on the door. Not having to open the freezer everytime you need ice is great. Of course, I wish I could convince DH of that. He still opens the freezer door and scoops ice out of the inside bin.

So, if you have your heart set on it, get one  .

[Slartibartfast]

We've got some $2 ice trays in the freezer, and that works fine for us.  However, I suspect if we had the ice-and-water-on-demand thing on the fridge door, we'd probably drink more water!  We do have a water filter pitcher thing in the fridge, but it tends to be fridge flavored 

[EmmaJ.]

I love mine. I live in FL and go through a lot of ice.  Even so, I dump out my entire container every couple days and start fresh.

 That's because my ice container is a big open box and you tend to grab the top layer while the bottom layer gets stale or, because of the defrost cycle, turns into one huge block of ice. When i do that, I also dump the first few cycles of new ice (because, as a PP said, the water has been sitting in in the plumbing).

Also, i wish I'd purchased a slightly larger fridge.  Most times it's ok, but that ice container and the mechanics for it takes up a lot of room.  My freezer was very crowded this last month with all the Christmas baking I've been doing.

[rose red]

We've never had an ice maker because nobody in the family knows anything about plumbing.  We have four ice trays and luckily nobody is bad at refilling them.

[buvezdevin]

We have two fridges, both have ice makers - but we don't use the ice maker function on either.

We don't use much ice, other than for entertaining when we would buy extra ice any way.

The fridges we chose just came with the ice making feature, which was no extra cost, we chose the models for other factors so did not much care one way or the other.

If we used more ice, I would turn on the function - nothing against them, but if you do not use ice frequently enough to "turn over" most of the stored ice, it tends to either evaporate, or become ... less desirable ice after sitting indefinitely in the freezer.