During my post How to quit drinking coffee I shared a picture of my main work area with one of those small fridges you can find for around $50-150. One of the problems with those tiny fridges is the small freezer. I love drinking cold water, like just near the point of becoming ice and along with a slice of lemon. Keeping the fridge too near freezing can result in turning the water to blocks of ice which can also build up the ice on the coils and require more frequent defrosting. Filling a bunch of ice trays is a hassle with a minimum amount of ice. So how to keep a constant flow of ice in your home or office?

Mr. Freeze.

Mr. Freeze is about the size of the small fridge and will make up to 35 pounds of ice per day in three different sizes: small, medium and large. Even with the largest cubes they fit snugly in glasses and melt down very nicely.

Unpacking Mr. Freeze model MIM-88 was a matter of cutting both sides of the box, tipping and pushing through the bottom. It is tightly packed with styrofoam on each side and encased in plastic. Similar to printers, key parts were taped off to protect movement during shipping. Remove the tape. The instructions say to let the unit sit for one hour allowing the refrigerant to settle before plugging in which gives plenty of time to clean the insides.

It’s important to clean it very thorougly as I noticed a comment on Amazon (affiliate) about a similar model that there can be a lingering taste to the ice. If that’s a big concern make a few batches of ice and dump them. Then you can cycle out any factory taste, although I didn’t detect any strange taste to the ice and didn’t cycle out any ice.

#1 in red pictured above indicates the ice sensor so the unit knows when to shut off and #2 is where you’ll find the water level indicator. With my weak eyesight I needed to use a flashlight to see the line.

As you’d expect, making ice with Mr. Freeze is a snap: just fill the reservoir beneath the ice tray with water (45 F to 90 F) to the water line, press the power button, select the desired ice size and wait. The colder water seems to make a little better cubes. The ice cycles are as follows:

small ice - 6 minutes per batch
medium ice - 9 minutes
large ice - 12 minutes

The sound it makes creating the ice is very similar to the refrigerator and isn’t overly noisy. You’ll hear the ice drop into the tray. It will take a few hours and ice batches to fill the basket and then a sensor will turn off the unit.

If you leave the ice in the tray too long it melts off and back into the reservoir to be recycled for making new ice. A handy metal scoop is included for conveniently scooping the ice into glasses.

There is a drain spot on the side, making it convenient to drain before going home for the weekend. The instructions recommend changing the water in the reservoir every 24 hours for hygiene purposes. If you are going somewhere over the weekend, just have the unit make all the ice in the reservoir for your trip. No more stops to buy ice from the convenience store. Beware though, it does melt faster than store bought ice, so it might be wise to bag and put in a big freezer for additional hardening.

We purchased Mr. Freeze Model MIM-88 (all pictures above) at Costco for $159.99 USD. A similar but more expensive model: Mr. Freeze Portable Auto Ice Maker - MIM15 can be purchased at Amazon. There doesn’t appear to be much different between the two models besides the color (white) vs. the aluminum, so it appears wiser to skip Amazon and hit the local Costco.

Grade: A

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