How Much Money Will a Portable Ice Maker Save Me?

Whether you’re hosting a hundred guests or just serving your family dinner, you’ll find that one commodity is always in short supply. It’s got a short shelf life, it’s bulky, and it’s hard to keep fresh, yet you’ve got to have it. It’s ice. According to Prima Supply, a restaurant will use about 1.7 pounds of ice per customer. That’s an enormous amount, and you have to consider that restaurants are generally shaded, air-conditioned environments. Your ice needs per person can be considerably greater when you’ve got outdoor gatherings without climate control. Even when you’re just dining in with the family, you’re likely to use more ice in hot-weather months than your refrigerator can easily produce.

The Problem of Bulky Ice Bags

Water is one of the only known liquids that expands when it freezes. That’s a major hassle when it comes to storage. Most of us have small freezers that are already packed with frozen foods. Stuffing in a relatively modest-sized ice bag (say, a ten-pounder) requires Tetris-like skills. Adding a second bag may be impossible.

Don’t Get Stuck Feeding the Cooler

In any case, when you’re entertaining you won’t want your ice in the kitchen freezer. You’ll want it outside where the action is, in convenient portable coolers. But ice in coolers won’t stay frozen for days at a time. That means you’re going to have to get that ice at the last minute. Few things are more irritating than having to make a mad dash to the grocery store when your guests are just starting to arrive. Bags of ice are uncomfortably cold to the touch and slippery with condensation, and they leak in your car. It’s notoriously difficult to keep store-bought ice clean. It always seems to pick up some dust or dirt when you set it down. And all that plastic goes right into the trash; it’s not recyclable and doesn’t do a bit of good for the natural environment.

Also, you may not realize when you’re buying store-bought ice that you’re paying an almost astronomical markup. That ten-pound bag of ice that you’re paying up to three dollars for costs only $0.25 to produce. That’s what we call a rip-off.

The Solution: A Portable Ice Maker

Chances are, the ice you use is taking a long, meandering journey from where it’s made to where you use it. Say you’re going for a picnic. You have to drive to the store to get ice, take it home and keep it cold, then drive to your destination. You’re spending time, money, electricity and gasoline right when you’d most like to be focused on having fun.

There’s a better way. Grab yourself a portable ice maker that will manufacture ice when you need it, where you need it, and some will even store it and keep it cold. A great example is the NewAir AI-215R Portable Ice Maker. The NewAir AI-215R makes ice in as little as 13 minutes. That’s a huge convenience when you need ice right away, which is almost any time you need ice!

You’ll want to know that your ice source is handy, convenient and tidy. You don’t want a flimsy cooler leaking ice melt all over your car seat, and you don’t want to drag around a machine that weighs a ton. Fortunately, the AI-215R has overflow protection and is so compact that taking it with you on the go is a snap. It fits easily on any counter top or table, and not to mention your trunk or the back seat of your car.

 There’s ice, and then there’s ice

And instead of the jagged chunks you’ll get with store-bought ice, the AI-215R will provide you with beautiful, well-shaped ice bullets. You can choose from three different sizes of ice depending on your needs. Little details matter. Your guests will note whether you’re serving unappetizing, cloudy, misshapen ice cubes in their beverages. And they’ll also notice if you serve them clear, sleek bullets of high-quality ice.

Ice On Your Terms

The last thing you want when you’re entertaining is to deal with complex knobs and gauges. The NewAir AI-215R puts you in charge with an LCD display and a highly intuitive push-button interface. You’ll spend less time messing with technology and more time enjoying yourself. And isn’t that how good design works? It fades into the background so you never have to think about it.

Just fill the tank and plug it in – your ice maker will do the rest.

Do your parties run a little to the large side? Do you just like to have the best of everything? The NewAir AI-100R  offers all the features of the AI-215R plus a number of attractive additional features. The AI-100R can produce up to 28 pounds of ice per day, and can make ice in as little as six minutes. With the AI-100R, you’ll never be caught short with your ice needs.

So, How Much Will I Save?

If restaurants plan to have 1.7 pounds of ice per person, then you’ll want to have at least 2 pounds of ice per person to account for the outdoor elements melting your ice.

To find the cost of bagged ice for your party:

# guests x 2= Ice (Amount of ice you’ll need in pounds)

Ice/10=# of 10 lb. bags you’ll need

# of bags x $3 (or price of bag of ice)= price of ice for one party

To find the cost of ice with a portable ice maker for your party:

Ice x .25= price to operate your portable ice maker

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