Automatic Ice-making Refrigerators

[mrmnp]

You know I am not a Brit when I ask for help about the safety of using community delivered water to make ice cubes. Brits are blessed with the ability to enjoy drinks without ice.

I saw a LG two door frig with an automatic ice makeer for 55K baht at Carrefour and was so tempted as I use an inordinate amount of ice. I am really tired of making ice cubes all the time.

I have called BKK to inquire of the only stand alone ice making machine company in Thailand that makes them small enough for the home. For 60K installed, they have a reasonably sized machine that makes "flaked" ice. However, the water supply must be pump driven to create enough pressure for it to work.

I have a pump driven water system, wherein municipal water fills a very large stainless steel water tank from which water is pumped into the house by an electric pump that turns on automatically when water is drawn inside the house. However, I am concerned about the cleanliness of the water in Chiang Mai. I have always used bottled water, but am told by some the tap water is ok to drink, it just smells bad because of the chlorine. My water coming out of the tap smells awful.

I really wonder, if the standard in-line charcoal filter provided with automatic ice making machines is adequate to make tap water health safe as the automatic ice making machine manager said. He said there are many shops throughout Thailand that uses his machine with just the filter to clear the water supply. I believe the salesman that the filter will remove the smell, but what about the the health imperiling properties?

Can anyone help me?

I have made my own bottled water dispenser by buying a stainless steel water dispenser with spigot, the top diameter of which is just a little smaller than the diameter of the standard water bottle that I put upside therein. Works great and have it in a kitchen cabinet. It is physically higher off the floor than the icemaker in the refrig models available to buy, so my copper pipe man could hook up the frig icemaker copper tube to my drinking water dispenser I now have. My thought is that gravity would be enough to fill the automatic ice maker tray through the factory installed copper fill tube intended to be connected to the house water supply.

My preference would be to hook up the frig icemaker to the pump driven house water supple if the water is drinkable once it has gone through the charcoal filter.

I would be gratefull for any help or information anyone has regarding the drinking safety of Chiang Mai's municipal water supply and the efficacy of any hookup ideas I have made above. Many thanks for your replies.

Surely, there must be some farangs who live in company payed luxury condos that have automatic ice makers in their refrigerators in BKK or otherwise high-end condo dwellers with automatic ice-makers in their units. I see ads for new condos that sell for 20 million baht or more. Don't they have automatic ice-making machines??

[tutsiwarrior]

unless you got no worries about energy consumption I'd say stay away from a kitchen unit with an ice making facility...get some bags from the 7-11 when required, a standard large sized fridge without ice costs as much to operate as a 1 ton split AC unit

however, sounds like you got other requirements like quality (bagged ice is quite good) and volume. If you are looking for an industrial sized facility with specific quality requirements do it the right way, ie., don't ask the guy in Tesco about the performance of his product...he ain't got a clue

go to the local commercial ice producer with proper water treatment facilities and facilities for measuring potability and composition and do a deal.

I'm sure you will find that designing and installing your unit will cost you more in EGAT bills than if you had some professionals handle it instead. Always insist upon performance guarantees and a one year warrantee.

good luck...I never could understand how limeys could drink G&Ts without ice either other than fear of malaria...