vintage ice crusher reviews

Reviews of vintage manual ice crushers

[vintageicecrushers]

Why is this blog

I really really like crushed ice in drinks, and I’ve been looking a while for a vintage ice crusher that works for my moderate home ice-crushing needs (generally 1-2 trays per day). I’ve tried a bunch at this point and reviews of them are rare so I figured I might as well share my experiences! Even identifying which model is which is helpful - SO many ice crushers are called ice-o-mat or ice-o-matic and even within the same brand they can be really different!

The cool thing about vintage ice crushers is that while there are some amazing collectible ones, there are lots of perfectly serviceable and very cool looking ones that are super common, not at all unusual to see in thrift shops for a few dollars and easily gotten for $20 or less (including shipping sometimes!) on ebay, etsy, etc.

Why not just buy a new one?

I have never seen a new hand-cranked ice maker that wasn’t made 99% of plastic. The only metal parts are the actual blades. I’ve bent enough blades on fully metal crushing assemblies to know that metal stuck in plastic is never going to last long with me. There are some other options like one of those bags and a mallet , and those things that look like nutcrackers. But I just like hand-cranking my ice. Also, old ones look cool.

Why not electric?

I just don’t have enough plugs in my kitchen! There are some decent-looking new electric ice crushers. I haven’t tried them. Vintage electrical appliances can work fine but there’s a lot more that can go wrong with them compared to something that is manual. Ice crusher photos on this blog are mostly just photos I found on the internet of the same model/color cause I either don’t have these ice crushers any more or I am too lazy to take a photo.

[vintageicecrushers]

Ice-o-Mat

I forget why i got this, I know I had it at the same time as my Magic Hostess but I never used it. At some point my mom admired my wonderful crushed ice so I gave it to her, but she never used it so when I melted mine I got this one back. This ice crusher has the advantage of a nice solid flared base that sits sturdily on a countertop. The handle is a LITTLE long though so if you’re not careful you’re scraping your knuckles on the countertop. It’s also a LITTLE bit harder to crank, probably mostly because you can’t keep turning it in a smooth circle unless it’s wall-mounted. Like the Magic Hostess and most vintage ice crushers you can turn the handle clockwise for finer ice and counter-clockwise for coarser ice. I thought the bottom part might hold more ice than the magic hostess since it’s not tapered and I never was able to scientifically compare the capacities but based on my observations it holds about the same amount of ice. The fatal flaw with this ice crusher was the plastic bottom part started to crack very badly. Looking at ones that are for sale, this seems like a common problem. It’s just not very thick plastic and despite the advertising for it saying you can use it on the wall or the tabletop, it can’t take the downward pressure of being used on a table top, at least not if you use it as much as I do. You’d think at some point i would just give up and mount an ice crusher on the wall but I REFUSE.

[vintageicecrushers]

Magic Hostess

My first ice crusher had a lot to love about it. If I hadn’t accidentally melted the bottom part when I had to clean up really fast and hid a bunch of stuff in the oven and forgot about it, I might never have gone any further in my ice crusher quest. This has an all-metal top and a bakelite bottom. The capacity of the top part was pretty decent and I found it worked best if you overfilled it a little so the top would push the ice down into the blades. Crushing the ice was really quick and easy. It has little tabs that hold the top to the bottom which is a nice feature I didn’t really appreciate it until I tried ice crushers that didn’t have it. Plus it’s called MAGIC HOSTESS.

The one flaw is that the bottom curves in as it goes down and it’s kind of top-heavy, and if you need to give it an extra hard crank on a wet counter it’s easy to knock it over and send it flying. I think this ice crusher is intended to be used mounted to the wall, as many are.  Also, if you melt and burn the bottom part in an oven it will make your house stink and make you think you might die from the fumes and it will be really really hard to get it off the bottom of the oven AND you will no longer have your nice ice crusher so don’t do that.