Waring Pro IC70 Professional Stainless Steel Large-Capacity Ice Crusher

Little did I know when I started researching a new ice crusher to replace a feature that I lost when I bought a new fridge that there was an entire community of ice-crushing fans, crushed ice chewers, fanatics and aficionados of all sorts who had come before me. Some of these folks are serious! I followed their advice and purchased the Waring Pro IC709 unit. It's sleek, not outrageously loud, and quick. 50 lbs in an hour they claim, but for my purposes...cocktails...the unit is fantastic. I pass out before reaching the 50 lb capacity. The results are small, not slivered, ice bits perfect for mixed drinks like margaritas, etc. Makes excellent ice for display and serving oysters, caviar, and all the really hoity-toity foods eaten by the filthy rich. This is not for snow-cones or shaved ice, this is for crushed ice cubes. Large output container and hopper and easy entry funnel-shaped hopper make it easy use and functional. Living well is truly the best revenge and for that purpose, this device is essential. Shell out the cash and get it today! What are you waiting for; those cubes are melting!

I do not like the standard half-round ice cubes that my fridge produces, so I purchased this machine to process them. The machine will crush all the ice that my fridge can produce in about 5 minutes. I have used it well over a hundred times, and it works, as well now as when I first got it. I found that ice will have a much better consistency if it is not thawed and refrozen, which is the advantage of processing it at home. The ice is much better, than from any restaurant and it is considerably better than the 7 to 20 lb bags I used to purchase from the store. I chew ice all the time and I am very happy with the size. My fridge has the simple water filter that it came with, and the water in my area is not, that good. To address a few complaints in the reviews, since this machine does not have its own refrigeration, if it is very warm when you are using it, the ice will melt and stick together. After a few minutes, the hole, just above the ice container will plug and the ice will not drop into the container. You can easily deal with this, by sticking a short knife, Popsicle stick, or even your finger into the hole and dislodging the ice. You do not need to pour water through it. One hint is to start, by putting the ice container and the funnel in the freezer for a few minutes. It is also good to empty the container more frequently and put the ice in the freezer. You will not be able to fill the funnel up and expect all the ice to feed down without some help. I find that I fill the funnel and it will run for a minute or so, then I need to take a long plastic spoon and shake the ice a little. This machine is also designed for the half round ice cubes and does not work as well with square ice cubes, from ice cube trays. It works, but you will work harder, keeping them from jamming at the end of the funnel. This unit has exceeded my expectations and, has already paid for its self. It is an excellent value

I don't really HATE this unit -- it works great...until the design defect gets you. It WILL happen to you if you use it regularly with ice cubes any larger than tiny. It crushes fine, until one day when the BUILT-IN OBSOLESCENCE kicks in. One of the flimsy nylon spacers between the teeth will give way, and your nice looking otherwise-fine crusher will be of NO USE anymore. You might get a year, maybe even two years, but it WILL happen. All those good reviews here either don't use it much or only use it with tiny cubes. Read all of the "1" and "2" reviews to see how common this problem is. It's as if Waring intentionally wants to make sure that you buy another one every year or two. I've bought TWO of them. The first one lasted a couple of years, then the problem: the middle "tooth" started slipping rendering it useless. I thought "welll, maybe it was an exception". Bought another and here we are 1.5 years later and same tooth is broken (slipping). It's as if I payed $40 each and every year (average over time it lasts) to crush my ice. I did take the first one completely apart to inspect, and indeed the nylon spacers on the shaft eventually deform and there's NOTHING you can do about it. The nut on the shaft is VERY tight and uses a special wrench, so you can't even try to tighten it or disassemble and try other ways to stop the slpping, such as industrial glue on each side of the tang. As mentioned above, this is DEFINITELY a scam to encourage replacements -- they KNOW there's nothing else in its class on the market. The joys of lack of competition... :-(

This machine doesn't shave your ice into snocone material, but it crushes it just like a refrigerator does. This machine is far more powerful, but there are some quirks to note. First, you can't use huge ice cubes in this or it'll jam. I have rubbermaid ice trays that I can only fill half way with water before freezing because the cubes would be too large otherwise. Jams are rather frequent even when I do this, so take that into consideration. Second, the machine will drip for a while after you've finished using it, so either shake it out over the sink once you're done or, as I do, put a small bowl under the chute to collect the dripping water (you could, of course, just put the ice catching plastic tray back underneath, but I like to clean it and let it air dry so I use a different bowl for drips). Third, ice will occasionally get trapped "between" the grind wheels in the machine and you have to shake it while it's crushing for it to actually "grab." This is pretty rare but it happens enough that I wanted to let people know about it. I use this mostly for ice teas and lemonades and I don't think this would work well for alcoholic beverages. I've tried making margaritas in this before and the ice doesn't get chopped fine enough for it to be smooth. I've never found a product that actually blends ice properly (without breaking after a month, at least) for such drinks, but this works well enough for my needs. If you want something to make snocone ice, get the Rival snocone maker from WalMart. It's about $15 and it worked for me for over a year before I bought this. Overall, I give this four stars and not five because of the noted problems above. This is, in general, a great machine but, as with anything, be warned that it has its quirks.

If there is a negative to the Waring Pro, it involves a probably unrealistic expectation on my part. I had expected finer ice--I supposed "shaved" is the correct term--like what you might find in a snow cone. Well, that's not what I get. The ice is simply ground into pieces of varying sizes, from some as small as a kernel of corn or a pea to others as big as a grape (although not, of course, of any uniform shape). That being said, I am still delighted with the purchase. It does indeed produce copious quantities of crushed ice with minimum fuss. Just throw the toggle switch to "on" and feed ice cubes into the hopper on top. Then stand by while the cubes are pulled into the feeding mechanism and watch your ice chips accumulate in the large plastic container on the bottom of the machine. Nothing else left to do but put the crushed ice into a tall glass with an appropriate liquid and enjoy! I had to experiment a bit to find out how fast I could dump cubes into the hopper without causing the feeder to clog (and when it does clog, by the way, clearing the clog is easy), but now that I have the rhythm down, clogging is pretty much a thing of the past. Before I purchased the Waring, I used to crush ice by putting cubes in a cloth bag and whacking at them with a wooden mallet. While that might seem like a good way to let out some aggression, I usually found instead that I would become frustrated and impatient getting through the job. The ease with which I can do the job now makes it well worth the cost of the Waring. The machine seems sturdy. Unless abused, the plastic hopper and collection container aren't going to break from normal use. From the weight of the machine, it's obvious that there's some serious metal in the mechanical section between the hopper and container, and the "on"/"off" toggle switch feels solid. I expect to be enjoying no hassle crushed ice from this machine for years to come.

This product deserves all the five star reviews its received. It's an absolutely a stellar ice crusher. There's one problem; at least it's a problem for me. There are two plastic parts to this appliance, one is the ice bucket that holds the crushed iced and the other is the feeding tube which is not shown in the photo but attaches to the top of the machine. All the appliances in my kitchen are either stainless steel or red and we are neat freaks and always like our house and appliances looking beautiful. Our motto is" we should never be embarrassed if an unexpected guest comes by to visit. Naturally, before using this appliance, for sanitary purposes, I washed the two plastic parts (feeding tube and ice bucket) in warm soapy water to sanitize it and make it ready for it's first use. Waring, the manufacturer, for reasons unbeknownst to me puts a great big huge sticker right on the front of the plastic ice bucket. This sticker started to peel at the edges after washing so I removed the entire sticker because it would look stupid having a sticker on the face of this appliance that's partly peeled off. After removing the sticker, a terrible adhesive substance was left on the front of the ice bucket. I tried everything to get it off but couldn't I Googled "how to remove adhesive from plastic". I bought Goo Gone, and WD-40 and non acetone nail polish remover but the face of the appliance is an absolute disaster. It's just one big adhesive smudge. I contacted Warinn'gs Customer Service Department and they're sending me another ice bucket (kudos to them for that) however, all the ice buckets have this sticker, including the replacement. The customer service rep suggested I use a hair dryer and silicon scraper to remove the sticker. I'm leery though. This is a high end "Professional" appliance. It should not be a problem to have this be an attractive appliance along with all the other stainless steel and red appliances in my kitchen The solution is simple: The manufacturer needs to stop having these stickers put on the ice buckets. The picture of the appliance is shown without any sticker on it and that's how one would expect it to look on their kitchen counter. I'm surprised I was unable to find any other reviews complaining about this. I am sincerely hoping that someone who's experienced this problem will comment on my review with advice on removing the sticker so no residue is left behind. I will change this to a five star review if there's a simple effective remedy to this problem. Otherwise, I'll be returning it, although I really like it and need it. Thanks in advance to anyone who can help.

I thought y'all might like a review from someone who's used it for over a year. I've used several ice crushers, mostly hand-cranked, in the past and NONE of them lasted more than 4 months. I've had handles break, crushing mechanisms fall apart, flakes from chrome coatings, even injured my hand rather severly trying to get crushed ice in the past. I am on dialysis and am limited on my fluid intake. Having crushed ice helps keep me from drinking too much (though I LOVE Pepsi in crushed ice!). So crushed ice is pretty much a must for me. My dialysis unit supplies crushed ice but there have been many times their machine was broken and I had to do without - like murder! I also distill my own water for purest water possible so I prefer my "clean" ice. So I tried to come up with a crushed ice solution. Now to the point... I finally decided to try an electric crusher, fearing so many stories about how they break down easily, don't crush ice well, clog up, etc. I bought this Waring crusher over a year ago and have used it nearly every day since. Yes, I have had clogs. To me it was no big deal. I learned the clogs were just due to the cube not properly going through the hopper, especially larger cubes - it just needed a nudge or re-positioning with the tip of a fork (I don't recommend fingers). (The unit takes pretty large ice cubes - I just tend to make them too big sometimes). There is no need to put the fork in deep where the blades are so it's okay to do and not a big deal - I recommend doing it with the unit turned off, of course. In any case this occured very rarely as I've learned to drop the cubes into the opening one at a time, even one immediately after the other. So even doing it like that was fast enoutgh - something like 12 cubes in less than half a minute. You could also shake the unit a bit to joggle the cubes around. In the year I may have had to "declog" it maybe 20 or 30 times, and as described above, it took nothing to do - no big deal. The ice crushes ideally for crunching, for drinks, or for whatever purpose. It crushes just like the commercial machine at my dialysis unit. I am extremely pleased with it. The fact that it lasted over a year thrills me more than I can explain and it seems to be very reliable. I expect it to last me for years to come. It does take up counter space which I have no problem with, but it also is "portable" enough that you can store it in a pantry or set aside when not in use, keeping in mind it is also fairly tall. For a commercial quality ice crusher, though, it really doesn't take up that much space. For me this machine is very convenient - when I want a crushed ice drink, I have the crushed ice in only a few seconds. When I want a lot of crushed ice, I have it in less than a minute. For a huge amount, like a full bin, I'd say it takes maybe 3 or 4 minutes max. Compared to money I've spent on the units that didn't last more than 4 months, the price of this unit is well worth it. $80 (what I spent on the Waring) for years or $30-$40 every 3-4 months. I highly recommend the Waring! Hope this helps in your decision. Happy crushing!

This is an excellent product. I have been using it at least every other day for at least six weeks and I'm thrilled with it's performance. I waited until I had used it enough to give an authoritative review, because, like you, reading this right now, I read every review I could from this site (and others) before purchasing it. I needed an ice crusher and this one had, comparatively, the fewest negative reviews, and probably, the strongest reviews. Ultimately, there is no product out there that will satisfy everyone's needs, and clearly, there are a few out there who have different expectations than me from an ice crusher. I needed something to crush ice for bar and summer drinks, and in sufficient quantities for home entertainment. If you need a snow cone ice shaver, this is not the machine for you. If you like mint juleps, it is. I have used the refigerator ice that is produced in the half moon shapes, and commercial ice from the grocery store. As long as the pieces are not frozen together in widths larger than approximately one inch they feed fine. There have been a couple of occasions when the cubes froze together after I put them in the hopper, and it required a light tap with a spoon to free them. Personally, I think it would be unreasonable to expect a machine for home use to do more than that. The machine produces a courseness that varies from powder to small marble sized pieces. I believe it feeds well, and it crushes ice faster than you can make drinks to use it. It appears to be solidly built, but only time will test its durability. At the rate than I use it, I would expect that if there is a defect, it will show up before the end of the warranty. In the meantime, I think that the majority of people who want an ice crusher for the same reasons that I do will be ecstatic with this product.