Scotsman under counter ice maker amperage

Status
Not open for further replies.
James L

James L

Senior Member
Location
Kansas Cty, Mo, USA
Occupation
Electrician
Wondering if anyone knows anything about

Scotsman CU50GA-1 50Lb. Gourmet Cube Undercounter Ice Machine​


I got a call today to go add a receptacle for this icemaker, which I did. It's at a basement wet bar which has 4 countertop receptacles on a 20 amp circuit. So I added this onto that circuit.

Then I got a second call to ask if I ran a dedicated circuit, to which I replied "no"

I was asked - doesn't it need a dedicated circuit?

I replied that I've never seen an under counter icemaker draw more than 3 or 4 amps, but that I would look into it.

Well, looking at the data sheet shows that it uses 14.4 kw for every 100 pounds of ice. 🤔 Huh?

So I called the manufacturer and their goofy tech support gave me more nonsense. He said it draws 8.22 kw every 24 hours 🙄🙄

I asked him does it run constantly or does it cycle on and off. He said it cycles, because it's not running all the time if the ice is full 😵😵 duh.

I then asked him how much amperage would I read with an amp meter. He said he doesn't know. Good grief.

Anybody know about this unit?
I may just go run the circuit, but it's 50 minutes each way. Not my preference.Screenshot_20220328-180428_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20220328-180418_Gallery.jpgScreenshot_20220328-180415_Gallery.jpg
 
Whether a dedicated circuit is required or not is moot because you have connected the receptacle to a 20 amp circuit. The literature says that MaxOCPD is 15 amps. I don't see that a individual branch circuit is required in the literature.
 
retirede said:
It says 14.4 kWh per 100#, not KW. That makes sense.
Click to expand...
I understand your distinction between kWh and KW. Yes, that distinction makes sense.

What doesn't make sense is relating it to a hundred pounds of ice.

That's like asking how many gallons per minute come out of a faucet, and you get an answer that it takes 27 gallons to wash 6 bushel baskets of apples.

I'm trying to find out....if I put an amp clamp on it, what's the number on the screen?
 
hillbilly1 said:
If it says how long it takes to make 100lb of ice, and divide that by the kWh, you should be able to get a rough estimate of the current draw.
Click to expand...
Possibly. But I can't find anything stating how ling it takes to make 100 pounds of ice.

Closest I can get is:
14.4 kWh to make 100# (from literature)
8.22 kw in 24 hours (from tech support)

But neither of those mention cycle time, which would affect amperage.

8220 ÷ 24 = 342.5
342.5 ÷ 120 = 2.85 amps
That's if it ran constant

It would not run all the time, I would imagine.
What if it runs 3 minutes and off for 10 minutes?
Wouldn't that mean it draws something like 11 amps when it's running?
 
James L said:
What doesn't make sense is relating it to a hundred pounds of ice.
Click to expand...
It takes energy to do 2 things relating to MAKING ice;

cooling incoming water from say 62F to 32F. If I remember my high school physics, 1 cal/gram degree, 30 cal/gram
changing the state from liquid to gas. Again, if I remember my high school physics, 40 cal/gram

So whatever conversion to kWh/lb would PROBABLY match that 144W/lb. I've forgotten too much to check their work, but would tend to trust it.

Then you have to keep it cold ... insulation and how often it is opened would be the concern here.
 
I can't swear the brand is the same, but the picture and specs on the sheet are the same as I had in a house I wired a couple of years ago. This was a late edition that was added during the trim-out. It would have been horrible to run a new circuit to where the ice maker was. So I just jumped off a 20A circuit near by and put in a recep for it. Never had a problem with overloading, and believe me, I would have known it as the builder or owner would have called me. They call me if they blow a light bulb!!!
 
infinity said:
Whether a dedicated circuit is required or not is moot because you have connected the receptacle to a 20 amp circuit. The literature says that MaxOCPD is 15 amps. I don't see that a individual branch circuit is required in the literature.
Click to expand...
I didn't get the literature until after I was done and they asked about a dedicated circuit.
 
Little Bill said:
I can't swear the brand is the same, but the picture and specs on the sheet are the same as I had in a house I wired a couple of years ago. This was a late edition that was added during the trim-out. It would have been horrible to run a new circuit to where the ice maker was. So I just jumped off a 20A circuit near by and put in a recep for it. Never had a problem with overloading, and believe me, I would have known it as the builder or owner would have called me. They call me if they blow a light bulb!!!
Click to expand...
I've been putting small under-counter appliances on with small appliance (or similar) circuits for years and never had any issues.
 
hillbilly1 said:
If it says how long it takes to make 100lb of ice, and divide that by the kWh, you should be able to get a rough estimate of the current draw.
Click to expand...
Ice production is subject to the inlet water temperature, and the ambient temperature, I have a 800# capacity water cooled ice machine that can use 3000 gallons of water a day with warmer temps, one reason water cooled machines are not allowed in CA anymore.
 
Nice academic discussion about KwH to 100# ice etc., but simply put mfg spec say max overcurrent size 15A. Other spec that might impact dedicated circuit or not, is the +10%/-5% of listed voltage, and can that limitation be maintain on a shared circuit as other loads applied nearby?
Other consideration is a SABC is required to be 20A and that is run on the near by circuit as indicated by OP, and this equipment is required to be on 15A, thus would default to being a dedicated or seperate circuit.

So it seems a seperate circuit is in this case is called for. (Or atleast seperate from the countertop circuit.)

Had one similar recently that the bath vent light heater combo came in later than rough in, specs by mfg was go be on not more than 15A OCP. Bath is on 20A so had to pull in another circuit just for the vent/light/heater.
 
James L said:
Possibly. But I can't find anything stating how ling it takes to make 100 pounds of ice.

Closest I can get is:
14.4 kWh to make 100# (from literature)
8.22 kw in 24 hours (from tech support)

But neither of those mention cycle time, which would affect amperage.

8220 ÷ 24 = 342.5
342.5 ÷ 120 = 2.85 amps
That's if it ran constant

It would not run all the time, I would imagine.
What if it runs 3 minutes and off for 10 minutes?
Wouldn't that mean it draws something like 11 amps when it's running?
Click to expand...

I agree, it’s ambiguous.
I would think that the duty cycle would depend on ambient temperature as well as the temperature of the incoming water.

What you’re trying to do is akin to figuring out the required size of a service by looking at past electric bills (without demand data).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top