It ain't cheap compared to boring, regular ice machines, but the Solenco Sphere Ice Maker certainly beats fetching ice the old-fashioned way. Its spheres are mostly uniform and clearer than the ice in your trays. It also provides some flexibility by allowing manual refilling if you just need a few spheres, or hooking it up to your plumbing when the party starts.
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You know what goes really well with hot days? Ice-cold drinks. But if you’re still cracking your ice out of a tray, we’re here to tell you it doesn’t have to be like that. You could save yourself tens of valuable seconds by throwing money at the problem and getting one of these sphere ice makers in Solenco’s Life range.
Before you do that, it’s worth knowing what you’re getting for your R6,500. It’s not the most affordable ice maker available, so whether it’s the right choice for you depends on how much you value cold balls over cold blocks.
Everything freezes
There’s surprisingly more that goes into creating the perfect bit of ice for your drink than you’d think. The water you use, the way it’s cooled, and the shape you’re freezing it into all make a difference… to some extent.
If it’s just the round shape you’re after, you can find inexpensive moulds everywhere. Fill them up, chuck them in your freezer, and you’ll have cold balls in an hour or two (depending on the size). But that still involves work on your part.
Want a clear ice sphere that looks good in the glass and lasts longer? You’ll want to make sure you’re using filtered or purified water, that you use directional or layered freezing, and that the result has a lower surface area-to-volume ratio. Solenco’s sphere ice maker ticks most of those boxes and produces ice spheres close to the claimed crystal-clear, slow-melting ice that it advertises.
The Iceman cometh
This particular ice maker is small enough to stick on a counter with dimensions of roughly 32×45×43cm. But more important than the size of the space you’re eyeing is its proximity to plumbing. While it does allow you to manually fill the reservoir, you’ll only get your money’s worth if the inlet and outlet holes are hooked up.
The stated rate is four 50mm spheres per cycle, which takes around 35-40 minutes to complete. It can apparently do 140 spheres in a day. If you need more, you can beg, but this ice machine will be cold to your pleas for faster ice production. When a cycle completes, the mould opens to allow the balls to drop into the waiting removable ice basket. It can store up to 40 spheres at a time, and comes with dainty tongs to fish them out.
Operation is fairly straightforward: fill the reservoir (or open the tap), switch it on, and let it do its thing. It will tell you if there’s an issue via the LED status indicators on the door. It isn’t quite whisper-quiet and will hum away with careless abandon. Like most ice makers, it will make more noise when the ice balls drop into the basket, so we advise you not to install it next to any sleeping babies.
This is assuming you had someone else install the thing. It is definitely possible to plumb it yourself, but if you don’t mind spending this kind of money on an ice ball machine, you can probably afford to pay someone to do it properly.
Solenco Sphere Ice Maker verdict
This particular ice sphere producer is a bit pricey at R6,500 if you just want cold drinks. There are cheaper ways to get that, but those won’t impress your party guests as much as the mostly-clear ice balls from this machine. These ice balls will also pair better with Whiskey and other spirits usually taken ‘on the rocks’, according to our extensive testing.
The flexibility of filling it manually when you only need a few spheres, or full-on automatic ice production when the guests arrive, seems good on paper. But once it’s plumbed, it’s not like you’re going to detach the pipes and fill it up yourself when you don’t have to. You paid the full price; you might as well enjoy fully automatic ice balls every damn day.
