Ice machine or walk-in cooler?

[Snowflake Killa]

Nothing like aged deer yummy

[Huntsman27]

Ors is 12 years old & we just had a PM done on it...it's been pretty much trouble free in all this time, but will likely go ahead and put a whole new unit on her just to be safe. You certainly don't see very many threads here on tbh about coolers or ice machines crapping out.

That’s true

[triple_duece]

Buy the walk in cooler without the unit. Then mount an ice machine to the top on one side of cooler. Build removable boards inside and let ice fall behind the area built. Now you have a cooler to hang and ice to use. The cooler will stay cold just from the ice. Win/win

[Patton]

Walk in cooler for sure. I’ve hung deer for the weekend and then brought them him in a cooler with no ice, 3hr drive and the meat is still plenty cold.

We have a small countertop ice machine from a thrift store that cranks out plenty of ice for drinks and day coolers.

[LivinADream]

Depends on where we're talking about. At home, ice machine for sure as it will be useful year round. Fishing, BBQ, parties, beer, etc. At the lease, a walk-in for sure.

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[kruppa24]

I would probably get more use out of ice machine

[gonehuntin68]

It would be an easy decision for me. Ice machine, seems like I always need ice, food, drinks, coolers, fish. When I kill something it gets broken down right away in the field and either processed right then or frozen till later. Never put meat on ice = tofoo, nasty, slimy ruiened meat. We used to hang, and age our game animals and did an experiment a couple times. Aged some for up to ten days, some a week, some a few days, and some straight to cut warped and frozen. We cooked meat from each group of animals as we processed them and let people decide which tasted better. The outcome was always the same, they nor we could tell a differance. Much more of the taste was influenced by how fast the animals passed after being shot. So now we eliminated the walk in cooler, and use a chest freezer. Much more useful ,convenient , less expensive, and takes up less room, and far easier to keep clean. And you could have both an ice maker and a big freezer and have every thing I would need, prefer.

10 days, that's it, we do 14 days minimum and if we have room we might do 45 days. About the only time we do under 14 days is if we need the room for more animals. It's not all about the taste either when aging, it also makes the meat more tender the longer you age it.

[Heath]

When I bought my place there was an ice box that is like the ones you see outside a connivence store. There is a hole cut out of the side where they put in a window unit air conditioner to use as a cold storage. I need to get it cleaned up and see how well it works. It would be awesome to have cold storage at the ranch.

[T-roy66]

I would vote for a walk in cooler over an ice machine. Ice machines are expensive to run and even more expensive to maintain . Between having to keep the plates clean and filters to condition the water you can buy a ton of ice and keep it in a small chest freezer. Not to mention the initial cost of the ice machine. Just my 2 cents.

[Ronnie]

What Troy said Bisch. I was in the seafood business for 30+ yrs so I know about ice machines. Very high (expensive) maintenance. Always needing repaired. Get an old walk in not working, put a cheap 5k 120v window unit in it and you'll be set.

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[Leemo]

Ice machines turn ordinary people into alcoholics, always cold beer around

[critter69]

10 days, that's it, we do 14 days minimum and if we have room we might do 45 days. About the only time we do under 14 days is if we need the room for more animals. It's not all about the taste either when aging, it also makes the meat more tender the longer you age it.

The actual times we " tested" it was 10 days in the cooler, when we got home and hung it, some hung in camp 10 days before getting home and hung in walk in.( rifle season and temps were cold enough) so over all most did age longer, but not in a " cooler". And still there was not a noticeable differance in taste or tenderness. We did lose slightly more meat the longer they hang as the outside drys out more, and has to be trimmed deeper. Most noticeable on front quarters, and tender loins. If you think it makes a differance by all means " age" it. But we have tried it over a 40 year period and if there's a differance none of us ( 12 hunters , and our families that help butcher up to 12 elk, and many many more deer at a time most years) could not tell one Iola of differance. Again, animals that had to be tracked for a distance after being shot, or found the next day, there was a slight differance in taste. Some of the best tasting and most tender meat I've had were from animals shot hours before we cooked parts of them. Now beef with much more fat content then any venison, yes aging makes a big difference. But once rigamortis sets in most of the aging is done. And that sets in within hours after death. And the enzymes have broken down the connective tissue about as far as it can on lean meat within 24 hours after death. I feel it's a waste of a lot of good meat for very little to no gain in quality. But to each there own.

[Grant2]

Ice machine is way better. We have both and we use the ice machine a lot more. Yes the walk in cooler is handy, but we clean and put the deer in the cooler pretty quick.

[rtp]

Ive had both at the same time and hands down I would give up the ice machine before I gave up the walkin.

[Slew]

I'd take an ice machine. I'm figuring how to hook one up in our garage. I fish year round and a walk in cooler won't do crap for crappie in hot summer time. I need an ice machine.


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