Frigidaire Gallery EFIC255 vs NewAir NIM030SS00

Nearly every running-cost number in this category is an upper bound derived from a nameplate, because nearly every manufacturer publishes a current rating and nothing else. Two machines break that pattern, and they happen to be direct competitors. So this is the one page on this site where comparing the electricity is comparing something the manufacturers actually measured.

Both specification tables

Why a published wattage matters

A nameplate rating in volts and amps is what an electrician uses to size a circuit. It describes the maximum the appliance may draw, not what it draws while running. Multiply it out and you get a ceiling that the machine spends most of its life well below.

A published power consumption is a different animal. When Frigidaire prints Power Consumption: 185 W and NewAir prints Rated Power: 170W, those are consumption figures, and the monthly cost derived from them is close to what you would actually pay rather than an upper bound you will never reach. The distinction and the arithmetic are set out on what a countertop ice maker costs to run.

The arithmetic, both ways

Read that table one row at a time and it says two opposite things, both true. The NewAir is cheaper to run by about 33 cents a month. The Frigidaire turns each watt into more ice, by a margin of roughly a third. Which matters depends on whether your constraint is the electricity bill or the amount of ice you need, and for almost everyone at home the honest answer is neither: a 33-cent monthly spread is not a purchasing argument.

The two output numbers are not equally solid

The Frigidaire's 44 lbs a day is printed in the manual's own specification table as Daily Ice Output: 20 KGS/24H, which converts to 44.1 lbs. That is a specification.

The NewAir's 30 lbs a day comes from the title of its manual — 30 lb. countertop nugget ice maker — and the specification table on page 5 does not repeat it. That is a product name doing the work of a specification, and this site flags it rather than levelling the two.

It matters for the watts-per-pound row above. If the NewAir's real rate is higher than its name suggests, its efficiency gap closes. We do not know, because NewAir did not print it.

Cleaning: the NewAir wins this outright

Both machines have a CLEAN button, which already puts them ahead of most of the category. What goes into the cycle is where they diverge.

• NewAir: the manual says to add water and detergent to the reservoir, hold CLEAN for about three seconds, and run for eight minutes — then drain, refill with clean water and repeat the cycle until the detergent is gone.
• Frigidaire: the manual says to fill the tank with water and press CLEAN for a procedure of at least 20 minutes. Water only.

Twenty minutes of plain water is a rinse. Eight minutes of detergent followed by rinse cycles is a clean. Detergent is what lifts the biofilm that makes ice taste wrong, and only one of these two manuals asks for it. The full cross-category comparison is on the self-cleaning roundup.

The NewAir's quiet advantage

The NIM030SS00 manual includes a section on installing an automatic water line, and states the machine can be connected to an external water source using a 1/4 inch PE tube. Nearly everything else in this category is reservoir-only, and refilling a reservoir is the chore that makes people stop using these machines.

It is not a small caveat that plumbing a countertop appliance means running a line to a counter, which most kitchens are not set up for. Whether it is worth it is covered on do you need a water line.

One warning only NewAir prints

The NIM030 manual's Before First Use section says not to use the appliance in a very cold environment, lower than 41F, and to wait two hours after levelling the unit before switching it on. Frigidaire prints no equivalent guidance for the EFIC255 that we could find.

If the machine is going in a garage, a basement or anywhere that drops in winter, that is the only sourced number either manufacturer gives you. More on the temperature question on what temperature an ice maker needs.

Which to buy

• Buy the Frigidaire EFIC255 if you want the most ice for the least electricity and the strongest specification table. 44 lbs a day on 185 W published is the best ratio on this site.
• Buy the NewAir NIM030SS00 if the water line is usable in your kitchen, or if you take cleaning seriously — it is the only machine here whose maker tells you to put detergent through the cycle.
• Do not choose on the 33 cents. The monthly cost difference between these two machines is smaller than the difference between running either of them three hours a day and five.