We have a Scotsman SCC-30 that produces great ice. It wastes a considerable and unnecessary amount of water & electricity though.

In order to assure always having fresh ice it has a heater in the bottom that is constantly melting the ice at the bottom to make room for fresh ice at the top. Left alone it melts through the 26lbs of ice in the bin in about 16 hrs so ice at the top is always new & fresh while none of the ice in the bin is more than 16 hrs old.

While some days we'll use every bit of the 30lbs of ice it can make in a day, most days we only use about 1-2 lbs of ice. We've found that manually turning it ON about 7a and OFF about 11a provides more than sufficient fresh ice for each normal day and results in much less wasted electricity (measured on an IotaWatt) & water. Ideally though, I think we'd not have the heater on at all for average days as enough ice melts naturally (about 1/4 of the bin = 7 lbs) during the 20 hrs it's turned off to create space for new fresh ice.

We can stick our Scotsman on a relay controlled by our home automation system but that still has the heater running unnecessarily and still unnecessarily wasting electricity and water.

Is there an ice maker that produces good ice like the Scotsman but is more energy efficient? E.G. that has an ON/OFF timer or separate ON/OFF timers for the heater & ice production? Or perhaps ideally a smart control that allows you to tell it how much ice you'll use and it manages appropriately?

Thanks,