Would they be useful in freezing mixed drinks or Kool Aid type liquids? Or would it eventually gum up the works? Would they be easily cleanable? At the price they’re available at, I’m tempted to buy one just to freeze my root beer, which I’m addicted to in cube form.
Try PMing @FairyChatMom. I seem to remember she has one AND she’s an engineer, so she knows important technical stuff.
I have a small ice cream maker - this one - and while I personally haven’t tried it, I’m sure you could use it to make a slushie-type drink. It works great for sorbet, so why not? Mine is very easy to clean. You can’t put it in the dishwasher, though.
Well, for better for worse, I ordered this one. If it works, it works. I figure: run a couple bottles of pop through it, then a round of clean water. Can’t wait to try it. As I said, I’m addicted to frozen generic root beer ice, and it’s exceedingly messy and sticky using ice cube trays. This (if it works) will be like a glimpse of the far future 
I don’t know about being a technical expert, but we’ve had a countertop icemaker for 2 years or so and I love it. I’ve not frozen anything but water, but we have hard water, so I’ve cleaned it several times. Vinegar is a magical cleaner.
I would say if you run root beer in it, as soon as it’s done, you should flush fresh water thru it, then vinegar, then water again. You don’t want it to stay sticky.
Thanks for the tips! I’m looking forward to this.
I’ve got an older version of one of these, and I’m pretty sure that feeding it anything other than water would mess it up tremendously. That said, it’s fantastic otherwise, especially if you like that style of ice like you get at Sonic.
We have one we use for camping. My wife made a batch using uncarbonated drink mix and it worked fine. The ice is in an odd cylinder shape with a hole in the middle.
I’ve had one for 3 years and it works well. I would think the only problem freezing liquids other than water would be the freezing point of the soda, if it’s lower than that of water. Now you have me wondering how fruit juice would work – I love ice and the thought of, say, orange juice ice bits in the summer is a happy thought.
Pour some juice through for science!
As mentioned up thread, a countertop ice cream maker works great for this type of thing. We’ve used ours for all sorts of cold drinks. Come back and tell us how the ice maker works out. I am definitely curious. (My weakness is frozen grape juice.)
One guy, somewhere, said it would destroy it. Another guy, somewhere else, said he had no problems, so the internet is evenly split. I get the machine Monday and will file a report.
My report:
So far so good- it didn’t object to root beer instead of plain water. I ran close to two bottle through, then drained out through the bottom drain hole what little root beer remained. I poured water through it til it was mostly clean, then put the plug back in and filled the reservoir with clean water and a glug of vinegar. I took the basket out so the cubes will fall right back into the reservoir and melt and keep going through til I stop it. The machine doesn’t keep the ice frozen, so it has to go right into the freezer, or it will melt and go back through. Root beer ice straight out of the machine is pretty soft- a little firmer than a sno cone. So far I like it!