Ice bucket assembly for producing nugget ice for refrigerator appliance

An ice bucket assembly for use with an ice maker in a refrigerator, the ice bucket assembly comprising:

• a storage chamber configured to store ice pieces made by the ice maker of an ice maker assembly disposed over a housing in an ice compartment region of the refrigerator;
• a crushing chamber configured to crush the ice pieces made by the ice maker and stored in the storage chamber and thereby produce crushed ice;
• an extrusion chamber having an extrusion head configured to produce nugget ice from the crushed ice from the crushing chamber;
• wherein the storage chamber, the crushing chamber, and the extrusion chamber are arranged horizontally within the ice bucket assembly;
• at least one auger disposed in the storage chamber and configured to move the ice pieces, whether uncrushed or crushed, through the storage chamber, the crushing chamber, and the extrusion chamber to be dispensed as the nugget ice;
• and
• a front cover disposed vertically and proximate to the extrusion chamber and configured to be received by and cover a housing collar disposed at a front portion of the housing in the ice compartment region, the front cover having an opening for discharging the nugget ice from the extrusion chamber.