Are your ice cubes shrinking? Have you noticed smaller cubes coming out of your Hoshizaki ice machine? Let’s walk through why you’re experiencing shrinkage.
Possible reasons your Hoshizaki ice machine is producing smaller than normal ice cubes:
• Not enough water flowing to your ice machine.
• There is enough water at the start, but the water is leaving the machine in some way other than as an ice cube.
• The measurement device (the float switch) is adjusted to the wrong setting.
The mechanism that tells a Hoshizaki ice machine to stop freezing the water is the water level. During ice harvest, the reservoir should fill to overflowing. If it does, there is plenty of water in the reservoir for a full batch of normal sized Hoshizaki KM cubes. If it doesn’t fill to overflowing, check the incoming water supply. A plugged external filter or inlet water valve screen is likely the problem. Low water pressure or an improper inlet water line size is also a possibility.
If the reservoir filled properly during harvest, the water had to go somewhere, right? In this case check for a leak by the pump-out check valve. Leaks can be caused by dirt, scale, or a weak spring. Also look for a missing displacement cap or o-ring for the drain stand pipe. A water trail caused by shipping tape, an out of position ice chute guide, or algae can cause water to splash or run into the bin. There is also the remote possibility of a leaking reservoir. Search until you find the missing water culprit and correct it, and your ice cube size should return to normal.
Finally, when looking at the float switch, you will see that it can be adjusted. The higher you adjust the switch, the smaller the cubes will become because the switch will tell the machine to stop freezing sooner. If you move the switch lower, the cubes will be larger because the switch will tell it to stop freezing later. Be careful playing with this adjustment because if you make the cubes too large, they may bridge (i.e. start freezing to one another) which will give you all kinds of trouble with harvesting, freeze-ups, etc. There are some folks who say if the cubes get too small, they won’t be heavy enough to fall off the evaporator during harvest. It’s a little like Goldilocks and the Three Bears…sometimes you have to try a few things to get it just right!
For more details about how Hoshizaki ice machines work, please visit www.easyice.com
