Article contributed by John Mahlmeister, COO, Easy Ice
Did you know that commercial ice machine manufacturers like Hoshizaki and Manitowoc strongly recommend their equipment be professionally cleaned at least twice a year? In many cases, ice machines need maintenance even more frequently than that! It’s tempting to shove this maintenance on the back burner to save money and time, but the consequences of neglecting ice machine care are expensive in more ways than one.
Why Ice Machine Maintenance Matters
Ice Supply Safety/Cleanliness
The FDA classifies ice as a food, meaning it’s subject to the same food safety regulations as anything else your customers might consume at your business. That’s for good reason—ice can easily become contaminated and sicken consumers, which is one reason properly timed preventive maintenance for your ice equipment is crucial. Mold, slime, and other biofilm can also form inside your ice machine if it isn’t professionally cleaned often enough, and while these substances aren’t necessarily harmful to consumers, you’ll still risk the health inspector’s write-up and damage to your reputation if you’re caught with them in your ice machine. Nobody wants to gamble on their health at a restaurant. Don’t give customers a reason to avoid yours.
Breakdowns and Repairs
Commercial ice machines are notorious for breaking down, with a nationwide industry average of two service calls per year. While that might not sound like a lot, it is compared to other major appliances. Sometimes, if an ice machine isn’t working the way it should or stops altogether, the fix is simple and reasonably priced. Other times, ice machine owners aren’t so lucky—the average ice machine repair bill in 2022 was $708! If you have to replace a major component of the ice machine like the evaporator or compressor, that will cost you somewhere in the range of $2000 – $4000.
Preventive maintenance is your best defense against ice machine repairs. A clean ice machine that’s been thoroughly checked for signs of damage twice a year is far less likely to develop mechanical problems than one that’s been neglected for years at a time.
Now that it’s clear why commercial ice machine owners should prioritize biannual, high-quality maintenance for their equipment, let’s define high-quality.
How Ice Machine Maintenance Should Be Done
As with most things, there’s a right and wrong way to perform preventive maintenance on commercial ice machines. If you don’t know what your ice machine needs, you could end up paying for subpar service that won’t even achieve the goals ice machine preventive maintenance visits are intended to. If you hire a local ice machine service provider to perform maintenance for your equipment, ask the technician to give you a list of his or her preventive maintenance steps. If your ice machine maintenance is performed in house, ask for that same list from whoever takes care of it. Make sure the following items are on the list!
Cleaning Procedure
Deep cleaning an ice machine’s interior is a multi-step process that should only be conducted by trained professionals. Untrained individuals should not attempt to clean the inside of a commercial ice machine, as doing so with the wrong chemicals or in the wrong way could damage the machine.
An ice machine technician should descale, disinfect, and sanitize the unit’s removable parts, food zone areas, water distribution tubes, and more. They should also replace the water and air filters at every maintenance appointment and use EPA-approved mold rate solution if necessary.
Your technician should also clean the ice machine’s exterior and sanitize the bin.
Inspection
Deep cleaning is only half of properly executed ice machine maintenance. The other half? Inspecting the machine’s important internal components for signs of wear and tear. An ice machine, like any mechanically complex piece of equipment, never goes from perfect condition to broken overnight. An ice machine will leave clues when one of its parts is starting to fail, but only a trained professional will know what to look for—irregular temperature, leaks, discoloration, etc. Inspection goes a long way toward preventing unexpected breakdowns that would leave you buying backup ice and paying for a more expensive, serious repair. Whoever performs your ice machine’s maintenance should inspect it every time in addition to the cleaning.
Your technician should look at these parts of your ice machine at every single maintenance appointment:
- Control box
- Compressor
- Condenser
- Evaporator plate
- Hoses
- Wiring
- Bin
You may be wondering—is it really necessary to look at all those parts every six months? If you want to catch mechanical issues before they start interfering with ice production, then yes! Because ice machines use both water and electricity, they’re more problem-prone than equipment that does not cycle water. Biannual inspections are the best way to keep an ice machine’s parts in great shape, prevent breakdowns, and avoid pricey major repairs.
Day-to-Day Cleaning for Operators
Is there anything you can do in between maintenance visits to keep your ice equipment clean and promote its functionality?
Of course! Don’t just forget about your ice machine for six months at a time and expect the cleaning done during each preventive maintenance visit to last that long.
Every day:
- Clear the ice machine’s floor drain of any debris that might’ve ended up there
- Make sure the ice bin is draining properly
- Check that the space around the ice machine is clear on all sides
Every week:
- Clean the ice machine’s exterior with soapy water
- Wipe down the ice bin’s exterior with soapy water
Every month:
- Remove the ice machine’s air filter and check for damage
- Clean the filter with hot water
- Reinstall it
Keep up with these steps in combination with biannual preventive maintenance, and your ice machine will last longer, work better, and break down less.
In Conclusion
An ice machine is not something you can just “set and forget.” The quality of your ice machine’s maintenance can mean the difference between spending thousands on repairs and jeopardizing your business’s reputation or not. It’s always best to trust your ice equipment’s maintenance to experienced professionals. Whether you hire a local ice machine service company to manage it or you decide to give the responsibility to your own staff, make sure whoever takes care of your ice machines follows the guidelines explained here.
John Mahlmeister is the chief operating officer and co-founder of Easy Ice. Co-headquartered in Phoenix, AZ and Marquette, MI, Easy Ice is the only national provider of all-inclusive commercial ice machine subscriptions. Since its founding in 2009, Easy Ice has rapidly grown their number of ice machines under management to over 30,000 units across 47 states and partners with dozens of foodservice equipment dealers to offer ice machine rental solutions to their customers.
For more information, please visit EasyIce.com.
