Commercial Ice Machine Repair Services In
Manhattan New York

At Cooler U Refrigeration Repair, we understand the importance of cleaning and sanitizing procedures for your commercial ice machine. It is essential to maintain cleanliness standards. We also need to be able to identify the correct cleaners and the appropriate timeframe for cleaning all components of the ice machine. We can help with everything from preventive maintenance to tips and tricks for commercial kitchen equipment.

Food safety has to be a primary concern on the mind of every Manhattan restaurant owner. You wouldn’t be in business if it weren’t. Serve potentially dangerous food to your customers can have severe consequences. When a contaminant is introduced into an ice machine, the ice can actually preserve the germs and the moisture allows them to reproduce. When they are growing in colonies, these dangerous microorganisms create sticky substances called biofilms. These biofilms can make it very difficult for them to be removed once established. It can be very difficult to get rid if mold or other dangerous microorganisms.

Depending on your usage volume, the location of the machine, and the water conditions, you may need to clean it more often. The machine may need to be cleaned more frequently if it’s located near a food preparation line in a restaurant. If you don’t do this regularly enough or have not been doing it correctly, you may have mold, slime, and scale buildup within your machine, which could be contaminating your ice.

There are many possible nasties that can survive on ice. These include bacteria that can cause severe harm to people. Common misconceptions are that ice is too cold to harbour germs, but that’s not the case; just because it’s cold doesn’t mean bacteria can’t survive. Ingestions of dirty ice may lead to serious illnesses such as cholera or salmonella.

We don’t often think of ice machines as food so it is easy to forget about the potential dangers of not maintaining them. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has a definition of ice that includes food. Your staff handles ice, and customers ingest it. Ice can also spread disease as other food sources, if it is contaminated with viruses, bacteria, or mold. You won’t know if your ice has been contaminated until it’s too late. Your ice could look, smell and taste just fine, but still be harboring dangerous microorganisms. Federal law also requires you to keep your ice machine clean. You can face up to $500,000.

It is important to maintain your commercial ice machine and follow the guidelines for cleaning it. This will help you avoid costly and unpleasant consequences from contaminated ice.

A refrigeration system is at the heart of every commercial-grade ice machine. It’s similar to what you would find in a freezer. A refrigerant, a substance that cools readily and has a very low freezing point, is pushed by the compressor through a narrow tube arranged like an accordion that’s called the condenser. The gas is formed when it reaches the condenser. It’s then cooled in the condenser using either air or water. This cooling causes it to condense and become a liquid. That liquid is then passed through an expansion valve that leads into the evaporator, another coil of tubing in which it – again, appropriately – evaporates back into a gas. The liquid absorbs heat, which causes the process to occur. The heated gas returns to the compressor, where it starts the whole process again.

In the case of a commercial ice machine that produces cubes or half cubes, the evaporator is akin to the ice cube tray you’d use at home, though this one is big, metal, and stands up on its end. It’s not necessary to stretch the tray to release the cubes like you would at home.

To form the ice, the system does something that might alarm those new to commercial ice makers and/or convince those folks the unit is broke. A pump cascades gallons of water over the evaporator plate in a continuous flow. It’s perfectly normal. As the water flows above that chilled metal, it forms ice crystals. They are social animals and invite other water molecules to chill with them. As the party grows, so does the ice cube, filling the entire opening in the evaporator plate.

Different ice machine manufacturers have different methods of performing the next steps. The system senses when the trays become full and stops pouring water onto the evaporator. All those cubes are then connected by a thin layer of ice, which holds them together. You can free them by using commercial ice machines. Some push them out with a tiny piston that taps the tray. Others heat up the evaporatorplate, melting enough to make the sheet loosen. In both cases, the mass of cubes falls into the waiting bin, mostly breaking apart on impact, though some sections may remain intact.

It is possible to damage your ice maker with ice. It can be costly to fix an icemaker that has frozen up. You may end up with broken components due to ice buildup. There are ways to tell when an Ice Machine freezes up. This will allow you to prevent further damage.

There are many reasons why freeze ups may occur, but here are some common ones to look out for.

Ice makers are formed when the ice cannot be released from the evaporator. As water continues flowing over the ice, it will continue to form into a block of ice. A freeze up can prevent your ice maker from dropping ice or grow so large that it damages the evaporator plate, leading to an expensive ice machine repair.

Scale is caused by hard water in your Ice Maker. Calcium and magnesium build up and stick to surfaces where water flows continuously. If you live in an area with hard water, you’ve likely seen scale forming around your faucet or on your shower tiles.

It is best to have your machine cleaned by a professional regularly to remove any scale. A water softener, or phosphate filter, can reduce the scale in your machine if you live in an area that has hard water.