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As you are looking to purchase an ice machine or a commercial ice machine for your restaurant, bar, country club or golf course, there are some questions that you may have prior to your purchase to make sure that you are purchasing an adequate sized ice machine for the needs of your facility. Here are some common questions:
How do I determine how much ice I will need for my facility?
This is a question asked by many and we will provide some figures that are averages for proper ice levels. The real trick is to do the research and to do the math as every restaurant, bar, country club and golf course has different needs at different times of the day. Once the math and research is done to determine how much ice you will need, there are still other factors to consider. Before your purchase, you need to determine where the ice machine will be placed in the facility? If the ice making machine will be installed near the kitchen area or any other area in which will be hotter than normal, the heat may drastically decrease the amount of ice that your ice machine will produce. Another consideration is that a slightly larger machine never really hurt anyone. Weigh this against the challenge that you and your staff will have when you run out of ice.
Here are the "guidelines" for ice needs from an ice maker –
Restaurant ice needs are 1.5 lbs. per person
Bar or Lounge ice needs are 3 lbs. per person
Salad Bar ice needs are 30 lbs. per cubic foot
Lodging ice needs are 5 lbs per room
Catering ice needs are 1 lb per person
Do I need a water-cooled ice machine or an air-cooled ice machine?
As you can imagine there are advantages and disadvantages to each system. The air cooled units are easy to install and the purchase price is typically lower than a water cooled model. However, the air cooled units tend to be noisy and will give off heat which may not be desirable depending on the placement of the unit. A water cooled machine is also easy to install. A water cooled unit is also quieter and is typically more efficient than a water cooled unit. In some dryer parts of the country, you may be required to have a permit to run a water cooled machine.
How important is a water filter to the facility's ice making machine?
A water filter will remove any odor as well as improve the taste of the ice by removing sediment, parasites, controlling calcium as well as hi-scale build-up. These factors also lead to a unit breaking down. Changing your water filter is important maintenance to do just as changing the oil in your car is important to its proper function.
With proper maintenance, how long can I expect an ice unit to last?
Again, the truthful answer to this question is, it depends. With that being said, most machines will last up to 10 years. This depends on if you properly maintain the machine as well as the water quality available as well as the amount of humidity in your area.
With the introduction of cutting edge and innovative technologies, a commercial ice machine is no longer a bulky device producing insanitation, consuming a lot of energy, making noise, and taking a lot of time to make the needed supply of ice. As a result of high end technologies, commercial ice machines are able to achieve “being green” the highest levels of energy and water conservation. Now a commercial ice machine can easily produce from 65 pounds to 2,000 pounds of ice cubes in a day. You can find varied shapes of ice cubes such as dice, half dice, octagon, crushed, nugget, and flake.
Commercial ice machines are the standalone units, designed to produce large quantities of ice for various commercial purposes. Once installed, these commercial ice makers are pretty automatic and do not need much attention from you or your staff. These factory-made machines consist of a condensing unit and ice-making section that operates as an integrated unit to make ice, an ice bin or a storage unit to store the created ice and a dispensing unit to dispense the ice out of the machine. Many automatic ice machines use moving water to create an improved quality of ice cubes. They work on the principle of "faster the water moves the better the ice quality becomes". In this process, the air and un-dissolved solids get washed away. This results in pure and clear ice production.
Large amounts of ice are demanded for various purposes in many commercial entities such as Restaurants, Bars, Ice Cream Parlors, Bakeries, Country Clubs and Golf Courses. A commercial ice machine is the perfect choice for such places as the large quantity of ice also needs to be a certain quality as well. Automatic commercial ice machines will make plenty of ice of equal size in a short span of time. All you need to do is just start the machine and set the required functions, and leave the rest up to the machine. You will get good quantity of quality ice in a short amount of time. In addition, many commercial ice machines come with a self cleaning function. This will help maintain the quality and quantity if the produced ice while decreasing the time that you and or your staff must spend with the machine.
Keep in mind that there are two varieties of ice machines: air–cooled and water–cooled. Air-cooled ice machines use air to disperse the heat, whereas water–cooled ice machine uses water to do the same function. Air-cooled ice machines use more energy and also are much noisier than water-cooled ice machines. However, they are more affordable than water-cooled ice machines.
An assorted collection of wonderful, fast and energy efficient commercial ice makers are readily available in the market. Various renowned and reliable manufacturers, such as Manitowoc, have come up with their unique range of these amazing machines. Numerous models that create different types and sizes of ice are available in the local and online market. A competitive urge of creating more efficient and cost-effective ice machines, has left the customers and consumers with a distinctive variety of these units in which to choose.