We know that our Chicago clients like saving money any way they can. We have always felt, that in addition to our commercial refrigeration and ice cooler repair, maintenance, and sales…part of our job is to help save our clients money. Some of the ways we help, is with offering refrigeration and ice machine maintenance and repair tips. Here’s a few that you can use to help maintain your ice cooler.
Clean Your Ice Cooler Every Other Week:
A little bit of time to clean your ice cooler every two weeks will go a long way in savings and make for happy customers. Ice machines cleaned regularly will produce ice cubes that don’t shrink or develop an odd smell.
Your first step is to remove all of the old ice and place it in a clean cooler. Wipe down the inside of your ice machine with a mild detergent and be sure completely rinse.
Next you should sanitize the lines of the ice machine–be sure to reference the manual, in many cases each ice machine has a different set of protocols. Also be sure the water filter isn’t being blocked by any sediment.
If you have not been cleaning your ice machine properly and on a regular schedule, you risk your ice machine potentially shutting down. However, it might just be excess minerals stuck to the evaporator making it hard for it to release made ice into the tray.
Keep An Eye Out For Brown Slime:
Sometimes ice machines develop a brown slime. This brown slime can develop from specific types of yeast such as: airborne yeast, beer, brewing yeast, and baking yeast. A quick scrub will not solve the problem. Certain commercial sanitizers will kill yeast, but we recommend that you consult your ice machine manufactures manual. Every surface of the machine needs to be scrubbed or else the slimey yeast will return. Kitchens that are near high yeast areas need to clean their ice makers religiously.
Keep Your Ice Machine Cool:
Seems simple right? But make sure your ice cooler is in a cool location in your kitchen. The cooler your restaurant’s ice machine is, the faster it will produce and continue to produce ice.
Be Sure To Replace Your Ice Machine’s Water Filters Regularly:
Filters on your ice machine should be replaced and changed out every 6 months. Replacing your ice machines filter is beneficial for a few reasons. Not only will the quality ice increase, but the speed in which it is produced also increases.
Cleaning Your Condenser Coils:
Condenser coils are often ignored by most restaurants. Unfortunately dirty condenser coils have an effect on your ice cooler’s temperature thus resulting in slow ice production. You can regularly clean your condenser coils but beware. If your condenser coils are weighed down by gunk and grease, you should get on the phone and give us a call. You can contact us via twitter as well!
Set And Stick To A Professional Cleaning Schedule:
Ice machine cleaning should be on your list of highly important kitchen jobs. We recommend you hire a certified technician, like Northeast Cooling, to clean your ice maker every 6 months. It’s better to be safe–than have your customers left with a warm drinks!
For other tips on how your restaurant can save energy and money, be sure to follow Refrigeration on Twitter, and Fan Northeast Cooling on Facebook.
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