WTB Commercial Ice Machine

Mac said:
I don't like your tone...

I want a freaking ice machine!   :lol:
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Mac, don't listen to these people, they know nothing of which they speak!  I did a commercial ice machine 14 years ago, will never go without one.  Matter of fact, we turned off the ice machine in the fridge at home, never was a fan of the nasty, smelly, cloudy ice the comes out of those things.  Nothing like crystal clear, rock hard ice that comes out of a commercial machine!  I Have a Manitowoc SY0304A, have it sitting on a 400 pound bin... it's been a rock solid machine.  While very true, you can buy a ton of ice for what a decent ice machine and bin cost, it's got nothing to do with saving money.  I'm guessing, if you factor in the initial cost combined with operating and possible repair cost over the life of the machine, I don't think you'll ever come close to breaking even much less saving any money.  But the convenience and ice quality, without a doubt, makes it all worth it, to me anyway.  It was always such a pain in the ass, prepping for trips, flogging all day loading motorhomes, trailers, then the last thing you have to do is load up coolers.  Gotta run over to the store to pick up 25 bags of ice (half way through the trip, have to go into town for ice), haul ass to get it home while it's turning to water, like I said, just a pain in the ass.

We bring a ton of ice with us on trips, load up one 144 quart cooler with just ice, two smaller soft coolers we use in the cars, then have two smaller 50-ish quart coolers, one with beers, one with sodas.  Also line two bins in the fridge freezer with clean trash bags, load them up with ice.  We always have ice filled coolers on every ride, drinks with ice in them at camp, after 10 days in the dunes, always come home with leftover ice.  Plus, I don't wait to the last minute to load up ice chests... I'll do that early on, at my convenience.  That way, everything gets cooled down, then before we hit the road, I drain the ice water out of the coolers and top them off with ice.   

I went with Manitowoc at the recommendation of a buddy of mine who is a HVAC guy with some ice machine experience as well as local ice machine repair business.   

 
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Had a client that serviced them. Be careful on buying a used one. Like MWB said, they need to be cleaned regularly which most people don't do. Most of the failures he deals with are from the lack of cleaning and hard water deposits.

 
MAC, YES ice machine in Havasu house.  

We actully started off with a spare sisde x side frig/freezer in the garage and we took out all the shelves in the freezer and put in a kitchen size rubbermaid trash can and let the built in ice maker make ice and dump into the plastic trash can. 

Only down fall was it you dont dump the ice every few days, the rubbermaid would overfill and when you opened the door you ended up sweeping the spilled ice out of the garage.   

Just FYI, get a good filter for the inlet water line, 2 stage carbon and them 1 micron.  

We also bought a used large redbull 2 glass door refrig and it is in the garage also loaded will all the favorite flavors.  

[SIZE=11pt]Beverage cost are more than fuel bills![/SIZE]

 
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Wash 10 Crew said:
MAC, YES ice machine in Havasu house.  

We actully started off with a spare sisde x side frig/freezer in the garage and we took out all the shelves in the freezer and put in a kitchen size rubbermaid trash can and let the built in ice maker make ice and dump into the plastic trash can. 

Only down fall was it you dont dump the ice every few days, the rubbermaid would overfill and when you opened the door you ended up sweeping the spilled ice out of the garage.   

Just FYI, get a good filter for the inlet water line, 2 stage carbon and them 1 micron.  

We also bought a used large redbull 2 glass door refrig and it is in the garage also loaded will all the favorite flavors.  

[SIZE=11pt]Beverage cost are more than fuel bills![/SIZE]
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Seems like a good opportunity in Havasu ,  local Ice deliveries daily.... like the milk man...only Ice.... Uber Ice! 

 
Pull the trigger already!  You won't regret it.  My friend has one on his back porch in Parker.  We ALWAYS have enough ice.  Filtration & maintenance are essential for longevity.  

 
You would probably be happiest with brand new. Those ice machines develop slime. My brother is in the bar business and tells me the ice compartments can be pretty gross. The topic would come up watching that show Bar Rescue. I know another person that does restaurant inspections and vary rarely will order drinks with ice. If a drink happens to come with ice it gets a visual inspection. Places like McDonalds that get inspected frequently actually have pretty clean ice machines im told. Even though the food is junk and the employees might be a little skuzzy there is still someone entering the business trying to find that slime. A lot of restaurants pay to have a 3rd party inspect them before the "real" inspection happens. 

Do those commercial machines advertise how low they get the ice? My toyhauler fridge only gets down to about 15F. Only mention because i monitor it. Residential freezers are usually closer to zero F i believe. An ice machine might go super duper low and produce some really long lasting ice. 

 
Costco sells them .I’ve had one for the last 15 years won’t go with out one now

 
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