No matter whether you’re looking to make ice at home or ice commercially, ice makers are all the same in principle with differences in sizes. You’ve got ice makers as large as a standard fridge, and ones as small as your smallest mini-bar.
Somewhere in the middle, a distinction is made based on whether an ice maker can be considered on-the-counter (not designed for much movement or mobility), or portable (something you’d typically have on the kitchen counter). Regardless, all ice makers use 110-120 volt AC to operate as per The Ice Experts.
So let’s delve right into it.
Size
The first thing you need to consider is size. If you’re a commercial food truck, then a perfect little machine for you would be the industrial-capable F-450MAH. It’s compact, can produce nearly 500 pounds of ice within a 24 hour cycle, can be mounted side-by-side with a second unit, produces flaked ice and has very easy maintenance meant to make ownership simple, and stress-free. Best of all, retailers like Automatic Ice Equipment offer them online.
On the other side of the spectrum, we have the considerably larger KM-61BAH, which comes equipped with ice storage, and produces special crescent ice shapes, more ideal for aesthetic purposes than the rather utilitarian flaked ice produced by the previous model. However, its capacity is much lower, making it a more household-friendly machine.
Maintenance
Maintenance is the biggest factor to consider in ice makers. If it’s a high-maintenance machine, then you’re looking at a lot of time invested making sure your machine is clean to prevent contaminated ice. Furthermore, units that come attached with a lot of maintenance also come attached with the caveat that, well, they break more rapidly.
That translates to higher costs, and greater expenditures. The solution? Find low-maintenance units.
Guarantee
Ice maker manufacturers often guarantee the quality of their product with attached 3-5 year warranties to ensure you that your purchase is worth it for quite a few years. After that, machines may begin to falter in their capability and capacity to operate at the same level, but will still continue to produce ice for years.
Guarantees are empty promises without much of a reputation to back them up, though. That’s where it becomes important to pick retailers whom you can hold by their word, with detailed reviews and customer opinions.
Pay attention to your ideal sizing, the maintenance level and subsequent cost, and the source of your machinery, and you’ll quickly have no problem finding the right ice machine.
>Categorised in: Ice maker
