How to Choose the Right Commercial Ice Machine for Your Business
Getting your water, tea, soda or similar drink served without ice is the worst thing you can experience at a restaurant (second only to finding a bug or a hair in your food). Absolute horror, especially when you were looking forward to a refreshing drink on a particularly hot day. So how come there are still restaurants, cafes, and other hospitality places that serve drinks without ice? Today, with such a wide range of commercial ice making machines, there really is no excuse to torture your quests with lukewarm beverages. If you run some form of hospitality business and are looking for a good ice maker, you will be surprised by how many factors there are to consider.
Size and Capacity
Remember, a commercial ice machine can take up quite the space. And generally, the bigger your ice demands, the bigger the machine should be. Therefore, you should try to figure out the best compromise between how much space you have available and the amount of ice you need. For instance, a large commercial kitchen usually needs plenty of ice, but it also has a lot of activity going on and little free space. In such situations you can consider smart, built-in solutions like for instance undercounter self-contained ice makers. The capacity of a commercial ice machine states how much kilograms of ice it can produce a day. Average models of ice makers produce around 50 kilos of ice, while some higher grade models can make up to 100 kilos or more.
Type of Ice
Different machines make different ice. Some shapes of ice are more suited for drinks, while others for storage. This has mainly to do with the melting time of the ice. To keep beverages cool for a longer period of time, you should opt for the traditional cubed ice. Flaked ice, on the other hand, is the smallest type of ice and it’s usually used for display coolers and in some types of salads. Blended beverages such as shakes and cocktails are best kept cool with nugget ice, which is a medium-sized, round piece of ice.
Additional Features
If you’re using water straight out of the tap to make your ice, a water filter is a good feature to have in a commercial ice machine. Not only does a filter allow you to produce better tasting ice, but it also prevents impurities in the water to collect in the machine thus significantly prolonging its life span. The special storage bin can let you keep ice in its wonderful crystal shape until you’re ready to use it.
