Ice Machine Making Too Little Ice for the Rush

What it
usually means.

Makers rate an ice machine's output over twenty-four hours at a stated air and water temperature, and they publish how much that output falls as either gets warmer. A machine rated for a cool room will make noticeably less in a back room that reaches the nineties, or on a sunny bar where the afternoon light falls on its front, or when the incoming water is warm. That makes some shortfalls a matter of size and setting rather than a failure. The rest are about heat and water. A condenser filter or grille clogged with grease from a fryer or lint from linens, a slow fan, a water-cooled machine with too little flow through its regulating valve, or a remote condenser on a roof sitting in direct summer sun all make every freeze longer. Scale on the evaporator slows the harvest and holds ice on the plate, a sticking hot gas valve wastes cooling, and a slightly low gas charge lengthens every freeze. Comparing the freeze and harvest times with the manual's table, at the room's real temperature, shows which of these it is.