How a Commercial Ice Machine Works

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Making ice is very simple process, you take water and you freeze it. Sounds simple enough but how do companies that need to make a large amount of ice go about doing it? They can't just use the same ice trays we use in our freezer they need something bigger and more robust, in comes the commercial ice maker.

In 1890 and 1889 warm winters created a massive ice shortage which brought along the use of mechanical ice making techniques and the wider adoption of commercial ice machines. It wasn't until 1920 and 30's that an ice machine was made available for the average consumer.

So how does the machine actually go about making the ice?

First you will need 3 basic things for any ice maker including the commercial ones. You'll need a refrigeration system to get and keep everything cold, a water supply for creating the ice and something to collect the ice in.

Then you need to drive the refrigerant through a set of coils, like on the back of the refrigerator at you house, causing it expand and condense. This in turn cools the internal ice trays. Now we add a little water from a collection sump and it adds it to our cooled tray. This process is repeated over and over allowing time for the ice to freeze with each pass creating "clear ice". Once the try is full, a mechanism, usually a rod or piston, is used to extract the ice into the holding container.

Normally, the individual trays are made at an angle so the loosened ice just falls out. Other systems use a rod to push the ice out of the tray to keep the classic cube shape, used by hotels and restaurants.

After the ice has been pushed out of the tray, a switch sends the signal to start the whole process again.

Today, commercial Ice Makers or Ice Machines currently make up about 11% of all commercial refrigeration use. Their main goal is to produce a large quality of virtual pure ice or ice that is at least 98% free of contamination. To create 100 pounds of pure ice you're going to need roughly 12 gallons of water.

The machines efficiency is judge by the governments Energy Star and a machine earning a Energy Star rating is about 15% more energy efficient than one that is not.