Commercial ice machines such as those found in hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, and other establishments can become contaminated through common everyday use. The cause of the contamination is bacteria, mold, yeast, fungus, slime, and/or biofilm. These micro-contaimants are introduced into the ice machines through impurities in the air and water and can quickly lead to equipment fouling. As a reminder, ice is a food and as a result, a contaminated ice machine can pose serious health risks to both employees and customers who handle or consume ice.

Ice machines should be cleaned at a minimum every month and sometimes more frequently in environments with high yeast content in the air. Unfortunately, owners and operators of ice machines are busy with other tasks and the ice machine hygiene often gets overlooked.

In this video clip the widespread dangers of contaminated ice machines is exposed.

Owners and operators of ice machines have 2 choices to maintain proper ice machine hygiene:
Option 1) clean the ice machine as and when needed. This requires at minimum weekly inspections of the equipment. A 2013 survey indicated that the average ice machine cleaning costs just over $200 and takes about 150 minutes to perform.
Option 2) prevent slime, mold bacteria, fungus, bacteria, and biofilm by using IceZone. IceZone, manufactured by BioZone Scientific, is a chemical-free automated ice machine sanitation system that inhibits micro-contaminants from growing. IceZone is the best-selling solution for ice machine hygiene, and is certified by UL, NSF, and HACCP International for installation on more than 800 ice machines makes and models. IceZone is priced at the cost of about 2 ice machine cleanings and will pay for itself in less than 1 year.