Take the front panel off an ice machine that hasn’t been cleaned in a while and there’s a good chance you’ll find pink or orange slime on the water curtain, black spots in the trough, or a slick film inside the bin where the ice drops. It’s bacteria, mold and yeast growing together. The inside of an ice machine suits them well, since it’s dark and wet and a little cool.
Nobody wants that in a drink. Ice counts as food under the health code, and an inspector who finds slime in the machine will write it up.
Where it hides
The parts you see when you open the bin are rarely the worst of it. The heavy growth is usually behind the water curtain, in the water trough, on the distribution tube that sprays water over the plate, and in the corners of the bin under the door. Some machines also grow it inside the water lines and around the float or water level sensor.
That’s why wiping down the bin with sanitizer doesn’t make it go away. It looks better for a week and then it’s back.
Why some machines get it worse
Ice machines pull a lot of room air through them, and whatever’s floating in that air ends up inside. In a bakery or a brewery there’s yeast in the air, and a bar machine gets a steady dose of sugar from mixers. Put one near the dish area and it sits in warm, steamy air all day. Any of those can slime up much faster than a machine in a cool back room.
If you can’t move the machine, clean it more often. Some manufacturers also sell add-on sanitizing devices that help keep growth down between cleanings, and they’re worth asking about if your machine is in a bad spot.
Getting rid of it
A real cleaning means taking the removable parts out and scrubbing them, then sanitizing them along with every surface the water and ice touch. The machine gets descaled as well, because slime likes to grow on mineral buildup. Use the products your manufacturer lists. Our guide on how often to clean an ice machine explains the descale and sanitize steps and how to set a schedule.
If you’d rather hand it off, we do full cleanings as part of our ice machine service. For a bar or bakery, putting the machine on a maintenance schedule is usually the only way it stays clean.
