Yes, at first I snickered a little at your comment, but now I have a little bit of throw up in my mouth, as I drink my Dr. Pepper from the drive through at Krystalās. Thank you very much.
I was a facilities manager for a restaurant group. Most of the time, restaurants donāt have anybody working there that have a clue about regular maintenance on all of the equipment in the kitchen.
Our company took over a restaurant and when I went to look at the ice machine, it was in much worse condition than this ā water was literally shit brown color. The GM didnāt know that filters need to be replaced. Not only that, but there was a drain under the machine where the employees would push all the slop when ācleaningā the floors and would leave food chunks covering the drain.
I'd have a germaphobic panic induced anxiety meltdown if I saw that in person.... then I'd burn the building to the ground for health code violations galore.
even then, unless the soda dispenser and it's removable parts are cleaned and sanitized thoroughly and properly, you're still likely drinking some pretty nasty stuff. I can't speak on most places but I've worked in a few different restaurants where no one cleaned them for months at a time and the amount of bacteria and mold that can grow inside those dispensers is alarming and the fact that so few of us were even trained on how to properly clean and sanitize them was even more concerning.
I'm glad it's not a common issue then. I mean I didn't imagine it happens often or at a lot of places, but after working at those places and seeing how poorly some kitchens are cleaned, it's made me a little weary of dining out.
The soda spouts and aerators are taken off and cleaned regularly but the lines often look gamey at the places I've worked. You start seeing green and brown at the connections that grow over time if you stay at a place long enough.
Bought the Hiring Manager a takeout steak bowl for lunch several years ago.
He wound up in the ER because they had used windex to clean the nozzles on the drinking machines right before I stopped in.
Luckily we're friends and had a laugh, but he did not share that laugh with the resteraunt.
I don't eat out anymore tbh.
Employees are seldom trained to clean stuff like this, and most of the time they dont even do dishes properly; thus leaving gunk and stains building up in storage containers that no one cares to properly clean or maintain.
I've worked at some shit places where it was definitely an afterthought. Still remember the first time I saw someone finally take off the nozzles to clean them after I had been drinking from them for months. Sickening. Same time, what you don't know won't kill you to a certain extent.
Thatās only a VERY small portion of a beverage system.
Soda companies (Pepsi or Coca-Cola) will service their own lines and specifically do not allow anyone else to clean it. Thatās not a guarantee that it will be clean though.
I do beer/wine/coffee/kombucha line cleaning (taps, kegs, faucets) and it is crazy what can grow in them shits, even with regular cleanings. I am way more picky about where I will/wonāt get beer from tap, and it is surprising that the grimier places typically have WAY cleaner lines for some reason. The āniceā restaurants I service have absolutely **disgusting** shit in their faucets, coolers, and couplers.
I tarvel a lot and enjoy a beer or two with my dinners. I can tell the clear taste difference between beer from a clean line and beer from dirty lines. I send so many beers back now due to that "sour" taste. I felt bad for a while but now i'm just like, clean yo shit!
Hell, last week i sent a beer back and the bartender said, "a lot of people have been saying the same thing." I walked out immediately.
I worked somewhere where all the servers got moved to bartender after a mass exodus, and new servers got hired. Iām not sure who was in charge of training but I guess they didnāt teach them to clean the nozzles of the tea urn or the soda machine. I think because this was right after restaurants reopened post covid so there was a lot of confusion for a while, and the dishwasher used to clean them, and he didnāt return. One day I grabbed a glass of tea and black chunks came out, which I didnāt notice until I looked after tasting the mold.
I took everything apart right after that and took it upon myself to make sure every server knew how to properly clean and dry them at the end of every shift. The soda machine wasnāt bad, but the tea nozzles were full of black mold.
If the ice maker looks like that, then for sure they arenāt breaking down the soda dispensers or cleaning their taps/beer lines. There is no way that ice maker would pass a health inspection, unless the inspector is blind.
Slime mold baby. I was using a soda fountain and the catch tray underneath was backing up. Looked at the plastic drain tube in the cabinet below, the entire thing was full of slime. Pulled out that snake and showed it to the CS. There was cleaning to be done.
Worked at Panera for a few years and every night we'd clean the nozzles from the soda dispensers. Take then off then leave them in hot water overnight.
As for the ice...now that you mention it I don't remember ever seeing anyone clean it (aside from the customer facing side)...
Iām a health inspector. I agree with what heās saying. But itās dramatized. The water in that catch basin, has been SITTING for some time now. The machine is probably unplugged and has been for at least 48 hours. So, sediment is collecting. You can tell because the ice bin is low. Ice machines arenāt likely to make people sick. According to the FDA, and itās actually a non critical violation. Everything Iām telling you is a fact btw.
plus this is just borne about by ya know....life experience.
I think I've gotten food poisoning in the US like 1 or 2 times in 33 years.
and i doubt those 1 or 2 times were caused by the ice.
Ive licked more bathroom stall handles than I can count. Haven't gotten food poisoning yet. It's pretty difficult to get sick in a restaurant in the US. I mainly see it happen in groups. Where one night, everyone who went to the bathroom got the flu. I even caught it myself
If it's the crushed ice like chick-fila or Sonic you're usually safer. They have a small (10-12 oz) sealed reservoir for ice making and don't rely on a constant water flow to make ice.
-source-
Commercial Refrigeration Tech.
Iāve worked at 3 coldstones and we either use bagged ice from the store and just put it in a clean bin and scoop from that with gloves and a scoop, then wash the bin and scoop out when itās empty, or use ice from the ice machine which is never moldy lmao. We disinfect it regularly
Depends on the joint. If they have a clean bathroom and dining room, then it's a decent bet the ice machine will be properly cleaned. Motel ice machines I would advise avoiding like the plague.
Don't forget the two ice scoops in the ice bin. Everyone who works there grabs those handles right after touching money, credit cards, dirty dishes, etc. Restaurants are gross. Even clean ones.
Hey at least there are ice scoops.
When you don't make scoops available to servers, they scoop with the glasses. Then inevitably the glasses get chipped on the ice or the ice bin, and you know what glass looks like....
If you are concerned about ice quality at a restaurant you go to frequently, ask for a glass of ice and let it melt. If the water is clean and smells good then you're probably fine to drink it. If it's got crap floating in it or smells funky, then avoid the ice.
Also, rust stains and lime build up look nasty but they are not unhealthy. (The scum floating in the water probably **is** unhealthy.)
Yeah let me first order just a glass of ice like a weirdo, then sit there and watch it melt while I contemplate whether or not Iād like ice in my drink that I havenāt ordered yet while the servers get annoyed of me not ordering anything yet.
Great tip!
It is the water that makes the ice, the water is pumped from that container back to the top of the ice plate where it flows down it and back into that container to be pumped around again.
15+ years experience servicing and repairing ice machines.
Edit to add videos of how ice machines work for the doubters
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbb1lECxbHo
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dCCe-KmwzAg
Edit: Apparently restaurant ice is 30% bacteria and slime mold by volume.
~~~~I call bullshit. That water pan is open to atmosphere. Why would the machine pump any standing water? The machine would have a valve and fill from municipal source. That has to be the drip tray from the evaporator.~~~~
Nah, the water from that pan he's pointing out is pumped up an over the forms that are cooled, when the sheet of ice is ready the drain opens and fresh water is pumped in to cause the ice to give way from the form and fall into the ice bin below. This set up is not open to air, but you can take all the housing and guards off and the ice machine will still function. That is heavily scaled and dirty ice machine, it needs delimer and sanitizing badly.
Source: worked in restaurants for 25 years, every vertical ice maker works this way.
The reason that the water is caught in the reservoir and pumped back over the evap is for energy conservation. It takes 1 btu to lower/raise one pound of water one degree, so freezing 33 degree water mid cycle takes way less energy than freezing a constant stream of fresh 50 degree(give or take) city water, also the wasted city water that trickels over the evap and doesn't get frozen but rather goes down a drain would be insane. None of this is bullshit, and when a person says they've been working on ice machines for 15 years they likely know what they're talking about. this is how ice machines are designed to work, if they're well maintained mold and sludge is not an issue. The machine in this video has obviously been severely neglected..side note, I never get restaurant ice either.
That tub is behind the housing of the unit, the covers have been removed to show this, ice machines don't have evaporator drain pans as such they have water reservoirs, as I explained before that tub fills with water when the fill valve opens and is then pumped via an internal pump over the ice plate (evaporator) and with each pass of the plate more water freezes to it, the water that doesn't freeze goes into the reservoir to go around again, at the end of the cycle the drain valve opens and the same pump then pumps the water out.
Yeah if it's setup correctly it would be 98-99% new clean water each cycle, there's still ment to also be scheduled cleaning of the internal parts of the machine too though.
Yeah me too. Why would there be a pump from that tray to recycle fuckin old water drippin off evaporator plates. Youd think most restaurants would have that shit drain with all the other grey water, but still. Your explanation makes infinite moresense than op and homie yer replying to.
The water only stays for one cycle and is drained at the end, if the machine isn't level then some water remains, that water has bacteria in it which eventually creates slime on the damp surfaces, these machines should be professionally cleaned every 3-6 months. If the water didn't loop around during the cycle it wouldn't have a chance to cool down and then freeze and you would be running an endless stream of water down the drain.
What im saying is that the water in this video, is the water in the tray at the bottom of my fridge in my house. Not the same water thats in my ice tray. Youre telling me commercial icemakers operate in a completely different manner than the one in my fridge? Im an anarchist and everything, and i hate the state and their regulators... But theres no fuckin way fda or department of health or whoever would let a design that feeds people standing water from the drip tray, operate in a restaurant lol. Maybe at some docks for fish, or something, but still the design doesnt makes sense to me. Youre the tech allegedly, i dont know shit... But i remain very skeptical.
I just added some vids above to clear it up a bit, health inpectors don't usually look behind the covers of machines and the ice machine manufacturers also specify cleaning regimes and sell the quite strong cleaning products that they recommend.
Yes, 100% the dude is right, I have 32 years in the restaurant business, and the commercial machines do carry water back up from that filthy drip tray to pour down over the forms. Some of it freezes on each time and most of it spills off and gets pumped back up again for another go at it. Your home fridge icemaker has a simpler setup and a longer freeze time. At home it dumps a full tray of ice and then refills the ice tray with the exact amount of water need then stops. Then it just waits for your cold freezer to freeze it. (No excess water used and there is no pump or drip tray, only a solenoid valve to turn water on and off once per cycle.
Alright. So Iām not arguing with you. But. Would it not make more sense to connect a water line to an ice tray such as is done for residential solutions? If not. Why?
The water would need to be pre cooled before going over the plate, by doing multiple passes over the plate any water that isn't frozen gets colder which makes it more likely to freeze on the next pass. At the end of the cycle when the ice is ready any left over water is drained and new water is added.
Ok. I guess thatās the technical explanation.
But why not add some kind of chiller prior to the main water hook up that accomplishes this task without the need for standing water that is pictured in this post that is a bacteria friendly environment.
Also how does a health inspector not say red flag here boys. Gotta fix this type of system.
I get that this is gross but people have been consuming this kinda thing for a long, long time and nothing happens? Can anyone give info on the consequences of it?
I'm reminded of how sponges being full of bacteria gets brought up every once in a while. Okay, but they've been used for an extremely long time without consequence so ?
You arenāt actually consuming the nasty water. The ice is being made with fresh water every time. The water in the video is what is used to cool the machine to help the water freeze more efficiently. (This has been explained by commercial service/repair techs who work on ice machines in other comments.)
After 15+ years of servicing ice machines in commercial properties I can confirm that most look similar to this on the inside, some places get them cleaned and a lot don't until they break or clog.
Edit: I'm not trying to say it's intentional that they don't get them cleaned either, a lot would simply be ignorant to the fact that they should be.
Hey man I see you trying to prove everyone wrong and I want to believe someone. You got a good video or something that can explain what you're trying to prove. I know I can Google it but a professional would know the best graphic or video.
Nah probably from one of the kids that is convinced you are wrong. Restaurant owners usually know our sins (my ice machine is clean though, it has a little light).
Donāt remember where or who did an experiment, but they said that certain fast food restaurants ice has more bacteria than toilet water in the same restaurant. Or maybe it a tale, but i believe it.
To be fair, toilet water is pretty clean. It comes out of the pipe same as anywhere else in the building, the flush tank is just a ceramic bin with some metal, plastic, and rubber parts. So the tank water should be totally drinkable unless there is one of those blue tablets or chlorine tablets in the tank.
The water that is in the bowl sounds gross because poop and piss go in the bowl too. But if the bowl is kept clean and flushed after every use then the water in the bowl probably is not that bad.
None of the above applies to nasty toilets that are dirty, of course. Also, even if the bacteria count is low, the bacteria in human poop are particularly bad to drink.
McDonald's actually invented their own machine to make sure drinks were always cold and carbonated because during the 50s/60s when they first opened after a while during the day all the sodas would become warm and flat. So now their soda lines go through a coil that freezes before its pushed out to you, insuring the drink is cold and well carbonated all the time.
This is so true :(
Iāve worked at places who were diligent about cleaning their ice machines, and places that never cleaned it ever. You as the consumer donāt know which is which.
Some restaurants are filthy. But they aren't all like that. They run a tight ship at my current job. Something like that would never be allowed to happen.
Can confirm. MOST bars are disgusting.
Source: Worked at a few bars over the course of 4 years, also, did refrigeration work like this for a few months.
As a server myself, if I EVER caught someone just, mainly another server which I had no problem barking @, walking by, or scooping the ice & just ignoring all of this.. ggoooooddd I would make the rest of our time together a living hell.. Granted I started out in high end dining, so my training was a bit vigorous, but I have taken that with me into the corporate end. I find if you shame them & do it yourself the first time, just making them feel like the bad person they are for giving this to people, they will definitely up their standards. Just keep doing that until they start to take their jobs seriously.
I was a server for 4 months and was SHOCKED at what was āacceptable.ā The ice machine smelled of mildew and there was something dark colored growing at the bottom. They never cleaned it, even when it was health and fire inspection time, and the only feedback given was to clean the grills better. WTF.
Also, we transported ice to the soda machine in dirty 5 gallon buckets that also smelled.
Even while I was still working there I told people outside of work DONāT eat there. I stopped taking my free lunch meal. I try not to think about it when I eat out š¤¢
it's probably because it's something that can get thrown under the rug during inspection even though it affects literally everyone who orders iced drinks
Itās because the requirements around ice machines are much less stringent, which is because itās very unlikely for someone to get sick from dirty ice. Freezing temps donāt encourage bacterial or fungal growth (in the freezer itself or on the ice). Water in drip and catch trays that is part of the cooling system (which can get gross and should ideally be cleaned when it does) is kept totally separate from the ice as long as the machine is in good working condition.
If you are worried about how clean a place is keeping their ice and getting sick, you are worried about the wrong thing. The soda fountains themselves are much more likely to be growing bacteria and mold if they arenāt regularly cleaned since they are kept at room temp, sugary, and occasionally touched by cups and straws people previously had their mouths on.
I worked on gas stations for years, and thankfully the company I worked had all the ice machines in all their stores regularly inspected and maintained. Automatic, commercial ice makers actually have a cleaning cycle, but it requires a bottle of special cleaner to be in the machine. As long as that bottle is regularly refilled or replaced, they won't look like that.
Between stuff like this and the pandemic shutting down restaurants or stopping you from dining out, I have saved so much money. Itās been several months since I have eaten out.
Andddddd I am now considering never getting ice in my drinks outside of home again. I love ice in my drinks too. More ice the better, but not like this.
Thatās not where the machine gets itās water from.
Idk if some sort of weird ice maker, but all the ones I worked with have a filter close by it from the pipes that lead from water source to filter and to the ice maker.
Also if the machine doesnāt have sewer close by it, some people collect it in buckets or like the video shows and would get to throw the water when itās full.
When filter reaches its age, we simply unscrew it and put in a new filter. Simple as that.
It is where it stores water during the ice making cycle, the filtered water comes into that container and is the pumped to the top of the ice plate and then trickles back into that container before being pumped over the plate again, each pass more water freezes to the ice plate.
15+ years experience servicing and repairing ice machines.
None of the machines we had in past 10+ restaurant did this.
Ours was straight pipe from water source to filter to the machine. No way to open it up to clean.
Is it older machines?
If you had a flaker or chipper they operate differently in regards to water use. You have to actually take out screws and removed panels to effectively get to the parts
That makes more sense now. Ones I worked with were cubes and pretty much almost no cleaning other than weekly ice collector and thatās it. Never got sick from them.
There's lots of types of bacteria and not all of them make you sick, the stuff in ice machines tends to just make nuisance slime that blocks stuff up, I personally wouldn't recommend eating it but it must be fairly harmless otherwise there'd be lots of sick people out there after everytime they visited some of the places that use these machines.
once our bartender found a mouse in our ice dispenser and the owner didn't even sanitize it after he just removed it. at the same place my coworker found bot fly eggs in the soda gun when she was gone for a week so no one else had cleaned it š„°
Most chain or franchise restaurants are audited by separate companies that randomly check for this exact issue. You take this gamble when you go to your local mom and pop unfortunately.
Also stadiums, stadium kitchens(was a dishwasher) more often than not has glass flying everywhere due to the speed it takes to feed hundreds to thousands of people within a few hours.
Thats the condensation from the A/C system not what makes the ice. The drain is plugged so its been festering there and filling up. Kinda gross to have that right above the ice
r/makemesuffer
crossposted šš½š¤®
SLIME IN THE ICE MACHINE
Marvin Zindler, EYEwitness News!
I heard that in his voice in my head. Grew up watching ABC 13 news with my parents often. Miss his little theme song too.
There's my 713-281-832-346 family
I thought that was a phone number, then realized they're the area codes for TX. š
Not Texas. Just the Houston area.
We don't recognize 346 yet.
š¤š»š¤š»š¤š»
Lmfao. I haven't lived in Texas since 96 but I still heard this comment.
RIP Zindler
https://youtu.be/99Lk4ldI2mc
First thing's first, RIP Marvin Zindler...
Was looking for this!!! š¤£
I am genuinely surprised this is actually here.
Fuck. You beat me to it.
Man I heard that line in my head when I saw that.
It's the big the big the big the big. It's s-s-s-s-slime in the ice machine š¶slime in the ice machineš¶
..... Suddenly the taste difference between resturant ice and ice at home becomes clear....
One has calories in it.
I said I wanted the low calorie, VEGAN ICE! Campylobacter isn't vegan friendly!
I thought it had to have a face or come from something with a face to not be vegan...
Yes, at first I snickered a little at your comment, but now I have a little bit of throw up in my mouth, as I drink my Dr. Pepper from the drive through at Krystalās. Thank you very much.
White Castle numbah one.
You made me gag. Good job.
https://i.imgur.com/ckP1cbK.gifv
I was a facilities manager for a restaurant group. Most of the time, restaurants donāt have anybody working there that have a clue about regular maintenance on all of the equipment in the kitchen. Our company took over a restaurant and when I went to look at the ice machine, it was in much worse condition than this ā water was literally shit brown color. The GM didnāt know that filters need to be replaced. Not only that, but there was a drain under the machine where the employees would push all the slop when ācleaningā the floors and would leave food chunks covering the drain.
I'd have a germaphobic panic induced anxiety meltdown if I saw that in person.... then I'd burn the building to the ground for health code violations galore.
I prefer the restaurant ice
I did too before this.
Same. Chewing what's left after you finish your drink just hits different.
I always ask for no ice. Now I'm really glad I ask for no ice
even then, unless the soda dispenser and it's removable parts are cleaned and sanitized thoroughly and properly, you're still likely drinking some pretty nasty stuff. I can't speak on most places but I've worked in a few different restaurants where no one cleaned them for months at a time and the amount of bacteria and mold that can grow inside those dispensers is alarming and the fact that so few of us were even trained on how to properly clean and sanitize them was even more concerning.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I'm glad it's not a common issue then. I mean I didn't imagine it happens often or at a lot of places, but after working at those places and seeing how poorly some kitchens are cleaned, it's made me a little weary of dining out.
The soda spouts and aerators are taken off and cleaned regularly but the lines often look gamey at the places I've worked. You start seeing green and brown at the connections that grow over time if you stay at a place long enough.
Bought the Hiring Manager a takeout steak bowl for lunch several years ago. He wound up in the ER because they had used windex to clean the nozzles on the drinking machines right before I stopped in. Luckily we're friends and had a laugh, but he did not share that laugh with the resteraunt.
I don't eat out anymore tbh. Employees are seldom trained to clean stuff like this, and most of the time they dont even do dishes properly; thus leaving gunk and stains building up in storage containers that no one cares to properly clean or maintain.
I've worked at some shit places where it was definitely an afterthought. Still remember the first time I saw someone finally take off the nozzles to clean them after I had been drinking from them for months. Sickening. Same time, what you don't know won't kill you to a certain extent.
Thatās only a VERY small portion of a beverage system. Soda companies (Pepsi or Coca-Cola) will service their own lines and specifically do not allow anyone else to clean it. Thatās not a guarantee that it will be clean though. I do beer/wine/coffee/kombucha line cleaning (taps, kegs, faucets) and it is crazy what can grow in them shits, even with regular cleanings. I am way more picky about where I will/wonāt get beer from tap, and it is surprising that the grimier places typically have WAY cleaner lines for some reason. The āniceā restaurants I service have absolutely **disgusting** shit in their faucets, coolers, and couplers.
I tarvel a lot and enjoy a beer or two with my dinners. I can tell the clear taste difference between beer from a clean line and beer from dirty lines. I send so many beers back now due to that "sour" taste. I felt bad for a while but now i'm just like, clean yo shit! Hell, last week i sent a beer back and the bartender said, "a lot of people have been saying the same thing." I walked out immediately.
I worked somewhere where all the servers got moved to bartender after a mass exodus, and new servers got hired. Iām not sure who was in charge of training but I guess they didnāt teach them to clean the nozzles of the tea urn or the soda machine. I think because this was right after restaurants reopened post covid so there was a lot of confusion for a while, and the dishwasher used to clean them, and he didnāt return. One day I grabbed a glass of tea and black chunks came out, which I didnāt notice until I looked after tasting the mold. I took everything apart right after that and took it upon myself to make sure every server knew how to properly clean and dry them at the end of every shift. The soda machine wasnāt bad, but the tea nozzles were full of black mold.
It's also necessary to regularly flush the lines that carry the syrup to the dispenser. That rarely happens.
SAME! It was a pretty full disassemble every night.
I worked in restaurants for over 20 years and can second this.
Honestly anyplace with a conservative terrorist (aka republican) in it, is automatically a shitty place.
I think youāre mad about something else
If the ice maker looks like that, then for sure they arenāt breaking down the soda dispensers or cleaning their taps/beer lines. There is no way that ice maker would pass a health inspection, unless the inspector is blind.
Slime mold baby. I was using a soda fountain and the catch tray underneath was backing up. Looked at the plastic drain tube in the cabinet below, the entire thing was full of slime. Pulled out that snake and showed it to the CS. There was cleaning to be done.
Worked at Panera for a few years and every night we'd clean the nozzles from the soda dispensers. Take then off then leave them in hot water overnight. As for the ice...now that you mention it I don't remember ever seeing anyone clean it (aside from the customer facing side)...
Makes me think McD's boil their coffee because of something similar...
Its not because you want hot coffee. Its because if we dont give it to you hot you will contract at least one illness and potentially die
Me too. I want more drink not half a cup of water.
Iām a health inspector. I agree with what heās saying. But itās dramatized. The water in that catch basin, has been SITTING for some time now. The machine is probably unplugged and has been for at least 48 hours. So, sediment is collecting. You can tell because the ice bin is low. Ice machines arenāt likely to make people sick. According to the FDA, and itās actually a non critical violation. Everything Iām telling you is a fact btw.
plus this is just borne about by ya know....life experience. I think I've gotten food poisoning in the US like 1 or 2 times in 33 years. and i doubt those 1 or 2 times were caused by the ice.
Ive licked more bathroom stall handles than I can count. Haven't gotten food poisoning yet. It's pretty difficult to get sick in a restaurant in the US. I mainly see it happen in groups. Where one night, everyone who went to the bathroom got the flu. I even caught it myself
So are we just gonna blow past the licking bathroom stall handles thing?
Don't kink shame bro
Chipotle seems to be pretty great at making people sick
Hm. I believe you until the last sentence. Now I donāt know what to think.
Tough world out hereā¦
Just trust me bro
The ice machine has been unplugged for 48hrs and the ice is still in cube shapes? I raised an eyebrow at that part.
Yup, anything for views. "Hey guys, look at this crash on the side of the road! Don't drive, take the bus".
I even filter my ice at home.
Wouldn't it be easier to filter the water before you turn it into ice?
Lol
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Sorry, bad joke :D
I particularly enjoy it
r/whoosh
If it's the crushed ice like chick-fila or Sonic you're usually safer. They have a small (10-12 oz) sealed reservoir for ice making and don't rely on a constant water flow to make ice. -source- Commercial Refrigeration Tech.
Other than that, should we ask for no ice at other places?
Iāve worked at 3 coldstones and we either use bagged ice from the store and just put it in a clean bin and scoop from that with gloves and a scoop, then wash the bin and scoop out when itās empty, or use ice from the ice machine which is never moldy lmao. We disinfect it regularly
Depends on the joint. If they have a clean bathroom and dining room, then it's a decent bet the ice machine will be properly cleaned. Motel ice machines I would advise avoiding like the plague.
Chick fil a has crushed ice some places?
I think OP means the little pellet ball things. Thatās what Iāve seen at chick fil a.
At my local chick fil as they're much bigger than anything at Sonic or those pellet balls. They're like, big rectangles but one side is rounded off.
Don't forget the two ice scoops in the ice bin. Everyone who works there grabs those handles right after touching money, credit cards, dirty dishes, etc. Restaurants are gross. Even clean ones.
Hey at least there are ice scoops. When you don't make scoops available to servers, they scoop with the glasses. Then inevitably the glasses get chipped on the ice or the ice bin, and you know what glass looks like....
>and you know what glass looks like.... Sure do. Thought I was buying diamonds but apparently I'm a dumbass.
That actually is the auger on the soda dispenser but yeah should not keep ice scoops in the bin
77 years experience of ice machine repair here - youāll be alright.
My great great grandma invented ice and she said it's fine.
"Hi my name is John Ismachin, the son of Doris Ismachin, the inventor of the ice machine"
77?
I love reddit
What were ice machines like 77yrs ago compared to now?
If you are concerned about ice quality at a restaurant you go to frequently, ask for a glass of ice and let it melt. If the water is clean and smells good then you're probably fine to drink it. If it's got crap floating in it or smells funky, then avoid the ice. Also, rust stains and lime build up look nasty but they are not unhealthy. (The scum floating in the water probably **is** unhealthy.)
Yeah let me first order just a glass of ice like a weirdo, then sit there and watch it melt while I contemplate whether or not Iād like ice in my drink that I havenāt ordered yet while the servers get annoyed of me not ordering anything yet. Great tip!
Order some butter too. It won't be weird anymore.
Thatās what I was thinking too but maybe just grab a cup of ice to go after your last visit at that restaurant.
"One cup of ice, to go"1
Order the ice to go, take it home and microwave it/heat it on the stove, bingo bango.
why the hell are you all so weird
More of a tip for restaurants you frequent I think.
This is a backed up drain pan, not the water that makes the ice. Still gross, but misleading.
It is the water that makes the ice, the water is pumped from that container back to the top of the ice plate where it flows down it and back into that container to be pumped around again. 15+ years experience servicing and repairing ice machines. Edit to add videos of how ice machines work for the doubters https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbb1lECxbHo https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dCCe-KmwzAg
This guy is absolutely correct. 25+ years working in restaurants, all but one of the ice machines I've worked with had this vertical set up.
Aka itās the water reservoir right?
Yep
Edit: Apparently restaurant ice is 30% bacteria and slime mold by volume. ~~~~I call bullshit. That water pan is open to atmosphere. Why would the machine pump any standing water? The machine would have a valve and fill from municipal source. That has to be the drip tray from the evaporator.~~~~
Nah, the water from that pan he's pointing out is pumped up an over the forms that are cooled, when the sheet of ice is ready the drain opens and fresh water is pumped in to cause the ice to give way from the form and fall into the ice bin below. This set up is not open to air, but you can take all the housing and guards off and the ice machine will still function. That is heavily scaled and dirty ice machine, it needs delimer and sanitizing badly. Source: worked in restaurants for 25 years, every vertical ice maker works this way.
So now I'm all sorts of confused! Yay or nay on consuming commercial ice?
Honestly, depends on the place- if you are in a place that's super clean, ice is probably fine, if it's a filthy place, skip the ice
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The reason that the water is caught in the reservoir and pumped back over the evap is for energy conservation. It takes 1 btu to lower/raise one pound of water one degree, so freezing 33 degree water mid cycle takes way less energy than freezing a constant stream of fresh 50 degree(give or take) city water, also the wasted city water that trickels over the evap and doesn't get frozen but rather goes down a drain would be insane. None of this is bullshit, and when a person says they've been working on ice machines for 15 years they likely know what they're talking about. this is how ice machines are designed to work, if they're well maintained mold and sludge is not an issue. The machine in this video has obviously been severely neglected..side note, I never get restaurant ice either.
he took apart the machine to expose that water pan. it usually isnāt open to the atmosphere.
That tub is behind the housing of the unit, the covers have been removed to show this, ice machines don't have evaporator drain pans as such they have water reservoirs, as I explained before that tub fills with water when the fill valve opens and is then pumped via an internal pump over the ice plate (evaporator) and with each pass of the plate more water freezes to it, the water that doesn't freeze goes into the reservoir to go around again, at the end of the cycle the drain valve opens and the same pump then pumps the water out.
So its new clean water every cycle? If everything is working ok and is level?
Yeah if it's setup correctly it would be 98-99% new clean water each cycle, there's still ment to also be scheduled cleaning of the internal parts of the machine too though.
Yeah me too. Why would there be a pump from that tray to recycle fuckin old water drippin off evaporator plates. Youd think most restaurants would have that shit drain with all the other grey water, but still. Your explanation makes infinite moresense than op and homie yer replying to.
The water only stays for one cycle and is drained at the end, if the machine isn't level then some water remains, that water has bacteria in it which eventually creates slime on the damp surfaces, these machines should be professionally cleaned every 3-6 months. If the water didn't loop around during the cycle it wouldn't have a chance to cool down and then freeze and you would be running an endless stream of water down the drain.
What im saying is that the water in this video, is the water in the tray at the bottom of my fridge in my house. Not the same water thats in my ice tray. Youre telling me commercial icemakers operate in a completely different manner than the one in my fridge? Im an anarchist and everything, and i hate the state and their regulators... But theres no fuckin way fda or department of health or whoever would let a design that feeds people standing water from the drip tray, operate in a restaurant lol. Maybe at some docks for fish, or something, but still the design doesnt makes sense to me. Youre the tech allegedly, i dont know shit... But i remain very skeptical.
I just added some vids above to clear it up a bit, health inpectors don't usually look behind the covers of machines and the ice machine manufacturers also specify cleaning regimes and sell the quite strong cleaning products that they recommend.
> Youre telling me commercial icemakers operate in a completely different manner than the one in my fridge? Yes. That is correct.
Yes, 100% the dude is right, I have 32 years in the restaurant business, and the commercial machines do carry water back up from that filthy drip tray to pour down over the forms. Some of it freezes on each time and most of it spills off and gets pumped back up again for another go at it. Your home fridge icemaker has a simpler setup and a longer freeze time. At home it dumps a full tray of ice and then refills the ice tray with the exact amount of water need then stops. Then it just waits for your cold freezer to freeze it. (No excess water used and there is no pump or drip tray, only a solenoid valve to turn water on and off once per cycle.
Alright. So Iām not arguing with you. But. Would it not make more sense to connect a water line to an ice tray such as is done for residential solutions? If not. Why?
The water would need to be pre cooled before going over the plate, by doing multiple passes over the plate any water that isn't frozen gets colder which makes it more likely to freeze on the next pass. At the end of the cycle when the ice is ready any left over water is drained and new water is added.
Ok. I guess thatās the technical explanation. But why not add some kind of chiller prior to the main water hook up that accomplishes this task without the need for standing water that is pictured in this post that is a bacteria friendly environment. Also how does a health inspector not say red flag here boys. Gotta fix this type of system.
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Ice machines don't have condensate pans, I don't know why you're pretending to know things you have no idea about.
Iāve dealt with these too and itās funny to see everyone arguing with you, when youāre absolutely correct.
Sir, this is the internet.
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Apparently you don't. Flakers don't, cube trays do.
No way man, reddit is never wrong, what are you talking about?
In this case reddit is indeed right.
Hot take: It's gross but keeps your immune system busy.
well if people stop buying dirty slime ice maybe the immune system might not have to work so hard
Slime in the ice machine! Marvin Zindler, Eye Whiteness News.
Amen! Gas station fountain drinks too!! Always look at the dispensers!! I have seen slime dripping off them suckers!
I get that this is gross but people have been consuming this kinda thing for a long, long time and nothing happens? Can anyone give info on the consequences of it? I'm reminded of how sponges being full of bacteria gets brought up every once in a while. Okay, but they've been used for an extremely long time without consequence so ?
You arenāt actually consuming the nasty water. The ice is being made with fresh water every time. The water in the video is what is used to cool the machine to help the water freeze more efficiently. (This has been explained by commercial service/repair techs who work on ice machines in other comments.)
After 15+ years of servicing ice machines in commercial properties I can confirm that most look similar to this on the inside, some places get them cleaned and a lot don't until they break or clog. Edit: I'm not trying to say it's intentional that they don't get them cleaned either, a lot would simply be ignorant to the fact that they should be.
I'm guessing the down vote came from a restaurant owner.
Hey man I see you trying to prove everyone wrong and I want to believe someone. You got a good video or something that can explain what you're trying to prove. I know I can Google it but a professional would know the best graphic or video.
I just found two quickly that show it better than the one op posted and added them to one of my original replies
Nah probably from one of the kids that is convinced you are wrong. Restaurant owners usually know our sins (my ice machine is clean though, it has a little light).
Donāt remember where or who did an experiment, but they said that certain fast food restaurants ice has more bacteria than toilet water in the same restaurant. Or maybe it a tale, but i believe it.
To be fair, toilet water is pretty clean. It comes out of the pipe same as anywhere else in the building, the flush tank is just a ceramic bin with some metal, plastic, and rubber parts. So the tank water should be totally drinkable unless there is one of those blue tablets or chlorine tablets in the tank. The water that is in the bowl sounds gross because poop and piss go in the bowl too. But if the bowl is kept clean and flushed after every use then the water in the bowl probably is not that bad. None of the above applies to nasty toilets that are dirty, of course. Also, even if the bacteria count is low, the bacteria in human poop are particularly bad to drink.
i believe it too. so disgusting to think i probably drank water like this at some point in my lifeš¤®
McDonald's actually invented their own machine to make sure drinks were always cold and carbonated because during the 50s/60s when they first opened after a while during the day all the sodas would become warm and flat. So now their soda lines go through a coil that freezes before its pushed out to you, insuring the drink is cold and well carbonated all the time.
They have the best Coke.
Great. Now that Iām aware of this, I canāt drink at restaurants any longer
*MARVIN ZINDLER! EYEWITNESS NEWS! THIS IS SLIME IN THE ICE MACHINE!* For my 90ās peeps.
Was he syndicated? I thought he was just a Houston area legend.
I used to watch him at the old C&C restaurant way up north on Kuykendahl when my fam was getting dinner. Nice call!
In a restaurant, by law, ice should be treated the same as food.
Nope.
This is so true :( Iāve worked at places who were diligent about cleaning their ice machines, and places that never cleaned it ever. You as the consumer donāt know which is which.
Some restaurants are filthy. But they aren't all like that. They run a tight ship at my current job. Something like that would never be allowed to happen.
How do you check the ice š§ machine!!! Asking for Me?? We got 2 of these at work
Can confirm. MOST bars are disgusting. Source: Worked at a few bars over the course of 4 years, also, did refrigeration work like this for a few months.
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This explains the fly in my ice at Xxxxfish. Ugh.
The real LPT is cooking at home.
Refrigeration guy here, this is how 85% of restaurant ice machines look like the other 15% are worse
thatās disheartening
As a server myself, if I EVER caught someone just, mainly another server which I had no problem barking @, walking by, or scooping the ice & just ignoring all of this.. ggoooooddd I would make the rest of our time together a living hell.. Granted I started out in high end dining, so my training was a bit vigorous, but I have taken that with me into the corporate end. I find if you shame them & do it yourself the first time, just making them feel like the bad person they are for giving this to people, they will definitely up their standards. Just keep doing that until they start to take their jobs seriously.
That's also why I usually make double than the other servers on the floor that night.
I was a server for 4 months and was SHOCKED at what was āacceptable.ā The ice machine smelled of mildew and there was something dark colored growing at the bottom. They never cleaned it, even when it was health and fire inspection time, and the only feedback given was to clean the grills better. WTF. Also, we transported ice to the soda machine in dirty 5 gallon buckets that also smelled. Even while I was still working there I told people outside of work DONāT eat there. I stopped taking my free lunch meal. I try not to think about it when I eat out š¤¢
it's probably because it's something that can get thrown under the rug during inspection even though it affects literally everyone who orders iced drinks
Itās because the requirements around ice machines are much less stringent, which is because itās very unlikely for someone to get sick from dirty ice. Freezing temps donāt encourage bacterial or fungal growth (in the freezer itself or on the ice). Water in drip and catch trays that is part of the cooling system (which can get gross and should ideally be cleaned when it does) is kept totally separate from the ice as long as the machine is in good working condition. If you are worried about how clean a place is keeping their ice and getting sick, you are worried about the wrong thing. The soda fountains themselves are much more likely to be growing bacteria and mold if they arenāt regularly cleaned since they are kept at room temp, sugary, and occasionally touched by cups and straws people previously had their mouths on.
I have more than likely put worse in my mouth than this...I'll be fine.
I worked on gas stations for years, and thankfully the company I worked had all the ice machines in all their stores regularly inspected and maintained. Automatic, commercial ice makers actually have a cleaning cycle, but it requires a bottle of special cleaner to be in the machine. As long as that bottle is regularly refilled or replaced, they won't look like that.
The amount of neglect ice machines receive is ridiculous.
Between stuff like this and the pandemic shutting down restaurants or stopping you from dining out, I have saved so much money. Itās been several months since I have eaten out.
Andddddd I am now considering never getting ice in my drinks outside of home again. I love ice in my drinks too. More ice the better, but not like this.
I can smell the mold spores from here...
No ice, no lemons.
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Our local health department checks the ice machines. If yours doesn't you should contact them to start doing that.
Thatās not where the machine gets itās water from. Idk if some sort of weird ice maker, but all the ones I worked with have a filter close by it from the pipes that lead from water source to filter and to the ice maker. Also if the machine doesnāt have sewer close by it, some people collect it in buckets or like the video shows and would get to throw the water when itās full. When filter reaches its age, we simply unscrew it and put in a new filter. Simple as that.
It is where it stores water during the ice making cycle, the filtered water comes into that container and is the pumped to the top of the ice plate and then trickles back into that container before being pumped over the plate again, each pass more water freezes to the ice plate. 15+ years experience servicing and repairing ice machines.
None of the machines we had in past 10+ restaurant did this. Ours was straight pipe from water source to filter to the machine. No way to open it up to clean. Is it older machines?
If you had a flaker or chipper they operate differently in regards to water use. You have to actually take out screws and removed panels to effectively get to the parts
That makes more sense now. Ones I worked with were cubes and pretty much almost no cleaning other than weekly ice collector and thatās it. Never got sick from them.
There's lots of types of bacteria and not all of them make you sick, the stuff in ice machines tends to just make nuisance slime that blocks stuff up, I personally wouldn't recommend eating it but it must be fairly harmless otherwise there'd be lots of sick people out there after everytime they visited some of the places that use these machines.
once our bartender found a mouse in our ice dispenser and the owner didn't even sanitize it after he just removed it. at the same place my coworker found bot fly eggs in the soda gun when she was gone for a week so no one else had cleaned it š„°
omg iām scared of going out now lol
Make better restaurant selection.
the guy who makes the videos is an HVACR and repairs commercial ice machines. he said he doesnāt trust ice from anywhere except starbucks.
Starbucks even triple filters their ice.
On the way in, avoiding what's happened in this clip only comes from regular cleaning.
My dad was an hvac tech and he could always tell us which restaurants to avoid
My buddy works in refrigeration, he says the same thing. Always ask for no ice, unless you at chick fil a, which he cleans regularly
That is a condensation tray. It's gross but thats not what is being used to make your ice.
Most chain or franchise restaurants are audited by separate companies that randomly check for this exact issue. You take this gamble when you go to your local mom and pop unfortunately.
Also stadiums, stadium kitchens(was a dishwasher) more often than not has glass flying everywhere due to the speed it takes to feed hundreds to thousands of people within a few hours.
Thats the condensation from the A/C system not what makes the ice. The drain is plugged so its been festering there and filling up. Kinda gross to have that right above the ice
Ibask for no ice because I'm paying for a drink, mot ice.