Food and hospitality businesses—like restaurants, cafes, and pubs—require a wide array of kitchen appliances to prepare and serve dishes to their customers.
One appliance that these food businesses can benefit from, especially if they serve homemade beverages, is a commercial ice machine.
A commercial ice machine provides food businesses with ice, an essential ingredient for both food and beverage preparation.
You may wonder what makes a commercial ice machine a worthy investment in the first place? Why get a commercial ice machine instead of simply sticking multiple ice cube trays in the freezer or buying ice from suppliers?
We’ll clear that up for you! In this guide, we’ll break down why many food businesses can benefit from commercial ice makers.
1. It Provides a Consistent Supply of Ice
A commercial ice machine is a great asset for any food business because it ensures that your kitchen won’t ever run out of ice cubes, even during peak hours. Unlike store-bought bags or freezer trays, commercial ice machines can produce hundreds of kilos of ice per day, depending on the model.
In other words, with a commercial ice machine, you won’t ever have to deny service to customers due to an ice shortage or ask your staff to quickly go on an ice-buying errand during peak hours.
Whether you need simple ice cubes, pebble ice, bullet ice, ice nuggets, or spherical ice, there are high-quality commercial ice machines on the market that can keep up with your restaurant’s demands.
So if you want smooth operations, particularly if you’re running a busy restaurant, then a commercial ice machine is something you should consider getting to keep your staff and customers happy.
2. It Reduces Labour Hours
Producing a large quantity of ice cubes is surprisingly time-consuming over long periods. The repeated tasks of filling ice trays and transporting them back and forth cuts into your productivity over time.
Suffice to say, your staff could be spending hours a week doing ice-related tasks, which can prevent them from doing other core tasks like food prep and serving customers. If you want to optimise your staff’s productivity, investing in a commercial ice machine is a good choice.
Restaurants, cafes, and bars looking to scale their operations can benefit greatly from a machine that can create ice on the spot. This is especially true if your establishment is a high-volume setting with constant demand.
With a commercial ice machine, your staff will no longer divide their attention to creating ice and instead rely on a machine to do the work for them. This will then lead to enhanced productivity, better workflow, and fewer errors in the food prep process.
3. It Speeds Up Service
Speed is a crucial element in influencing customer satisfaction in restaurants and dining establishments.
If you’re not using an ice maker, beverage turnover could be longer than it would otherwise be, which could slightly diminish the quality of the service in your customer’s eyes. This is because taking ice out of the ice tray, pouring it into a glass, and then returning the ice tray to the freezer can be quite time-consuming when done repeatedly.
On the other hand, when ice is made through a commercial ice machine, staff can quickly scoop ice cubes from the machine and put them in the beverage cup. You also don’t need to fumble around with other ingredients in a freezer like frozen meat products to access the ice cubes.
This makes your service smooth, leading to happier customers and quicker table turnover.
4. It Ensures Consistent Drink Quality
When running a restaurant, returning customers expect food and drink quality to remain consistent every time they place an order. In order to achieve a high level of consistency, a dish’ ingredients and preparation should be as close to the recipe as possible.
The same holds true for beverages. If you want beverage quality to always meet your customers’ expectations, then it’s essential to be as uniform with your portions and ingredients as possible. A commercial ice maker can help maintain that standard by providing uniform ice cubes in shape, size, and temperature.
This uniformity is crucial for specific drinks, like cocktails and sodas, as the ice type can affect the presentation and chill level of the drink. If you’re sticking with ice cubes frozen in ice trays, you could end up with a diluted beverage that’s not as refreshing as it otherwise would be with tailor-made ice.
As such, if you want your restaurant’s reputation to be polished and consistent, then invest in a commercial ice machine. This can help maintain a consistent level of quality for your establishment’s beverage list.
5. It Lowers Reliance on Third-Party Procurement
Relying on external suppliers for bagged ice means you’ll be at their mercy when it comes to them upholding their end of the bargain, particularly their delivery schedules and supply. If, for some reason, they run out of ice, this could disrupt your operations and lead to many unsatisfied customers.
One way to prevent this is by investing in a commercial ice machine. The ice machine can produce ice on-site and on-demand, which means you don’t have to wait for specific delivery schedules or things beyond your control during busy service hours.
In the long run, this decreased reliance can make kitchen operations flow more smoothly and become more predictable. This can help your business stay self-sufficient, enabling you to continue your operations without risking any potential disruptions.
6. You Can Get the Right Ice Type for Your Business’s Needs
Another key perk of having a commercial ice maker in your kitchen is the ability to create ice that best suits your business.
For instance, if you want crystal clear cubes for cocktails or flake ice for seafood displays and buffets, then having a commercial ice maker ensures that you can access your preferred ice type immediately and in-house.
The right ice maker model will consistently provide you with the ice you need for your business goals.
We hope this guide has helped you better understand the many benefits of using a commercial ice machine—and why it could be a smart addition to your food business.