Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Size of ice machine?

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Posted by Andrew Thomas (Member # 7000) on 11-06-2013, 03:55 PM:

I'm a few weeks from opening and one of the last things I need to get is an ice machine. We have 4 screens and about 600 seats in total capacity. What size ice machine would you recommend?

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 11-06-2013, 08:41 PM:

We are a single screen with 200 seats and have a Manitowoc SY0305W. It is fine about 95% of the time, unless we have a super-blockbuster movie with several days of large crowds in a row...then it tends to fall behind, so I wish it was about one size bigger. We can easily go through about 70 pounds of ice on a busy night.

Your answer depends on how many seats you plan to fill on a very busy night. Buy for that....if in doubt, go bigger. Running out of ice = big no-no.

Posted by Randy Pryde (Member # 7488) on 11-06-2013, 10:09 PM:

Andrew,

Mike has nailed it. For what you spend on bagged ice for a couple weekends, you could have bought the next bigger sized ice machine. If your beverage system uses a cold plate, you will use more ice. Air-cooled machines have reduced capacity in warm ambient conditions. The 44 oz cup size is our best seller and it takes a lot of ice to properly keep that much product cold.

If space and budget permit, consider having two machines. An ice machine will only break down on a busy holiday weekend when you can't get service.

We have had good performance from Scotsman's Prodigy series. The smallest cube size will give you a better drink yield. Be sure to change the water filter and clean the machine as recommended.

Best of luck on your opening. I know you have worked long and hard to get this project off the ground.

Posted by Justin Hamaker (Member # 2165) on 11-06-2013, 11:18 PM:

We have a 2000 pound machine with a 1200 pound bin. We have 5 auditoriums with about 1000 seats. Even on our very busiest day we have never come close to running low on ice. During the slow season we'll actually turn the machine off Sunday night and then turn it back on when it's nearly empty - which is usually Thursday evening. By Friday we have a full bin again.

Posted by Barry Floyd (Member # 385) on 11-07-2013, 11:59 AM:

We have a 600lb per day Scotsman brand ice machine. Our situation is not so much ice production capacity as it is ice "storage" capacity. Being a drive-in, in the summer months, we can see about 1,500 people through the gates on any given Friday or Saturday night. Sunday through Thursday we bring in close to 200 per night. On those slower nights, our ice machine makes way more ice than we can use, so we have a 15 cubic foot chest freezer parked 4 feet away from the ice machine storage bin and we transfer the ice from the machine bin to the freezer - to help take care of the weekend rush.
We can go through about 600 lbs of ice in about 2 1/2 hours in the summer. Like mentioned above, ours is an air-cooled machine, so when it gets really hot inside the building like it does in the summer months, the machine just can't keep up.