How to clean an ice machine: daily, weekly and monthly checklists

The ice machine is easy to forget, because it seems to clean itself: water goes in and ice comes out. But the inside of the machine is cold, wet and dark, and slime and mold grow there. Then the iced latte tastes off, the ice comes out cloudy, or an inspector shines a torch behind the curtain.

Ice goes straight into the drink, so it's food. This post covers what the Food Code says, the checks to do every day and week, a deep clean, and a log.

General information, not food safety advice. Your ice machine's manual comes first: cleaners, sanitizers and steps differ by model, and the wrong cleaner can damage the machine or void the warranty.

What the Food Code says about ice

The FDA Food Code, the model code most state and local health departments adopt in some form, has four rules that matter for a café's ice:

Ice is food. "Ice for use as a FOOD or a cooling medium shall be made from DRINKING WATER" (§3-202.16).
Ice that has cooled something else stays out of drinks. "After use as a medium for cooling the exterior surfaces of FOOD such as melons or FISH, PACKAGED FOODS such as canned BEVERAGES, or cooling coils and tubes of EQUIPMENT, ice may not be used as FOOD" (§3-303.11). The ice packed around the milk jugs or the bottled drinks goes down the drain, not into a cup.
Store the scoop properly. Between uses, utensils such as ice scoops that are "used only with a food that is not time/temperature control for safety food" can be kept "In a clean, protected location" (§3-304.12(E)). In practice, a scoop holder outside the bin, not the scoop lying in the ice.
Clean on the maker's schedule. Equipment "such as ice bins and BEVERAGE dispensing nozzles and enclosed components of EQUIPMENT such as ice makers" has to be cleaned "At a frequency specified by the manufacturer, or", without one, "at a frequency necessary to preclude accumulation of soil or mold" (§4-602.11(E)(4)).

So the schedule comes from your manual. If you can't find it, look up the model number on the maker's website and download it, then keep it where the team can find it.

Every day

Check	Why
Scoop in its holder, outside the bin, handle clean	A scoop left in the ice puts hands on the ice
Use the scoop, never a glass or a cup, and never hands	A glass can chip or break into the ice, and you can't see broken glass in ice
Bin door closed between uses	Keeps out dust, splashes and fruit flies
Nothing stored in or on the bin (bottles, fruit, rags)	Anything in the ice can contaminate it
Ice looks clear and smells of nothing	Cloudy, smelly or off-tasting ice is the first sign of a dirty machine or a spent filter
Wash, rinse and sanitize the scoop and holder	Every day at least, and any time they may have been contaminated

Add the scoop and bin checks to your coffee bar opening and closing checklist, so they have an owner.

Every week

Wipe the outside of the machine and bin, the door and handle.
Wipe the inside of the bin door and the bin's top edge with your sanitizer, at the strength on its label.
Look behind the curtain and at the water trough with a torch: pink, black or brown slime means it's time for the deep clean, whatever the calendar says.
Check the air filter (on air-cooled machines, if it has one) and rinse it if it's dusty.
Check the drain runs freely, with no standing water in the bin.

The deep clean, the manufacturer's way

The deep clean has two parts: cleaning (removing scale and slime) and sanitizing (killing what's left). Most machines have a clean cycle that runs both. Follow your manual. A typical sequence looks like this:

Stop ice production and let the last batch drop, or switch to clean mode.
Empty the bin. Throw the ice away; don't keep it in a cooler to put back.
Run the cleaning cycle with the cleaner the manual names, at the strength it gives. Don't swap in a different chemical.
Remove the parts the manual says to remove (curtain, water trough, distribution tube, sensors) and wash them by hand.
Run the sanitizing cycle, or sanitize the parts and the food zone as the manual says.
Wash, rinse and sanitize the bin, including the inside of the door and the corners.
Put the parts back and restart.
Throw away the first batch of ice if the manual says to.
Log it, with the date, who did it and anything you noticed.

Wear gloves and eye protection, follow the cleaner's label, and keep its safety data sheet in your SDS binder. Never mix ice machine cleaner with bleach or other chemicals.

Some parts of the machine, such as the evaporator, may only be serviceable by a technician. If the manual says so, book it on the equipment maintenance log along with the condenser cleaning and the water filter.

The water filter

If the machine has a water filter, change the cartridge on the filter maker's schedule and write the date on the cartridge and the log. A spent filter lets more scale through, and scale is what the slime grows on.

Signs it's overdue

Pink, black or brown slime anywhere you can see
Ice that's cloudy, soft, small or smells or tastes off
Less ice than usual, or a machine that runs longer to make the same amount
Water standing in the bin, or a slow drain
An error light or a cleaning reminder on the display

Any one of these means: clean it now, then look at why the schedule didn't catch it.

The ice machine log

Task	Cleaner and sanitizer used	Parts removed and washed	Filter changed?
Weekly check		–	–
Deep clean			Yes / No
Technician service	–	–	–

Keep the log by the machine or with your cleaning schedule, and the manual in the same place.

After a boil-water notice or a plumbing repair

Ice made with water that may be unsafe can't be used. If your area gets a boil-water notice, stop using the ice and follow your health department's instructions before you make more. Ask them whether to throw the ice away, clean and sanitize the machine, flush the line and change the filter. Our power outage and boil-water checklist covers the rest. After plumbing work on the water line, ask the plumber whether the line needs flushing before you make ice.

Your ice machine checklist

[ ] Manual found and kept where the team can find it
[ ] Scoop holder outside the bin; no glasses or hands in the ice
[ ] Coolant ice (around bottles or jugs) never served
[ ] Daily scoop and bin checks on the opening or closing list
[ ] Weekly wipe and slime check with a torch
[ ] Deep clean on the manufacturer's schedule, with their cleaner
[ ] Water filter changed on schedule, date written on it
[ ] Log kept, with who and what
[ ] Technician service booked if the manual calls for it

Where Mays fits

The checks on a schedule. Put the daily scoop and bin checks on the opening template and the weekly check on a Weekly template, with the day ticked. For the deep clean, use a Monthly template with the dates ticked, or the interval your manual gives. See Scheduling and assigning checklists.
Proof that it was done. Give the deep-clean task a Photo answer, so the closer takes a picture of the clean trough and bin. See Creating a checklist template.
The manual where staff can find it. Upload the manufacturer's PDF to the Knowledge Base (documents up to 50 MB) next to your cleaning steps. See Your knowledge base.
Repairs and slime sightings. Post them in the manager logbook under Maintenance and tick Needs follow-up, so the next manager sees the technician still has to come.

What Mays doesn't do: there's no equipment record with a model, serial number and service history, so keep those on the maintenance log.

Clean on a calendar

Read the manual, keep the scoop out of the bin, look behind the curtain every week and deep-clean on the maker's schedule with the maker's cleaner. Ice that tastes of nothing is the goal, and the log shows you got there.

Start your free trial: 30 days, every module, no card needed. Or book a walkthrough and we'll set up your cleaning checklists with you.