whose is the best ice maker

[norfolkboy]

I have been asked to recomend a make of ice maker for a bar, as this is not my usual type of work (i am in air con), can anyone recommend, a make, based on reliability/ best value etc...
many thanks.

[Latte]

Norfolk boy,

Look no further than the bottom of the A140.
Scotsman (Part of Hubbard in Otley)
Very reliable ice machines (As long as they have filters on them or cleaned every so often) Parts are fairly cheap but always readily available from the above.
Simple design, no microswitches
Does what it says on the tin
Scotsman everytime for me

Regards

Fatboy

[odhran]

I have been asked to recomend a make of ice maker for a bar, as this is not my usual type of work (i am in air con), can anyone recommend, a make, based on reliability/ best value etc...
many thanks.

kowasaki seems to be the most reliable

[taz24]

I have been asked to recomend a make of ice maker for a bar, as this is not my usual type of work (i am in air con), can anyone recommend, a make, based on reliability/ best value etc...
many thanks.

Scotsman.

taz

[norfolkboy]

thanks for your thoughts, i will let my customer friday, many thanks.

[Andy W]

Depends on budget, Scotsman are the best but expensive, ice matic are very good, well proven design but expensive for a decent sized machine, now you may be shocked but the machine I have sold the most of in the last 10 years has been, drum roll .................. the Whirlpool K20, a simple machine, cheap to buy, 2 year warranty and I carry all the parts on my van for them as they are so cheap, I have taken old ones in part ex, repaired them and sold them on again and with a Whirlpool you have to service them once a year so extra work there if you want it.

[Latte]

Depends on budget, Scotsman are the best but expensive, ice matic are very good, well proven design but expensive for a decent sized machine, now you may be shocked but the machine I have sold the most of in the last 10 years has been, drum roll .................. the Whirlpool K20, a simple machine, cheap to buy, 2 year warranty and I carry all the parts on my van for them as they are so cheap, I have taken old ones in part ex, repaired them and sold them on again and with a Whirlpool you have to service them once a year so extra work there if you want it.

Nice one andy, completly forgotton about them, and even better NRS stock the parts. Personally though i would always go for a scotsman in a high use environment like pubs. Whirlpools are ok for resturants

Regards

Fatboy

[The MG Pony]

Scotsman! --------------------------

[coolhibby1875]

hi i would look no further than a phillips/whirlpool k40 they are cheap reliable and best off all they are a dream to work on

[Andy W]

The K20/K40 gets my vote too and they are brittains best selling ice machine because the literature says so, I have made a lot of money selling and repairing them during the last 10 years and they last a lot longer than the simag/ice mountain/ice princess/brema and god knows what else badged up from third world countries.

[Toolman]

I sell Scotsman when customer wants cheap , sure they are OK but Manitowoc invented the Icemaker.

Manitowoc are the Rolls Royce of Icemakers in Australia . This is because they are simple and work in 40 Deg C ambient conditions and will make the amount of ice they specify ,

Scotsman make the ice but are rated to 21 Deg C ambient and 10 Deg C inlet water , so anything higher than that the production drops of , I guess in the UK this type of temp never occurs but the principle still applies and if an Ice maker than can work in high ambients mentioned above it will do the job easily at a lower ambient .
Go for quality not price in the end quality wins out every time .

[paul_h]

The best ones I work on are manitowoc as well. The worst ones are brema and stuart for sure.
Those k20/40s I've never seen, and a quick google search shows no one here selling them.
Maybe some of you UK fridgies looking to work in australia should get some contacts over there and come here selling them as a supply business
Lots of ice gets sold over here as you can imagine, bars and cafes are deperate to get them working in the event of a breakdown, and the repair cost of a brema/stuart looks to be about the same price as a new k20/40

[Toolman]

HEY PAUL _H ..Dont bag Stuart Manufacturing they make a decent machine I have sold about 8 large machines ( with very low warranty calls ) in between the Scotsman , Manitowoc sales .
Remember the good old Kleer Kube brand that was them with another name .

[paul_h]

All the gloria jeans cafes in perth use them, had nothing but problems with stuart ice machines. The bin leaks water, the flap microswitches play up too.
I had one the other day, HP switch for the CF is stuffed and stuart couldn't even get us a replacement switch as a spare part.

[Toolman]

Mmm well those machines they are probably small ones right ? They did start importing smaller ones and putting there names on these smaller machines so your probably right , its probably a re-badged other brand . I think they make from The 130kg and up machines themselves so all below this are imported and you know the rest .

[fri11j]

scotsman... EEK!! just dont put them in a room with an ambient higher than 30'c..

I sub-contract for a number of ice machine distributors in Australia and i would say that the most reliable and the easiest for service would have to be ICE-O-MATIC..(US made)

May of the scotsman N series units we have in australia are Italian made and are also badged under a few other names (icematic-bromic) and are a sack of crap.
Hoshizaki are good but are so over engineered and most are designed for 110v, so you find that many have transformers or dual voltage operation for markets that use 220v-240v..


anyway, you will find the biggest fault with almost all of the ice machines available is their overated claims on ice production, therefore the operation time of the machine is doubled to keep up with demand...
Most ice machines rate their production on 20'c ambient and water entering temp at 10'c..
I dont know about most places but in australia you have absolutley bugger all chance of obtaining those optimum operating conditions and its common to see machines making half the amount of ice the manufacture claims with a 30'c ambient and 16'c water temp.

[fri11j]

HEY PAUL _H ..Dont bag stuart manufacturing they make a decent machine I have sold about 8 large machines ( with very low warranty calls ) in between the Scotsman , Manitowoc sales .
Remember the good old Kleer Kube brand that was them with another name .

Stuarts must be the biggest Sack of ****e ever made..
I have 3 x cc1800 1800kg machines operating in a seafood production facility in sydney and they are a nightmare.
failing tx valves, crapped out evaporator plates-separation of pipes from plates, nickel plating lifting from plates.. and these machines are 3 years old.
I hate bagging Aussie made stuff but i wouldnt sell a stuart to my worst enemy.. very sad.

[The MG Pony]

here average ambient temp if we're lucky will be above 0c! and the wter is damned cold! lol

[thebigcheese]

scotsman have a good tech team but for me it has to be manitowac (large machines) hoshizaki for the concealed bins

[dsp]

Scotman probaley the best known and are Ok.... Not much good down here though. Agree that Manitowoc best in Oz conditions..

[Philip]

Manitowoc Has The Long Time Expeience In Terms Of Ice Cubers W/c Is Your Rquirements For Bars,even Scotsman Guys Admitted It.but If Were Talking Of The Other Type Of Ice Especially If Your Requirements Of Productions Are For Industrial, Scotsman Has The Wider Range And More Tested Machines.their Cubers Are Much Cheaper And Now It Is More Upgraded...

I Love Scotsman....

[1mikeefc1]

if its going in a glass wash area as most are in pubs you cant go wrong with scotsman!!!

[norfolkboy]

Thanks to you all for your comments,
my client is reading all your comments, and will be of great help.
whatever he buys i hope its reliable machine.
many thanks.

[JuiceBoy]

Hi Fellow Aussies

I run a very busy juice bar in Sydney where we use ice to keep our product cold and also to display the bottled juice we make on site.

I have had an Ice-o-matic machine for about 4 years now that has given me nothing but trouble.

I am looking at replacing it with a Bromic. Although I would love a Manitowoc, the price difference between the two for the size I want (approx 450kg per day) is almost $5000 ($8500 v $13500).

The price for the Bromic includes a 2yr extension of the warranty taking it to 4yrs parts and 3yrs labour.

Is the Bromic (if it is a re-badged scotsman as indicated) really as bad as some have claimed to justify spending the extra $5k ?

Cheers
JuiceBoy

[Toolman]

Hey juiceboy send me an email to
toolie3043@hotmail.com I can help you .

[benj2212]

scotsman or phillips k20-40 are good and cheapish. you can even get the phillips parts off fleebay. manitowok are good machines untill someone messes with the ice thickness sensor or you dont fit a water filter/softner. as with everything if you treat it right it'll serve you well.

[JuiceBoy]

Hi Guys

Although no one bothered replying to me :-p, I went ahead and ordered a Manitowoc SD-1002A.

What is your advice on adding a water filter. They are recommending I purchase an Acrctic Pure AR-20000 unit which costs $A577. Do I even need to install a water filter and if so, is this the only unit I can use?

Cheers
JuiceBoy

[paul_h]

Yes you need a water filter, if your old machine did't have one that could have been why it had so much trouble.
Get a double stage/cannister type, you are protecting a rather expensive asset you just bought.
Of course manitowoc are pushing their own brand on you and they're not going to be the cheapest. But you need a good quality filter.
May be see if you can get one direct from the US, as they only seem to be us$270 there, might be able to get one delivered for au$350

[Kh1971]

Hi tool man, can you send me the web site for Manitowoc since I am interseted : khalid.alhasan@gmail.com

[750 Valve]

Scotsman... pffft.

Manitowoc for me too fellas.

Fave to repair though there mnd you there aren't many around these days are the old aussie made Kleer Kube, cut my teeth on KK and RW's - super easy to fault find and to fix. I think Stuart bought the design when KK disappeared.

[Toolman]

Hi tool man, can you send me the web site for Manitowoc since I am interseted : khalid.alhasan@gmail.com

http://www.manitowocice.com/products/products.asp - this link is to there main US Website

I have two companies in Aussie that import Manitowoc , maybe you should buy from me ?

[Chunk]

I have a little Porkka and i`ve never had any problems with it.

[Toolman]

I have a little Porkka and i`ve never had any problems with it.

Porka you say ? In Oz Land that is the name for a FAT CHICK not an icemaker .

[smurphy]

Hoshizaki and manitowoc in usa. Scotsmans are ok but are pretty unreliable compared to the other two.

[HvacTommo]

hoshi all the way easy to troubleshoot
reliable
we sell alot over here

[Adonis Espinosa]

hi! i been working on board the ship, and i been working not just airconditioning,refrigeration,heating,ventilation,electric motor repairs,air ducting fabrication and so on and so forth, but part of it working troubleshooting and installing ice machines as will. will it defend what kind of environment you have. plenty of brand name but the most important is the availavility of spare parts when you need it, when it breaks down. i other words your convenience is the great factor when troubles come...
for me i will recomend you the latest model of monitovok or scotsman.
good luck buddy!!

[THOMAS PAYNE]

The best icemaker nowadays is Hoshizaki. If quality wins out everytime, then there is no contest. My next choice would be an iceomatic, then a Manitowoc. Once the best, it is not the same machine it used to be, sadly. I would never sell or recommend a Scotsman, unless you don't like the customer very much

[kerreckt]

Here in VA. USA. Very hot and humid summers. They all have problems at 95f and 90% humidity but Manitowoc seem to fare the best. Put a few fans around them and they are back to speed.