We have owned our Pizza shop for 9 years. At the time, all the equipment needed replacing and the first thing we bought was a reconditioned IceOMatic which we got from a local (2.5 hrs away) Restaurant equipment dealer. We also bought a brand new ice bin – I think it was doing 500 lbs of ice a day. (at the time we had not only the soda fountain but also to load up our salad bar every day.)
Not long after we moved a block away, moved the ice machine. Our ice needs dropped as we had to discontinue the salad bar from moving to smaller quarters. Never had any trouble until 2.5 yrs ago when the thing just rusted out and died, obviously beyond repair.
So we bought a new matching top, Ice-O-Matic – this one is supposed to do 300 lbs a day. We had problems from day one and determined that the machine must have been dropped in shipment, since parts were tossed around inside, it wouldn’t even start when we plugged it in the first time – my husband had to rig it back together and it did sort of work – but it took 3 or so months to get IceOMatic to send a new replacement.
That being done, the replacement worked – you guessed it maybe barely 6 months and it quit. The helpline with the company insisted it turned itself off because it was time to ‘clean’ it, and we had to explain it doesn’t matter WHAT mode the machine is it doesn’t make ice. Yes its clean and please take care of this problem.
(we are rather remote and its difficult to get a repair service out – they have to come from an hour away) We finally got a licensed & certified repair service out, the pressure tank failed… ok. So parts ordered, replaced it works fine for hmmm maybe 3 -4 months, and again it just gradually made less and less ice. Called the repair service back, this time freon all over the back. Another part needs to be replaced… parts ordered, wait a week and finally repaired and it works for maybe 2-3 months, and it again stops making ice.
The company tech through all of his has been rude and talks down to us or our certified and licensed repair service tech as though we are idiots insisting we or our repair tech is screwing the machine up… when clearly we see the problem is with the way they source their parts…(need I say more?) because we replaced the part we insisted was bad, and you guessed it another 2-3 months the same part went bad.
So replaced that part YET again and lo and behold 4 months later, something else goes bad… something in the control board, so they replaced that. This last time it worked maybe 5 months, and we turn the machine off to change filters to the supply line and give it a good cleaning (mind you I have cleaned this thing every time it we had to service it – so pretty much its been cleaned nearly every 3-4 months as it is!!!) and what do you know fire this thing back up… Ice bridge is a freaking inch thick (NEVER CHANGED any settings) it takes an hour to get ice to drop out. and I’m bashing the bricks of ice so we can use it. (thankfully – these past couple of months we’ve not needed much ice – to go pizza hardly anyone wants fountain drinks – we had to order in canned soda to make it easier to avoid dealing with ice!) And so at 2.5 yrs of service for this replacement machine and literally replacing EVERY SINGLE part that can be replaced – we are SO done – thankfully all of this had been covered under warranty.
Buying bags of ice while the machine has been down, we could have BOUGHT another whole machine! What has your experience been with Ice-O-Matic? All we can say is don’t waste your time or money.
We are seriously needing to get rid of this lemon - can we use a different brand on our ice bin? I was thinking Ice Machines need to be a standard size to fit on top of fountains (our place is small enough we can’t top our fountain with it… like we see how they do it at Costco for example. Plus, it makes our ice available for other needs such as flash cooling hot foods, etc.
We are DONE – SO FREAKING DONE!