Selecting an ice machine

How much ice per day?

The first question to answer when selecting an ice machine is how much ice will you need per day.

Ziegra have packaged machines from 30kg per day up to 10,000kg and even larger split systems so we will need to narrow this down a bit.

Ice quantity required can be estimated in four ways.

1. Historical useage. If you already use ice then you probably know how much ice you require.

2. Production figures. If you know for example that you need to cool 10,000kg of dough per day by 15ºC then the ice quantity can be estimated.

3. Trials. We have a range of hire machines that you can rent while you carry out trials.

4. Volume, if you know you use for example 3 x a given container  per day then you can measure the internal dimensions of this container to work out its volume (w x d x h) Tip: this is easier if you measure in cm as 1,000 cubic cm = 1 litre which conveniently is roughly 0.5kg of ice. This will give you a rough idea of how much ice you need.

Always work on your busiest day as this will allow the ice machine to cope with your requirements all year round and if this is in summer allow some ice production drop off in your figures due to high temperatures.

If you need any assistance calculating your ice requirement please contact us.

How much ice at once?

Once you know how much ice you need the next question is how much ice will you need at any given time. This will determine whether you need to store ice and if so how much storage you will need.

Example 1.

Production environment running 16 hours per day, 140kg per hour ice required at a steady rate. Total required 2,240kg. This could be done in two ways.

A. 3.5 tonne machine producing 145kg per hour keeping up with usage in real time. Only running during production.

B. 2.5 tonne machine with minimum 580kg ice storage to act as a buffer. Machine running 24 hours per day.

Example 2.

Packing application, 280kg ice required. Packing happens every morning over a four hour period so 70kg ice per hour max usage rate.

A 350kg ice machine would be required with a minimum 250kg ice storage capacity.

Once you've looked at your ice usage patterns, this should give an idea of whether you need to store ice or not. If you need any assistance please contact us.

No storage required

If you are providing your own ice storage, or after looking at the usage patterns that you don't need any storage, you will need to look at mounting options for the machine.

If you need one of the larger UBE machines and will be filling ice carts or dolav bins with the ice, then often the machine can stand on its own feet, or maybe extended legs.

If however you are going for one of the smaller ZBE options and it won't be mounted on a cold room ceiling, you may need to mount the machine on either a wall bracket or a frame. This will raise the machine to a useful height to fill a cart or other storage.

Ice storage options

For customers who need storage and don't have any pre-existing facility in place, Ziegra also offer a range of ice storage options which vary in capacity and sophistication.

Click here to find more details about our range of storage options.