Undercounter ice machines
How is an undercounter ice machine descaled?
A Sub-Zero undercounter ice machine has a CLEAN button and a cycle behind it: sanitiser goes into the spray area, a ten-minute sanitising run follows, then eight rinse cycles, and the whole thing takes about half an hour. Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts treats hard-water scale on the freezing surface as a separate job from that cycle.
Pattern
What we usually find
- Scale on the freezing surface. Minerals build where water is repeatedly frozen and thawed, and the first sign is a cycle that takes longer than it used to.
- A bin nobody has emptied. Sub-Zero asks that the unit be properly cleaned and sanitised regularly, and the bin is the part an owner can reach and the part most often skipped.
- The wrong cleaner. Sub-Zero's undercounter guide bars alcohol-based products, rubbing alcohol and vinegar among them, from every interior surface, and points owners at the sanitiser made for its own ice machines.
- A condenser left to fill with dust. Sub-Zero's undercounter guide puts it behind the kickplate and asks for it to be cleaned every three to six months; a choked one stretches every cycle.
Most often first. Order comes from what the visits keep turning up, not from a count.
What the clean cycle does, and what it does not
The cycle sanitises the water path the machine can reach. It is not a descaler, and it will not lift hard mineral off a freezing surface that has been collecting it for years, which is why a machine here can be spotless and still slow.
That part comes off on a visit, with the water side opened, flushed and rebuilt. A machine that has never had one is usually the one whose cycle times have quietly stretched.
Before you call
Two minutes, before anyone comes out
- Empty the bin, wash it in mild soapy water, rinse it and dry it before it goes back.
- Turn the power off at the control panel, then vacuum the condenser behind the kickplate in the direction of the fins.
- Run the machine's own clean cycle and leave it alone for the half hour it needs.
That is as far as an owner should take it. If what you find does not match this page, call Denver Sub-Zero Repair Experts on (720) 903-2603 and the water path gets measured end to end.
When it needs somebody out: Ice Maker Repair in Denver.