I'm in the market to buy a Manitowoc undercounter ice machine with about 135 lbs/day output - plenty for our needs.  My question is on ice size/shape.  All the different manufactures have different names for their different shapes.  This model of Manitowoc can make either "dice" or "half dice," but not both.  Does anyone have experience or thoughts on this brand and with either of these shapes?

Thanks for you time!

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I believe shape matters.

I prefer the Hoshizaki crescent shaped ice. Not a fan of the cubes.

Can't say yay or nay on Manitowac, but Hoshizaki is one of the best ice machines you can get. We've had our same air-cooled unit for going on 9 years. 

I'm happy with our under counter Manitowac.  Not sure which shape it makes, but it's great for our needs.

I just purchased this one. Fair price, it is serving as a second machine for our shop. The other was an ice-o-matic, a little smaller and not putting out enogh ice, but a good reliable machine. I have heard great reports on this one. We'll see. I will let you know.

 

 

Cube-Style Ice Maker w/ 145-lb/24-hr Capacity & Bin, Air-Cooled, 115V

Manitowoc Ice QD-0132A 161 Undercounter Ice Makers

The Manitowoc is the exact machine we are looking at.  Are the cubes too big?  We don't do blended drinks now, but if we do, do you think they'll be too big?  We're mostly using the ice for iced coffee, and iced pour-overs.....

Thanks

Question - how much ice do you guys find that you need per day (or per customer)?

on an average summer day about 200#

If I was buying a new ice machine, call up Graffiti coffee in LA.
They have the best ice I've had in an ice coffee!

Crystal clear, consistent size, stayed hard and didn't melt. 

We are using about 20-30 lbs/day.  We only sell coffee and iced coffee so it cuts down on our useage...

Michael Arnovitz said:

Question - how much ice do you guys find that you need per day (or per customer)?

i can only recommend the Hoshizaki. we have, besides the espresso bar business, a cocktail bar. high quality and high volume. no other machine can beat the hoshizaki in terms of ice quality and reliability. the kold draft makes better ice but will break down almost weekly. the manitowac wouldn't be considered by a high end bar. the ice is too 'watery' and it will dilute drinks very fast.

We have the Hoshizaki DCM-270BAH-OS which is a combo cubelet-nugget ice and water dispenser. Counter top with convenient hands free LED triggered dispensing. We don't do any blended either, straight cold brewed over ice or bar shaker bevs. Customers love the ice, very "munchable" yet doesn't melt fast.

An important factor in terming which ice machine isn't just daily production capability but more importantly storage capactiy. Storage capacity should be close to equal one hours estimated maximum slammed usage.

I'm no expert, but we use Manitowoc machines with the half-dice shape in all but one of our church coffee bars. We opened our first one 6 years ago and we currently have 4, increasing to 6 within the next month. We do pretty good volume on our frappes and smoothies and for the most part, we get consistent drinks. I would attribute the majority of inconsistencies to operator errors. We had a Scotsman half-cube at first and had major problems with chunks in the blended drinks, so I definitely would not recommend anything with cubes.

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