THIS ICE MACHINE WAS INSANE 

Wish i was located in California to work for you, but if a non-experience person gets the position, don't take this opportunity for granted, I wish i had a mentor like you when i started.

as a non refrigeration tech, the main thing i take away from your videos is to never EVER order ice in my drinks

I used to watch your videos all the time when I worked in residential HVAC because I was always interested in these commercial applications. I had not watched in awhile but I leveled up and got a Commercial HVAC/R service tech job with my 3 and a half years of resi experience. I got sent to a walk in freezer and I figured it out eventually but I came back to your channel and literally watched all of your walk in freezer videos back to back. I appreciate what you do and I will always like the videos and share them to our service team group chat. Thank you sir

Chris I have the same thing happening the customer has a water source with a very high level of calcium carbonate in it. The clog begins in the horizontal run because every time the dump valve opens the extremely concentrated discharge from the sump settles in the bottom of the pipe and within 60 days the entire drain line is clogged. my solution is that I carry nickel safe ice machine cleaner as well as muriatic acid. I converted the drain line toh pvc and extended the vent line to where i could put a funnel into it and pour 1 cup of 50% water 50% acid down the drain line. I also have 2" 3" and 4" pvc pipe 30" long with pvc caps i use a 25% muriatic acid water mixture to clean the Manitowoc and Hoshizaki spray bars. I also use the water muriatic mix to clean dump valves and any other plastic parts with a nylon brush dipped in the acid water mix. the muriatic water mix will remove calcium in seconds. The important thing here is that the muriatic water mix CANNOT GET ANYWHERE NEAR THE EVAPORATOR.If have a machine that the cabinet is totally scaled I will tape a sheet of plastic totally covering the evaporator and use the 25% acid water mix in a spray bottle.

You'll love this one. Part of our $1M "renovation" at Coffee And Donut Store included a tap system for dispensing iced coffees, a self-contained refrigerated MicroMatic system with 4 taps and a uselessly-shallow drain pan under those taps. This was installed in December, and now in April we have a recurring problem with the drain pan emptying. Part of it was people dumping full coffees with sugar down it, plus some bits of Splenda wrapper, and a few fully-intact coffee beans. Well, at least that's what I was able to get out of it by grabbing the drain hose from the back and applying some lung-pressure to backflush it. The drain pan is ultra-thin stainless steel, which drains into the refrigerated box into a PVC elbow, then a short length of PVC pipe, and finally to a clear vinyl hose. From there it goes through the back of the box via a swivel pass-through to another piece of vinyl tube that gets shoved into the PVC drain pipe along our building's interior wall. It still drains slowly, and I know why: like our walk-in refrigerator, the stupid drain line inside the box IS GOING UPHILL! 🤬 I swear, if I said some people have the brains God gave a goose, geese around the world would be deeply offended! Big Picture Complaint: After the quick "gas & go" last week, our walk-in is sorta maintaining 40-43°F every day, ever since about two hours after the guy left LAST Thursday.

This makes me think of that old saying. You can pay me now or you can pay me later.

I’d work for you in a heartbeat if I lived in California. Thanks for another awesome video Chris! 👍🏻

I'm glad I'm not in Cali, but man, I wish I could work with you.

Your ice machine videos is 99% the reason why I get all my drinks with no ice at any place. That was just disgusting..

For those dump valves, a little trick I use for heavy calcium is cleaveland steamer descaler, cleans them like new and fast. And to neutralize it, baking soda and water. Hope it helps for future

🤩🤩🤩 DUDE that merch intro is flipping awesome

For bad lime build ups I find what works best on the plastic parts is pickling vinegar or just standard white vinegar. to speed up the process I usually do not dilute it if used on small parts and warm up the vinegar to make the reactions go a little quicker. It does the trick and if you just catch it right you can knock off the big chunks without gouging the plastic.

Man I sent you a message last year for an opportunity. And now that you’re accepting resumes I just got through my probation in Rialto unified school district. Oh well, I still watch these videos lol

I love your videos. I’ve always been fascinated by heating and AC and watching all your videos is just really teaching me a lot of things about this type of stuff that I had no idea. I really wish I lived in California because I would love for you to be my mentor and teach me more things hands-on.we own a restaurant in Massachusetts and I hate having to call AC people to fix this in ice machines but I could probably do it myself if I was more knowledgeable, but it’s really nice seeing your videos and I appreciate all the hard work you do. Great company, great videos, and keep it up.

I'd work for you in a heart beat. Nowhere near California :( You seem like a good dude Chris who does honest work keep it up man

I know this guy in Northern California let's call him NorCalDave and he's a huge fan of your series. Dave is an old dog so good luck teaching him new tricks,

You want to get a calendar ,just for ice machines,and you try to schedule most for winter time,you call the rest. tell them it is due.phosphate filters work best,and adjust to use more water.2 cents.nice work guys.

Did the whole HVAC thing. Went to RCC in the IE, got certified and a diploma. Worked at a state facility and watched a guy drive around in a truck doing almost nothing asked him what he made annually and how to do it, he said 220k annually with overtime, I jumped ship immediately and never looked back, do I miss diagnosing and repairing yeah I do, do I miss being on the roof in August practically dying of heat stroke? NOPE would I work for a guy like Chris? I don’t know, I see he runs a tight ship and does great work, but at the end of the day a small even medium business can’t give retirement and benefits like a state agency can. That’s just the way it is in CA, he probably pays out the wazoo for benefits and insurance doesn’t leave much for employees pay. In another state I’d probably be banging on his door but not in commifornia where he’s punished for doing a good job. If you’re a tech right out of school, yeah great starter company but you can move on to places like Disneyland and make 10x the pay with retirement, health benefits for life etc, it sucks for small companies but that’s the facts here in good old CA

And now ill ask for no ice wherever I go....

If they're got such hard water that it's doing that they might want to consider a water softener. Might be cheaper than all the plumbing and machine repairs/maintenance. That's some bad calcium and it all has tom come from somewhere. It's probably building up in the rest of their plumbing too.

Ice machines make 3 things - heat, scale and if you’re lucky ice

I just attended a Manitowoc service class yesterday and learned an interesting fact. On their flake and nugget ice machine lines you need to use a metal safe cleaner not a nickel. The evaporator is stainless steel and will not hold up well against the normal nickel safe descaler

Excelentes consejos los tuyos Chris, son de gran utilidad para todos los que trabajamos máquinas que fabrcan hielo. Nuevamente muchas gracias saludos desde Coacalco Edo de México y tengan una excelente noche.

I would apply in a heartbeat if I was in CA. Good luck finding people Chris. I myself work commercial and light industrial service now and more.

I had a manitowoc ice machine leaking refrigerant through the low pressure wires today. I’m an educator now and all my guys like watching your channel !

Hey Chris I don't think i have every seen that much calcium built up on one like that before. I've clean my share of ice machine in the day. Great job has always.

the differance from beginning to after you folks finished cleaning was amazing, Job well done. It looks so much better.

I experienced this last year at a chilis. Their water softener had a fault and was sending very heavy salt concentration through the building and only the ice machices were effected.

I've found an 18v cordless Ryobi 600 psi pressure washer does a decent job getting a lot of stuff off the bin as well as the deep fat fryer during boil out. Forgive me for using LimeAway on the bins and other parts soaking in the bucket. Then sponge scrubber (green pad with yellow sponge) and nylon brush.

Hi Chris, Thepowerofelectric gave you the right answer. That is the reason for the build up of such high calcium concentrations. Maybe you can adjust the software of the ice machine, lengthen the time of the drain cycle? Then you get no such insane increasing build up of calcium. Plus sell and install them them a proper water softener equipment. What doesn't go in, doesn't have to be scratched off by you. Plus use 1,5" pvc drain pipe instead of thin copper. These types restaurants actually need a maintenance person on their payroll cause non of their normal workers cares nor has an understanding of how to fix and maintain issues and equipment. Its seriously a health hazard to keep restaurants running this way. You have to warn staff that this way of running is not acceptable and should change. Maybe you can set up a restaurant maintenance service where you send a trained guy regularly to these places to tackle these issues? Such a person could sense problems before they get out of hand. Oh and sorry to say, your "cause", "cardboard boxes" is absolutely not the reason for this problem.

I was disassembling and doing quickie in house guy once weekly of cleaning distro tube, trough and pump screen of 1st gen Indigo 1400# single evap in my 600 seat restaurant with buildups of calcium this past season.

Well, since you refuse to properly soldered joints, I think you should go to just about 100% doing the squeeze fittings which looks the whole lot better than the blobs of solder. You have on the pipes.

I really like the amount of information you put in this video, Chris. This is another one of those 'reference' videos. Just one thing - the commentary from the office at the end had a lot of audio distortion and sounded like some part of the audio chain was clipping. I just thought I'd mention it as your audio is usually decent quality.

Man, is this restaurant seated on top of a limestone quarry... yikes.

Chris look up Tennant Creek NT. Australia where im from the calcium there is also insane we would service Evapcoolers 2 weeks later the pads completely blocked with calcium again crazy the water is insane there,very hard.

Hehe. I recently passed my CFQ and got my red seal. In Ontario, Canada. lol.

There is no way that location passed their ecosure audits with that grease problem being that bad

I love these ice machines videos always waiting for the other upload

Great Video. Than you for sharing

Maybe I should. Prior work experience is CNC Machinist.

I am looking for a position right now and I'd just moved from OC to IE. I'll be sending my resume your way.

7:30 Meanwhile in the reactor room, SCRAM IT! SCRAM IT!

Something that I've found works great at dissolving calcium build up that's also food safe is vinegar

I would definitely consider working with you if I would be close. I really appreciate the way you work and treat customers. I think we would match up pretty nice. But it's just the wrong continent sadly

Chris as someone whom has worked in plenty ketchens and washed plenty of dishes, you should have run the drains into the bottom of the floor drain. Yes, they are sticking cardboard under the drains and backing them up! It's SOP for any kitchen, to put down cardboard where water is pooling.

Food-grade citric acid crystals are your friend. Mix up a nice concentrate and it'll dissolve all that calcium build-up.

They need a water softener

Need some better filters to remove the calcium from the water before it even goes into the machines looks like a lot of hard water problems

i've got a cleaning on an ice machine at work tomorrow night, hope i dont run into something like this. we've been instructed to use vinegar as the cleaning solution for our ice machines, what do you think about using that vs the suggested cleaning solution? manitowoc and a couple of hoshizaki

Do you prefer doing copper? Is it better for drains. We do PVC, unless is a freezer.

I bet you're OCD went into overdrive. I know mine would. It's hard, at least for me to know when to say "it's good enough". They were pretty bad...thanks for the video Chris

Exelente video gracias

I use white vinegar for calcium build up

What seems more likely than the drain being plugged up is that the ice thickness was the cause of the plugging. The reasons these ice machines have calcium issues is that while making ice, the calcium that's already in the water is getting concentrated. The water freezes into ice and the calcium is left behind and taken away by the water stream. After a while you'll end up with a super concentrated solution of calcite water. The machine is supposed to dump that out and refill itself with clean water. (Purpose of the dump cycle) For that cycle to work, you need a certain amount of water left in the machine. If the ice thickness is set way too high, there'll be less water to contain the calcium so it'll try to drop out of solution any place it can. Additionally the purge won't be able to pick up as much water to purge out, meaning more calcium making it into the next cycle. And when the drain starts plugging up, it builds a feedback loop. Less water purged means more calcium, more plugging, means less water purged. So if your ice thickness is too high, the water concentrates the calcium too high, leading to calcium buildup (Which then accelerates itself) Either way, these machines really needed that cleaning. Great video!

Unfortunately for me, I'm in a different country! Someone is going to be very fortunate working for Chris. He may have exacting standards and want thing done in specific ways, but that's a good thing in that whoever works for Chris will know they have a decent and honest boss who will make sure you're doing things the right way. I'm not saying other business owners aren't honest, but with these videos you know that Chris is one of the good guys and well worth going the extra mile for. I wish Chris and whoever gets to work for him the very best!

So today was my turn with calcium... just opened a 45 liter boiler to clean it :/

Whoever gets the position will definitely be a fortunate person. Experienced or green as grass they will be getting a great mentor and a great environment to learn the trade to the fullest!

damn, now i wish i a) went to school for hvac and b) lived in cali. hope you find your unicorn techs!

Have you ever seen calcium like this? :: yes it was in 2018 in a new 'we eventually called Eledore to help us' restaurant. Water filters had a 2006 production date, and they had to rip out and replace every water pipe containing safe drinking water. (even before the filters). But one lucky part is that after identifying that we found that the supply line was bad to. This is Europe, we don't have fresh water that calcified available to hook up. The building's fresh water apparently got hooked up to a industrial/fire-main line.. Lawsuit didn't last long.

why not pvc

Not fair that he doesn't look world wide

And this is why I don't really get ice at fast food or restaurants. Most of the time your order a large drink and they fill the entire cup with ice. I ordered 42oz of a drink and not 8oz of a drink and the rest of it ice lol.

How do I know this is a big day for Chris? The video begins with a “what a heck” Greetings to the HVACR world!!

Man i wish i lived in California again!! Used to live in Bakersfield but i moved back to south dakota, would have loved to work for you!!

Have to get them to filter their water from the street if they don't want their machine clogging constantly

for those very crazy calcium madness the lim-a-away from ecolab works like magic, dissolve any calcium like noting, and i know that bcz i clean a big machine like this one, with calcium all over the place

Silly question why not go in with like a 1-in so there's no way it can plug I mean come out of the machine with the right size but then go straight to a 1-in

I do wonder if anyone overseas sent in a CV...

Vinegar works great on calcium

Does vinegar work? Also calcium deposits are more soluble in cold water. My Dad had a coffee maker pot that was covered in calcium deposits. I used diluted nitric acid and in seconds it was crystal clear. Rinse in cold water and you are in business. Nitric is real aggressive on metals especially aluminum.

Dude, I´d love to work for You. Sadly I live on the other side of the world but I dig Your vids. Hope You´ll find a good one.

I think your opportunity would be a great person who is just starting to get into the trade in your area. You can help mold them for the future with your company. Someone who is through schooling so they have the basics down.

I didn’t go to school and I’m from Maine. That’s out of the question.

I honestly don't believe they are blocking the drains. I live in an area that has very hard water that I know the lake our town draws it's water supply from is literally on a limestone bed. I worked for a coffee company that until they got a water softener as part of their renovations we were having to call a repair person a few times a month to fix a blown heater in a coffee machine due to the lime buildup in the tank and I could see the dents in the tank from the technicians using rubber mallets to break off the lime buildup. Every few months I would have to take a pair of pliers to a thermocouple in the tea tower because it wasn't sensing right to allow water into the machine automatically because of the lime buildup. If you had failed to use a "Snake" in the little tube that leads to the coffee maker distribution head for less than a week then you would experience pots of coffee not brewing properly.

Nasty as always! Is that a 2015 filter ?

The new intro is awesome but man I sure miss the old one

Good luck in your search for a new tech.

YUCK @ all that calcium. Nuts

Wish you operated in the DFW area 😢

Assuming that this establishment is on city water... there is no reason why they should have that much calcium buildup. My city water in my home was tested and it had literally zero calcium in it. That is the mean with city water from my research on the subject.

I think the calcium could be caused by bad or bypassing water filters, and a location with a high calcium content in the water.

I see you moved to propress fittings, those are nice and quick

now imagin. u get food and cold drinks from such places.. D:

This Equipment looks Trashed. 🤔 You and your employees Strong 💪 Efforts made a Huge Difference. 👍🙏

Great video how do you adjust the ice thickness

Good job on the ice machine Chris

My only experience is on Refrigeration on cold Hold units and thermo king refrigeration units but would never want to work in califoniastan

Hey Chris, can you explain why you are using copper pipe instead of PVC for the drain?

What i never understood is why are yuu adding coper lines to a drain line? Copper is such a precious metal, and so expensive. Utilizing it for water drainage just doesn't make sense, it's not even under pressure. Maybe someone can enlighten me

I can already tell that is a sushi/japanese restaurant. Serviced many restaurants and those are always like that. Respectfully.

With ice machines, could you run the drains from the 1/2'' copper to a single 1'' copper line or would it be asking for future issues? And why not use a 45 degree ST copper fitting at the end instead of a 90 degree fitting? seems like it's asking for trouble being straight down.

acid magic

😭😭😭 if only I lived on the east coast, also as soon as you started spraying the machine with cleaner. I could feel it in my lungs.

What about the restaurant ice ha

When you replaced the drain pipes, why didn't you extend that final piece of down pipe into the drain tub recessed into the floor so nothing could slide under the pipe end and cause another backup-plug up?

Air born yeast floating around? Ever deal with that?solution?

Got your yearly dose of calcium in one day. Even for socal that ain't normal.

Why not use concentrated citric acid?

Is copper code in your location.?

Why do drain lines have to be copper? would PVC not be a cheaper and easily replaced option?