Ice Machine Cleaning Log: Fill & Download for Free

Ice is food, so it is regulated as food. You need a permit from the FDA to make ice and bag it if you sell it away from where you made it. If you make ice at your store, bag it, and only sell it there, then you only need to get a state food handlers inspection.You have the cost of the water , the cost to filter, the cost to freeze, the cost of bagging , the bag cost, the PPE required to safely bag ice, and the cost of keeping it cold at point of sale. Remember, a gallon of water includes a fee for sewage too. You are required to test the water pre and post filtration, and to maintain a tamper proof meter in front of the filters. You must maintain a log of the test results and gallons on the filter and the dates the filters are cleaned, flushed, and changed. Cleaning and flushing is usually done with each session of ice production.Be sure you carefully factor your electric costs for the ice machine and the point of sale freezer,and any back stock storage. The average cost for utilities for ice point of sale is $850 a year, and the average cost for a 400 pound ice machine is around $1500 a year. I am basing these numbers on manufacturer supplied utility consumption estimates. This is an average. Older machines use much more power. Typically it is less expensive to operate an ice maker with no refrigerated holding bin. Restaurants typically have super insulated but miniminally cooled point of sale boxes at serving stations and refill from a larger unit with the exhaust vented outside. Many restaurants have ice machines discharge inside a walk in freezer. This can be tricky as the ice will freeze to itself and be difficult to serve.Most sellers in the US mark up ice the same as produce, because of stales and loss of product due to outages, which means the mark up is forty percent over cost of goods sold. This predicts a post tax margin of around ten percent, which is really good.

I once had a Chinese national who was a businessman and traveling with his entourage. He was placed near an ice machine which occasionally would get a bit noisy; it was one of those busy nights where I was alone and I had a line of guests checking in - and we were sold out.Shortly after checking in, one of his assistants called down and requested a room change. For me, it was impossible - he had checked into the last of the room types I had available, I had no other free rooms to move him to, and no staff to go clean his room if I did. The complaint was specifically about the ice machine, and I assured him I would be up as soon as I was free.5 minutes go by. Another call, this one a bit more aggressive. I told him I was still busy but as soon as I was able, I would be up.20 minutes later, he and his biggest bodyguards came down. “I DEMAND that you move me RIGHT NOW!” I explained that I had just checked in my last guest, and I would be up to fix the machine. He leans over the counter, thrusts his finger at me, and says, “Get your manager on the phone NOW.”I smiled at him. This always intimidates people who are used to be intimidating. I tapped on my nametag. “Sir, I AM the general manager of this hotel. I do apologize for the inconvenience, but as I’ve continually assured you and your employees, I would be up as soon as I could. I will be up there as soon as I can grab my tool bag.”His eyes got wide, he stood up straight, and looked at his feet, as if he was suddenly embarrased. “I accept that answer” was all he could mutter. And as promised, I went up and fixed the machine.He called down about an hour later and apologized, something I don’t normally see with my American guests. He would do so in the morning - I was back 8 hours after my shift ended - and apologized again, commenting that it was the best American hotel he’d ever been to.We do want to make every guest’s stay pleasant. Chances are if I’m working the desk, I’m alone because I couldn’t find anyone else to cover. We don’t want you to suffer any longer than you have to, but on occasion, a remedy isn’t readily available.Another busy night, and we were in the middle of a remodel. To top it off, the internet went out in our relocated check-in stand (the main lobby was closed as it was being completely demo’d). A guest - a local - starts getting impatient with me as I couldn’t get her into a room fast enough; without internet, I wasn’t sure what rooms were empty, which had guests, and if I had someone coming into a room type that I could have upgraded her to (this was early in my management career, and we’ve since learned how to prevent this issue). She starts screaming at me, saying she will go stay somewhere else. Even though we were in the middle of a remodel, we are about the nicest thing around - we rank pretty high in our brand, and in our city, there are limited hotels - and I look her in the eye, saying “Ma’am, I understand. I can cancel your reservation as soon as I get my system up should you choose to go somewhere else.“What did you say to me?”“Ma’am, I understand your frustration and your need to get into a room as soon as possible. Please do note that I’m trying diligently to get my internet to work so that I can accommodate you here, but I want you to be happy, even if it is with my competitor. Yelling at me to put you into a room - one that I’m not sure if someone is already in, or someone might come into in 10 minutes won’t make you happy. I need my system to work to get you in.”Her eyes started blinking, her mouth twitching, not sure how to process what I had just told her. She started talking but her brain wasn’t engaged; the words that came out were tangled in each other.I continued: “I’m sure the hotel down the street has openings. I completely understand. I will cancel your reservation if I don’t see you back here in an hour.” Her mouth closed, she flipped her jacket over her shoulder in disgust, and stormed out the door.A month later she came back, acting if it were the first time she met me. “You know, I stayed with your competitor down the street last time I was in town (mind you, she’s a local) - their hotel was completely disgusting. You are my favorite hotel!”It’s not quite the end of the story with her. Five years later, in a drunken rage, she destroyed one of our hotel rooms. Broken television, damaged the headboard, thousands in damage. It’s a small town - hotel owners all know each other here, not to mention the officers that responded. She ended up blacklisted at every hotel.Edit: Thank you all for your upvotes! I want to add something that happened today:When you rent a room at a hotel, you rent a room type, and are guaranteed that type or an upgrade if something happens.We have a few that do face the river, but it’s not a ‘room type’ (though some hotels may offer ‘view rooms’ at a premium’), these rooms just happen to have a better view and are not priced any differently than our others. We do accommodate requests, if at all possible - though they are not guarantees. Third Floor, first floor, not near an ice machine or elevator - we get many requests (including one for a ‘Funny photo of Richard Simmons’, which the guest wrote a glowing review about when we actually followed through)…We had a guest that had requested a room that faced the river. We also happened to be short-staffed today, with 3 housekeepers doing 17 rooms (they normally get about 10) each. 10-hour day, plus I logged 6 miles today as I did laundry and assisted them with stripping their rooms and making their beds. The guest checked in, and the housekeeper assigned to the room she wanted, cleaning it.“I want my room now!” she demanded.“Ma’am, I’ve got someone in there cleaning it right now. If you’d like another room, I’d be happy to move you…”“I want THAT room. I want to see the river from my room! I want MY ROOM!”She whined, She cried. She demanded I comp her the room because it wasn’t ready.And just yesterday…I had a room that had a toilet issue that I discovered - the fill valve wasn’t working. Though I had shut the water off, as I clamped my pliers around the nut to remove it, the plastic crumbled and water began to spew everywhere. About that time, there was a pounding on the door by a guest, who barged in, demanding to know if I was the manager and that she needed to talk to me.“Ma’am, I’m in the middle of a flood event. Please give me a moment.”She left, and I determined I needed another tool to better complete the repair. I ran out of the room, past the guest, and to my truck to grab it… while running back in, I could hear, “Sir! SIR! SIR!”“Please, give me a moment. I’ve got a room flooding.”“But I need to talk to you now!”Ma’am, I really need to fix this otherwise I’ll have everyone on the floor wanting to know why their carpet is soaked.”“Hrumph! Talk about customer service…!”Her ‘issue’? She was moving back to the town, and wanted to apply for a job.

Identify the different areas in your kitchen.Food prep.Food store-bought raw/cooked ( in separate cooling units or the same)Dry store.Hot kitchen- where food is cooked to orderPot wash.This is just a rough sketch. One basically needs to identify different areas because food contact areas and non food contact areas are to be cleaned differently.Next, create a deep clean schedule, weekly is better than monthly, but also it has to be practical. For example: poultry refrigerator to be cleaned daily, dry store to be cleaned on Mondays and Thursdays and ice machine to be rinsed and sanitised Tuesdays and Saturdays.When making your cleaning schedule bear in mind busy operations and try not to over lap the cleaning schedules with busy days or when the operations of the restaurant might be hammered. If your staff are tired they are less likely to keep it cleaner.Train all your staff in the schedules. Label areas. Maintain cleaning logs which you can check everyweek.Practice clean as you go. Keep cooked food and food preps covered and labelled.Contact a local industrial supplier of cleaning agents/chemicals to help you with a list of chemicals that can help you de-grease hard surfaces and clean interiors. They will even probably train your staff how to use it. Make sure you equip them with the right gear to use the chemicals as per the chemical user instructions.Most importantly, have surprise rounds or inspections done by your friends posing as inspectors to keep your staff on their toes in maintaining the highest levels of cleanliness.For more questions feel free to ping me.Cheers.