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For food-related businesses like restaurants and cafes, ice machines are essential tools. When scale buildup interferes with their functions, your business may be compromised. Groundwater naturally contains minerals like calcium and magnesium that accumulate and harden into scale, the buildup of which harms the ice machine, decreasing its life span and its functionality. Fortunately, you can help limit this issue with the following additions.

3 Products That Prevent Scale in Ice Machines

1. Phosphate Filters

Phosphate filters keep minerals from forming scale by introducing phosphate into the water. The phosphate ions attach to the magnetic bonds of calcium and magnesium, tying them up to prevent the buildup of mineral deposits on a machine’s surfaces. This doesn’t completely prevent scale buildup—no process does—but it eliminates the vast majority of residue, lengthening a machine’s life span.

ice machines2. Water Softeners

Where phosphate filters attempt to prevent mineral ions from binding to surfaces, traditional water softeners focus on removing those ions from the water. They do so by feeding sodium ions into the water to replace them. Since sodium doesn’t form scale, this is an effective way to prevent deposit buildups.

3. Reverse Osmosis Systems

A reverse osmosis system uses a more traditional filtering mechanism: a porous barrier screens minerals from the flow of water. Water molecules are small enough to pass through this barrier’s pores, but minerals and other contaminants get trapped and removed, leaving the water clean and pure.

 

If you’re encountering difficulties with scale buildup in your business’s ice machine, seek help from the locally owned Pacific Ice Services. Located in Honolulu since 1973, they provide knowledgeable and extensive commercial ice services throughout Oahu, including appliance repair, refrigerator and freezer work, and general maintenance. Learn more about their services online, or call (808) 839-6839 to make an appointment.

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