How to clean ice maker?

    Ice maker is now a necessary item in your kitchen for not only can it provide fresh ice for you to make cool drinks in the summer but also you can serve a variety of cold dishes with it. However, even you only make ice with clean fresh water, your Ice making machine still needs to be cleaned.

    Why does an ice maker needs to be cleaned?

    First of all, ice is defined as a food by FDA, which means you need to treat and care for ice as in the same way you do with other products. No matter what kind of machine you use (built-in ice maker,  frigidaire ice maker or countertop ice maker), it is important for you to clean it and maintain it properly. The part unit that contacts with water may develop scale, slime or mold. What’s worse, it would even habor potentionally deadly bacteria. Therefore, sanitizing your ice making machine is actually crucial for you to keep in good health. Besides, proper maintainence of the ice maker also helps to avoid unnecessary wear and keep it running efficently.

    Signs that show your ice maker needs to be cleaned

    -The ice produced from the ice maker has unpleasant smell or tastes funky.

    -The ice cubes are smaller than they should be or they are incomplete.

    -The ice become cloudy (unless it is desgined this way) or not clear.

    -Mold or mildew can be seen in the machine or ice chute.

    How to clean an ice maker?

1. Unplug the ice maker and drain the water.

    In order to avoid any dangerous occasions from happening, it is suggested to unplug the ice maker. Therefore the first thing you need to do before all the process is to remove the plug of the machine from electrical plug. Additionally, if you have added any filters in your machine, you can remove them and set aside.

2. Clean the machine

    You can use your own solution of vinegar and warm water to clean your ice maker. Put some white vinegar and water into a spray bottle and get to work. To prevent dirt from entering the corners, you can spray down and fully saturate your ice maker with the solution you made and then clean the dirt from the water repository with a damp cloth.

3. Clean Ice Bushel

    Over time, a lot of random debris tends to accumulate in the ice bushel. Therefore, you need to take out the ice bushel and wash it thoroughly with detergent and warm water. After that you need to wait until the ice bushel for drying completely. Here, the vinegar solution is also suggested since the vinegar not only helps to kill mold and mildew but also good at deodorizing.

4. Check your Ice machine

    After all the parts of the machine is totally clean and dryed, re-asselmble the ice maker and turn it on. You can run your ice machine two or three times and then discard the ice cubes. It’s okay if the first batch of ice cube have some odd flavor, it’s because of the use of vinegar and it will dissipate over the next few batches.

    After all these process, your ice maker will be able to produce nice and clean ice cubes that do not have any funky flavor with them. It is suggested to clean the water tank of the ice machine once a week and clean your whole machine once every six months. But even if you clean your ice maker once a year, you’re acturally doing better than most of the people.