Manitowoc Indigo ice thickness probe light on the control board.

[danbb]

Hoshizakis, "the ice dragons" / or Cadillac of the ice machine world. Well I guess it more lack of competition than anything. Yeah ok they take a while to clean but they are not even close to as touchy and apt to break down on the weekends than scotsman iceomatic Manitowoc etc. Plain and simple. They may take awhile to drop a batch but when the ice starts dropping its like it never ends. Bigger batches=longer freeze cycle=less cycles per full cycle=less chance of something not operating correctly. They are simple and it don't try to use all sorts of complicated sensors that obviously are gonna screw up with the water quality of all the machines out there. Just make sure you carry a few bin tstats, and a float switch and a control board and you're probably gonna get it up in running in a few minutes.
Yeah separated plates are a problem caused by LOM but hey they still kick out a good amount of ice in most cases that you will get by, and hopefully. Or you can buy a few Manitowoc and tell the customer to buy two so when there touchy ice thickness sensor needs a few trips from a service company to correctly set. Yeah I'm obviously being a drama queen but it fun to pick on ice machines cause I hate watching them make ice unless the waitresses are interested. haha

Yeah, you know, I can hardly find a good thing to say about Hoshizaki's cubers. 99% of problems with manitowocs can be solved by either cleaning the machine (which should have been done anyways, so chalk it up to a lack of maintenance), maybe change a ice thickness or water level probe, and occasionally a curtain switch. Just because a Hoshizaki can run even when the inside looks like a cave with snotsickles hanging everywhere doesn't make it a better machine, it just makes it more likely to not have its regular cleanings, which is understandable, since its nearly an all day affair. I'd rather crawl through a crawlspace full of broken glass and razor blades than clean a Hoshi, since I'll probably come out with less cuts and scrapes anyways. With a Manitowoc, once it slimes up, the thickness probe will usually short out, and then everything is easily accessible in the front of the machine, including the evaporator, water trough, water pump, and all the hoses. Manitowoc has really gotten rid of nearly all the cracks and crevices where slime likes to hide, something that I can't really say for Hoshi. I've never seen a Manitowoc water pump leak either, and a failed water inlet valve won't destroy an evaporator. A lot of "parts-changer" techs will replace the ice thickness probe instead of cleaning it, but most probes and sensors that get replaced really only needed to be cleaned. Sorry about the rant, I just can't stand walking into a service call and finding a Hoshizaki. Don't even get me started on a Scotsman Prodigy though...

[trippintl0]

I actually think Hoshizaki and Manitowoc are both great machines, along with the Scotsman CM3 machines... And I totally agree nothing worse than seeing a Scotsman Prodigy...

[timebuilder]

A lot of "parts-changer" techs will replace the ice thickness probe instead of cleaning it, but most probes and sensors that get replaced really only needed to be cleaned. ...

I just found an ice thickness probe shorted to ground a day ago. A bath in the cleaner, and a take-apart cleaning for the machine (no maintenance contract at this restaurant) and all was good again.

[itsiceman]

FWIW I think they took the Hz info off the display in the latest version of software. I could only find the yes ice or no ice under inputs now.

[jonbailey19808]

FWIW I think they took the Hz info off the display in the latest version of software. I could only find the yes ice or no ice under inputs now.

Nope it is still in there. Just tricky to find.

Go:
Menu
Service
Time & Temperature
Scroll all the way down and you will find it

[J_Bridge]

On the indigo, use a 9/32 drill to set the thickness. That is all it needs to obtain a 1/8 bridge, There is also new books with the diagnostic info in them, last years books are trash. The new books were revised8/12. And do not expose the probe to water above 120 degrees, it will warp it and the microphone won't hear/sense the ice properly.

[GJ-HVAC/R]

At an indigo seminar yesterday, and was told an easy way to test the sensor. While in the hz part of the menu, Just tap on the curtain near the sensor and make sure the hz jumps when u tap it