Has it been cleaned (to the manufacturer's specifications) in the past 3 years?

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

Its the ice causing the problems? Or is it the water? Or is it a lack of a proper cleaning/sanitizing?

 

Yep, it's been cleaned, and it's only the ice; water on its' own is fine.

 

How old?

 

Water filters typically use carbon to filter the water. Occasionally a carbon filter will let some black particles into the water. Thats most likely scenario. The other scenario is the rubber seals or some other stuff inside the evaporator is deteriorating and flaking apart. This happens more on older machines and is much more serious as grease and potentially metal shavings could get into the ice.

The situation is made much worse by one design problem of this style machine - it never drains the dirty water out. In fact, as the ice melts, all the dirty melted ice water is brought directly back into the machine to make new ice with. The "cleaning" procedure is to try to make ice with cleaner and remove the ice before it melts and gets dirt back into machine... The dirt you are seeing could be an accumulation of 3 years of tiny specks of debris that basically can never be removed from the machine.

If these units connected to a drain and had a drain valve like every other flaked ice machine, then they could dump all the dirty water every 4-6 hours and not have this excessive buildup.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

Thanks, that's a good point (and would be easy enough to do I guess, just redirect the drain from the bucket). My first hunch was the filter, but when running water through it, it's completely clean, not a single bit of dirt or staining in a 5 gallon white bucket, so if it was shedding or breaking down, I'd expect to see something then.

I can run an ice cycle with cleaning solution, that's easy enough. Right now it's in pieces, aside from the evaporator/auger assembly, since that's the biggest PITA to get at.

 

I was thinking more the accumulation of 3 years of replacement filters. The water filters usually only let out some black debris immediately after replacement. If they've been replaced 6 times (twice a year for 3 years) it may have allowed enough crud to accumulate. If you see a way to get a water hose and really flush the thing out better than the manufacturer's recommended cleaning method, i would try that first. Flush it super good and then see if problem is resolved.

If not then you are looking at having a technician disassemble evaporator and replace bearings / seals etc. In my experience that is a very difficult machine to a service and you may have a hard time finding a company to do that kind of major repair - they will likely try to sell you a new machine. If the black substance is sticky and doesnt clean easily, you may be looking at new plastic tubing and fittings which would also add to the cost.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

 

Flakes and or dispenser bearings.

 

I had problem with black specs in styrofoam cups. I found it was coming from one of these water filters.

 

Nickle lining of the evaporator flaking off perhaps?

 

I think you need to check those bearing. Not a follet person, but whin the bearing fail on a hoshi ya get black stuff in the ice

 

The bearings on a hoshi are black fyi

 

You need to pull the gear motor off and make sure the back seal is still good. It is unlikely grease could get into the water system with redundant seals, but it is possible. If it's not gear motor grease, it's almost certainly coming in with the water. Check filters. These machines sometimes come with the internal water filter option. You can see it unless you take the left side panel off. The 7/15 Series machines are some of the easiest to service I've ever encountered, once you do it a few times. I can take one COMPLETELY down in five minutes. Takes about eight minutes to reassemble.

 

Also, these machines MUST be descaled regularly, frequency based on water quality and usage, of course. If you have hard water and a lot of usage and don't keep it descaled using the Follett closed system procedure, the scale can get bad enough that you must open the sump and evaporator and manually clean it all out.

 

Water filters with carbon do need to be flushed when replaced. However Follett filters we are using do not have carbon in them .
Trippint10 , has a very good point about the Follett system on the 7 and 15 models , the re use of water and no ability to flush away contaminants

 

This may not be relevant to all instances (and this is an old post) but what I discovered with my unit was the black was caused by mold accumulation in the water holding tank (below the ice hopper). This mold is typically as a result of improper/infrequent cleaning or letting the machine sit for extended periods without use and can be dangerous.

Put the machine in maintenance mode, take off the front cover and move the cap, and fill the ice tank with warm water. Using the drain hose, drain this water into a bucket and look at what comes out. If it is black flakes that may have whispy trails, grab one out and put it between your fingers. If it feels slimy, it is most likely a form of black mold living quite happily in the holding tank.

Run a cleaning cycle on the machine and keep doing so until flush water comes out clear. If you still get bits after 2-3 tries, I would recommend flushing with a mild bleach solution (a couple of capfuls to a full tank) and let that sit in the unit for 20 mins. Flush the machine again and you should start seeing the black stuff coming out. Any black stains in the ice tank can be removed with the same bleach solution.

Make sure you flush the machine 4-5 times after cleaning and stick to the recommended cleaning cycle of every six months.