You don’t know how to clean your portable ice maker appropriately; you are worried about growing bacteria after using the wrong ways to clean the machine, and you want to make your ice maker durable.
In addition, you know that accumulated dust or inside stuck remnants would harm your well-being and make your machine cost more energy.
My article will offer you step-by-step guidelines and some tips to clean your handy ice maker in the best way so that you can ensure your family health and use the maker durably.
How Many Steps To Clean A Moldy Portable Ice Maker?
Generally, there are eight main steps you need to clean your portable ice maker for health and maintenance requirements.
- Step 1: Make overall sanitation of the inner portion
- Step 2: Unplug the device and remove the water and old ice cubes
- Step 3: Prepare the cleaning solution
- Step 4: Disassemble and clean removed components
- Step 5: Interior washing
- Step 6: Tidy the condenser and filter
- Step 7: Exterior sanitation
- Step 8: Attach removed components and set up the machine again.
Why Washing A Handy Ice Maker Matters?
As mentioned before, washing a handy ice maker is crucial for sanitation, health, durability, and energy-saving.
- A portable ice maker full of microorganisms and mold harms your health.
- Using clear ice cubes from the maker makes your foods tasty, healthy and safe.
- Redundant small food particles in your ice maker are a root cause of bacterial growth and food poisoning when it is not discovered and addressed by a suitable cleaning method.
- After being used for a long time, dust accumulates and causes low-quality ice cubes, which is harmful to your family’s health. Therefore, making your portable ice maker clear is required as one of the essential factors to maintain health.
- The cleaning ice maker may help them produce ice cubes faster.
- Moreover, if your portable ice maker has been stuck in a kitchen cupboard for a few months or even more, it will need to be cleaned because moisture build-up inside the machine can cause mold.
- Additionally, you can prevent the increase in energy consumption by cleaning it frequently.
- Furthermore, appropriately washing your portable ice maker also provides you with many years of service.
Thus, whether you use your ice maker daily or not, keeping it clean is always a must-done thing.
When To Clean Your Portable Ice Maker?
There are several abnormal signs that your ice maker may need to be cleaned. Follow me and check your portable ice maker in your kitchen.
- The surface of the machine is dirty or a scale build-up on the evaporator plates. This would be the most notable sign to remind you that your ice maker needs washing.
- Ice cubes would melt quicker or be smaller than they used to be. Sometimes, you need to care about how quickly your ice cubes melt or whether they get smaller or not, as the sooner you clean, the better you get ice cubes.
- Focusing on the taste of ice produced would help you know whether you should clean your portable ice-making machine or not.
- Ice cubes made by an ice machine would be extremely clear, except your tainted input water causes cloudiness. Thus if you find your ice cubes cloudy but your water supply is good, it’s time for you to clean your portable ice maker.
- You should notice the harvesting time because if your ice maker is dirty, it will take much more time to freeze.
Suppliers To Sanitize A Dirty Portable Ice-making Machine
If you think that you just need water and a little detergent to make your portable ice-making machine thoroughly clean, keep reading to find whether you are right or wrong in the way you sanitize it.
Good preparation always makes you clean the handy ice maker advantageously and time-savingly. This mentioned stuff is what you need for an ice-making machine clean.
- Washing solutions. You obviously need a cleaning solution, such as lemon juice or white vinegar, as the main thing to clean your ice maker, but that’s not enough.
- An extremely hygienic and soft cloth. It is required to wipe the inside and outside surface because rigid material or dirty cloth will stimulate more bacterial build-up fast.
- A brush or an old but clean toothbrush with soft bristles. Ideal things to help you reach difficult areas are a small brush or an old, unused toothbrush, but you need to make sure that the bristles are soft enough not to devastate plastic.
- Warm and pure water. First, use a clean spray bottle to create a blend of warm and cleaning solution and spray down your ice maker. After all, you also need pure and lukewarm water to wipe out all bubbles from the washing solution.
- Sponges for washing something wet. Lastly, it would be helpful to get some towels or kitchen paper towels to prevent water spillage from the already washed ice maker.
8 Detailed Periods To Clean A Movable Ice Maker
Now, here is what you find. Keep going through 8 specific steps to know to clean your movable ice maker with convenience but perfection. So let’s dive in!
Step 1: Make An Overall Sanitation Of The Inner Portion
You will begin cleaning your ice maker by overall sanitation of the inner portion. Follow the below guidelines to make it.
- Run a cycle with the mixture of a little bit of lemon juice and clean water
- Repeat the procedure with clean water.
- Two cycles will take you at least 40 minutes, depending on the ice maker brand.
Step 2: Unplug The Device, Remove The Water, And Old Ice Cubes
You must disconnect power from your ice-producing machine before using a cleaning solution and water to clean it. This is the top prerequisite of your safety.
- Remove the old water and ice cubes for cleaning convenience. You had better wipe out every single drop of water and hold the device upside down for around 5 minutes to drain out the water.
- Careful unplugging the device and getting rid of old things from it would be beneficial to you much as most unpredicted accidents are from forgetting unplugging, so be careful!
Step 3: Prepare The Cleaning Solution
Use a bottle sprayer with a mixture of an artificial or natural detergent and warm water coming from the kettle so that you can ensure a safe and clean water supply.
- Preparing the detergent demands you to choose a suitable scent. The scent of the washing solution can last for a long time. Therefore, vinegar and lemon juice are the two most highly recommended cleaning solutions as they are eco-friendly, easy-to-use, and cheap.
Using natural detergents from vinegar or lemon is a fabulous way to avoid harsh chemicals after washing.
You are not required to use 100% vinegar or lemon juice during the cleaning process. Just pouring two cups of white vinegar per cup of water, you create a mixture that can dissolve dirt, grease and even kill bacteria.
Step 4: Disassemble And Clean Removed Components
You need to take part of the machine to access the internal mechanism easily, but you may have some troubles for the first time removing the ice tray, so check out the manual to know the exact procedure.
- Once the ice tray and the water reservoir are moved, use the prepared washing liquid to clean it without missing any parts. It’s time for you to use a brush to expel all of the complex build-ups.
- Next, rinse them with some warm water and handle a soft and hygienic cloth to clean the tray before letting it drain for an hour.
Step 5: Interior Washing
Washing the whole interior of your portable ice maker can eradicate foul scents and mold from your machine. For this reason, this is considered the most crucial period to make the device serve you well. Now, follow me to know what you should do.
- Use a cloth with some vinegar to scrub the machine’s interior for vanishing the foul aroma.
- Scrub all inside surfaces of the ice machine until you get thoroughly clear walls without white build-ups.
Step 6: Tidy Up The Condenser And Filter
By keeping the condenser and filter clean, you can help your handy ice-making machine run more efficiently. It would help if you cleaned them once every six months. Go through the following steps to make them hygienic.
- Check for dust between fins, and clean it with an unused brush.
- Clean the condenser without any dirt traces.
- Use a little bit of mild soap and water to clean the filter.
Step 7: Exterior Sanitation
Sanitizing the portable ice maker exterior doesn’t matter to you; trust me!
- What you need to make the exterior of the ice-making machine is rubbing it with soft clothes with a diluted solution.
- Handle the brush to get rid of hard stains on the body and stands.
- Use towels to prevent water splashing.
Step 8: Attach Removed Components And Set Up The Machine Again
After finishing the interior and exterior cleaning, it’s time for you to ensure that your cleaning works or not.
- Fit removed parts in the correct positions.
- Restore power.
- Enable automatic ice making. Set your machine automatically making ice cubes after the sanitizing cycle is complete. It will take at least 20 minutes.
- After cleaning, you need to focus on the freeze and harvest cycle time to know whether your ice maker is experiencing problems.
- Discard the first batch of ices made during trials.
Dos And Don’ts When Cleaning A Portable Ice Maker
Besides essential things you need to do for making a portable ice maker clean, there are some dos and don’ts you must notice during the washing process.
Dos:
- Use correct cleaning equipment as some manufacturers consult you to use typical solutions for their machines for better performance.
- Use protective equipment handling cleaner or sanitizer solutions for safety.
- Check water quality to change if necessary.
- Check manual instructions to know more about your ice maker.
Check this video to know some steps to clean your portable ice maker.
Don’ts:
- Don’t forget to unplug the machine before cleaning.
- Don’t consume detergent for odors to clean inside parts of the ice maker because the scent can impact ice taste.
- Don’t use harsh chemicals (bleach) as they can fade the color of your machine.
- Don’t utilize an extremely hard or dirty cloth to rub the machine; you can damage the machine surface with a hard material.
- Don’t rinse your machine exterior like removal components.
- Don’t use the batches of ice during cleaning and sanitizing time.
- Don’t store your ice maker in wet status as it can cause mold to grow quickly.
Let Take A Look At Tips To Limit The Cleaning Frequency
If you want to reduce the cleaning frequency of your portable ice maker, keep reading to find out.
Check Water Sources
Draw your attention to the water supply. I mean, you need to use the pure and clear water sources as an input water supply to limit cleaning. The cleaner the water, the later you clean.
You can use large bottled water as a safe source or tap water after being filtered.
Opt The Suitable Cleaning Solutions
Soapy suds are suitable to clean your other kitchen appliances, not for ice makers, because if they are not wiped out totally, they will cause unsafe and cloudy ice cubes.
FAQs
Keep reading these frequently asked questions will benefit your cleaning process. Let’s see!
Expectation Vs. Reality
I have recommended you eight essential periods to make your portable ice maker clean and mention what you cannot do during the clean process.
However, for each of the brands, the manufacturers will make their products different from others’. Thus it would be better if you combine my above guidelines and the manual instruction.
Besides, cleaning the machine isn’t the most decisive factor for your ice machine working status. Therefore, if your ice machine doesn’t work better after being sanitized, contact the sellers within warranty time or repair the service.
If you think the post is useful, spread it out with your relatives. In case you have any fascinating or terrible experiences in cleaning portable ice makers, please share them in the comment below.
References
1. Action Appliance Repair | Appliance Repair Manchester. 2021. How to Make Your Ice Maker Work Faster | Action Appliance Repair.
2. En.wikipedia.org. 2021. Bleach – Wikipedia.
3. Healthline. 2021. What You Should Know About Cleaning with Vinegar.
4. Manitowoc Ice Machine Parts – Ice Maker Parts Shop. 2021. How To Clean An Ice Machine Air Condenser.
5. Newair. 2021. Dirty Ice Makers Will Get You Sick.
