Support / FAQs / About techtown

Home Forums Archives I have the Manitowoc QM45

  • I have the Manitowoc QM45

    Posted by guest on December 23, 2015 at 12:00 am

    Is not cycling , it turns on and the water flow and it stays on for a couple of minutes and then it turns off and the it stars again but No Ice.

    I was thing it was the ice Probe that is bad.

     

    Please let me know

     

     

     

    Best Regards Eddie

    ectofix replied 8 years, 3 months ago 1 Member · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • ectofix

    Member
    December 24, 2015 at 6:30 pm

    Eddie,

     

    Your problem is impossible to diagnose with the short description you’ve provided.  It could be the probe, but I’m not there to observe other possible issues in overall machine operation.

     

    My advise to you is to clean the ice machine.  From repeated production cycles over time, the water control and water flow components build up limescale and…to put it mildly – that jiggly stuff we affectionately call SLIME.  Manitowoc recommends disassembly and cleaning at a minimum of six month intervals.  Depending on your water quality or the machine’s environment, you might need to do it more often.  When I say environment, I mean the type of product the kitchen it’s in makes.  For instance, ice machines in a place like a pizza shop may slime up more quickly due to the yeast in the flour.

     

    Most folks don’t clean their machines like they should though.  Subsequently, the most common problem I’ve found when called to service malfunctioning ice machines was that they merely needed a good and proper cleaning.

     

    Consider that the water probe (or in your case, the ice thickness probe) uses a softly applied electrical signal to sense the presence of water.  The natural impurities in water allows this to happen, so those impurities are often capitalized upon by being used to convey the water’s presence through the wonders of electricity.  However, when that probe becomes contaminated or dirty, it can’t perform as designed.  Its electrical signal becomes skewed, so the electronic control board reads a wrong signal.

     

    So for cleaning instructions, here’s a link for the Installation, Operation and Maintenance Manual (owners manual) for your machine.  Go to section 4 and follow the instructions for interior cleaning and sanitizing:

     

    http://download.partstown.com/is-bin/intershop.static/WFS/Reedy-PartsTown-Site/-/en_US/manuals/MAN-QM45_iom.pdf

     

    I’ll give you a quick summary for your understanding.  You will need a bottle of two types of cleaning solutions in order to perform two separate procedures required for properly cleaning an ice machine.  CAUTION – NEVER mix the two solutions together:

     

    The first solution is Manitowoc Ice Machine Cleaner.  That name doesn’t say what it really is and, as such, may imply that it’s the only stuff you’ll need and the machine will be clean – which isn’t the case.  It’s an ACID and is used simply to dissolve scale buildup.  You’ll need to remove parts from inside of the machine and soak them for a spell to let the cleaner eat away at the scale.  After using it, rinse the parts with water.  While it’s apart, I suggest going ahead and sanitizing them before reassembly. The second solution is Manitowoc Sanitizer.  Again, follow the instructions.  DO not rinse the parts. After reassembly, run the machine in a CLEAN cycle with Manitowoc Ice Machine Cleaner cycling through it.  Again, it takes time for the acid to eat away the scale on the cube plate, so let it run its course. Repeat a CLEAN cycle by running Manitowoc Sanitizer through it. Lastly, I recommend running an ice production cycle, capturing that first batch of cubes it harvests and dispose of them.

     

    The machine should ready for use.

     

     

    I hope this solves your problem.  Otherwise, you may need to call a service company.

Log in to reply.