Replace that open bin ice maker—it’s a health hazard!
Getting an ice maker installed in your workplace is a great opportunity to be environmentally responsible and reduce your carbon footprint. It’s also one of the most overlooked but most important pieces of a your office breakroom supplies.
Why Install an Ice Maker in Your Colorado Springs Breakroom?
1. It’s Convenient
You don’t know what you’re missing out on until you’ve experienced the convenience of a free-standing mobile, countertop, or under-counter model ice machine. They can be placed just about anywhere, and be supplied by a tiny, conventional waterline. No drainage line is necessary since it is equipped with a large drainage tray which automatically signals when it is full. It simply stops dispensing until the tray is emptied meaning no mess, and no overflows.
2. It’s Economical
We offer the Follet Ice & Water machines (including the Symphony line of Ice & Water Dispensers) for a number of reasons, but primarily because they are reliable and inexpensive to operate.
Ice typically comes in three forms: traditional cubes appreciated for their high cooling capacity; flake ice, most often found at buffets, or in the fresh seafood department of your local grocery store; and finally in the nugget form.
Making a cube is very energy intensive; you must remove a fairly large amount of heat from a fairly large volume of water. Then, in order to release the cube, it requires an energy-consuming heating cycle. The payoff is that you get a slower melting product that cools more and dilutes the drink less.
Making flake is fast and efficient, but because of its large surface area compared to its volume it melts quickly and dilutes beverages. It is not very useful for cooling drinks.
Nuggets, on the other hand, give us the best of both worlds. Our machines can rapidly produce flake ice, and then compress many flakes together, squeezing out the excess water (to be recycled and make more ice). This creates the famous, and highly preferred, Chewblet™.
Chewblets have a high cooling capacity like a cube, the energy efficiency of flake, and they offer the most attractive feature of all: they are chewable. People love to chew ice—there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason for it—they simply enjoy it.
3. It’s Healthier
Let’s be honest… Using an open-bin ice machine which is not under your tight control (such as behind a bar or lunch-counter where only trained people have access to it), means it will be subject to contamination.
People are going to cough on it, sneeze near it, and cram their dirty bottles or cans into it in order to chill them. They are not going to use the provided scoop, but rather drag their unwashed hands and filthy containers through the bin spreading their germs everywhere.
Have you ever experienced a business-spanning cold or flu epidemic? Most of us have seen some sort of contagion decimate our office staff or cripple our production staff out on the factory floor, with a large percentage of the staff “off sick”.
Even in our improving economy, it is difficult to convince people to stay home when they are sick. To them, coming in when they’re sick proves what a good employee they are. Making 20 other people sick and hurting the bottom line of the company actually demonstrates that they are a bad employee.
But let’s say, in all innocence, they don’t know that they are a carrier, or about to get sick. This is when you need a proper ice machine that keeps the ice completely isolated and sterile until it is dispensed and utilizes Agion® antimicrobial technology (approved by the EPA, FDA, and NSF) to kill germs on its surface. It helps to protect all your staff from an inadvertent infection.
4. It’s Appreciated
There are few things that are more refreshing than an icy beverage on a hot day. Getting an ice machine is often greeted with great enthusiasm by your staff. People still appreciate it even if they don’t say anything, but if it should ever fail once people have come to rely on it, well, prepare for wailing and gnashing of teeth.
When do ice machines break down? In the time of greatest need, of course! That’s why we only use Follet Ice & Water Machines. Their proven track record shows that they will work fault-free and reliably for years.
5. It Improves Productivity
When people are hot, miserable, or even uncomfortable, they don’t perform as well as they normally do. It’s a simple fact of life: when we are under stress we’re not as efficient as usual.
Providing this cost-effective and inexpensive solution not only relieves stress, but it can actually make your employees happier. And as we all know, a happier employee is a more productive employee.
The Takeaway
Do you want a machine with simple, uncomplicated installation, which uses the least amount of energy, protects your employees’ health, is universally appreciated, and improves productivity? If so, we have exactly the machine you need! Complete your breakroom with this crucial office breakroom machine.
