Well water and ice machine subscriptions… This is one of those “maybe” answers.
Turning the “maybe” to a “yes” depends on what water treatment you have installed – or are planning to install. The real question is: “What is the condition of the water after it leaves the filtration system?” Here’s a quick guide to understand the types of problems well water and water filtration systems cause with ice machines. If we can work with you to solve these, then we’d be delighted to provide you with an Easy Ice ice machine subscription.
Well Water Problem #1: Hardness/Minerality. Well water typically has a very high mineral content – specifically Calcium and Magnesium. Left untreated, the minerals will be deposited on many surfaces in the ice machine as Calcium Carbonate or Magnesium Carbonate, commonly referred to as Scale or Limescale. These deposits significantly degrade the performance of the ice machine and thus require constant and aggressive cleaning with acidic solutions. This is both expensive and damaging to the ice making equipment. For this reason, a treatment system designed to reduce the effect of severely hard water (i.e. greater than 10.6 grains per gallon) will be required.
Well Water Problem #2: Bacteria. Some well water supplies have bacterial contamination, which can result in slime/mold buildup on ice machine surfaces. Similar to the hardness problem, this bacteria buildup degrades the performance of the ice maker. However, it also presents a health hazard requiring a water treatment system.
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Well Water Problem #3: Particulate Density. Many well water supplies have high suspended solid, or particulate counts. While this is the easiest technical problem to solve, practically-speaking it may require fairly large sediment filtration cartridges or very frequent cartridge changes or flushing. This problem is usually addressed as part of a larger treatment system designed to resolve multiple issues.
Well Water Solution AND Problem #4: Over-treatment of well water. One approach to well water treatment is to use a commercial Reverse Osmosis filter. This is a often a good solution for solving many of the above-mentioned problems. There are some complications in dealing with heavy iron content and other matters, but usually RO systems can be tuned to solve these issues. The biggest concern with RO systems is that they are often tuned to remove nearly 100% of the minerals from the water. This results in the ph level of the water dropping to very low levels. At very low ph levels, water begins to leach minerals from the ice machine itself, essentially eating away at the copper tubing, etc. inside the ice machine. In these situations, re-mineralizing the water is an important step in the water treatment process.
While dealing with well water systems can be rather daunting, the good news is that we do have customers that are on well water systems and they are happy with their Easy Ice ice machine subscription. The key is for you to work with a knowledgeable water filtration professional and we’d be pleased to work right along side you to ensure the system meets your ice machine needs as well.