Easy Ice Program FAQs to Answer All Your Questions

Q. Won’t I spend less money over time if I buy an ice machine vs. renting one?

It depends. When comparing buying vs. renting commercial ice equipment, you’ll have to consider:

• How much does a new ice machine cost to purchase?
• If you buy it with a loan, how much interest will you pay?
• What is the average cost of professional ice machine maintenance in your area?
• What is the average cost of commercial ice machine repairs in your area?
• If you buy your ice machine, will you have professional maintenance performed on it twice a year at minimum? Or will you neglect to do that?
• How much will you spend on backup ice during the life of the machine?
• How much time will you and your staff spend dealing with ice machine management and responding to ice machine breakdowns?
• What are the tax benefits of an ice machine purchase vs. monthly ice machine rental payments?
• What is the average lifespan of a commercial ice machine, and based on that, how often will you have to replace yours if you purchase it?

While it is possible that an Easy Ice subscription might cost you more than purchasing an ice machine within a certain period of time, it’s more likely that our subscription will save you both time and money.

Renting from us means:

• Keeping more working capital in your pocket day-to-day
• Writing off your ice machine expenses on your taxes every year
• Never paying for ice machine repairs or backup ice out-of-pocket
• Never paying out-of-pocket for the manufacturer-recommended biannual maintenance on your ice machine
• Significantly lower ice machine replacement costs (full purchase price vs. a small installation fee)
• Zero interest on your ice machine payments
• No time wasted on scheduling and tracking ice machine maintenance
• No time spent finding a reliable ice machine service provider in your area

Q. Why should I rent from Easy Ice instead of my local or regional ice machine rental company?  

Easy Ice is the only national provider of commercial ice machine subscriptions. This gives us some unique advantages over local and regional companies, such as:

• More equipment options (brands, ice types, production capacities)
• Better equipment availability, even with supply chain delays
• Customer service 7 days a week
• Relationships with major foodservice equipment dealers around the country
• Standardized maintenance and repair procedures across locations

In other words, when you rent your ice equipment from Easy Ice, you’ll get the ice you want and the service you need when you need it. No compromises.

Q. What if I want my ice machine cleaned more than twice a year? 

No problem! Our subscription covers 2 preventive maintenance visits a year at no extra cost. We’re happy to provide additional PM appointments for a competitive fee. For some businesses, we strongly recommend extra cleanings due to environmental factors that twice-a-year cleanings can’t combat.

Ask an Easy Ice team member how much additional maintenance costs in your area.

Q. Do you have combination ice and water dispensers?  

Yes! Call us for more information on brands, ice types, and daily production capacity on our ice and water dispenser models.

Q. Is an ice bin included in the subscription or is it an add-on? 

Bins are always included in our subscription by default. If you own an ice bin that meets our standards and matches with the ice machine we’re providing you, we’ll adjust your monthly subscription rate to reflect the lack of an Easy Ice bin.

Q. How long are subscription contracts?  

Most of our customers have 1-year contracts. Specialty ice machine models typically require 3-year contracts. We’re willing to negotiate special contract terms on a case-by-case basis.

Q. Can I get a specific brand of ice machine with an Easy Ice subscription? 

We carry a wide variety of the most popular and trusted commercial ice machine brands, including Hoshizaki, Manitowoc, and Scotsman. We encourage our customers to focus more on cube type, production capacity, and condenser-style than which brand of ice equipment they end up with. Every brand we offer is a good one. We prioritize supplying you with the ice equipment you need as soon as possible, and in today’s market, wanting a specific brand can sometimes mean waiting longer than you want for your ice machine installation.

*Please note: we only offer Kold-Draft and Ice-o-Matic machines in the New York City and Los Angeles metro areas.   

Q. What ice types do you offer? 

We’re glad you asked! We proudly carry most ice types available on the market, including specialty ice, to accommodate the wide range of our customers’ needs and preferences.

Standard cubes: Hoshizaki’s square ice, Manitowoc’s regular cube, Hoshizaki's crescent cube, Manitowoc’s dice and half dice cubes 

Standard soft ice: Hoshizaki’s cubelet ice, Hoshizaki’s flake ice, Manitowoc’s flake ice, Scotsman’s nugget ice, Icetro’s nugget ice

Specialty ice: Hoshizaki’s sphere cube, Hoshizaki’s extra-large square cube, Kold-Draft’s square cube, Ice-o-Matic’s pearl ice.

Q. If my machine breaks down and I need backup ice, what do I do?

As soon as your ice machine stops working properly, call us! Our service delivery team will help you troubleshoot the issue over the phone, and if the machine needs repairing due to mechanical failure, we’ll open a work order and schedule an appointment. While you’re waiting for your appointment date, your backup ice is on us! If we can deliver ice to you ourselves, we will. If we can’t, we’ll reimburse you for the ice you buy.

We will only reimburse you for backup ice purchased after your work order was submitted and approved. You have 45 days from the date of your work order submission to send us your receipts for the ice. Once processed, we’ll apply a credit per the terms of your contract on your next subscription bill. Please call your Easy Ice representative for additional information.

Q. What if my ice machine breaks on a holiday or weekend? 

Not to worry! The Easy Ice customer service line is open 7 days a week, and our technicians work on weekends and holidays. We know how important ice is to your business, so we strive to address ice machine breakdowns as quickly as possible.

Q. Can I get some kind of reward if I refer another business to Easy Ice?  

Yes! Our customer referral program gives you a 1-month credit toward your subscription for every successful referral you make to us. There’s no limit to how many you can submit!

Visit our Customer Referral page for more information.

Q. Can I have my local ice machine service company continue to do the maintenance and repairs on my ice machine?  

If you do business in one of our branch locations, our in-house technicians will take over the care of your ice machine once your subscription begins. We take pride in the level of training we give our technicians and the efficacy of our ice machine maintenance procedure. We assure you that your ice equipment will be in the best hands with an Easy Ice technician.

If you do business outside of our branch locations, it’s possible your preferred local service company is one we partner with to provide ice machine maintenance and repairs. Call us to find out.