McDonald's Ice Cream Machines

[Jdeere562]

Or local machine seems to be always "out of order"
Is it true that the employee's are not allowed to clean the machine? Only company techs?

I have no dog in this fight, we have two better local choices. One even makes their own flavors and it is scooped out of the freezer.

Just curious about your areas. I hear people complain when they can't get ice cream here. And yes, I know McDonald's is not REAL ice cream.

 

[MrHorspwer]

This episode of Planet Money answers lots of questions about McD's ice cream machine and why they're always broken

 

[ctechbob]

Yeah, there's tons of behind the scenes reasons why they are always broken, and I believe there are still lawsuits ongoing about it as well.

McDonald's ice cream machine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Nick1994]

They're difficult and time consuming to clean, so when it's late is usually when they're down.

You can tell ahead of time by going here: https://mcbroken.com/ it mocks up a fake order digitally to see if it'll accept, telling you if the machines are up,or down

 

[bullwinkle]

I hope I’m not revealing too much info-but most of their issues are caused by improper cleaning of the machine (which is supposed to be done by the employees) which MAY be a sign that the rest of the restaurant isn’t properly maintained nor cleaned either. I may have 27+ years of inside information on this subject…

 

[SevenBizzos]

Because of the boiling and cooling cycles, these machines are not available all day.

 

[bullwinkle]

This episode of Planet Money answers lots of questions about McD's ice cream machine and why they're always broken

There’s a lot of inaccurate info here-Carpigiani is building lots of shake machines for McDonalld’s.

Because of the boiling and cooling cycles, these machines are not available all day.

Called a heat cycle, it’s supposed to only occur at night. Repasteurizes the mix, so that the unit doesn’t have to be cleaned as often, 14 or 28 days, depending on location, programming, and age of the unit.

 

[CDX825]

I have several customers with non Taylor ice cream machines and they are way more reliable.

 

[tbm5690]

I buy ice cream at places where arms are the only thing that need to be functional to give me the product

 

[Hall]

I hope I’m not revealing too much info

I thought the machines were self-tracking and after "x" number of dispenses (???) it requires cleaning, so this can happen at 1:30pm or 11:18pm and no one can override it. It stops and has to be cleaned (which takes quite a while vs 15-30 minutes). Until the cleaning cycle finishes, the machine can't be operated.

 

[JHZR2]

Yeah, there's tons of behind the scenes reasons why they are always broken, and I believe there are still lawsuits ongoing about it as well.

McDonald's ice cream machine - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

That was actually an interesting read.

I have enjoyed the mcd caramel sundae in the past. It was cheap, tasted good, and had peanuts. Now that they stopped including peanuts I haven’t ordered one since.

 

[ctechbob]

That was actually an interesting read.

I have enjoyed the mcd caramel sundae in the past. It was cheap, tasted good, and had peanuts. Now that they stopped including peanuts I haven’t ordered one since.

There's a few articles on wired.com about the whole thing as well.

It certainly smacks of anti-competitive practices on Taylors part. Obscuring trouble codes and being completely anti right-to-repair, doesn't sit well with me. And then trying to squash the inventors that came up with the monitoring system and then releasing their own...

Even if they didn't use the competitors' technology to make their 'upgrade' it is still dirty pool.

 

[Owen Lucas]

Good news: looks like there could be an exception made for the DMCA protection that Taylor enjoys to prevent other companies from fixing their machines.

If the US govt has to be involved in fixing an ice cream machine then you know the company made a huge mistake.

Taylor authorized techs charge $325 per 15 minutes of service work btw.

US government agencies demand fixable ice cream machines

McFlurries are a notable part of petition for commercial and industrial repairs.

arstechnica.com

 

[nickaluch]

I'm a Carval ice cream guy or Mr Softee ice cream truck in the summer. My wife likes Ralph's Italian ices I don't mind because they have a ice cream machine there

 

[dumkid]

My friend worked at McDonald's. He said the machines are hard to clean so nobody does the work. There's one Mcd on happy valley Pkwy that has working ice cream machines and pretty much everywhere else they're broken.