Water and electricity consumption in ice production

Actually, we are a little surprised: When buying a car , the question of how many litres of petrol/diesel (or, in the case of kWh) the car consumes per 100 km is one of the first and most important pieces of information that buyers are interested in - after all, they want to know the operating costs of their future vehicle.

Strange, then, that hardly anyone (yet) asks themselves - and us - this question when buying a new ice cream machine. Yet it is enormously important and will become even more important in the coming years as water and electricity prices continue to rise.

Today we explain how and why you can save a lot of water and electricity (and time, more on that below) in the long run with the right ice cream maker. And in the last paragraph we tell you how you can ensure that your ice cream maker uses as little energy as possible in the long term - so if you are only interested in this part, feel free to jump straight to the paragraph "The mixer blades - replace them in time and save money".

Why do ice machines consume water and electricity in the first place?

In order to produce a beautiful frozen ice cream from liquid ice cream mix, energy (=heat) must be extracted from the ice cream mix by means of an electricity-driven refrigeration system. The excess heat must in turn be released .

In small refrigeration systems, the heat is often dissipated directly into the room air via air cooling . With the enormous refrigerating capacity of professional ice machines, this is not energetically sensible, which is why water cooling is used: cold water is supplied, which exits as warm water and thus dissipates the heat.

For this reason, an ice cream machine consumes electricity and water in the production of ice cream - how much depends on several parameters.

On the one hand, from the temperature of the cooling water: water at 4° C can absorb significantly more energy than water at 18° C, and "cold water" is not equally cold from every output. So this point depends on the location .

The ice cream mix used also has a significant influence - the more energy-rich the mix, the more energy has to be extracted to make it into ice cream - and the higher the electricity/water consumption. So this depends on your personal ice cream recipe.

Otherwise, however, the energy and water consumption depends largely on the ice machine: on the basic design of the ice machine, the energy efficiency and size of the ice machine, and the condition of the agitator blades or scrapers.

The quality of the ice cream machine - or more precisely: the installed components

Not all 150hp station wagons consume the same amount of petrol - and the 1990 model needs significantly more fuel than the new 2022 model. What applies to the car also applies to the ice machines.

New, modern ice machines generally consume significantly less electricity and water than older models because, as with cars, energy and water consumption was frankly of little real interest to anyone 20 years ago. Sure, water and electricity were much cheaper back then.

Today, new, high-quality machines are optimised in terms of energy consumption - so the "HE" of the new HE series from Carpigiani does not stand for "High Efficiency", because the machines consume around 30% less electricity and water than the predecessor models.

This is achieved by new, more efficient cooling components (e.g. heat exchangers), better insulation and more intelligent freezing programmes.

The right cylinder size for your needs

Furthermore, choosing the right ice cream machine or cylinder size is extremely important - it should neither be too small nor too big for you, because both cost your money.

If, for example, you buy an ice cream machine that is too small and only produces 8 kg of ice cream per cycle, but you need 16 kg of each type (because, for example, you supply several ice cream parlours or shops or only produce once a week for stock), then you have to run the small machine twice as often and for twice as long as a large machine that suits you. This not only costs much more water and electricity, but also twice as much time - which is even more expensive.

The other way round: You buy an ice cream maker that is too big, but only fill it with half the possible quantity. This also consumes much more electricity and water than necessary, because you are constantly cooling a huge cylinder that you are not using at all - and you have also spent more money on the larger ice cream maker. This makes about as much sense as constantly driving to the shops in a 7.5 tonne lorry .

That is why honest, competent advice is so important when choosing the right machine for your personal needs.

The agitator blades: Replace in good time and save money

The last point applies to all ice cream machines, old and new. So even if you own an ice cream maker and don't plan to replace it, this is how to keep the energy consumption of your machine as low as possible.

Every ice cream machine uses some kind of "scraper", "scraperblade" or "agitator blade" (everyone calls them something different) toscrape the frozen ice cream mix off the cylinder wall (hence the name). The better the cylinder is scraped, the faster the ice machine works , because if the scrapers are worn, a thin layer of ice remains on the cylinder, which insulates it wonderfully - the machine pumps cold into the cylinder, but it gets "stuck" in the ice layer and does not get into the ice mix.

And again, what we want to prevent at all costs happens: The freezing cycle takes longer, you lose time, the machineconsumes more electricity and cooling water. And besides, the ice cream has less volume (air impact) and is no longer as nice and "dry" as with fresh blades.

And the difference is enormous: a machine with worn-out blades consumes up to 50 % more time, electricity and water than with new, fresh blades. The air impact also decreases, the ice loses volume, and thus the material costs increase.

So if you think "I'd rather save the money for new knives": Please, think again - and then rather buy new scrapers, that will save you a lot of time and energy.

By the way, we strongly recommend that you only use the (more expensive) original scraper blades from the manufacturer: Only these are optimally matched to the machine and get the most out of your machine - while cheap imitation blades often have an unsuitable material mix and damage your freezer cylinder in the long run.

Conclusion

Energy - electricity and water - is becoming more and more expensive. So it's high time to consider this factor too when buying a new ice cream maker.

And do yourself a favour, heed our tip and treat yourself and your machine to new, original wipers on a regular basis - it's worth it!