Ice cream maker machine / soft ice cream machine/ hard ice cream machine / frozen yogurt machine currently is easy to be found in the market, with various types and capacity and equipped with a number of different features.
Soft ice cream machines / hard ice cream machine/gelato/ frozen yogurt machine can be easily acquired and operate, and make it possible for ice cream businesses or families to easily make ice cream / hard ice cream / frozen yogurt with lots of flavors. There are many types of machines for different types of products, with prices ranging from 17 million IDR to 50 million IDR.
Understanding the characteristic or technical specification of a soft ice cream machine / hard ice cream machine / frozen yogurt machine, along with all its features is important for the consumer to determine the right machine for their business. Because the machine can be chosen based on the purpose and capabilities of each ice cream business on a medium scale.
First, ice cream businesses need to choose and consider the options of ice cream / soft ice cream / hard ice cream / frozen yogurt machines offered by manufacturer or distributor of each machine, which made in model with minimal capacity, capabilities, and features or model made with bigger capacity and capabilities and additional supportive features for easier operational access for the user.
Then, consider the amount of target in the market or people to be served by the machine and the amount of ice cream that need to be made, also the amount of time spent on making process, from preparing the raw ingredients of soft ice cream / hard ice cream / frozen yogurt until it becomes the final product. These considerations will affect your financial efficiency to pick machine in a price range that suits your needs and capabilities.
Nowadays, there is a lot of model of soft ice cream machine in the market, but the most buyer does not understand well enough what type of machine they needed. Most of the time they bought before first understanding the machine and found out later that the machine is not suited or compatible with business they intend to do. And unfortunately after buying the machine, and if there any problem similar to this, the salesperson will not help.
Because of that, there are many things to be considered before purchasing a froyo or ice cream machine to avoid buying a machine that is not compatible. The most important thing to consider when purchasing a machine is after-sales issues regarding its spare parts availability and service/repair; to avoid the machine to be rendered useless because the manufacturer or distributor does not provide service/repair or prices of spare parts are simply not affordable.
Main components of Ice Cream Machine / soft ice cream machine / frozen yogurt ice cream :
Compressor
The compressor is part of a refrigeration system used to regulate/create a compression system to the freon, to cause cooling/freezing to the ice cream dough. The cooling room/tool is also an evaporator in the form of a cylinder (barrel) where the inside part contains a shaft screw that functions to stir the dough during the freezing process. This makes the dough to be frozen evenly by forming soft ice grains.
The compressor is also one of the main components that really affect the final product of the ice cream, from the quality of the freezing and quantity of ice cream produced. the bigger the quantity of product produced, means the bigger the compressor is installed on the ice cream machine or frozen yogurt machine, and so does its power consumption.
In conclusion, the quality of the ice cream machine or soft ice cream machine can be determined based on the quality of the compressor. Compressor with better quality results in better performance of ice cream machine or soft ice cream machine. For compressors manufactured in Europe (in German, Italy, France) and Japan is relatively more expensive because its quality has been tested and has a longer service life.
Cup / Drum
Cup/drum is a container for soft ice cream machine, located at the top of the soft ice cream machine and in its underside there is a hole to drain the dough to the cooling room.
Condensor
From compressor, a gas refrigerant with high pressure and temperature is transferred to the condenser which functions to transform the refrigerant into a liquid. In a small refrigerant system, the most commonly used condenser is the one equipped with a fan, that uses airflow as a media for the condensation process. If the condensation process does not work perfectly, it could cause the refrigerant to not produced and work properly in the next processes.
Expansion valve
This valve is another main component in the refrigeration system in an ice cream machine that functions to change refrigerant’s pressure that is going to be used in the evaporation process. The expansion valve has a vital role. This is due to the bad expansion process of the refrigerant caused by a blockage or bad quality of the expansion valve that could cause the evaporation process in the cooling room/barrel not done perfectly.
This imperfection will affect the dough temperature to be below the desired temperature. And worse, this could cause the final product to not reach the desired freezing point, the ice cream will not be properly frozen and will easily melt.
Cylinder (cooling room/barrel)
Cylinder, which comes in tube shapes often referred to as cylinder tube, based on a traditional process which coated in a jacket system that contains liquid with characteristics similar to frozen salt and ice which froze by refrigeration system through the evaporation process.
The purpose of this evaporation is to transfer cold temperature to the cylinder room. The cylinder room contains ice cream dough that has been stirred by a shaft screw which rotated by a motor. The motor rotates at constant rotation and makes the freezing process, on the ice cream dough, to be done evenly and forms ice grains in the ice cream machine/soft ice cream machine.
Valve
The valve which often referred to as tap in soft ice cream machine/frozen yogurt machine which functions to open and drain the ice cream produced by the machine. The valve comes in two types: an electric system and a mechanical system.
For the mechanical system, in soft ice cream machine comes in a form of foot valve which driven (handled) by using foot, by stepping on the handle in the lower part, similar to a gas system used in a car. The hand valve in the soft ice cream machine is driven by hand or by placing the cup to be positioned under the valve or tap.
As for the electric system in soft ice cream machine, usually uses sensor system or limit switch and often referred to as full automatic system, where we can simply place a cup/glass and sensor will work and open the valve which operated by electric coil and makes the soft ice cream machine seem to not have any weaknesses.
Based on the valve used on the ice cream machine/ soft ice cream machine / frozen yogurt machine, in the market, the most common is using a mechanical system both with a foot valve system or hand valve.
But in some cases, for preventing the reduced quality of the ice cream, and ice cream machine with the electric system is equipped with a number of additions, as explained in other additional features.
What to consider before choosing the ice cream machine:
- Freezing Method – Is it using a compressor, cup, or another freezing method?
- Ice cream machine capacity – How much ice cream products can be made with the machine?
- Kompresor Mesin es cream – What is the brand of the compressor used by the machine? The brand of the compressor can determine its service life. A compressor with a well-known brand is more expensive but has a longer service life.
- Size and weight of ice cream machine – Is the size, dimension, and weight of the machine suit your outlet/shop/counter?
- Speed of ice cream machine – How fast the machine can produce soft ice cream / hard ice cream / frozen yogurt?
- Electric or power (Watt) – How big is the machine’s power consumption? And how big the power capacity provided at your outlet/shop/counter? Keep in mind, for power option in Indonesia (PLN) choose 50 Hz, this could cause machine with power 60 Hz can easily break.
Other Additional Features in soft ice cream machine/ice cream machine
Additional features in ice cream machines can be adjusted to suits you need, to make it easier and more effective when operating the machine. This can be an additional variable to determine the total price of an ice cream machine that you desire, such as:
- Precooling System Function of the dough on soft ice cream machine; precooling the dough before producing the ice cream, can maintain the ice cream dough to be freshly frozen in a storage tank, and can even freshly be frozen until the next day.
- Air Pump on soft ice cream machine functions accelerates the draining of ice cream dough to the valve. For better applications, the pump used in the frozen yogurt machine is a diaphragm pump type. But many other types of pumps are also used, similar to the aquarium, issues caused can complicate its user because the pump can cause issues like stirring ingredient inside the tank and caused the ingredient to be foamy and overflowing.
- Low Mix Alarm System in soft ice cream machine functions to notify the users when the machine has a low amount of ingredient in the storage tank. This feature facilitates us for easier control of when to refilling dough ingredients into the machine’s tank when processing ice cream, so the production can be performed continuously.
- Counting Function; this feature functions to count how many cones of soft ice cream or how many glasses of frozen yogurt produced, and it is very effective to control the number of sales done by the user.
- An electrical valve that automatically drains the ice cream to fill the glass/cup when placed under the valve/tap on the ice cream machine.
- Cones Dispenser, Canopy, etc., are additionals accessories for frozen yogurt machine or ice cream machine.
Thus, this writing is presented to give you basic references and pointers in determining/deciding/choosing types and specifications of the ice cream machine, to help you get the machine that suits your needs and desires.