The photos below are from an ice machine mounted atop a fountain drink dispenser at a very large national chain of gas station/convenience stores in Orlando. It’s funny how the name of the national chain gas station used to describe its hours of operation. After Covid-19 hit, restaurants and bars cut back their maintenance budgets and ice machine cleanings were one of the first to go. The basic theory behind what you are looking at is the following premise…. mold grows in a cold, wet and dark environment. It is essential to keep the plates of the evaporator very clean because this is the surface that produces cubes of ice.

The photo below is where the filtered (supposedly) water cascades over the evapoartor and freezes onto a metal plate that forms the cubes.

Here is a close up shot of the sections that make the cubes.

For comparison, here is an ice machine from a national chain of restaurants and bars. This demonstrates the difference in decision making at a corporate level to end maintenance programs due to finances.