Nugget and flake machines are mechanical in a way cubers are not, and Phoenix water is unusually hard on the moving parts. Local techs service the whole Scotsman range.
Nugget and flake machines make ice by dragging it up a cylinder with an auger, which means that unlike a cuber they have parts genuinely rubbing against each other all day. That matters more in Phoenix than most places. Mineral scale in this water does not just insulate the way it does on a cube plate, it becomes an abrasive between the auger and the cylinder wall, and it wears bearings and gearmotors on a schedule the manufacturer never planned for. A neglected nugget machine here does not slow down gently. It seizes.
The difference between a descale and a gearmotor rebuild on a nugget machine is often a few weeks and one ignored sound. If yours has started groaning at the beginning of a cycle, that is the moment to call. Local techs carry auger and bearing parts for the common Scotsman platforms including Prodigy, so the repair does not become a two-week wait. For a machine that has already stopped, use the after-hours line.
We would not. On an auger machine that noise means metal is loaded in a way it should not be, usually because scale has built between the auger and the cylinder. Run it and the bearing or gearmotor goes, which turns a cleaning into a major repair. Shut it down and call; caught at the noise it is usually recoverable.
Because it has moving parts in the water. A cuber tolerates a degree of scale as lost efficiency; an auger machine turns the same scale into wear. In Phoenix that means a shorter service interval for nugget and flake units than for the cube machine sitting beside them, which surprises most owners. We cover Prodigy and Prodigy Plus along with the older platforms.
We also cover Hoshizaki and Manitowoc, and the main ice machine repair page explains the water problem behind all three.
