Eliminate The Dangers Of Restaurant Ice

Go into any restaurant, grocery store, or convenience store in the United States to get a drink and it will be served with ice. Americans love their ice and it’s a large part of the culture. What many don’t know though is that commercial ice machines that aren’t cleaned well can spread bacteria and viruses such as norovirus and E.coli, causing customers to become very sick. The RIDE® remote ice delivery equipment from Follett eliminates the risk of ice contamination and provides a better customer experience.

Take Your Ice for a RIDE with Follett

Follett’s remote ice delivery solution, RIDE, is one of a kind in the foodservice industry, providing customers with cleaner dispensers, a better customer experience, and customer-preferred Chewblet® ice.

As part of the Follett Horizon Elite series, RIDE automatically delivers clean ice to drink stations, storage bins, and jockey boxes through a transport tube.

The Benefits of Remote Delivery of Ice

1. Cleaner Dispensers

Sanitary ice is more important now than ever before. Relocating the ice machine away from a dispenser gives full access to the ice storage area. This eliminates the expense of removing heavy ice machines when the dispenser needs cleaning and allows for more thorough sanitizing of the ice storage area. A sealed evaporator prevents the growth of biofilm and other microbials.

2. Better Customer Experience

Having clean dispensers isn’t the only customer service benefit. Automatically filling the dispenser eliminates manual filling and the interruptions it causes customers. It also removes heat and noise from the fountain area. Scheduled maintenance can be performed out of the way, allowing the dispenser to be used without disruption. With the Follett Touchless SensorSAFE™ dispenser, all touchpoints are eliminated, making ice dispensing even more sanitary and safe.

3. Improved Aesthetics

Less equipment is in view when using RIDE ice machines since the ice machine can be located under a counter or in a backroom, up to 75 feet away from a dispenser. The additional space can be used to reduce clutter and open up more space for merchandising. The end result creates an upscale look with an ice machine out of view.

Experience Chewblet Ice

70% of customers prefer Chewblet ice and 30% will buy more fountain drinks when Chewblet ice is an option, driving an increase in sales of high margin beverages. Customers even admit that they would drive out of their way to get some!

Chewblet ice matches the performance of cubes, melts at a similar rate, and performs the same on a cold plate, while also lowering drink costs with superior drink displacement.

How to Take Your Ice Production Even Further

RIDE has another capability as well. With an Ice Manager™ diverter valve, a single Horizon Elite ice machine can send ice to two dispense points. Delivery of ice is based on the demand of each location and Ice Manager delivers ice where you want it, when you want it.

Since typical ice machines only run 50% of the time, Ice Manager promotes more efficient use of your ice machine production capacity, all while leaving operators with fewer ice machines to purchase and maintain.

With labor costs and inflation on the rise, now is the time to control operating costs. We’ve compiled some ways to do it that you probably haven’t thought of.