In industrial ice production, direct‑cooling block ice machines often encounter quality issues such as uneven ice thickness, hollow cores, cloudiness, and cracks. These defects prevent the ice from meeting the high‑end requirements of cold‑chain preservation, chemical cooling, and food processing, leading to material waste and production delays. In most cases, these problems are not caused by equipment failure, but rather by improper adjustment of water quality, temperature, and operating parameters, and can be effectively improved with targeted corrective actions.The first factor is substandard feed water quality. If untreated ordinary water is used, containing sediment, minerals, impurities, and air bubbles, these contaminants become trapped inside the ice during freezing, resulting in cloudy, opaque ice. Accumulated bubbles create hollow, loose structures that reduce ice density and durability. The second factor is imbalance in equipment temperature and refrigerant supply parameters. Uneven temperature distribution across the evaporator plate is a core issue. Unstable refrigerant flow and abnormal solenoid valve operation cause significant temperature variations across different zones of the evaporator plate, leading to excessively fast freezing in some areas and slow freezing in others, ultimately producing ice with large thickness variations. Meanwhile, excessive ambient temperature fluctuations and high workshop humidity cause rapid frost formation on the ice surface and localized uneven heating, resulting in cracking and surface flaking after freezing. Additionally, improper ice‑making cycle settings—too short a cycle leaves the ice inadequately frozen and loose, while too long a cycle results in overly thick ice with cracked edges, compromising overall quality.

To ensure long‑term stable operation, extend equipment service life, and maintain ice quality for brine‑type block ice machines, standardized daily maintenance is essential. This machine type relies on a brine circulation system, with core maintenance focused on four key areas: the brine system, refrigeration unit, ice moulds, and water circuit cleaning. Proper maintenance effectively reduces equipment failure rates, stabilizes ice production efficiency, minimizes energy loss, and prevents component damage and production decline caused by prolonged operation under suboptimal conditions. Daily maintenance is divided into three dimensions: routine inspections, regular cleaning, and periodic overhauls.

Both brine‑type and direct‑cooling block ice machines are industrial large‑block ice production equipment, producing ice of similar appearance. However, they differ fundamentally in ice‑making principle, equipment structure, ice quality, energy consumption, and maintenance approach, and are suited to distinctly different production scenarios. Users should select the appropriate model based on their ice quality requirements. The most critical difference lies in the heat exchange method: brine‑type block ice machines use indirect heat exchange, with the brine tank serving as the heat transfer medium. The refrigerant cools the brine, which then freezes the water inside the ice moulds. Direct‑cooling block ice machines use direct evaporative heat exchange, where the refrigerant directly exchanges heat within the evaporator plate, and water freezes upon direct contact with the chilled plate surface.