Alright, so my restaurant's ice machine was lookin' straight up nasty. Green gunk in the corners, cloudy cubes, smelled kinda like wet dog. Got a health inspection notice too – no good. Had one week to fix it before they came back. Decided to test five cleaning methods everybody swears by.

Day 1: Vinegar Disaster

Heard vinegar cleans everything, right? Dumped three bottles into the machine, ran it through like the manual says. Smelled like a pickle factory exploded. Left it soaking overnight. Next morning? Big mistake. Green scum turned chalky white, but still stuck like concrete. Spent two hours scrubbing with toothbrushes – barely made a dent. Plus all my ice tasted like salad dressing afterward. Couldn’t serve that to customers.

Day 2-3: The "Miracle" Cleaner Mess

Bought this blue liquid cleaner from the supply store. Guy promised it’d eat through anything. Mixed it super strong cause I was mad about yesterday. Poured it in, turned the machine on… instant regret. Whole kitchen started smelling like chlorine bombs. When I opened the drain? Brown sludge waterfall all over the floor. Nearly slipped in it! Took me three mop buckets and two damn days just to rinse it clean enough to not kill people.

Day 4: Lemon Juice Last Resort

At this point I’m desperate. Squeezed two bags of lemons into the water line, added baking soda. Ran cycles like crazy. Actually kinda worked on surface slime! But then…

• Citrus bits clogged the filter
• Control panel started blinking errors
• Ice came out smelling like lemon Pledge

Had to shut it down and call repair guy who charged me $200 just to reset the dang thing.

Day 5: Pressure Washer Chaos

Was gonna use proper commercial descaler but UPS delayed it. Saw my pressure washer in the storage room and thought “why not?” Tore the machine apart, hosed down every nook. Huge. Mistake. Water blasted into electrical parts, knocked out power to the whole prep station. Drenched my chef’s shoes too. He wasn’t happy. Took four hours just to dry everything with shop vacs and hair dryers.

Day 6-7: Back to Basics

The descaler finally arrived. Followed directions EXACTLY: warm water mix, 20 minute cycles, triple rinsing. Worked like magic! No fumes, no flooding. Finished with this mineral treatment the manual recommended. Made the metal shine like new. Finally passed inspection today.

Lesson? Shortcuts make bigger messes. Vinegar’s for salads, pressure washers for driveways. That “magic” cleaner? Pure evil. Just use the dang chemical made for ice machines.