Ice machine for a boba / bubble tea shop

A neighborhood boba or bubble tea shop is cup-fill ice for milk tea, fruit tea, and toppings, plus, sometimes, a blender for slush or blended fruit tea. The ice goes into a sealed cup the guest drinks through a wide straw — often a chewable nugget or cubelet, sometimes a packed half-dice or crescent — not into a Vita-Mix jar as the drink body, not next to a two-group espresso machine as an iced-latte plant, and not onto a fountain well or a 10 lb bag rack. Putting Saturday’s milk-tea count on a 27 lb cubelet leftover, or copying Kitchen Spot’s coffee/smoothie 2.5 lb per person onto every tapioca ticket, is how the line buys bagged ice at 4:15 — or how a 400 lb modular head sits unused behind a 12-seat kiosk.

This is not the smoothie blender page. Kitchen Spot’s 2.5 lb coffee/smoothie row is blender-body ice. It is not the coffee shop espresso-bar page. Atlantic’s café 0.35–0.6 lb iced-beverage row is a cup-fill cousin, but that leftover is a morning iced-latte window next to steam wands. It is not the c-store fountain-and-bagged page and not the restaurant cover-count page. It is not the undercounter cafe shortlist. That page is a current-cabinet pick for a hole and a 115 V circuit after you already have a Saturday number.

This is a planning page from published application factors and current OEM sheets. It is not a dealer quote, not a review score, and not a health-code opinion. Confirm electrical, plumbing, clearance, and sanitation with the people who inspect the building.

Who this is for

• Neighborhood boba / bubble tea shops sizing milk tea, fruit tea, and topping cups from a published ounce-per-cup or lb-per-drink row, then sizing the leftover for the afternoon / evening queue — not a 7:30 espresso line.
• Busier milk-tea queues that stack large-format (20–24 oz) cups, refill-style topping bars, and a second evening peak on top of after-school traffic — production and storage as separate numbers.
• Shops that also blend fruit teas or slushes. Blender dumps stay on the smoothie worksheet. Those are second lines, usually the same chewable ice form if the recipe wants nugget / cubelet in the jar, but a different pound count.

It is not a cafe undercounter product pick. Use that page after this one when you already know the Saturday pounds and need a 15–26″ cabinet. It is not a coffee shop espresso-bar page. A latte glass and a sealed 24 oz milk tea are different fills and different rush hours. It is not a c-store fountain / bagged page. Ounce math overlaps; bags and cold plates stay there. It is not a restaurant cover-count page. Plated water and an iced drink are a different load.

Published boba / bubble tea factors

Foodservice charts we opened do not publish a dedicated “pounds of ice per bubble tea” OEM warranty row. Closest published rows are BubbleTeaology’s 0.75 lb per drink, Naixer’s vendor 0.3–0.5 lb per drink + 20%, Atlantic’s café 0.35–0.6 lb per iced beverage when you have a drink count, Kitchen Spot / GoFoodservice / Memphis ounce-per-cup when you know cup size, Light Soda’s 1–1.5 lb per customer when almost every ticket is iced, and Kitchen Spot’s coffee/smoothie 2.5 lb per person only if the counter is blender-heavy. Those are dealer / supplier / application rules of thumb, not a manufacturer warranty and not a lab measurement. We do not invent a house lb-per-boba in the middle.

Atlantic’s own FAQ on that sizing guide: calculate the number of iced drinks on the busiest day and multiply by the average weight of ice in each drink. “Many cafés will measure roughly 0.35–0.6 lb per iced beverage, but cup size, cube type, and fill policy matter.” The same ounce-to-pound conversion as sibling venue pages: 16 oz = 1 lb. Weigh a fill of each size you actually sell — a 16 oz fruit tea and a 24 oz milk tea with pearls are different rows.

The VenueIce sizing table has no boba row. Closest published rows on that page are the coffee shop Atlantic 0.35–0.6 lb iced-beverage line and the smoothie Kitchen Spot 2.5 lb/person blender line. Use BubbleTeaology 0.75 lb/drink or Kitchen Spot / GoFoodservice 12 oz ice / 24 oz cup when the cup is a large milk tea and you have not weighed it yet. Use Atlantic’s 0.35–0.6 lb (or their weighed 0.45 / 0.55 examples) after a cup test — a light fruit tea can sit on the café band. Use Naixer’s 0.3–0.5 lb + 20% only as that vendor’s worksheet; do not treat it as an OEM factor and do not shop their TH cabinets from this directory. Use Light Soda’s 1–1.5 lb per customer only when almost every ticket is iced and you do not have a drink count — do not add it on top of 0.75 lb/drink. Use Kitchen Spot’s 2.5 lb/person only on the smoothie blender line. Size the leftover for the afternoon / evening window (ice bin sizing). Do not average 0.45 and 2.5 into a house “1.5 lb per boba.” The undercounter cafe shortlist stays the product-pick page.

Separate lines — do not stack the same ticket

Milk tea cups, fruit tea cups, a blender, pearls, and restaurant-style covers are not one stacked factor.

• Count cups when you have POS. Atlantic: where beverage counts exist, a cup-by-cup calculation is more precise than a per-customer estimate. Weigh a fill of each size you actually sell. Convert oz ice × peak cups to pounds as 16 oz = 1 lb.
• A pearl / topping is not ice. BubbleTeaology’s 0.75 lb and Kitchen Spot’s ounce rows are the ice in the cup. Tapioca, jelly, and foam do not get those multipliers.
• A pastry or snack ticket is not a drink. A 200-ticket Saturday that sells 80 milk teas has an ice load of 80 drinks, not 200 × 0.75.
• Light Soda’s 1–1.5 lb/customer is a concept row. Use it when you lack a drink count and the menu is ice-heavy. Do not add 1.25 lb on top of a weighed 0.75 lb fill for the same person.
• Kitchen Spot 2.5 lb/person is blender ice. A blended fruit-tea / slush add-on is the smoothie worksheet. Do not copy 2.5 onto a shaken milk tea.
• Espresso iced drinks are a different leftover. If the same counter also pulls iced lattes in the morning, that window stays on the coffee shop worksheet. Do not move Atlantic’s morning 7:30–10:00 leftover onto a 3–7 p.m. boba queue and call it one rush.
• Fountain / bagged ice is a different building. Kitchen Spot ounce math overlaps the c-store cup table. Bags stay 10 lb × bags on that page. Cold-plate adders apply only if you actually have a cold plate.
• Restaurant covers are plated guests. Atlantic / Kitchen Spot 1.5 lb/guest stays on the restaurant guide. A stool that drinks a milk tea is a cup, not a cover.
• Two ice forms → two systems. Atlantic: flake at a display, cube or nugget in the glass. Kitchen Spot’s “multiple units” paragraph is the same idea. Gourmet / sphere for a tasting menu is a cocktail second cabinet, not this plant.

Cube, half-dice, crescent, nugget, and flake shape math lives on cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake. A Scotsman CU50 gourmet leftover is a cocktail cube, not a milk-tea plant.

Production lb/24 hr is not the leftover

A 24-hour rating is not a bucket. Boba ice is taken in a short window — after-school, then a 3–7 p.m. or evening queue — not as 4 lb every hour for 24 hours.

Atlantic’s sizing guide (Jul 15, 2026) puts it in one sentence: size the machine for a realistic peak day, then size the bin around the largest service period, because lb/24 hr is not the amount of ice the system can hold.

The ice bin sizing page writes Atlantic’s rush formula as: use during the window − theoretical make during the window + opening stock. You can get the same leftover from oz ice per cup × peak cups/hour × hours the leftover must cover. Example: Kitchen Spot 12 oz ice × 40 cups/hour × 4 hours = 1,920 oz ÷ 16 = 120 lb of leftover the bin has to hold (plus whatever the head makes in those four hours). That hourly split (24-hour rating ÷ 24) is arithmetic, not an OEM hourly guarantee. Harvest is cyclic. Hoshizaki’s current KM-161 and C-80 HTML pages do not print a 90/70 production cell, so we do not invent lb/hour of make on those cabinets.

Worked neighborhood shop (cup-fill count)

Same peak-day method as the sizing page: count the load, pick a published factor, add the reserve the source uses. Counter service only — no blender dump, no dining-room covers, no bagged ice.

Peak Saturday 80 drinks (milk tea, fruit tea, staff cups). Weigh the glasses; we did not invent your fill.

• BubbleTeaology 0.75 lb: 80 × 0.75 = 60 lb
• Naixer 0.3 lb: 24 lb; +20% → 29 lb
• Naixer midpoint 0.4 lb: 32 lb; +20% → 38 lb
• Naixer 0.5 lb: 40 lb; +20% → 48 lb
• Atlantic café 0.35 lb: 28 lb
• Atlantic café midpoint 0.5 lb: 40 lb
• Atlantic café 0.6 lb: 48 lb
• Atlantic’s worked café cup-test 0.45 lb: 36 lb
• Atlantic’s 20 oz example 0.55 lb: 44 lb
• Kitchen Spot 8 oz ice / 16 oz drink: 80 × 8 oz = 640 oz ÷ 16 = 40 lb; +20% → 48 lb
• Kitchen Spot 10 oz ice / 20 oz drink: 80 × 10 oz = 800 oz ÷ 16 = 50 lb; +20% → 60 lb
• Kitchen Spot 12 oz ice / 24 oz drink: 80 × 12 oz = 960 oz ÷ 16 = 60 lb; +20% → 72 lb
• GoFoodservice 8 oz / 12–16 oz cup: 40 lb; 12 oz / 16–24 oz: 60 lb
• Atlantic seasonal reserve 15–25% on the 0.5 lb midpoint: 46–50 lb
• Light Soda 1.0 lb/customer if those 80 tickets are all iced and you have no drink-size data: 80 lb
• Light Soda 1.5 lb/customer: 120 lb — high end of their iced-concept row; do not add it on top of 0.75
• Kitchen Spot coffee/smoothie 2.5 lb/person: 80 × 2.5 = 200 lb; +20% → 240 lb — blender worksheet, not this bar

The 36–72 lb Atlantic / ounce / BubbleTeaology band is compact-to-large undercounter territory if the bin covers the afternoon pull. A Hoshizaki KM-81BAK is 98 / 76 lb with a 38 lb bin. A Hoshizaki KM-161BAK is 156 lb on the current product page with a 78 lb bin. A Manitowoc UYF-0140A is 137 / 100 lb with a 90 lb bin. A Hoshizaki C-80BAK is 92 lb “approximately” with a 27 lb bin — chewable cubelet in a 15″ cabinet, and the leftover is the constraint. Hoshizaki’s own copy on the KM-81 page is “small bars, hotel lobbies, and office break rooms.” It can cover this 80-drink Saturday if the leftover is actually full before the queue. A Hoshizaki AM-50BAK (54 lb, 27 lb bin) and a Scotsman CU50 (65 / 49 lb, 26 lb gourmet bin) are the cafe shortlist discards for a busy iced program — office/hotel and cocktail cube, not this line.

The bin, not the “up to 98 lb” headline, is the afternoon constraint. If even two-thirds of that 80-drink Saturday is scooped between 3:00 and 7:00:

• Evening pull: about 53 drinks. On BubbleTeaology 0.75 lb: ~40 lb in 4 hours. On the Kitchen Spot 12 oz / 24 oz line: 53 × 12 oz = 636 oz ÷ 16 = ~40 lb. On the Atlantic 0.5 lb midpoint: ~27 lb
• KM-81BAK stored ice: 38 lb. Make during the window at the sheet’s 76 lb @ 90/70 is 76 ÷ 24 ≈ 3.2 lb/hour × 4 h ≈ 13 lb. On paper: ~51 lb against a 27–40 lb pull if the bin starts full.
• C-80BAK stored ice: 27 lb. The current HTML page does not print a 90/70 production cell, so we do not invent hourly make. On stored ice alone the 27 lb leftover is already at a 27 lb Atlantic-midpoint pull and under the 40 lb BubbleTeaology / 24 oz pull.
• KM-161BAK stored ice: 78 lb. Covers this window on leftover alone if it starts full. 90/70 production is not on that HTML — omitted.

Do not copy Light Soda’s 1.5 lb/customer onto 80 pastry-plus-snack tickets (120 lb) when POS already shows 80 drinks. Do not copy Kitchen Spot’s 2.5 lb smoothie line onto those 80 milk teas (200 lb). That is a different plant.

Worked busier milk-tea queue (peak window)

Same method, larger door. Peak Saturday 300 drinks — milk tea, fruit tea, a few large-format cups. Still no blender dump and no restaurant covers. BubbleTeaology’s own 300-drink example is the 225 lb line below.

• BubbleTeaology 0.75 lb: 300 × 0.75 = 225 lb
• Naixer 0.3 lb: 90 lb; +20% → 108 lb
• Naixer midpoint 0.4 lb: 120 lb; +20% → 144 lb
• Naixer 0.5 lb: 150 lb; +20% → 180 lb
• Atlantic café 0.35 lb: 105 lb
• Atlantic’s worked café cup-test 0.45 lb: 135 lb
• Atlantic midpoint 0.5 lb: 150 lb
• Atlantic’s 20 oz example 0.55 lb: 165 lb
• Atlantic café 0.6 lb: 180 lb
• Kitchen Spot 8 oz ice / 16 oz drink: 300 × 8 oz = 2,400 oz ÷ 16 = 150 lb; +20% → 180 lb
• Kitchen Spot 10 oz ice / 20 oz drink: 300 × 10 oz = 3,000 oz ÷ 16 = 187.5 lb; +20% → 225 lb
• Kitchen Spot 12 oz ice / 24 oz drink: 300 × 12 oz = 3,600 oz ÷ 16 = 225 lb; +20% → 270 lb
• GoFoodservice 8 oz / 12–16 oz: 150 lb; 12 oz / 16–24 oz: 225 lb
• Atlantic seasonal 20% on the 0.45 cup-test 135 lb: 162 lb; on the 0.55 / 165 lb beverage line: 198 lb
• Light Soda 1.0 lb/customer if 300 tickets are all iced: 300 lb
• Light Soda 1.5 lb: 450 lb — blended/iced-heavy end of their café row; do not stack it on 0.75
• Kitchen Spot 2.5 lb/person: 300 × 2.5 = 750 lb — smoothie Saturday, not this bar

The 144–198 lb Naixer / Atlantic cup-test band after reserve still sits on a large undercounter 24-hour column if the leftover covers the evening pull. A Manitowoc UYF-0190A is 193 / 140 lb in a 90 lb cabinet. A Ice-O-Matic ICEU150HA is 185 / 130 lb with a 70 lb bin. BubbleTeaology’s 225 lb 300-drink line, and Kitchen Spot’s 225–270 lb 20–24 oz band after reserve, are past every undercounter 90/70 column in this directory (largest is UYF-0190A at 140 lb). That is the sentence Atlantic already printed for a high-volume café: an undercounter “may work if its storage, ventilation, drain arrangement, and real operating output fit the service pattern.” Compare the 90/70 cell, not the brochure “up to.”

The bin is still the evening constraint. If half of that 300-drink Saturday lands between 3:00 and 7:00:

• Evening pull: 150 drinks. BubbleTeaology 0.75: 112.5 lb in 4 hours. Kitchen Spot 10 oz / 20 oz: 150 × 10 oz = 1,500 oz ÷ 16 = 93.75 lb. Kitchen Spot 12 oz / 24 oz: 112.5 lb. Atlantic 0.45 cup test: 67.5 lb
• KM-161BAK stored ice: 78 lb. The current HTML page does not print a 90/70 production cell, so we do not invent hourly make. On stored ice alone the 78 lb bin covers a 67.5 lb cup-test pull if it starts full, and sits under a 94–113 lb ounce / BubbleTeaology pull.
• UYF-0140A stored ice: 90 lb. Make during the window at the sheet’s 100 lb @ 90/70 is 100 ÷ 24 ≈ 4.2 lb/hour × 4 h ≈ 17 lb. On paper: ~107 lb against a 67.5–113 lb pull — covers the 94 lb 20 oz line if it starts full, under the 113 lb 24 oz / 0.75 line.
• UYF-0190A stored ice: 90 lb. Make at 140 lb @ 90/70 is 140 ÷ 24 ≈ 5.8 lb/hour × 4 h ≈ 23 lb. On paper: ~113 lb — on the 112.5 lb BubbleTeaology / 24 oz pull if the bin starts full, and no second blender.
• ICEU150HA stored ice: 70 lb. Make at 130 lb @ 90/70 is 130 ÷ 24 ≈ 5.4 lb/hour × 4 h ≈ 22 lb. On paper: ~92 lb — covers the 67.5 lb cup-test pull, under the 94–113 lb ounce / 0.75 pull unless the bin starts more than full (it cannot).
• KM-81BAK stored ice: 38 lb. A 67–113 lb evening pull is already past the leftover.
• C-80BAK stored ice: 27 lb. Same problem, chewable ice or not.

BubbleTeaology’s 225 lb 300-drink line, Kitchen Spot’s 225–270 lb 20–24 oz band, and Light Soda’s 300–450 lb per-customer band are modular conversations (or two cabinets). Weigh the cups before you shop the high end of Light Soda’s café range. Do not copy restaurant 1.5 lb/guest onto 300 snack tickets.

If this shop also runs a blender, add the smoothie ounce or 2.5 lb line as its own worksheet — usually the same nugget / cubelet plant, not a fudge on the milk-tea row.

Tea-bar / kiosk heat derate

Manufacturer “up to” numbers are a 70°F air / 50°F water comparison point. The machine that lives next to a tea brewer, a cup sealer, a pearl cooker, two shakers, or an unconditioned storefront window is not in that room.

• Kitchen Spot: if the machine is in a 90° kitchen or bakery with ~70° water, “you can expect less ice production by as much as 15% or more.” Ice-O-Matic, Scotsman, and Manitowoc “all publish output for various models at different ambient temperatures.”
• Atlantic: a hot, poorly ventilated room is not the DOE test. Do not pick a machine whose advertised capacity exactly equals peak demand with no margin.
• GoFoodservice: listed capacities are under ideal conditions; “actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot environments.”
• YiOuyi (2026): a high-output ice machine on a shared kiosk circuit with the sealer and POS is how you trip a breaker during the Saturday queue — an electrical-planning sentence, not a new lb/drink.

Cited 70/50 → 90/70 drops on sheets we opened (air-cooled unless noted):

Compare the 90/70 column to the July milk-tea target when the sheet has one. A 193 lb “up to” undercounter that makes 140 lb next to a tea brewer is a 140 lb machine that afternoon.

Air-cooled cabinets also dump heat into that hole. KM-520MAJ heat rejection is 7,000 BTU/h on the current product page. KM-161BAK is 2,800 BTU/h. KM-81BAK is 1,800 BTU/h. C-80BAK is 1,400 BTU/h. NEO U-140 / U-190 family sheet: 2,150 average / 2,600 peak. CIM0430A sheet: 5,100 BTU/h. RNP0320 sheet: 7,511 average. HID525 product page: 6,800 BTU/h. Those BTUs become room cooling load on an air-cooled cabinet next to a brewer and a sealer. See air-cooled vs water-cooled.

Form factor: chewable nugget vs packed half-dice vs small-shop footprint

Atlantic, HVACDirect, Light Soda, YiOuyi, and Kitchen Spot draw the same line: undercounter when demand is low-to-moderate and the built-in bin covers the pull; modular head + bin when production is high or storage has to be chosen separately; two systems when ice forms differ.

Undercounter cube / cubelet is one 115 V cabinet with a built-in bin. HVACDirect calls undercounter machines “ideal for offices, cafes, and smaller establishments with constrained space.” Atlantic’s undercounter paragraph names cafés, small bars, server stations, and offices. Light Soda’s published bands put under 300 lb/day in compact undercounter / countertop territory and 300–600 lb/day in “mid-range undercounter or small modular.” GoFoodservice’s undercounter band is 50–500 lb/day make with 7–250 lb built-in storage; their “typical commercial output” sentence for standard bar/restaurant use is 100–250 lb per day. YiOuyi’s 2026 boba equipment article puts undercounter at ~50–100 lb/day, mid-size at 200–350, and modular at 400–800+. This directory’s largest undercounter bin is 90 lb. Once the evening pull needs more stored ice than that, you have left undercounter class even if a brochure still says “under 300 lb/day.” Form-factor background: undercounter vs modular vs countertop. Cabinet-by-cabinet cafe shortlist: best undercounter for a cafe.

Modular cube or nugget head + bin is how you get BubbleTeaology’s 225 lb 300-drink line, Kitchen Spot’s 225–270 lb 20–24 oz band, or Light Soda’s 300 lb iced-concept Saturday, with leftover sized to the evening window. Production and storage are separate SKUs. Order the bin (and any top kit) from the head’s compatibility list. GoFoodservice’s modular line starts at 250 lb/day. The smallest modular nugget heads in this directory are the 300–450 lb class. The smallest modular cube heads are the 400–550 lb class. That is a back-room plant, often hardwired, not a 15″ plug-in under the bar.

Nugget / cubelet when guests chew the ice; half-dice / crescent when the shop wants a packed cup. YiOuyi’s 2026 article: bubble tea shops “generally want nugget or small-cube ice, since it packs into a shaker cup and blends into the drink texture better than standard cube ice.” Manitowoc’s current RNP nugget sheet: bite-sized nugget is “perfect for beverage applications, dispensing, smoothies, and cold therapy” and lists 85% ice / 15% water. Ice-O-Matic’s circulated GEM0450 Pearl sheet (already cited on that directory page): “soft, chewable ice crystals” that “cool beverages faster and longer.” Atlantic’s ice-type table assigns half cube to fountain drinks and iced coffee, and nugget to cafés / soft drinks. BubbleTeaology is the outlier on shape: that supplier page says most owners and customers agree crescent produces the best bubble tea. We show both sentences. We do not invent a VenueIce “best ice for boba” score. Gourmet and sphere are the wrong plant; that math lives on best ice for a cocktail bar. See cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake.

Flake (Hoshizaki F-330BAK) is a salad-bar / seafood cabinet on Hoshizaki’s own page. The same 08/28/25 family PDF lists a cubelet sibling F-330BAK-C at 300 lb in the same 24″ × 26″ × 39″, 80 lb bin cabinet. We listed the flake SKU. Treat F-330BAK-C as the labeled cubelet variant if you want chewable ice in that envelope — open that PDF before you order. Do not scoop flake into a milk tea unless the recipe actually wants flake.

Naixer names several TH-series self-contained cabinets (TH-280B, TH-320B, TH-420B, TH-500B, TH-700B). Those SKUs are not current directory cabinets. We do not add them as shopping rows. BubbleTeaology’s unnamed “under counter Manitowoc … 90 lb ice bin” half-dice cabinet and “Indigo NXT … around 490 lb” line map onto the UYF-0140A / IYT0450A classes already in this directory — we cite those directory SKUs, not BubbleTeaology’s undated product cards, and we omit their street prices.

Current cube / cubelet cabinets — boba-bar drinks (OEM sheets)

Figures are manufacturer ratings. Full citations live on each directory page. Street prices omitted. These cabinets are kiosk and neighborhood-shop tools unless you also have a dump bin or a second plant for a blender. They are the wrong ice form for cocktail gourmet and the wrong leftover math for a c-store bag rack.

C-80BAK, KM-81BAK, and KM-161BAK are R290 on those current Hoshizaki pages.

A Scotsman CU50 (65 / 49 lb, 26 lb bin) is a gourmet cocktail cube. A Hoshizaki AM-50BAK (54 lb, 27 lb bin) is an office / hotel top-hat. The cafe shortlist already discards both for a busy iced-drink plant.

Hoshizaki bins already opened on the restaurant / c-store / coffee-shop pages (application capacity = volume × 30 lb/ft³ on each page; height includes 6″ legs; top kits sold separately):

A 200 lb-class head is not in this directory today. Do not assume a 22″ head drops onto a 30″ or 44″ lid without the top kit on the current sheet.

Drain, air, filter, cleaning (kiosk realism)

Many boba ice rooms are a hot hole: one circuit behind the bar, a tea brewer and pearl cooker dumping steam, a sealer, a louver someone boxed into millwork, and a drain that was never roughed in. Read the sheet before the bid.

• 115 V cord-and-plug on the compact undercounters above (C-80, KM-81, KM-161, UYF-0140/0190). A KM-520MAJ is a hardwired 115 V / 20 A-class head. CIM0430A’s cited sheet is 115 V, 11.0 A min. circuit, 15 A fuse — confirm cord vs junction box on the current PDF. GEM0450A is 115/60/1 with a 20 A max fuse on the circulated PDF. HID525 is a corded 115 V dispenser on the cited PDFs. Two cabinets plus a brewer and a sealer on one bar circuit is an electrician question.
• Drain. Gravity from the machine (KM-81 / KM-161 / KM-520: 3/4″ FPT on those current pages; C-80: 1/2″ FPT; NEO family sheet: 1/2″ FPT ice-making drain and 1/2″ FPT bin drain; GEM0450 PDF: 3/4″ FPT ice-maker out). Hoshizaki accessory HS-5061 is the listed drain pump on AM/C/KM compact units. Melt water is not optional. A bar sink is not automatically the machine drain. We are not writing a health-department letter.
• Air / alcove. Front-in / front-out cabinets (C-80BAK, KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK) exist for tight holes. They still reject heat into a room Kitchen Spot already called a 90° kitchen. Modular heads still need the clearance on the sheet (CIM0430A and GEM0450A PDFs: 6″ intake and exhaust; RNP0320 sheet: 8″ top/sides, 5″ back on the D-420 stack we opened). Use the 90/70 column if the sheet has one; omit it on KM-161 / C-80 / KM-520 HTML.
• Filter. Ice-machine filter, not the tea brewer and not the building drinking fountain. Scale and off-taste show up in the cup. See filters and descalers.
• Water pressure. Hoshizaki compact and KM-520 pages list about 10–113 psig. Manitowoc NEO and the CIM0430 sheet list 20–80 psi. GEM0450 PDF: 20–120 psig. RNP0320 sheet: 14–80 psi. Too little pressure and harvest fails.
• Cleaning. Follow the clean/sanitize interval on the machine sheet. This is not a service recipe and not health-code legal advice. See how to clean.
• Do not use a household countertop nugget machine as if it were NSF commercial equipment unless the listing says it is.

What this page is not

• Not the cafe undercounter product-pick page. Current 15–26″ cabinets, 115 V, and the Saturday-count shortlist stay on best undercounter for a cafe. This page sizes the Saturday and the leftover first.
• Not a smoothie / juice blender page. Kitchen Spot 2.5 lb/person and weighed blend dumps stay on the smoothie guide. A fruit-tea slush is that worksheet.
• Not a coffee-shop / espresso-bar page. Atlantic’s morning iced-latte leftover, steam-wand heat, and 0.35–0.6 lb café row as an espresso plant stay on ice machine for a coffee shop. Same ounce math can apply after a cup test; the rush hour and the menu do not.
• Not a c-store fountain / bagged page. Ounce math overlaps the convenience store cup table. Bags and cold plates stay there.
• Not a restaurant guest-factor page. Atlantic / Kitchen Spot 1.5 lb/guest and GoFoodservice restaurant 2 lb/person stay on the restaurant guide.
• Not a VenueIce lb-per-boba factor. Published starting points we opened are BubbleTeaology 0.75 lb/drink, Naixer 0.3–0.5 lb + 20%, Atlantic café 0.35–0.6 lb per iced beverage (their weighed 0.45 / 0.55 examples), Kitchen Spot / GoFoodservice / Memphis oz-per-cup, Light Soda 1–1.5 lb per customer for iced-drink concepts, and Kitchen Spot 2.5 lb/person only on a blender ticket. We show the methods. We do not invent 0.6 lb ice per milk tea and we do not average 0.45 and 2.5.
• Not a price list. Street prices omitted — including BubbleTeaology’s undated $2,099 / $2,965 cards and YiOuyi’s wholesale bands.
• Not a review. No scores, no invented “we iced N Saturday milk teas with this cabinet.”
• Not a Naixer catalog. TH-280B / TH-320B / TH-420B / TH-500B / TH-700B are not current directory SKUs. We do not invent them.

Sources

1. BubbleTeaology, Bubble Tea Ice Machines — 0.75 lb per drink; 300 drinks → at least 225 lb/day, “maybe more to handle the busy times”; ice-type sentence prefers crescent; air-cooled over water-cooled on water use; unnamed Manitowoc undercounter with a 90 lb half-dice bin and an Indigo NXT card “around 490 lb.” No article date on the HTML we opened (page comments from April 2021). Street prices on that page omitted. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
2. Naixer, Best Ice Machine for Bubble Tea Shop? — vendor 0.3–0.5 lb per drink (blended high, iced tea low) then +20%; worked 200 × 0.4 × 1.2 ≈ 96 lb. TH-series SKUs named on that page are not directory cabinets. Retrieved 2026-09-21.
3. Atlantic Store Equipment, Commercial Ice Machine Sizing Guide — café / coffee shop 0.35–0.6 lb per iced beverage; count cold brew, iced tea, refreshers, smoothies, and employee drinks; FAQ “How much ice does a café need?” repeats that band; cup-by-cup method when POS counts exist; worked 20 oz / 0.55 lb × 300 drinks = 165 lb beverage ice; worked high-volume café 350 × 0.45 = 157.5, +15 staff, +20% → 207 lb, shop 220–250 lb/day; undercounter “useful for cafés”; half cube assigned to fountain / iced coffee, nugget to cafés; two ice forms → two systems; production ≠ storage; size the bin around the largest service period; reserves 15–25% (seasonal) and 25–30% (outdoor / highly variable). Dated Jul 15, 2026 (retrieved 2026-09-21; already cited on coffee-shop / restaurant / c-store / deli / smoothie pages).
4. The Kitchen Spot, Ice Machines: Sizing for Application — coffee / smoothie bar 2.5 lbs per person; QSR / drive-through 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 16 oz ice per 10 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24 / 32 oz drink; table marked +20% for safe margin; 90° kitchen or bakery / ~70° water can cut make by 15% or more; bin usually 10–20% larger than daily make; multiple machines when ice types differ (retrieved 2026-09-21; same article already cited on sibling venue pages).
5. Light Soda On Tap, How Many Pounds of Ice Does a Restaurant Need Per Day? — coffee shops / cafés 1–1.5 lb per customer; blended and iced specialty drinks sit on the high end; form-factor bands under 300 / 300–600 / 600+ lb/day. Dated June 4, 2026 (retrieved 2026-09-21; already cited on the smoothie / coffee-shop / restaurant pages).
6. YiOuyi, Bubble Tea Equipment Wholesale: 2026 Buying Guide — ice is “the highest-volume input in a bubble tea shop by weight”; undercounter ~50–100 lb/day, mid-size 200–350, modular 400–800+; shops “generally want nugget or small-cube” for a shaker cup; no lb/drink cell. Dated Jul 14 on a 2026 URL (retrieved 2026-09-21). Price and wattage bands omitted.
7. GoFoodservice, Commercial Ice Machine Guide — restaurant 2 lbs per person; quick-service cups same as convenience store (5 / 8 / 12 oz ice per 7–12 / 12–16 / 16–24 oz cup); cold plates 45% more; modular 250–2,500 lb/day; undercounter 50–500 lb/day, “typical commercial output 100–250 lbs per day for standard bar/restaurant use”; actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot rooms. Live article header Last updated: Sep 3, 2026 on the deli-page transcription (already cited on deli / restaurant / c-store / coffee-shop).
8. Memphis Ice, What Size Ice Machine Do I Need for My Business? — QSR 5 oz / 7–10 oz, 8 / 12–16, 12 / 18–24; convenience-store beverage 6 / 12, 10 / 20, 16 / 32; cold plate 50% more (already cited on the c-store / smoothie / coffee-shop pages).
9. Ice-O-Matic, Global Product Guide, Part 6203, printed 07-12 — same convenience-store beverage oz line as Memphis Ice. 2012 reprint (already cited on the convenience-store guide).
10. HVACDirect, Commercial Ice Machine Buying Guide — restaurant 1.5–2 lbs. per customer; office 1 lb/employee; undercounter “ideal for offices, cafes, and smaller establishments with constrained space.” No bubble-tea lb/drink row on the page we opened (already cited on restaurant / office / deli / coffee-shop pages).
11. Hoshizaki, KM-81BAK product page — 98 lb, 38 lb bin, 17.75″ × 24″ × 39″, 115 V, 2.4 A, 1,800 BTU/h; “small bars, hotel lobbies, and office break rooms.” KM-81/116 BAK sheet — 76 lb @ 90/70 (retrieved 2026-09-21).
12. Hoshizaki, KM-161BAK product page — 156 lb, 78 lb bin, 23.75″ × 28″ × 39″, 115 V, 3.5 A, 2,800 BTU/h (retrieved 2026-09-21).
13. Hoshizaki, C-80BAK product page — 92 lb, 27 lb bin, 14.875″ × 22.625″ × 33.5″, 115 V, 2.8 A, 1,400 BTU/h on that family (retrieved 2026-09-21).
14. Manitowoc, NEO 140/190 family sheet — UYF-0140A 137 / 100 lb; UYF-0190A 193 / 140 lb; 90 lb bin; 26″ × 28.50″ × 38.50″ on 6″ legs; 115 V, 5 A / 6 A, 15 A max fuse, 6 ft 5-15P; 2,150 / 2,600 BTU/h (sheet 6501D 6/22; retrieved 2026-09-21).
15. Hoshizaki, KM-520MAJ product page — ~556 lb, 22″ × 27.375″ × 28″, 115 V hardwire, 10.6 A, 20 A max fuse, 7,000 BTU/h, compatible B-250–B-1300 (retrieved 2026-09-21).
16. Ice-O-Matic, CIM0430/0435/0436 spec PDF — CIM0430A 435 / 320 lb (already cited on that directory page).
17. Rewonline, Scotsman C0330MA-1 listing — 400 lb @ 70/50, 288 lb AHRI @ 90/70 (already cited on that directory page).
18. URI, IYT0450A listing — 490 lb/day; directory page already cites 378 lb AHRI @ 90/70 (already cited on that directory page).
19. Manitowoc, RNP0320 spec — 308 / 236 lb; 22″; 115 V; 7.5 A min. circuit; 15 A max fuse; R290; ENERGY STAR 3.0; 85% ice / 15% water; “perfect for … smoothies” (sheet 4988F 07/22; retrieved 2026-09-21).
20. Ice-O-Matic, GEM0450 spec PDF — GEM0450A 464 / 354 lb air; GEM0450W 508 / 429 lb; 21″ × 24″ × 27″; 115/60/1; 20 A max fuse (already cited on that directory page; a 2026-09-21 fetch of this PDF timed out — figures unchanged from the sibling-page transcription). GEM-series install manual lists GEM0450A MCA 15.75 A.
21. Scotsman, HID525 product page — 500 / 380 lb, 25 lb hopper, 21.25″ × 24.38″ × 35″, 115/60/1, 15 A max fuse, 6,800 BTU/h, R290 on the current page (retrieved 2026-09-21).
22. Hoshizaki, B-300SF and B-500SF product pages — 300 / 500 lb application capacity; 22″ / 30″; top kits sold separately (retrieved 2026-09-21).
23. Existing VenueIce pages: how to size, ice bin sizing, cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake, undercounter vs modular vs countertop, filters and descalers, how to clean, best undercounter for a cafe (product shortlist), smoothie (blender ice), coffee shop (espresso iced drinks), c-store (fountain / bags), restaurant (covers).
24. Directory pages already citing the same OEM language: C-80BAK, KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK, UYF-0140A, UYF-0190A, ICEU150HA, HID525, RNP0320A, GEM0450A, KM-520MAJ, IYT0450A, CIM0430A, C0330MA-1, CU50, AM-50BAK, F-330BAK.

If two sheets disagree, we say so and prefer the latest OEM page or PDF.