VenueIce

Size the machine by the business, then compare brands.

Ice machine for a seafood market (fish counter)

Updated 2026-09-15. Independent guide — not a dealer quote.

A seafood market is cold-chain ice plus, sometimes, a display bed, plus, sometimes, packing or outbound totes, plus, sometimes, a juice or coffee counter. Those are separate published jobs. Putting receiving, the fish case, and iced lattes on one 38 lb crescent leftover, or copying the restaurant 1.5 lb per guest cover onto every pound of product, is how the bed is bare at 10 a.m. — or how drink cubes sit on whole fish because that was the only cabinet.

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

  • Retail fish counters sizing flake (or similar soft ice) from a measured display fill plus daily replenishment.
  • Seafood markets / distributors that receive, pack, and ship on the same morning — Freezer Supply’s peak-overlap method, not a restaurant cover count.
  • Markets with a juice, coffee, or fountain pass that need a second cube or nugget plant, not flake in the glass.

It is not a bakery dough-flake page. Mixer ice is a flour-weight recipe job. It is also not a hospital pack-flake page and not medical advice. It is not a restaurant 1.5 lb/guest dining-room page. Drink ice stays on the cafe or smoothie worksheet.

Published seafood / display / packing factors

Foodservice charts do publish seafood-display and flake-application rows. They do not publish one VenueIce “lb of ice per lb of seafood.” Those are dealer / buyer-guide rules of thumb, not a manufacturer warranty and not a lab measurement. We do not invent a house factor in the middle.

Published line Factor What the source is talking about
Atlantic Store Equipment, seafood / meat / produce display Measure actual display fill plus daily replenishment Their application table. Copy: display depth, drainage, product turnover, and ice type greatly affect usage. Not a lb/person and not a lb/lb. Dated Jul 15, 2026.
Atlantic Store Equipment, flake row Seafood, meat, produce, salad bars, food displays Ice-type table on the same article. Two ice forms → two systems.
Atlantic Store Equipment, worksheet Seafood, produce, or cold display = initial fill + replenishment Their calculator block, next to beverage / bar / prep / bagging lines.
GoFoodservice, supermarket flake display 27 lbs per cubic foot to fill Flaked-ice display fill on their buying-guide supermarket block. Last updated Sep 3, 2026 on the live article already cited by the hospital / school / gym guides.
GoFoodservice, supermarket cubed display 32 lbs per cubic foot to fill Same supermarket block. Density contrast only — cubes are the wrong form for a fish bed on the flake rows below.
GoFoodservice, salad / seafood deli 30 lbs per cubic foot Salad-bar row already cited on the restaurant and catering pages. Not the same cell as their 27 lb/ft³ supermarket flake fill. Show both; do not average 27 and 30.
The Kitchen Spot, salad bar / display 35 lbs per cubic foot Same table already cited on restaurant / catering. A third published fill density. Weigh a fill when you can.
GoFoodservice, restaurant flaked ice 2 lbs per person served Plated / served flake on a restaurant worksheet — not a retail display bed. Do not copy this onto a fish counter.
GoFoodservice, flake “best applications” Fish/meat packing and food displays; also healthcare (packs and bends for injuries) Dealer application copy. Healthcare packs stay on the hospital page and are not medical advice.
GoFoodservice, listed-capacity derate Actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot rooms Same page. Modular / undercounter “up to” numbers are ideal-condition ratings.
HVACDirect, flake Food displays, seafood markets, and medical environments Ice-type paragraph already cited on the hospital and office guides. No lb/ft³ and no lb/lb on that table.
Freezer Supply, seafood markets (Aug 19, 2026) Start with pounds of product; separate receiving vs display vs packing vs outbound Peak overlap drives sizing. Flake conforms around product. Storage for the peak draw, not average-day make. Drainage / cart path. Two machines when downtime is high-consequence — a planning note, not a vendor pitch.
Freezer Supply, hot dock Use expected site conditions; a warm loading area may not deliver the favorable published rating in a coastal summer Same article. They tell you not to add an arbitrary percent to an uncertain estimate.
The Kitchen Spot, hot room 15% or more less make Copy says a machine in a 90° kitchen or bakery with ~70° water. A dock alcove in August is that room.

The VenueIce sizing table now has a seafood market / fish counter row. It still has no lb/person or lb/lb seafood factor, because the charts we opened publish measure-fill and lb/ft³ display fill, not a guest multiplier. Use Atlantic’s measure actual display fill plus daily replenishment. Use GoFoodservice’s supermarket 27 lb/ft³ when you can measure the well and want that source’s flake-fill number. Use their 30 lb/ft³ salad / seafood-deli cell or Kitchen Spot’s 35 lb/ft³ only as those rows — say which one you used. Use Freezer Supply’s receiving / display / packing / outbound split and size the leftover for the overlap window (ice bin sizing). Do not invent a VenueIce “0.5 lb ice per lb seafood.”

Separate lines — do not stack the same product

Receiving, the display bed, packing, and front-counter drinks are not one stacked factor.

  • Receiving vs display vs packing vs outbound. Freezer Supply: document pounds of seafood on a peak day, ice used in each tote or display, and how often staff replenish. Those uses may overlap for only a few hours; that overlap is the production and storage problem.
  • Display fill is volume, not covers. Atlantic says measure the fill. GoFoodservice prints 27 lb/ft³ (supermarket flake) and 30 lb/ft³ (salad / seafood deli). Kitchen Spot prints 35 lb/ft³. We show the three fill densities. We do not average them into 31.
  • Restaurant flake 2 lb/person is a different worksheet. GoFoodservice’s 2 lbs per person served flaked-ice row is plated / served flake (already on the pizzeria and school cafeteria citations). A retail case is a bed you fill, not a guest you plate.
  • Drink ice is a second plant. Atlantic: if you need two ice forms — flake on the fish, cube or nugget in a glass — specify two systems. Kitchen Spot’s “multiple units” paragraph is the same idea. A juice / coffee pass uses the cafe or smoothie math, not 27 lb/ft³.
  • Bakery flake is dough. Coast’s 10–20% of flour weight stays on the bakery guide. Hoshizaki’s current F-330BAK HTML names salad bars and seafood displays, not mixers.
  • Hospital pack flake is not this bed. GoFoodservice and HVACDirect name healthcare as a flake application — dealer copy, not medical advice. Keep patient-floor math on the hospital page.

Cube, half-dice, crescent, nugget, and flake shape math lives on cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake. A KM-81BAK crescent leftover is the wrong ice form for a display bed.

Production lb/24 hr is not the leftover

A 24-hour rating is not a bucket. Seafood ice is often taken in a short window — morning receive, bed rebuild, packing before the van leaves — not as 10 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. Freezer Supply says the same for seafood: a storage bin must hold the peak draw, not a full day of average production; receiving can create a short, heavy pull that needs stored ice and a cart path.

See ice bin sizing for the modular-head version of Atlantic’s rush formula (use during the window − theoretical make during the window + opening stock). That hourly split (24-hour rating ÷ 24) is arithmetic, not an OEM hourly guarantee. Harvest is cyclic. Hoshizaki’s current F-330 HTML page does not print a 90/70 production cell, so we do not invent lb/hour of make on that cabinet.

Worked small retail fish counter (display fill + morning receive)

Same peak-day method as the sizing page: measure the load, pick a published factor, add the reserve the source uses. Display plus one receive window. No packing line, no juice bar.

Assumed display geometry (label as assumption — measure your well): 3.0 ft long × 2.0 ft wide × 4 in ice depth (0.33 ft) = 2.0 ft³.

Display-fill starting points on that 2.0 ft³ well (do not stack these on each other):

  • GoFoodservice supermarket flake 27 lb/ft³: 2.0 × 27 = 54 lb initial fill
  • GoFoodservice salad / seafood deli 30 lb/ft³: 60 lb
  • Kitchen Spot salad-bar 35 lb/ft³: 70 lb
  • GoFoodservice supermarket cubed display 32 lb/ft³: 64 lb — density contrast only; cubes are the wrong form for this bed
  • Atlantic: weigh the actual fill, then add the pounds you put back during the day

Assumed daily replenishment (label as assumption): one full rebuild later in the day at the 27 lb/ft³ fill (54 lb) plus a measured morning top-up of 20 lb. Display-day flake on the 27 lb/ft³ row: 54 + 54 + 20 = 128 lb. If you only top up and do not rebuild, use the measured top-ups.

A Hoshizaki F-330BAK is up to 331 lb @ 70/50 on the current product page, with an 80 lb built-in bin (2.7 ft³, AHRI 820 method). The 24-hour column covers a 128 lb display day. The 80 lb leftover is the constraint if receiving and the first fill hit together:

  • First fill at 27 lb/ft³: 54 lb
  • Assumed morning receive (label as assumption): four totes at a measured 10 lb of ice each = 40 lb
  • Overlap pull: 54 + 40 = 94 lb in the opening window
  • F-330 stored ice: 80 lb. 90/70 production is not on that HTML — omitted; we do not add invented harvest during the window. On stored ice alone: 80 lb against a 94 lb pull. The leftover, not the “331 lb” headline, is the shortfall.

A Hoshizaki KM-81BAK stores 38 lb of crescent cube. That is the wrong ice form for the bed, and the leftover is already smaller than the 54 lb 27 lb/ft³ fill.

Worked mid-size market (display + receiving overlap)

Same method. Larger well, same-morning receive and packing. Still no drink counter.

Assumed display geometry (label as assumption): 8.0 ft × 2.5 ft × 6 in (0.50 ft) = 10.0 ft³.

  • GoFoodservice supermarket flake 27 lb/ft³: 10.0 × 27 = 270 lb initial fill
  • GoFoodservice salad / seafood deli 30 lb/ft³: 300 lb
  • Kitchen Spot 35 lb/ft³: 350 lb
  • Assumed receiving + packing overlap (Freezer Supply method; label as assumption): staff log 120 lb of tote / box ice in the same two-hour window as the bed rebuild

Overlap on the 27 lb/ft³ row: 270 + 120 = 390 lb before any afternoon top-up. That is past every undercounter bin in this directory (largest built-in is 90 lb on the NEO 140/190 sheet). It is also past the F-330 80 lb leftover and past the F-330 331 lb @ 70/50 headline if that 390 lb is actually taken before the cabinet can run for hours.

This is the point where an undercounter flake cabinet is too small and you need a larger modular flake class — head + bin sized to the overlap window. This directory currently lists one flake cabinet: F-330BAK. There is no modular flake head in content/models today. We do not invent a flake-head SKU, a 90/70 cell, or a bin pairing. Cube modular heads already in the directory (KM-520MAJ, CIM0430A, C0330MA-1, IYT0450A) make the wrong ice form for a display bed.

Freezer Supply’s Charleston planning example (anonymous, not a named install): when receiving and outbound packing overlapped, one central flake plant left no partial production during cleaning. They evaluated two staged modular flake machines with shared storage and a cart path. That is a high-consequence planning note, not a requirement to buy two cabinets and not a quote.

Worked market with a juice / coffee counter

Same 2.0 ft³ fish well as the small-counter example, plus a front pass.

  • Display flake, GoFoodservice 27 lb/ft³ fill + assumed rebuild/top-up from above: 128 lb flake
  • 60 iced drinks (Atlantic cafe 0.5 lb midpoint of 0.35–0.6): 30 lb cube
  • Kitchen Spot +20% on the drink line: 36 lb
  • Kitchen Spot coffee / smoothie 2.5 lb/person if you wrongly copy the blender line onto the same 60 tickets: 150 lb — use it only if the pass is actually a smoothie / juice bar

Atlantic and Kitchen Spot both tell you to split ice types. The flake cabinet feeds the bed and the totes. The cube or nugget cabinet feeds the glasses. A KM-81BAK 38 lb leftover covers a 30–36 lb drink line if it starts full; a KM-161BAK stores 78 lb. Do not scoop those crescents onto the fish, and do not dump F-330 flake into a latte. Two ice forms → two systems.

Dock / coastal-summer heat derate

Manufacturer “up to” numbers are a 70°F air / 50°F water comparison point. The machine that lives on a warm loading dock, next to a roll-up door, or in an unconditioned back room is not in that room.

  • GoFoodservice: listed capacities are under ideal conditions; “actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot environments.”
  • The 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.”
  • Freezer Supply: a machine near a warm loading area may not deliver its favorable published rating during a coastal summer. Use expected site conditions.
  • 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.

Compare the 90/70 column to the peak-day target when the sheet has one. Hoshizaki’s current F-330 HTML does not print 90/70 production — omitted. We do not invent that cell. Cube undercounters that do print 90/70 are the wrong ice form for the bed; those drops stay on the cafe / restaurant pages.

Air-cooled cabinets also dump heat into that hole. F-330BAK heat rejection is 3,400 BTU/h on the current product page already cited on that directory page. Those BTUs become room cooling load on an air-cooled cabinet next to a dock. See air-cooled vs water-cooled.

Form factor: undercounter flake vs modular flake vs drink cube

Atlantic, GoFoodservice, HVACDirect, and Freezer Supply all 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.

Job Typical form Do not use it for
Small retail fish counter, measured fill + top-ups that fit an 80 lb leftover Compact flake undercounter (F-330 class) Drink glasses; a 94 lb receive+fill overlap if the leftover starts at 80 lb
Mid market, 270 lb+ bed fill or receive/pack overlap Modular flake head + bin (not in this directory today) A 80 lb F-330 leftover as the only plant; a cube modular head on the fish
High-consequence downtime (Freezer Supply planning note) Two flake plants so one can be down Treating two machines as a vendor upsell; skipping the hourly overlap map
Juice / coffee / fountain on the same shop Compact cube / cubelet / nugget undercounter — cafe / smoothie Scooping drink cubes onto the display bed
Bakery mixer flake Out of this page — bakery Coast 10–20% of flour on a fish case
Hospital pack / dispenser ice Out of this page — hospital 10 lb/bed on a retail counter
Restaurant covers Out of this page — restaurant 1.5 lb/guest or GoFoodservice served-flake 2 lb/person on a display bed

Undercounter flake is one 115 V cabinet with a built-in bin. HVACDirect calls undercounter machines “ideal for offices, cafes, and smaller establishments with constrained space.” Hoshizaki’s current F-330BAK page writes salad bars, seafood displays, and “other applications requiring long-lasting, sanitary ice.” It is the flake cabinet already in this directory that fits a tight back-room hole (24″ × 26″ × 39″, front-in / front-out). Form-factor background: undercounter vs modular vs countertop.

Modular flake is how you get Freezer Supply’s peak-draw storage and Atlantic’s service-window leftover. No modular flake head is in this directory. Cube heads in the 400–550 lb class are the wrong form for the bed.

Cube / nugget undercounter is the drink pass only. See the cafe and smoothie guides.

Current flake cabinet (OEM sheets)

Figures are manufacturer ratings. Full citations live on each directory page. Street prices omitted.

Model Ice Cited make Bin Cabinet / power Seafood note
Hoshizaki F-330BAK Flake Up to 331 lb on the current product page. 90/70 production not on that HTML 80 lb (2.7 ft³, AHRI 820 method) 24″ × 26″ × 39″; 115/60/1, 6.3 A, 15 A max fuse, 8 ft NEMA 5-15P The flake cabinet in this directory. Front-in / front-out. R290 (2.8 oz). 4.29 kWh/100 lb @ 90/70, 12 gal/100 lb, 3,400 BTU/h. ENERGY STAR stated on the page. Advanced CleanCycle24 — 2-second purge each hour (already on that directory page). Hoshizaki copy: salad bar / seafood / display. An 80 lb leftover is not a 270 lb bed fill.

A cubelet sibling F-330BAK-C is 300 lb on the 08/28/25 spec PDF already cited on the F-330 directory page. Treat it as the cubelet variant of the same cabinet, not as display flake.

Hoshizaki’s 4HC-H filter page (already noted on the F-330 directory page) says that filter is not recommended for flakers. Use the filter the F-330 sheet specifies. See filters and descalers.

Current cube / nugget undercounters — drink pass only (OEM sheets)

These cabinets are the wrong ice form for a display bed. They are here so the “second system for juice / coffee” sentence has numbers. Same shortlist as the cafe page.

Model Ice Cited make Bin Cabinet / power Seafood-market note
Hoshizaki KM-81BAK Crescent 98 / 76 lb (product page “up to 98”; 90/70 on the KM-81/116 BAK sheet) 38 lb 17.75″ × 24″ × 39″; 115/60/1, 2.4 A, 15 A max fuse, 6.5 ft 5-15P Drink leftover. Wrong form for the fish case. 39″ H will not fit a 36″ counter.
Hoshizaki KM-161BAK Crescent 156 lb on the current product page. 90/70 not on that HTML page 78 lb 23.75″ × 28″ × 39″; 115/60/1, 3.5 A, 15 A max fuse, 6.5 ft 5-15P Larger drink leftover. Still not display flake.
Manitowoc UYF-0140A Half-dice 137 / 100 lb (NEO 140/190 family sheet, 6/22) 90 lb 26″ × 28.50″ × 38.50″ (height includes 6″ legs on that sheet); 115 V, 5 A, 15 A max fuse, 6 ft 5-15P Biggest undercounter bin in this directory. Drink / fountain cube, not a fish bed.
Hoshizaki C-80BAK Mini cubelet 92 lb “approximately.” 90/70 not on that HTML page 27 lb Same 15″ family as AM-50; 115/60/1, 2.8 A, 15 A max fuse, 6 ft 5-15P Chewable drink ice. Tiny leftover.

KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK, C-80BAK, and F-330BAK are R290 on those current Hoshizaki pages.

Drain, air, filter, cleaning (dock-room realism)

Many seafood ice rooms are a wet hole: meltwater under the case, a mop sink, a roll-up door, and an air-cooled cabinet next to dock heat. Read the sheet before the bid.

  • Drain. Gravity from the machine (F-330 / KM-81 / KM-161: 3/4″ FPT on those current pages) and from the display bed. Freezer Supply: floor drains should handle meltwater without standing water on the cart path. Melt water is not optional. We are not writing a health-department letter.
  • Air / dock. Front-in / front-out cabinets (F-330BAK, KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK) exist for tight holes. They still reject heat into a room Freezer Supply already called a warm loading area. Use the 90/70 column if the sheet has one; omit it on F-330.
  • Filter. Ice-machine filter suitable for a flaker, not the drinking-fountain cartridge and not Hoshizaki 4HC-H (page already cited on the F-330 directory: not recommended for flakers). See filters and descalers.
  • Cleaning. Ice that goes onto food is food. Follow the clean/sanitize interval on the machine sheet. Hoshizaki splits flakers to a shorter published interval than cubers on the how to clean page. CleanCycle24 is a 2-second hourly purge, not a full clean. This is not a service recipe and not health-code legal advice.
  • 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 a bakery dough-flake page. Flour-weight mixer ice stays on the bakery guide. Same F-330 class, different job.
  • Not hospital pack flake as medical advice. Healthcare flake / nugget dealer copy stays on the hospital guide.
  • Not a restaurant guest-factor page. Atlantic / Kitchen Spot 1.5 lb/guest and GoFoodservice restaurant / served-flake 2 lb/person stay on the restaurant guide.
  • Not a price list. Street prices omitted.
  • Not a review. No scores, no invented “we iced N cases with this cabinet.”
  • Not a VenueIce lb-per-lb seafood factor. Published starting points we opened are Atlantic measure fill + replenishment, GoFoodservice supermarket flake 27 lb/ft³ (and their 30 lb/ft³ salad / seafood-deli cell), Kitchen Spot 35 lb/ft³, and Freezer Supply’s peak-overlap split. We show the methods. We do not invent 0.5 lb ice per lb of product.
  • Not a modular flake catalog. This directory has F-330BAK only. We do not invent flake-head SKUs.

Sources

  1. Atlantic Store Equipment, Commercial Ice Machine Sizing Guide — row “Seafood, meat, or produce display”: Measure actual display fill plus daily replenishment; display depth, drainage, product turnover, and ice type greatly affect usage; worksheet line initial fill + replenishment; flake assigned to seafood, meat, produce, salad bars, food displays; two ice forms → two systems; dinner-rush bin example; production ≠ storage. Dated Jul 15, 2026 (retrieved 2026-09-15; already cited on hotel / bar / catering / hospital pages).
  2. GoFoodservice, Commercial Ice Machine Guide — supermarket Flaked ice displays 27 lbs per cubic foot to fill; Cubed ice displays 32 lbs per cubic foot; salad / seafood deli 30 lbs per cubic foot (already cited on restaurant / catering); restaurant flaked ice 2 lbs per person served (plated / served flake, not a retail bed); flake “best applications” include fish/meat packing and food displays and healthcare (packs and bends for injuries) — dealer application copy, not medical advice; actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot rooms. Last updated Sep 3, 2026 on the live article already cited by the hospital, school-cafeteria, and gym guides (retrieved 2026-09-15).
  3. Freezer Supply, Commercial Ice Machines for Seafood Markets — start with pounds of product; separate receiving vs display vs packing vs outbound; peak overlap drives sizing; flake conforms around product; storage for the peak draw; drainage / cart path; two machines when downtime is high-consequence (planning note). Dated Aug 19, 2026 (retrieved 2026-09-15).
  4. HVACDirect, Commercial Ice Machine Buying Guide — flake “works best in food displays, seafood markets, and medical environments”; undercounter “ideal for offices, cafes, and smaller establishments with constrained space” (retrieved 2026-09-15; same article already cited on the hospital and office guides).
  5. The Kitchen Spot, Ice Machines: Sizing for Application — salad bar 35 lbs per cubic foot; 90° kitchen or bakery / ~70° water can cut make by 15% or more; table +20%; multiple machines when ice types differ (retrieved 2026-09-15; same article already cited on sibling venue pages).
  6. Hoshizaki, F-330BAK product page — 331 lb flake, 80 lb bin, 24″ × 26″ × 39″, 115 V, 6.3 A, 5-15P, 3,400 BTU/h, CleanCycle24; “perfect for salad bars, seafood displays” (already cited on that directory page).
  7. Hoshizaki, KM-81BAK product page — 98 lb, 38 lb bin, 17.75″ × 24″ × 39″, 115 V, 2.4 A (already cited on that directory page).
  8. Hoshizaki, KM-161BAK product page — 156 lb, 78 lb bin, 23.75″ × 28″ × 39″, 115 V, 3.5 A (already cited on that directory page).
  9. Manitowoc, NEO 140/190 family sheet — UYF-0140A 137 / 100 lb; 90 lb bin (already cited on that directory page).
  10. Hoshizaki, C-80BAK product page — 92 lb, 27 lb bin, same 15″ family, 115 V, 2.8 A (already cited on that directory page).
  11. Existing VenueIce pages: cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake, undercounter vs modular vs countertop, ice bin sizing, how to size, filters and descalers, how to clean, F-330BAK directory, bakery (dough flake — different job).
  12. Directory pages already citing the same OEM language: F-330BAK, KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK, UYF-0140A, C-80BAK.

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