VenueIce

Size the machine by the business, then compare brands.

By venue

Same ice physics, different constraints. A cafe undercounter pick cares about counter width and a 115 V hole after you already have a Saturday number. A specialty coffee shop or espresso bar cares about Atlantic’s 0.35–0.6 lb iced-beverage line and the morning leftover — not Kitchen Spot’s 2.5 lb smoothie person, not bakery mixer flake, and not an office lb/employee pantry. A cocktail bar cares about lbs/day and the rush-window bin first, then cube quality and well speed on the ice-type page. A nightclub cares about Ice Machine Sales’ 2 lb per person row — not the cocktail bar’s 3 lb seat, not craft cocktail at 4 lb, and not beer-and-wine at 1 lb — with undercounter wells plus a modular back-of-house plant when there is more than one bar. A full-service restaurant cares about 1.5 lb per guest plus bar, salad bar, and bagged ice as separate lines. A buffet or self-service restaurant uses Kitchen Spot’s Self-Service row of 2 to 3 lb per person, and GoFoodservice’s Self-Serve calculator at 3 lb per person (that table already includes 20%) — an all-day refill line, distinct from that 1.5–2 lb cover, from a one-sitting banquet headcount, and from drive-thru cup-fill ounces. A fast-food restaurant, QSR, or drive-through sizes cup-fill ounces on peak-day drink counts — drive-thru plus lobby fountain — not that full-service cover count, and not a convenience-store bagged-ice merchandiser as the primary line. A taco shop or taqueria is counter-service Mexican fast-casual: fountain and cup ice for aguas frescas, soft drinks, and iced tea on taco tickets, sometimes a small salsa bar or cold-prep line measured on its own — separate from that drive-thru QSR cup count, from a deli salad-bar flake plant, and from a food truck’s 115 V and tank limits. A BBQ restaurant or smokehouse is usually heavy sweet tea and fountain or iced-tea cup-fill — dining covers are an optional second line only when those guests are not already counted as cups — distinct from a restaurant 1.5 lb/guest worksheet, a drive-thru QSR window, and a taco-shop agua fresca counter. A convenience store cares about fountain cups and bagged-ice merchandising as separate worksheets. A smoothie bar cares about blender-body ice — Kitchen Spot’s 2.5 lb/person line versus a weighed cup dump — and nugget/cubelet versus hard cube. A juice bar cares about iced-juice cup fill plus a zero-ice bottle and shot count — not the smoothie blender line, and not a boba milk-tea shaker. An ice cream shop cares about shakes, floats, and fountain cups on a cube or nugget plant, with hard-pack scoops at zero ice — not a soft-serve or gelato freezer, which freezes mix and is not an ice maker. A food truck cares about 115 V, drain, and a water tank. A ghost kitchen, dark kitchen, or cloud kitchen is delivery-only: drinks packed into orders use published cup-fill ounces, and ice that leaves in bags is a separate 10 lb × bags line — shared commissary power, drain, and a hot mechanical room, with no front-of-house ice well. That is not a dining-room cover count, not an off-site catering van, and not a food-truck circuit. A hotel cares about guest-floor dispensers versus the kitchen cube plant. A banquet hall, wedding venue, or ballroom cares about attendees at a plated or buffet event — GoFoodservice’s 2 lb per person event-hall row, with the bin sized to the dinner window — not an off-site catering commissary and not hotel guest-floor ice. A country club, golf club, or private club is a campus: size the grill, the cocktail or beer-and-wine lounge, the on-site ballroom, and a pool snack fountain on their own published lines and add them up — charts do not print a country-club lb factor. A public, daily-fee, or municipal golf course is a different worksheet: clubhouse snack cups, a halfway house, beverage-cart cooler fills, and a tournament or outing headcount stay on their own lines — charts do not print a lb-per-round — with outdoor heat, course-well water, and the winter shutdown called out on thepublic golf course guide. A marina, yacht club, or fuel-dock ship store uses the published Specialty Marine line — 3.5 lb per person on the Kitchen Spot commercial ice machine sizes chart and the Ice Machine Sales sizing chart — separate from that country-club campus sum, from a cocktail bar’s 3 lb seat, and from a food truck’s power and tank limits. Bagged ice for boat coolers is a separate 10 lb × bags line. A campground, RV park, or camp store sizes cooler ice from the bags it sells on the peak summer weekend — bag weight times the count, not a lb-per-site chart — and keeps a pavilion headcount, a fountain well, well water, ambient limits, and the off-season shutdown on their own lines. A church fellowship hall cares about event-bin pounds, not a restaurant 24-hour rating. An office break room cares about lunch-and-meeting windows and a compact 115 V cabinet. A bakery cares about flake for dough-temperature control, plus a separate cube cabinet if there is a cafe counter. A pizzeria cares about fountain and takeout drinks versus dining-room covers, with dough flake as a separate line if the mixer uses ice. A brewery taproom cares about guest drink ice — beer-and-wine factors, not a 3 lb cocktail seat — and does not treat a cube machine as a glycol plant. A school cafeteria cares about 1–1.5 lb per student in a short lunch window, a bin that covers that rush, and athletic ice as a separate line. A gym or athletic training room cares about member drinks versus trainer packs versus ice baths versus concession — four worksheets, not one stacked factor. A catering company cares about commissary production versus the event-day dump versus bagged delivery — not a hotel guest-floor hopper and not a church hall that sits all week. A hospital cares about published 10 lb/bed patient ice versus a staff cafeteria line, and a dispenser on patient-accessible floors — not a hotel 5 lb/room hopper and not an open kitchen bin in the corridor. A nursing home, assisted-living community, or long-term care facility uses the published 6 lb per bed (or per resident) row — not the hospital 10 lb row, and not a separate invented assisted-living factor — with a dispenser on resident-accessible floors and a staff-only bin in dietary. A seafood market or fish counter cares about flake for display beds, receiving, and packing — Atlantic measure-fill and GoFoodservice 27 lb/ft³ display fill, not restaurant 1.5 lb/guest and not bakery dough flake. A sushi restaurant cares about flake for the nigiri / sashimi case plus a separate cube or nugget plant for iced drinks — not a wholesale fish-counter packing dock and not an all-you-can-eat cover count alone. A grocery store or supermarket cares about produce, meat, seafood, and salad-bar flake plus fountain and bagged-ice cube lines as separate plants — not a c-store bags-only page and not a fish-counter-only page. A deli or sandwich shop cares about fountain and iced-drink ounces, measured cold-prep ice, and an optional salad-bar flake well — not a restaurant 1.5 lb/guest sandwich multiplier, not grocery produce flake, and not a c-store bags-only merchandiser. A movie theater or cinema concession cares about fountain and iced-drink ounces during show-block bursts — pre-feature and intermission leftover first, not restaurant 1.5 lb/seat, not a c-store bags-first all-day well, and not a smoothie blend dump. A stadium, sports arena, or concert venue is an event-day campus: size concessions, VIP suites, and an optional training room on their own published lines and add them up — charts do not print a stadium lb/seat factor, and a seat count is not a concession-customer count.