17 Gross Things You Never Knew About Fast Food Ice Cream Machines

Ice cream has always been a part of my life in one way or another. Growing up near a local shop where my dad created his own childhood ice cream memories, I was more than familiar with soft serve. Vanilla was one of the best flavors, simply because it’s so versatile with toppings. But now that I live states away from where I grew up, some of the most convenient ice cream stops happen to be fast food restaurants.

Now, here’s the problem. A lot of those machines are constantly broken. At least, that’s what customers are told.

How many times have you had a hankering for a McDonald’s ice cream cone, only to hear that the ice cream machine was out of service? Even worse, it always happens to be out during the worst times of the day. And if that’s the only thing you’re in the drive-thru line for, suddenly your food plans for the day have just changed up immensely based on the inconvenience.

For those of us who’ve never worked in fast food before, we might be kind of curious as to what the deal is. Is it really broken all the time? And, why even have the machine if it’s never working correctly?

In trying to find the answer, I ended up discovering these gross facts about fast food ice cream machines.

1. Broken machines can often backfire on employees — literally.

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Ice cream all over your face seems like a fun challenge that you’d see on Nickelodeon, but these machines require so much dedication that they can literally ruin your workday.

2. Sometimes, “It’s broken” means “Nobody wants to clean it.”

Let me tell you a secret.... fast food places that tell you the ice cream machine is broken are lying..... they just don’t want the hassle of cleaning it all over when they already did.

— Juan G (@JCwarrior_3) July 16, 2018

It’s technically broken if it can’t be used, right?

Fast food ice cream machines are notoriously tough to clean, so sometimes when the staff just doesn’t have time, they tell customers it’s out of service.

3. But when it’s legit broken, the ice cream looks very disgusting.

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Well, when you put it that way… maybe there are other options out there.

4. Also, sometimes it gets shut off due to laziness.

It’s not like you’re willing to challenge the guy behind the window, right? If it was just cleaned, it’s possible an employee would rather tell you it’s broken than have to go through the process again.

Give them a break, especially if you’re driving by in the very early morning.

5. In 2016, “broken” McDonald’s ice cream machines were the #1 customer complaint on Twitter.

[fm_youtube url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AENLAET5pfo&feature=youtu.be"]

This video from Mashed said that more people complained about this than anything else, which means there may be a lot of lazy McDonald’s employees out there.

6. Even the dedicated ones sometimes get cleaning wrong.

If it’s such a hard job, you may need to acknowledge that it might not be done correctly every time.

Sorry, I know that seems gross.

7. It can also take some time to get the machine going.

my first time making a milkshake at burger king i turn the ice cream machine off by accident djslwhsosbahan

— mrs. worldRIDE (@mrsworldride) March 23, 2019

This Burger King employee was so embarrassed by the mistake that she vented about it on Twitter.

Hey, at least she didn’t break it.

8. The U.S. Food Safety blog believes most fast food ice cream is toxic, anyway.

Too much of anything isn’t good, but this specific food blog states that ice cream from places like Wendy’s, Burger King, and Baskin-Robbins contain ingredients like Potassium Sorbate, Guar Gum, and Sodium Phosphate.

9. Some employees may not trust their own machines.

A McDonald's employee just walked into Burger King to get some ice cream. Wow 😂

— Cameron (@damiendiablo_0) March 23, 2019

It seems like this transaction may have been a waste of time unless that McDonald’s employee knew something.

So if you have a fast food in, you might want to get the scoop (pun intended) before placing an order.

10. There are a lot of things that can actually break.

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The machine is complicated and has a lot of parts. So, without proper maintenance, it can break faster than you might think.

11. “Broken” is also code for “ran out of ice cream.”

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On a particularly nice day, there may be more demand than supply.

Instead of breaking your heart over it, might as well say the machine is down.

12. The cleaning cycle literally lasts hours.

Mashed reports that most fast food ice cream machines contain parts that you can’t remove, but that still require 60 seconds of scrubbing in order to be “clean.”

The outside of the machine also needs to be sanitized.

13. The entire machine needs to be taken apart twice a month, and if it’s not, it locks out.

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It’s nice to know that it’s getting a deep clean, but it still seems like a lot of time for the machine to be out of service.

14. Burger King’s ICEE machine seems to have a lot of the same problems, so be careful.

People always complain about McDonald's Ice Cream machine "never working" but am I the only one that realizesthat Burger King's ICEE machine is basically just there for show and is hardly ever working.
Sorry if you can't handle hard facts.

— McTrollster69 (@Eduardo66581312) March 9, 2019

If you go on Twitter, there are plenty of people complaining about the ICEE.

Personally, I totally forgot that Burger King even still offered them.

15. McDonald’s employees can learn about a restaurant’s cleanliness just by looking at the ice cream.

It’s a special skill to have, but it may make you leave your appetite at the door.

16. Fast food ice cream machines also run into problems if the mix runs dry.

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I’d say that anyone’s relationship with a fast food ice cream maker would be, “it’s complicated.”

When it works, it’s great. When something goes wrong, things get really gross.

17. The machines themselves are usually way too expensive and complicated to fix the “no more ice cream” issue.

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Have you ever thought about why McDonald’s and Burger King don’t just have two machines to rotate betweeen?

It would solve a lot of the issues, but it would add a tremendous about of maintenance fees.

But maybe in the future, it’ll be different. A girl can dream.