One of the great things about McDonald’s is that the menu is pretty extensive. While there are lots of fast food places that don’t give you too many options (think Chick-Fil-A, In-N-Out, Checkers), McDonald’s has tons of items on their menu to suit whatever kind of mood you’re in when you’re ordering food. Some fan favorites include the French fries (arguably the best fast food French fries out there), the Big Mac, most of their breakfast offerings, the Chicken McNuggets, and the ice cream. McDonald’s makes ice cream desserts that include milkshakes, cones, sundaes, and the beloved McFlurries. The only problem? The McDonald’s ice cream machine is almost always broken.
If you go to McDonald’s fairly often and you try to order ice cream most of the time, you’ve probably had at least one encounter where the employee tells you the machine isn’t working and you can’t get your dessert.
The machine is said to be broken so often, in fact, that someone even once created an app called Ice Check that lets you check to see if the ice cream machine near you is broken or not. The issue has become an internet meme and a pretty big joke — unless you really want ice cream, in which case, it’s not quite as funny.
So what do employees really think about all of this?
Here are some gross things employees have said about McDonald’s always-busted ice cream machine that may shed some light on the problem:
1. The machines have a crazy cleaning cycle.
As it turns out, the ice cream machines probably aren’t broken all the time — they’re probably just being cleaned.
Reddit user FunGovernment explained, “I think I heard that they go into a self cleaning process that takes a while so they just say it’s broken when it does that because customers are dumb and won’t understand.”
The Wall Street Journal has backed this up with a report saying that the machines go through a nightly cleaning process that takes at least four hours. During that time, the machine obviously can’t be used, so instead, employees usually just say it’s broken. Sometimes it’s not even nightly, but during the day.
2. They can get really, really moldy.
You probably want the machine to be “broken” if that means it’s getting cleaned. If it doesn’t, your ice cream might end up being made in a machine full of gross mold. An employee once took to Twitter to show an image of the trays from the ice cream machine he was cleaning.
He said that while he thought the machine was cleaned regularly, it actually hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. The trays were disgusting!
He ended up getting fired for sharing the photos on social media after they went viral. Yikes. That’s definitely not comforting.
3. Too many customers can make the ice cream machine act up.
Sometimes the machine is just acting weird because it can’t keep up with the amount of people ordering ice cream. In a Reddit thread, user redstaroo7 said:
“When I worked there, the machine would often fall behind when under heavy load. We put a bag of liquid ice cream mix in the machine, and it churns and chills it into soft serve. When we get a lot of customer traffic, the machine starts to squirt out liquidy ice cream, and then the straight shake mix.”
Liquidly ice cream doesn’t sound appealing!
The employee added, “Unfortunately, most people come in to order ice cream around the same time, between 12-1, 5-6, and after games let out. This makes it seem like it’s constantly broken, when in reality the majority of customers are ordering at set times, overwhelming the machine.”
4. The stuff that comes out of the machine smells… bad.
Some employees make comments about the ice cream machine that will make you happy it’s broken! A now-deleted user said on Reddit:
“Fun fact about that machine. When I worked at a McDonald’s I remember that the ice cream machine would slowly drip a fluid into a bucket. The fluid looked like a diluted version of the ice cream mix. At the end of the day, the bucket had to be emptied, it is still the worst thing I have ever smelt.”
Yuck!
5. Sometimes employees just don’t want to clean it.
Sometimes the machine is broken because it’s being cleaned, other times it’s “broken” because it needs to be cleaned… and no one wants to do it, which is pretty gross. Reddit user my__name__is said:
“Not many people order ice cream, the machine is a b*tch to clean, so they don’t want to do it again when it comes time to close because of one of two customers.”
6. Those machines really, really need to be cleaned.
One employee said that the ice cream machine should actually be avoided. Reddit user plaid-pancake said:
“My friend had a job cleaning the ice cream machines. Just be glad when they tell you they’re broken.”
No other details, but that’s pretty much enough to make us never want to order ice cream at McDonald’s again!
7. Your McFlurry isn’t even full anyway.
If you do get lucky enough (or unlucky, according to some of these comments?) to be there when the ice cream machine is not broken, don’t expect your McFlurry to be completely full. Reddit user Estelwen394 said:
“We skimp the ice cream in McFlurrys, we use the machine and just pile the ice cream around the edges leaving a hole in the middle, when we mix it all up there’s less ice cream than you think.”
So, if you’ve never noticed a hollow center in your McFlurry, you’re not imagining it, and it probably wasn’t an accident.
8. Not all of the employees know how to clean the machine.
when the mcdonald’s worker says the ice cream machine is broken https://t.co/cE7EH1RqDy
— it’s kristen not kristin (@kristenn_matata) April 1, 2019
You would think that with an issue this big, McDonald’s would make sure every employee knows how to clean the machines properly so that they work as often as possible. But that may not be the case. In a Quora thread, McDonald’s employee Anna Zerkle wrote:
“We are taught to make a sale, so if you come and our ice cream machine is down we hate it as much as you do because if that’s all you want we just lost your business. We had two people who knew how to clean the ice cream machine. One left leaving us with only one. That ice cream machine is a pain in the neck to clean and if we are slammed we will not have any time to clean it.”
9. The machine is slow and needs to warm up in between orders.
Again, the ice cream machine may not be broken, but is warming up to be used again. In a Quora thread, McDonald’s employee Bridie O’Donnell said:
“The issues with the machine, are if a large number of ice creams or shakes had been ordered recently. The machine would need a good 10 min wait to freeze the ice cream mix inside. In this time we may tell you the machine is broken, or we may ask you to wait, it depends on the customer and on the staff member.”
So, really, it looks like it depends on the employee you’re ordering from.
10. Most employees really just hate making the cones.
The only people that care less than 4th quarter seniors are McDonald’s employees who tell you the ice cream machine is broken when in reality they’re just too lazy to get you a McFlurry
— Providence Senior Board (@provsnrboard) April 2, 2019
Ordering an ice cream cone instead of a McFlurry? Chances are good that the employee just doesn’t really want to do it. In that same Quora thread, user Jake Williams said his roommate, who worked at McDonald’s, told him:
“Cones, while not impossible, are a nightmare to work with and almost nobody can get them to come out right.” He added, “He has told customers who asked for six cones in the middle of the night while only one other worker was present that the machine was switched off for the night.”
It doesn’t seem like it should be that hard, but okay.
11. Despite the cleaning, it’s really dirty all the time anyway.
Some employees insist that even with regular cleaning, the machine is pretty gross all the time. Reddit user snazyfuuu said:
“Hi, I worked at mcdonalds for about 5 years. Truth is, the machine is terrible. It is dirty all the time, and after 9, most people get lazy and tear it down early. I am not going to ruin anything for you, but I would suggest getting a frosty from now on.”
Well, they’ve pretty much already ruined it for us!
12. Still, some employees say there’s really not a problem with the ice cream machines.
While a lot of McDonald’s employees will talk about how annoying the machines are, some say they aren’t an issue at their store. Reddit user hickleton90 said:
“The shake machines can be temperamental at times. Regular cleaning helps and the machines as designed so that it can’t be skipped. In my experience, they are working far more than they are broken and as crew, you don’t want them broken, the amount of trouble that follows from not be able to serve any products makes me think it highly unlikely they are saying the machines broke when it isn’t.”
13. Some employees will admit to just shutting the machine off.
I get it, McDonald's ice cream machine. Nobody's going to fix me either.
— 𝘿𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝕏 (@thegiftofmayhem) March 31, 2019
Since making ice cream and using the machine can be kind of time-consuming and annoying, it seems like some employees just choose to ignore it altogether. In a Quora thread, former employee Craig Bruckman said:
“‘Sorry our ice cream (or McCafe) machine is down’ is code for ‘We turned off the ice cream (or McCafe) machine because making McFlurrys, frappes, shakes, lattes and cleaning the machine is a pain in the ass, and we want an easy, stress-free shift.'”
14. Sometimes it’s just not assembled correctly.
The ice cream machine is complicated, and sometimes it’s “not working” because whoever cleaned it last didn’t put it together properly. In a Quora thread, Clay Nicholson, the Senior Director of US I/T at McDonald’s, said:
“Believe it or not, the problem is not that they ‘break down,’ the usual problem is that they are incorrectly assembled. The shake and sundae machines are complex, with multiple parts, including seals and o-rings. If not assembled in the proper order, with seals and o-rings that are in good condition and not deteriorated, and then filled and started up correctly, the machines will not function properly.”
Basically, it comes down to the crew and managers.
15. The machine itself just needs to be replaced.
If it sounds like the ice cream machine comes with a lot of problems, that’s because it does… and employees agree it’s time for a change. In a Quora thread, Daniel Golden, a manager at McDonald’s, said, “One mistake and the machine is out of service until the service guy gets there. For example the machine when changing shake syrup needs to be primed. If you press the wrong button while priming you WILL get mix and syrup not only all over yourself but the machine and the floor.
“Not to mention the machine takes 2 people 4 hours to clean. Every week. If someone isn’t there who knows how to clean it it locks out until it has been cleaned. Also a problem is heat mode. I have worked at McDonald’s for a year and still don’t quite understand how it works. I know it needs full hoppers of mix and then you have to drain those and waste them as well as if it goes into heat mode overnight without mix, the machine is out of service until a Taylor service person can fix it.”
At least we can take comfort in the fact that McDonald’s is a franchise, meaning most restaurants have different owners and things are run a little bit differently in each store.
There’s still hope!
