McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Is Broken…Again

by JRBoondoggle / Consumerism

I watched a informative video this morning and had to post this to help vent my frustration in its absurdity. It’s a video by YouTuber Johnny Harris that explains, in detail, why the McDonald’s ice cream machine is too often “broken”: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4

If you enjoy McDonald’s milk shakes & ice cream or get it for your kids or grand-kids. Nothing is more disappointing then sitting in the drive-thru line only to find out their ice cream machine is out-of-order…again. This includes milkshakes as well – we tried to get a Shamrock Shake on St Patty’s Day, sat in line for 10mins only to find the machine was “broken”. Turns out this is part of a McDonald’s and Taylor Ice Cream Machines agreement to generate revenue from franchises. The machines are designed so if there’s a glitch only the service technician can fix them. This is how the operational software works so do not gripe to the McDonald’s employees or manager. It’s not their fault. They are required to use only Taylor (C602) ice cream machines. They are required to run a 4hr daily maintenance routine and it is this routine that can cause the problem. If there is ANY glitch in the maintenance & sterilization routine, the system halts with an error code that only the Taylor technician can diagnose. It could be a problem as simple as too much ice cream mix in the hopper.
A development company named Kytch designs and sells a device that help McDonald’s (& other soft serve machine) users troubleshoot problems. Deciphering the cryptic error codes so they can fix problems themselves in many cases. But since this takes revenue away from Taylor, McDonald’s issued a warning that said using this device is dangerous & will void the warranty. Meanwhile the parent company of Taylor has a subsidiary, Powerhouse Dynamics, developing their own Kytch-type diagnostic device. They will most likely market this device to franchises for a subscription or hefty price to make up for the lost repair revenue.

It would be great if McDonald’s could improve the reliability of their ice cream/milk shake machines. But until they do so, I’ll be taking the grand-kids to Sonic, Wendy’s, Chick-fil-a, In-n-Out, or for frozen yogurt. I refuse to wait in the drive-thru only to hear the overused “ice-cream machine is broken”.

There are growing resources of information about this inconvenience and the cause. Just google “McDonalds broken ice cream machine”.

  • Watch Johnny Harris’ Youtube video that explains, in detail, all this and is the source for most of what’s above: https://youtu.be/SrDEtSlqJC4
  • Mcbroken.com: this website tracks the “broken” McDonald’s ice cream machines regionally – awesome.
  • TheVerge article: https://bit.ly/2S0qYMy | Food & Wine article: https://bit.ly/3dZ0DHa