Why is my ice machine making hollow cubes?

Hollow, thin, or shell-shaped cubes mean water is leaving the evaporator surface before it freezes solid: the water flow is low, a scale layer is insulating the freeze, the distribution tube is partly clogged, or the machine is harvesting early. Hollow ice melts fast in the glass, waters down the drink, and always means the machine needs attention before it stops making ice entirely.

Water supply and distribution

Cubes freeze from the outside in, so anything that starves the water curtain makes shells. Check the filter first, then the inlet valve, then the small distribution holes along the top of the evaporator; a single clogged hole leaves a gap in the sheet and thin cubes directly under it. Las Vegas hard water clogs those holes predictably, which is why the valley's cleaning and sanitizing schedule matters more here than the manual's default.

Scale and early harvest

A scale film on the evaporator slows the freeze, and the machine times out into harvest before the cube is solid. The float or water-level probe reading low does the same by shorting the water curtain. Both problems look identical from the bin: clear shells and half-melted cubes. A technician measures the freeze time against the machine's spec and reads the scale directly; if the evaporator is crusted, a descale usually returns full cubes within a cycle or two.

Environment loads it too

Water temperature above spec, a kitchen over 90 degrees, and a condenser buried in grease all stretch freeze times toward hollow cubes. Regular water filter replacement is the cheapest prevention on this list; filters keep both the flow and the scale under control. Hollow-cube visits typically resolve in a cleaning-plus-parts repair in the few-hundreds range for the valley, with the company confirming the exact fault and price before work begins.

Send a picture of the cubes with the request form; hollow cubes tell the tech almost everything before the visit, and bartenders get full cubes back faster for it.