Ice machine for a taco shop (taqueria)

A taco shop or taqueria is counter-service Mexican fast-casual: fountain and cup ice for aguas frescas, soft drinks, and iced tea sold with taco tickets. The load is the cup, not the ticket. A Saturday that moves 500 tacos and 340 drinks has an ice line of 340 cups. Charts we opened do not print a taco-shop, taqueria, agua fresca, or pounds-per-taco row. The closest published lines are the same quick-service / fountain ounce cells already worked on the fast-food / QSR page, plus Atlantic’s quick-service restaurant 0.5–1.0 lb per customer when you have a customer count and no cup count.

That is a different worksheet from a drive-thru window. The fast-food page’s worked day is 800 drive-thru cups plus 200 lobby cups. A staffed taqueria counter does not inherit that window. It is a different worksheet from a full-service restaurant cover at 1.5 lb per guest. It is a different worksheet from a deli salad-bar flake plant. A small salsa rail that is refrigerated is zero ice. A salsa pan that actually sits in ice is a measured second line, not a copy of the cup count.

This is a planning page from published application factors and current OEM sheets already in this directory. It is not a dealer quote, not a review score, and not a health-code opinion. Confirm electrical, plumbing, clearance, and sanitation with the people who inspect the building.

Who this is for

• Counter-service taco shops and taquerias with a staffed fountain, agua fresca, or iced-tea pour next to the ticket window.
• Mexican fast-casual counters where lunch and dinner are the two peaks, and the leftover has to cover the larger of those windows.
• Shops that sometimes ice a small salsa bar or a cold-prep pan. That well is its own line. It is not the drink plant.

It is not a drive-thru QSR sized on the fast-food page’s 800-cup window. It is not a dining room at 1.5–2 lb per guest. It is not a food truck limited to 115 V and a water tank — a taco truck uses that page. It is not a deli salad bar, a smoothie blender dump, or a convenience-store bagged-ice merchandiser.

Published factors

Charts that print a fast-food, quick-service, or fountain line size ounces of ice per cup, then tell you to count cups on the peak day. Convert ounces to pounds as 16 oz = 1 lb and label the conversion. None of the pages below name a taco shop. These are dealer and OEM application rules of thumb, not a manufacturer warranty and not a lab measurement of your counter.

Pick one published ounce line for each cup size. Say which buffer you used. Do not put Kitchen Spot’s 20%, Memphis’s installation 20%, Atlantic’s 15–25%, GoFoodservice’s calculator 20%, a cold-plate percent, and a hot-room derate on the same pounds.

Separate worksheets — do not stack the same cup

• A taco ticket is not a cup. Count drinks. Atlantic: where beverage counts exist, cup-by-cup is more precise than a per-customer estimate.
• Lunch cups and dinner cups add. They are one day. The dinner window is not a second copy of lunch. Two registers do not double the building’s cup count. They split it.
• One ounce chart per cup. Kitchen Spot’s 10 oz ice on a 20 oz agua, Hoshizaki’s 10.0 oz on any 20–32 oz cup, and Manitowoc’s 12 oz ice on an 18–24 oz drink are three different cells. A 32 oz agua is 16 oz ice on Kitchen Spot, 10 oz ice on Hoshizaki’s 20–32 band, and not on the Manitowoc fast-food ladder (that ladder stops at 18–24 oz). Do not add those readings.
• A 16 oz cup is not inside Hoshizaki’s fast-food cell. That cell starts at 20 oz. Their convenience-store cell is 8.0 oz per 12–16 oz cup, which matches Kitchen Spot’s 8 oz / 16 oz drink and is a different establishment row. Label it if you use it.
• GoFoodservice “quick service cups: same as convenience store” is the cup line. Their 2 lb per person restaurant row is a different row. Do not multiply taco tickets by 2 lb and also by 8 oz.
• Atlantic’s 0.5–1.0 lb per customer replaces the ounce line when you do not have a cup count. If you already counted cups, do not also multiply customers by 0.5–1.0. Do not put Kitchen Spot’s 20% on an Atlantic total. If you want a reserve on the Atlantic row, use Atlantic’s own table (15–25% for a seasonal restaurant is the closest cell to a summer taqueria).
• A drive-thru window, if this building has one, is the fast-food page. Those window cups are not also counter cups. Do not paste this page’s 340-cup counter onto that page’s 800-cup drive-thru.
• A cold plate is its own adder, once, only if that fountain uses one. Aguas frescas poured from a refrigerated dispenser or a pitcher do not get the percent. Kitchen Spot does not print it. GoFoodservice prints 45%. Memphis and the Manitowoc c-store block print 50%. Do not stack both, and do not stack either on Kitchen Spot’s 20%.
• One buffer, from the source you picked. Kitchen Spot’s 20% (or 10% once that line’s needs exceed 1,000 lb/day) belongs on a Kitchen Spot application, once. Memphis’s “at least 20%” is their installation sentence, not a second margin on a Kitchen Spot total.
• A salsa ice well, a cold-prep pan, and a bag line are separate. They are not a second pass through the cup ounces. Bags, if this counter actually sells them, stay on the c-store 10 lb × bags line. A shop that buys no bags has a bag line of zero.
• A blender dump is the smoothie page. An agua fresca or horchata poured over cup ice is this page. A mango drink that is ice blended into the cup is smoothie bar. Do not put Kitchen Spot’s coffee/smoothie 2.5 lb per person on a poured agua.
• A taco truck is the food-truck page. Power, a drain, and a water tank dominate that worksheet. A brick-and-mortar counter with a dedicated circuit is this page.

Worked peak day — busy counter, no drive-thru

Cup counts below are a planning assumption, not a measured POS pull. One building. One peak Saturday. Staffed pours. No drive-thru. No self-serve refill station. No bags. The salsa rail in this example is refrigerated, so its ice line is zero.

• Lunch, 90 minutes: 180 cups, treated as Kitchen Spot 8 oz ice / 16 oz drink (fountain soda, agua fresca, or iced tea poured to a 16 oz cup).
• Dinner, 90 minutes: 120 cups, same row.
• The rest of the day: 40 cups, same row.

Day: 180 + 120 + 40 = 340 cups.

340 × 8 oz = 2,720 oz. 2,720 ÷ 16 = 170 lb.

Kitchen Spot’s table says add 20%. The raw need is 170 lb, which does not exceed 1,000 lb/day, so the 20% margin is the one they print:

170 × 1.20 = 204 lb.

We do not multiply 204 by another 20%. We do not also take Memphis’s installation 20%, Atlantic’s 15–25%, or GoFoodservice’s calculator 20%. The hot-room sentences are why the model section uses 90/70 when the sheet has it.

The same 340 cups, split, still add to 170. They do not add a second day.

• Lunch: 180 × 8 ÷ 16 = 90 lb raw; × 1.20 = 108 lb with that margin.
• Dinner: 120 × 8 ÷ 16 = 60 lb raw; × 1.20 = 72 lb.
• The rest: 40 × 8 ÷ 16 = 20 lb raw; × 1.20 = 24 lb.
• Check: 90 + 60 + 20 = 170. 108 + 72 + 24 = 204.

Same 340 cups, a different Kitchen Spot row

Each line replaces the 170 / 204 lb day. It does not sit on top of it.

The 16 oz / 32 oz line is 340 lb of need. That does not exceed 1,000, so Kitchen Spot’s 20% still applies (408 lb). Their 10% sentence replaces 20% only when the need itself exceeds 1,000 lb/day. Example, still a planning assumption: 1,200 cups on the 16 oz / 32 oz row and nothing else: 1,200 × 16 ÷ 16 = 1,200 lb of need. That exceeds 1,000, so the prose says 10% should suffice: 1,200 × 1.10 = 1,320 lb. A 20% reading of the same 1,200 lb would be 1,440 lb. Use one of those, not both. That 1,200-cup building is not the 340-cup counter above.

Other charts on these 340 cups — pick one, do not add it

Hoshizaki fast food, 10.0 oz per 20–32 oz cup, only if those cups are actually in the 20–32 oz band: 340 × 10 ÷ 16 = 212.5 lb. That matches Kitchen Spot’s 10 oz / 20 oz cell and does not match Kitchen Spot’s 16 oz / 32 oz cell (340 lb raw). A 32 oz agua is still 10 oz of ice on the Hoshizaki line (0.625 lb), not 16 oz (1.00 lb). The brochure does not print a 20% on that cell. The worked 16 oz cups are not inside the 20–32 band. Do not force the 10.0 oz fast-food cell onto them. Their convenience-store cell is 8.0 oz per 12–16 oz cup, which is 170 lb on these 340 cups — the same 8 oz as Kitchen Spot’s 16 oz drink — and it is a different establishment row. Label it if you use it.

Webstaurant / Manitowoc fast food and Memphis quick service use the same three bands. On 340 cups:

• 7–10 oz drinks, 5 oz ice: 106.25 lb
• 12–16 oz drinks, 8 oz ice: 170 lb
• 18–24 oz drinks, 12 oz ice: 255 lb

A 32 oz agua is not on that ladder. Do not invent a fourth cell. Memphis’s “at least 20%” is their installation sentence. The PDF does not print a percent on the quick-service ounces.

GoFoodservice quick-service cups, same 340:

• 7–12 oz cup, 5 oz: 106.25 lb
• 12–16 oz cup, 8 oz: 170 lb
• 16–24 oz cup, 12 oz: 255 lb

Their calculator’s 20% is not on these cells. Their 2 lb per person row is not these cells. 340 tickets × 2 lb = 680 lb is the restaurant row applied to a ticket count. It is the wrong method. Kitchen Spot 1.5 lb × 340 tickets = 510 lb is the same mistake. Hoshizaki’s 2.0 lb per seat × 340 = 680 lb is the same mistake.

Atlantic QSR, only as a replacement, and only if you treat the 340 cups as 340 customers with one drink each (a planning assumption, not a POS fact):

• 0.5 lb per customer: 340 × 0.5 = 170 lb. That matches the Kitchen Spot 8 oz / 16 oz raw line. It does not get a second 20%.
• 1.0 lb per customer: 340 × 1.0 = 340 lb. That matches the 16 oz / 32 oz raw line. It does not get Kitchen Spot’s 20% on top.
• Atlantic’s seasonal-restaurant reserve, if you want their buffer on the 0.5 lb line: 170 × 1.15 = 195.5 lb, or 170 × 1.25 = 212.5 lb. That band replaces the 204 lb Kitchen Spot margin. It is not 204 + 195.5. Their outdoor 25–30% cell is a patio taqueria, not the indoor counter in this example.

The sizing page quick-service example is 300 × 0.75 lb = 225 lb. That 0.75 lb figure is Kitchen Spot’s 12 oz / 24 oz drink, or the midpoint language of the 0.5–1.0 band. It is not these 340 cups. Cups at 5 oz ice / 10 oz drink (0.3125 lb) are under that band. Say which one you used.

Self-serve 2–3 lb is a different building. 340 × 2.5 = 850 lb. Use it only when the soda is a refill station. A staffed pour stays on the ounce line.

Do not stack this example

• The 180 lunch cups are not also the 120 dinner cups.
• A second register does not copy the 340. If 200 of the 340 go to the front line and 140 to a side window, the pounds split the same way. 200 + 140 = 340.
• Kitchen Spot’s 20% is the only buffer on this Kitchen Spot line.
• A cold-plate percent, below, replaces a discussion of this 204 lb figure for the cups that actually sit on a cold plate. It does not sit on top of 204.
• Restaurant 1.5 lb or 2 lb per person is an alternate method you should not use. It is not a second line.
• The refrigerated salsa rail adds zero.

Worked peak day — smaller counter, no drive-thru

Same Kitchen Spot method. Planning assumption: 180 cups, no window, no bags, refrigerated salsa.

• Lunch, 90 minutes: 100 cups.
• Dinner, 90 minutes: 60 cups.
• The rest: 20 cups.

Kitchen Spot 8 oz ice / 16 oz drink: 180 × 8 ÷ 16 = 90 lb. Table +20% → 108 lb.

Lunch pull: 100 × 8 ÷ 16 = 50 lb raw; × 1.20 = 60 lb. Dinner: 30 lb raw (36 lb with 20%). The rest: 10 lb raw (12 lb with 20%). Check: 50 + 30 + 10 = 90.

Other rows on the same 180 cups, each a replacement:

• 6 oz / 12 oz: 180 × 6 ÷ 16 = 67.5 lb; +20% → 81 lb
• 10 oz / 20 oz: 180 × 10 ÷ 16 = 112.5 lb; +20% → 135 lb
• 12 oz / 24 oz: 180 × 12 ÷ 16 = 135 lb; +20% → 162 lb

Hoshizaki’s fast-food cell does not cover a 16 oz cup. It starts at 20 oz. Manitowoc’s 8 oz / 12–16 oz band is 90 lb on these 180 cups, with no percent printed on the cell. GoFoodservice’s 8 oz / 12–16 band is the same 90 lb.

This band is an undercounter conversation if the bin covers the lunch pull. The busy counter’s 170 / 204 lb day is not.

Cold plate — only if that fountain uses one

A cold plate cools soda by sitting in ice. A remote soda system with its own refrigeration does not get this adder. An agua fresca from a cold well or a pitcher does not get it either. Kitchen Spot’s beverage table does not print a cold-plate percent. Do not invent one in their name.

On the busy counter’s 170 lb raw day, before any Kitchen Spot 20%, if every cup sat on a cold plate:

• GoFoodservice 45%: 170 × 1.45 = 246.5 lb. This replaces the 204 lb Kitchen Spot margin. It is not 246.5 + 204.
• Memphis / Manitowoc c-store block, 50%: 170 × 1.50 = 255 lb. Those pages print 50% under convenience store, not under fast food or quick service. Using it on a taqueria cold plate is that c-store adder, labeled as a cross-read. It replaces both the 204 lb margin and the 246.5 lb GoFoodservice figure. Do not stack 45% and 50%.

Planning assumption, still not a POS pull: 200 of the 340 cups are fountain soda on a cold plate, and 140 are aguas or iced tea that are not. On the 8 oz / 16 oz row, soda is 200 × 8 ÷ 16 = 100 lb and aguas are 140 × 8 ÷ 16 = 70 lb. Check: 100 + 70 = 170.

• GoFoodservice 45% on the soda only: 100 × 1.45 = 145 lb, plus aguas 70 lb → 215 lb. No second 20%.
• Memphis / Manitowoc 50% on the soda only: 100 × 1.50 = 150 lb, plus aguas 70 lb → 220 lb. Same rule.

A counter with no cold plate keeps the ounce line alone (170 / 204 lb on the worked row).

Salsa bar and cold-prep — only if ice actually leaves the bin

A refrigerated salsa station, a steam-table insert with no ice, and a bottled salsa are zero. Do not invent ounces per salsa cup. Atlantic’s kitchen / food-preparation worksheet is measured peak-day use. We did not find a published lb-per-taco or lb-per-pan. Weigh a fill or leave the prep row at zero.

If the pans sit in ice, the line is the volume of that well, once. Planning assumption: 0.5 ft³ of ice under the pans. Each figure replaces the others. None of them is added to the 204 lb cup margin unless you move the whole day onto one source, below.

• GoFoodservice salad bar 30 lb/ft³: 0.5 × 30 = 15 lb
• Hoshizaki 2018 Salad Bar/Seafood Display 30 lb “per cubic feet,” and the Webstaurant/Manitowoc PDF salad bar 30 lb/ft³: the same 15 lb on this 0.5 ft³ assumption
• Kitchen Spot salad bar 35 lb/ft³: 0.5 × 35 = 17.5 lb
• Memphis Food Service salad bar 40 lb/ft³: 0.5 × 40 = 20 lb. That cell is not under their Quick Service ounces. Label it if you use it.

Do not average 30, 35, and 40 into a house 35.

If you stay on Kitchen Spot for both the cups and the well: 170 + 17.5 = 187.5 lb, then their 20% once → 225 lb. That 225 replaces 204. It does not sit on top of 204. A refrigerated rail keeps the day at 204 lb.

Atlantic: two ice forms — cube or nugget in the cup, flake in a display well — are two systems. A half cubic foot does not by itself require a second cabinet. Weigh it. Hoshizaki F-330BAK is the flake cabinet in this directory (331 lb up to, 80 lb bin). It is the wrong machine for the soft-drink plant, and it is more flake than a 15 lb well needs. The deli page is the salad-bar worksheet when the well is the job, not a side pan.

Bin and the lunch / dinner window

The 170 lb raw day (or 204 lb after Kitchen Spot’s 20%) does not leave in one minute, and it does not sit in the bin all day. Ice bin sizing is the leftover page. Production in 24 hours is not storage. An undersized bin shuts the head off while the window is still open.

The busy counter’s larger window is lunch, 90 lb raw or 108 lb after the same 20%. Dinner (60 / 72 lb) is inside the day. Adding the windows double-counts the day.

Manitowoc IYT0450A air-cooled half-dice, directory page: 490 lb @ 70/50, 378 lb @ 90/70. Head only.

• 378 lb @ 90/70 covers the 170 lb raw day, the 204 lb buffered day, the 255 lb 10 oz / 20 oz buffered day, and the 306 lb 12 oz / 24 oz buffered day. It misses the 408 lb 16 oz / 32 oz buffered day.
• 90 minutes at 378: 378 ÷ 24 × 1.5 = 23.625 lb. The hourly split is arithmetic, not an OEM hourly guarantee. Harvest is cyclic.
• Atlantic’s shape, if the only opening stock is that window’s make: the usable target is still about the window pull, 90 lb raw or 108 lb if you already applied 20% to the lunch cups. That 108 replaces 90. It does not sit on top of the day’s 204 lb, because those cups are already inside the day.
• This directory’s largest undercounter bin is 90 lb. A 90 lb sticker equals the raw lunch if the bin starts full. Kitchen Spot says expect 10–20% less than the printed bin pounds: 90 × 0.90 = 81 lb usable at the 10% loss, and 90 × 0.80 = 72 lb at the 20% loss. Both miss a 90 lb lunch, and both miss a 108 lb buffered lunch. The busy counter is a modular head and a bin from that head’s compatibility list, not a 90 lb cabinet.

Hoshizaki B-300SF, opened 2026-10-01: 300 lb storage. The page’s own footnote is 11.51 ft³ × 30 lb/ft³ average density, which is how they get the 300 lb sticker. A full 300 lb sticker covers a 108 lb lunch on paper. Kitchen Spot’s 20% usable-loss reading is 300 × 0.80 = 240 lb, which still covers 108. A bin twice the 204 lb day would be about 408 lb; Kitchen Spot calls a bin that large “usually a bad idea” for ice used every day. 300 lb is above their “10–20% larger than daily make” shortcut (204 × 1.20 = 244.8 lb) and below the twice-daily line. Pair it only if the head’s sheet lists it. This page does not invent a shared bin. The IYT0450A directory note says this head is not stackable.

Hoshizaki KM-520MAJ is approximately 556 lb on the product page. 90/70 is not on that page. 556 covers 170, 204, 306, and 408 on the “approximately 556” cell. If you apply Kitchen Spot’s “15% or more” because there is no 90/70 cell: 556 × 0.85 ≈ 473 lb. That is arithmetic on their derate sentence, not a printed 90/70 cell. 473 still covers 408. Do not also subtract 15% from the 204 lb target. The product page says two units may be mounted side by side. One head already covers this counter. This page does not invent a shared-bin poundage for a pair.

Smaller-counter lunch, own cabinet

The 90 lb day (108 lb with Kitchen Spot’s 20%) is a different bin problem. Lunch pull 50 lb raw, 60 lb with the 20% already on those cups.

Manitowoc UYF-0190A on the NEO 140/190 family sheet: 193 lb @ 70/50, 140 lb @ 90/70, 90 lb bin.

• 140 lb @ 90/70 covers the 90 lb line and the 108 lb buffered line. The 90 lb bin covers a 50 lb or 60 lb lunch if it starts with ice. Two hours is not this window; the window here is 90 minutes. Arithmetic make is 140 ÷ 24 × 1.5 ≈ 8.75 lb. A full 90 lb bin plus about 9 lb covers a 50 lb lunch. It does not cover the busy counter’s 90 / 108 lb lunch. Kitchen Spot’s 10–20% usable-loss on a 90 lb sticker (81 / 72 lb) still covers 50 and 60.
• Manitowoc UYF-0140A is 100 lb @ 90/70 with the same 90 lb bin. 100 covers the 90 lb raw day and misses the 108 lb buffered day. Same bin warning on the busy counter. The smaller counter’s lunch still fits the bin.

Hoshizaki KM-161BAK is 156 lb with a 78 lb bin. 90/70 is not on that HTML. 156 covers the 90 / 108 lb day on the “156” cell. The 78 lb bin covers a 50 / 60 lb lunch if it starts with ice. It does not cover a 90 / 108 lb lunch.

Ice-O-Matic ICEU150HA is 185 / 130 lb with a 70 lb bin. 130 lb @ 90/70 covers 108 and misses a 135 lb 10 oz / 20 oz buffered day on the smaller counter. The 70 lb bin covers a 60 lb lunch and is the constraint, not the 24-hour rating.

Ice type

Fountain speed and a chewable agua are different jobs. See cube vs half-dice vs nugget vs flake. Atlantic’s ice-type table puts half cube on fountain drinks and iced coffee, crescent on general beverage service, nugget on soft drinks, and flake on salad bars and food displays.

• Half-dice or crescent is the usual staffed fountain and agua pour: it fills a 16 oz cup quickly and is the cube on the heads below (IYT0450A half-dice, KM-520MAJ crescent, CIM0430A half cube, UYF-0190A half-dice). GoFoodservice calls crescent the general-purpose cube.
• Nugget or cubelet when chewable soft-drink ice is the brand: RNP0320A nugget, GEM0450A Pearl, C-80BAK mini cubelet, HID525 H² nugget dispenser. GoFoodservice’s dispenser copy names cubelet / nugget for fountain drinks and soda stations.
• Flake is not the primary drink plant. Hoshizaki F-330BAK is the flake cabinet in this directory. Use it only if a salsa or cold-prep well is actually a flake display, and keep those pounds off the cup total. A deli-scale salad bar stays on the deli page.

Form factor

A smaller counter (90 / 108 lb, lunch 50 / 60 lb) can be an undercounter if the bin covers that lunch. The busy counter (170 / 204 lb, lunch 90 / 108 lb) is a modular head and bin. A customer-facing soda station can be a dispenser with a small hopper, which is a different storage problem. Cooling is a mechanical choice, not an ounce factor. See air-cooled vs water-cooled and undercounter vs modular vs countertop.

GoFoodservice’s form bands, opened 2026-10-01: modular 250–2,500 lb/day, staff access; undercounter 50–500 lb/day make, built-in storage 7–250 lb, typical commercial output 100–250 lb/day; dispenser production 200–800 lb/day, storage 8–250 lb. A band is not a SKU. This directory’s largest undercounter bin is 90 lb. The busy counter leaves that class because of the lunch leftover, even though 204 lb of make still sits inside GoFoodservice’s undercounter production band.

Current heads already in this directory

Figures are the directory pages, which cite manufacturer sheets. Street prices omitted. Pair a modular head with a bin from that sheet’s compatibility list.

Filter, drain, and cleaning stay on water filters and descalers and how to clean a commercial ice machine. A hot kitchen behind the plancha is the 90/70 column when the sheet has one. Kitchen Spot’s 15% or more and GoFoodservice’s 10–15% are what you say when the sheet does not. Do not apply both, and do not apply either on top of a 90/70 number you already used.

What this page is not

• Not a drive-thru QSR. Cup-fill ounces overlap. The fast-food guide’s worked day is 800 drive-thru cups plus 200 lobby cups (600 lb raw, 720 lb with Kitchen Spot’s 20% on the 10 oz / 20 oz and 8 oz / 16 oz rows they used). A staffed taqueria counter does not inherit that window. If this building has a drive-thru, those window cups stay on that page and are not also counted here.
• Not a full-service restaurant. Covers at 1.5 lb per guest (Kitchen Spot) or 2 lb per person (GoFoodservice) or 2.0 lb per seat (Hoshizaki 2018) stay on the restaurant guide. A taco ticket is not a cover.
• Not a deli or sandwich shop. Fountain ounces overlap. Salad-bar flake, cold-cut pans, and a lb-per-sandwich chart that does not exist stay on the deli guide. A refrigerated salsa rail is not that well.
• Not a pizzeria. Another counter that sizes cups instead of covers. Dough flake and a pizza dining room stay on the pizzeria guide.
• Not a convenience store. Fountain ounces overlap. Bagged retail ice as a primary line stays on the c-store guide.
• Not a smoothie bar or a juice bar. Blender-body ice stays on the smoothie guide. A poured agua fresca is a cup. A blended mango drink is not.
• Not a food truck. A taco truck’s 115 V limit, drain, and water tank stay on the food truck guide. This page is a fixed counter.
• Not a code letter. NSF marks and manuals are on the sheets. We do not say an install “meets” a health department.
• Not a review and not a price list. No scores, no invented install counts, no street prices.

Sources

1. The Kitchen Spot, Ice Machines: Sizing for Application — “Convenience Store, Quick Serve, & Drive Through Beverage Service”: 5 / 6 / 8 / 10 / 12 / 16 oz ice per 10 / 12 / 16 / 20 / 24 / 32 oz drink. Restaurant 1.5 lbs per guest. Self-service 2 to 3 lbs per person. Salad bar 35 lbs per cubic foot. Seafood deli 30 lbs per cubic foot. Table marked add 20%. Once needs exceed 1,000 lb/day, 10% additional output should suffice. A ~90° kitchen and ~70° water can cut make by 15% or more. Bin usually 10–20% larger than daily make; expect the pile to hold 10–20% less than the printed pounds. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01.
2. GoFoodservice, Commercial Ice Machine Guide — restaurant 2 lbs per person; quick service cups: same as convenience store (5 oz / 7–12 oz cup; 8 / 12–16; 12 / 16–24); cold plates 45% more; salad bar 30 lbs per cubic foot; packaged ice 10 lbs × bags on the convenience-store block. Customer-count table includes 20% and has restaurant, bar, self-serve, school, and event columns — no quick-service column. Actual output may be 10–15% lower in hot rooms. Modular 250–2,500 lb/day; undercounter 50–500, typical 100–250; dispenser 200–800 production. Cubelet / nugget named for fountain drinks. Live header Last updated: Sep 20, 2026. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01.
3. Atlantic Store Equipment, Commercial Ice Machine Sizing Guide — dated Jul 15, 2026. Quick-service restaurant 0.5–1.0 lb per customer (“drink size, refill policy, and takeout volume”). Full-service restaurant about 1.5 lb per customer. Cup-by-cup is more precise when beverage counts exist. Kitchen and food preparation is measured peak-day use. Display ice is measure fill plus replenishment. Reserve table: 10–15%, 15–25%, or 25–30%. Bin formula: ice used in the window − ice produced in the window + opening safety stock. Half cube for fountain drinks; nugget for soft drinks; flake for salad bars and food displays; two ice forms are two systems. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01.
4. Hoshizaki, 2018 product brochure, Item #40071, dated 5-25-18 — ICE USAGE GUIDE: Fast Food 10.0 oz ice per 20–32 oz cup; convenience store 8.0 oz per 12–16 oz cup; beverage service 5.0 oz per 7–10 oz cup; restaurant 2.0 lbs per seat; salad bar/seafood display 30 lbs ice per cubic feet. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01.
5. WebstaurantStore, Manitowoc ice machines quick-reference PDF — Fast Food 5 oz per 7–10 oz drink; 8 oz per 12–16; 12 oz per 18–24. Restaurant 1-1/2 lb per person. Salad bar 30 lb per cubic foot. Cold plate 50% and packaged ice sit under Convenience Store. No date printed on the PDF. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01. The fast-food guide cites a sibling PDF, manitowoc_sizing_guide.pdf, with the same Fast Food cells, opened there on 2026-09-30.
6. Memphis Ice, What Size Ice Machine Do I Need for My Business? — Quick Service 5 oz / 7–10 oz, 8 / 12–16, 12 / 18–24. Food Service salad bar 40 lb per cubic foot. Cold plate 50% and packaged ice sit under Convenience Store. Prose recommends at least 20% additional capability on new installations. No taco-shop row. Opened 2026-10-01.
7. VenueIce, how to size a commercial ice machine — quick-service row 0.5–1.0 lb per customer, or drink-size rules such as 16 oz ice in a 32 oz cup; worked 300 × 0.75 lb = 225 lb. No taco-shop row on that table. The venue table there does not list every venue guide, so this page does not invent one.
8. VenueIce, ice bin sizing — production is not storage; Atlantic’s window formula; Kitchen Spot bin 10–20% language. Lunch and dinner on this page are a split of one day.
9. Directory pages for the models in the table: C-80BAK, KM-81BAK, KM-161BAK, UYF-0140A, UYF-0190A, ICEU150HA, HID525, RNP0320A, GEM0450A, KM-520MAJ, IYT0450A, CIM0430A, C0330MA-1, F-330BAK. Hoshizaki B-300SF product page: 300 lb storage, footnote 11.51 ft³ × 30 lb/ft³ average density. Compatible icemakers named on that page include KM-520M. Opened 2026-10-01.

If two sheets disagree, we say so. The 2015 Hoshizaki catalog URL cited on the fast-food page returned 404 on 2026-10-01, so this page does not quote a 2015 cell. The 2018 brochure above is the Hoshizaki usage guide we could open.