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The fact that the design intent is to reduce downtime does not mean it is achieved in practice. McDonald's ice cream machines constantly being "broken" is so we

The fact that the design intent is to reduce downtime does not mean it is achieved in practice. McDonald's ice cream machines constantly being "broken" is so well known that it's a meme among normal people. This is not the case for other fast food places that use Taylor machines. I've seen statements from employees confused about why it's such a big deal to clean the machine once a day because it's not that hard. (Personally, I find it kinda gross that the machine is intentionally not cleaned for weeks.)

gknoy 5y ago
Does this mean that the ice cream machines at other places are just happily dispensing unsafe food?
- sandworm101 5y ago
  No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. The MD machine was designed to run without daily cleaning.
  - JeremyNT 5y ago
    > No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. Maybe on paper, but having worked in jobs that required the routine cleaning of things, I can state with certainty that said things were often either 1) not actually cleaned or 2) not properly cleaned.
  - registeredcorn 5y ago
    I'm sorry, I'm not quite following: Employees do clean these machines every day, but because of how it's designed they don't need to do so? Is this something kind of like: I can change my motor oil every 500 miles my car is driven, but according to the manufacturer I don't need to do so that often?
    - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
      No, the McDonald's machines heat up any leftover milkshake mixture every night to kill all the bacteria in it, then cool it all back down before the morning. If it hasn't been run in the last 24 hours, the machine will refuse to dispense ice cream unless you run the process (which takes a few hours). Non-McDonald's machines work how your imagining: you have to toss the leftover ice cream once it goes bad, disassemble the machine and clean it by hand, then load new ice cream into it.
    - joezydeco 5y ago
      Old machines: The oil is good for 500 miles. It needs to be flushed and replaced every 500 miles. New machines: There's an active oil filter in the car that needs to be turned on every 500 miles. The oil and filter need to be replaced every 5000. The filtering can be done overnight in your garage while you sleep, but if you don't do it before 500 miles the car will shut down until you do.
    - sandworm101 5y ago
      By "cleaning" I mean opening it up, unscrewing things, and cleaning the internal mechanisms of the machine to remove any leftover ice cream before it goes bad.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  I worked for McDonald's in my teenaged years and saw the inspection report on one of the old-style machines. It was pretty horrible. The self-cleaning machine was created for a reason. Unlike the fryers and grills the soft-serve machine is filled with dairy product, loaded by hand via human interaction, and just hovering underneath the safe zone temperature-wise.
jjkaczor 5y ago
It's not just a meme, but trackable enough that someone built a website: https://mcbroken.com/ https://mcbroken.com/
- dawnerd 5y ago
  That’s not even the full picture. Often the app will let you order only for them to tell you at pickup that their machine is down. The site relies on the restaurants keeping up with availability in app.
vkou 5y ago
In practice, there's a huge difference between someone at corporate buying machines that don't work as well as expected, and a shadowy deal where someone at corporate is getting kickbacks from the vendor for buying a deliberately sabotaged machine. The former is just the normal sort of shit that a franchise has to deal with, the latter is what a lot of people, myself included thought this issue was... But I've turned my thinking around on this.
- infogulch 5y ago
  It doesn't have to be all dark, suitcases full of money, cigar smoke filled rooms, and maniacal laughter. You can get the same effective outcome just with misaligned incentives over a long period of time and a steady rotation of pressured middle managers creating a ratchet effect. "The evil of banality" to turn the phrase around.

gknoy 5y ago

Does this mean that the ice cream machines at other places are just happily dispensing unsafe food?

sandworm101 5y ago
No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. The MD machine was designed to run without daily cleaning.
- JeremyNT 5y ago
  > No. It means that they just open up and clean the machine each day, just like every other appliance that touches food. Maybe on paper, but having worked in jobs that required the routine cleaning of things, I can state with certainty that said things were often either 1) not actually cleaned or 2) not properly cleaned.
- registeredcorn 5y ago
  I'm sorry, I'm not quite following: Employees do clean these machines every day, but because of how it's designed they don't need to do so? Is this something kind of like: I can change my motor oil every 500 miles my car is driven, but according to the manufacturer I don't need to do so that often?
  - rrrrrrrrrrrryan 5y ago
    No, the McDonald's machines heat up any leftover milkshake mixture every night to kill all the bacteria in it, then cool it all back down before the morning. If it hasn't been run in the last 24 hours, the machine will refuse to dispense ice cream unless you run the process (which takes a few hours). Non-McDonald's machines work how your imagining: you have to toss the leftover ice cream once it goes bad, disassemble the machine and clean it by hand, then load new ice cream into it.
  - joezydeco 5y ago
    Old machines: The oil is good for 500 miles. It needs to be flushed and replaced every 500 miles. New machines: There's an active oil filter in the car that needs to be turned on every 500 miles. The oil and filter need to be replaced every 5000. The filtering can be done overnight in your garage while you sleep, but if you don't do it before 500 miles the car will shut down until you do.
  - sandworm101 5y ago
    By "cleaning" I mean opening it up, unscrewing things, and cleaning the internal mechanisms of the machine to remove any leftover ice cream before it goes bad.
joezydeco 5y ago
I worked for McDonald's in my teenaged years and saw the inspection report on one of the old-style machines. It was pretty horrible. The self-cleaning machine was created for a reason. Unlike the fryers and grills the soft-serve machine is filled with dairy product, loaded by hand via human interaction, and just hovering underneath the safe zone temperature-wise.

jjkaczor 5y ago

It's not just a meme, but trackable enough that someone built a website: https://mcbroken.com/ https://mcbroken.com/

dawnerd 5y ago
That’s not even the full picture. Often the app will let you order only for them to tell you at pickup that their machine is down. The site relies on the restaurants keeping up with availability in app.

vkou 5y ago

In practice, there's a huge difference between someone at corporate buying machines that don't work as well as expected, and a shadowy deal where someone at corporate is getting kickbacks from the vendor for buying a deliberately sabotaged machine. The former is just the normal sort of shit that a franchise has to deal with, the latter is what a lot of people, myself included thought this issue was... But I've turned my thinking around on this.

infogulch 5y ago
It doesn't have to be all dark, suitcases full of money, cigar smoke filled rooms, and maniacal laughter. You can get the same effective outcome just with misaligned incentives over a long period of time and a steady rotation of pressured middle managers creating a ratchet effect. "The evil of banality" to turn the phrase around.