Ice-O-Matic: Switching from Cubes to Nugget Cuts Your Filter Bill by a Third
Seventy-seven certified Ice-O-Matic machines, what each puts through a cartridge, and how long the cartridge lasts.
Ice-O-Matic's cubers are at the thirsty end of the market and their nugget and flake machines are at the cheapest end of it. That is not a contradiction — it is the clearest illustration we have found of the single biggest lever on filtration cost, and it is a lever almost nobody mentions at the point of sale.
Every one of their 19 certified continuous machines — GEM, HEM and MFI, from 293 to 1,845 lb a day — is certified at 12.0 gallons per 100 lb of ice.
Their CIM cubers run a median of 19.0.
Same brand. The cuber puts 58% more water through your cartridge for the same weight of ice.
Why 12.0 is not a coincidence
Nineteen machines spanning a six-fold range of output, all reporting the same number to one decimal place, is not nineteen independent measurements. It is a floor, and you can work out where the floor is with a calculator.
One hundred pounds of ice is 11.98 gallons of water. A US gallon weighs 8.345 lb, so 100 ÷ 8.345 = 11.98. No machine can make 100 lb of ice from less water than that.
So a continuous machine freezes essentially everything it takes in. Water goes onto a chilled surface, gets scraped off as flake or extruded as nugget, and almost none of it goes down the drain.
A batch cuber cannot work that way. It freezes clear cubes by freezing part of the water in the tray and flushing the rest — because the minerals concentrate in what is left behind, and that is the water you want gone. Purge more, less mineral stays on the evaporator, less scale. Purge more, more gallons through your cartridge.
Which means the certified figure tells you directly how much of your filtered water never becomes ice:
| Machine | Potable gal/100 lb | Down the drain |
|---|---|---|
| Ice-O-Matic GEM / HEM / MFI | 12.0 | essentially nothing |
| Ice-O-Matic CIM, newer A90 codes | 17.0 | 5.0 gal, about 30% of intake |
| Ice-O-Matic CIM, legacy codes | 19.5 | 7.5 gal, about 39% |
| CIMU220 undercounter | 22.5 | 10.5 gal, about 47% |
This is our arithmetic, not Ice-O-Matic's statement. The 11.98 floor is water density; the gap above it is what is left over. We think it is the right way to read the certified figure and we are telling you it is a reading rather than a specification.
And it is corroborated from a completely separate direction. 3M's own ice machine sizing sheet lets the same cartridge cover up to 1,200 lb/day on a flaker or nugget machine but only 750 lb/day on a cuber — a 60% difference, in the same direction, from a filter manufacturer with no stake in which ice you buy. Two unrelated sources agreeing is the strongest evidence we have on this site about anything.
What this is worth in practice
Two Ice-O-Matic machines, both around 300 lb a day:
| CIM0326 (cube) | GEM0450A (nugget) | |
|---|---|---|
| Certified harvest | 236 lb/day | 303–353 lb/day |
| Potable water | 19.5 gal/100 lb | 12.0 gal/100 lb |
| Gallons per day | 46 | 42 |
| Days on an Insurice Single | 196 | 212 |
The nugget machine makes up to 50% more ice per day on fewer gallons, and still lasts longer on the same cartridge.
At the top of the range it gets starker. A CIM0836 remote cuber at 769 lb/day burns 146 gallons a day: a Twin lasts it 123 days, so it needs a Triple to clear six months. A GEM0956A at 753 lb/day — within two percent of the same output — burns 90, and clears six months on a Twin with three weeks to spare.
If the ice format is genuinely open, this is a real decision with a running cost attached. A cocktail programme needs cubes and that is the end of the discussion. A nugget or flake programme — soft drinks, iced coffee, a salad bar, healthcare — is choosing between two machines where one costs about a third less to filter for as long as you own it.
Every certified Ice-O-Matic CIM cuber
Certified harvest rate, certified potable water use, and days of cartridge life at that harvest rate. Everpure Insurice capacities: Single 9,000 gal, Twin 18,000, Triple 36,000.
Where a code shows a range, Ice-O-Matic has more than one certified variant under it and we have used the thirstier one, so the days column is the conservative answer.
| Model | Harvest lb/day | Potable gal/100 lb | Gal/day | Single | Twin | Triple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CIMU220 | 167 | 22.5 | 38 | 240 | 479 | 958 |
| CIM0326 | 236 | 19.5 | 46 | 196 | 391 | 782 |
| CIM0320 | 240 | 19.0 | 46 | 197 | 395 | 789 |
| CIM0330 | 240 | 19.0 | 46 | 197 | 395 | 789 |
| CIM0430 | 310–312 | 17.0–19.8 | 62 | 146 | 291 | 583 |
| CIM0436 | 340 | 18.0 | 61 | 147 | 294 | 588 |
| CIM0520 | 400–420 | 17.0–19.9 | 84 | 108 | 215 | 431 |
| CIM0530 | 400–420 | 17.0–19.9 | 84 | 108 | 215 | 431 |
| CIM0526 | 419 | 20.0 | 84 | 107 | 215 | 430 |
| CIM0636 | 440–520 | 17.0–19.0 | 99 | 91 | 182 | 364 |
| CIM0826 | 769 | 19.0 | 146 | 62 | 123 | 246 |
| CIM0836 | 769 | 19.0 | 146 | 62 | 123 | 246 |
Four of the twelve clear six months on a Single at certified harvest rate, and they are the four smallest. From the CIM0430 up, you want a Twin at minimum; the CIM0636 lands at 182 days on a Twin, which is two days past six months and therefore not an answer so much as a coin toss. The 0826 and 0836 need a Triple, and even then they are at 246 days.
The A90 codes are the cheaper ones to run
Within the cuber range there is a split worth knowing about, the same shape as the one in Manitowoc's Indigo lineup:
| Certified | Potable gal/100 lb | |
|---|---|---|
| Legacy CIM codes (FA, HA, FAT, HAT, FR, HR) | 2020 – 2022 | 18.0 – 20.0, median 19.5 |
| A90 codes (CIM0320*A90 and siblings) | 2025 – 2026 | 17.0 – 19.0 |
The CIMU220 undercounter also carries an A90 suffix and is the thirstiest Ice-O-Matic in the dataset at 22.5 — it is a small self-contained unit, not part of the CIM head range, and the suffix does not rescue it.
On a CIM0430 that is the difference between 53 and 61 gallons a day — 170 days on a Single against 147.
That A90 supersedes the legacy codes is our inference from the certification dates, not something Ice-O-Matic has told us. It is the obvious reading and it is the one we would act on, but check the plate rather than assume: the suffix is what decides which row of the table you are in.
Every certified Ice-O-Matic nugget and flake machine
All of these are certified at 12.0 gal/100 lb, so the only thing that moves the cartridge interval is how much ice they make.
| Model | Harvest lb/day | Gal/day | Single | Twin | Triple |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HEM0450 | 293 | 35 | 256 | 512 | 1,024 |
| GEM0450 | 303–353 | 42 | 212 | 425 | 850 |
| MFI0500 | 334 | 40 | 225 | 449 | 898 |
| HEM0650 | 492 | 59 | 152 | 305 | 610 |
| GEM0650 | 538 | 65 | 139 | 279 | 558 |
| MFI0800 | 585 | 70 | 128 | 256 | 513 |
| HEM0956 | 620 | 74 | 121 | 242 | 484 |
| GEM0956 | 683–753 | 90 | 100 | 199 | 398 |
| MFI1256 | 757–885 | 106 | 85 | 169 | 339 |
| HEM1306 | 864 | 104 | 87 | 174 | 347 |
| GEM1306 | 1,000–1,004 | 120 | 75 | 149 | 299 |
| MFI1506 | 1,050–1,084 | 130 | 69 | 138 | 277 |
| GEM2006 | 1,625 | 195 | 46 | 92 | 185 |
| MFI2306 | 1,845 | 221 | 41 | 81 | 163 |
Bold marks the smallest Insurice system that clears 180 days at certified harvest rate. Three of the fourteen clear six months on a single cartridge, which is three more than any cuber range we have costed. Only the MFI2306, at 1,845 lb a day, cannot get there on a Triple.
Read this before you use the tables
These harvest rates are certified figures, not brochure figures. They are taken at the hot condition. That is the honest number to size on and it is still higher than most machines actually make.
Size on what yours actually makes. A machine at 60% duty uses 60% of the water and gets about 1.7× the cartridge life. A CIM0530 at 60% duty gets roughly 180 days from a Single — the same machine at certified output gets 108. If the bin gets emptied once a day and holds 300 lb, 300 is your number.
Take whichever is shorter, capacity or calendar. Six months is the interval the manufacturers print on their own sheets, and past it a cartridge is a problem whether or not it has run out of gallons. The method is in how often to replace a commercial water filter.
On a remote or water-cooled machine, ignore the condenser water figure. That loop is plumbed independently and none of it passes your cartridge. Size on the potable number only — more on that in what your ice machine costs to filter.
Send us the model
Tell us the full code off the data plate, including the suffix, and roughly what the machine makes on a normal day. We will tell you which system fits and what your real interval is.
If you are still choosing the machine and the ice format is open, tell us that too — it is the biggest filtration decision in the whole purchase and it gets made on cube shape.
Related reading
- What 646 certified ice machines cost to filter — the whole dataset, all 40 brands
- Manitowoc Indigo water filter sizing — the same split inside one lineup
- Hoshizaki KM water filter sizing — eleven KM models off the manufacturer's sheets
- How often to replace a commercial water filter — capacity versus calendar
- The complete water guide for bars, cafés and restaurants — how it all fits together
Harvest rates and potable water figures are from the ENERGY STAR Certified Commercial Ice Machines dataset published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at data.energystar.gov, downloaded 2 October 2026. Cartridge capacities are from Pentair Everpure's Insurice specification sheets. The flaker-versus-cuber sizing comparison is from 3M's published Commercial Ice Machine Filter Sizing sheet. Cartridge-life figures and the 11.98-gallon floor are our arithmetic from those published inputs, calculated at certified harvest rate. Certification is voluntary; a model absent from that list is not necessarily worse, but should not be assumed to match these figures.