Ice cube cycle time very high

Hello Danie;

My name is Peter. I am a retired field service refrigeration technician.

The normal setting for a freezer is -2 to +2 degrees F., and the normal setting for the fresh food section is +35 to +40 degrees F.

You only have one source of cooling and that is your freezer. With the settings that you have, you are asking your unit to do what it is not designed to do.

The ice maker is struggling because if it is a cast steel ice cube mold, the heater beneath it is not designed for the current to break the ice cubes free @ -18 degrees F., or if you have a plastic flex ice cube mold it is too ridged to flex enough to break the ice cubes free. Normally your ice maker should dump 8-10 times in a 24 hour period.

A note on food storage. Make sure you do not overload your freezer of fresh food section to the point where food product extends beyond the edge of the shelves.

Just above the pump there is a check valve that may be stuck open
during operation which will cause thin ice. Also make sure you have the o-ring on the bottom of the drain tube if it was removed during cleaning.

Check to see how long it stays in the freeze cycle. normally it takes a least 20 minutes to make a batch. If less than that, you are probably loosing water causing an early harvest and almost no ice.

Ice thickness probe on Manitowoc and float switch may be dirty or stuck if hoshi. Manitowoc sometime the thickness probe can get dirty and a film of algae and not sense ice properly but rare

Are you having any temperature related symptoms, i.e., soft ice cream that appears to have melted slightly and refrozen, soft breads in the freezer, warm or hot outer surfaces anywhere? If cooling is not a problem whatsoever, are any of your ice cubes smaller than normal, or do you have hollow ice cubes; you would be able to crush the cubes in your hand? If either of these pertains to you, you have not enough water coming to the ice maker, due to a faulty water valve not opening completely, or your water source pressure is low. disconnect your water line from the fridge, test pressure of the water line by placing end in a bucket, turning water on. It will be obvious how the pressure is. if pressure is good to really good, you have a bad water valve on the fridge. If pressure is so-so to bad, change source water valve.
If cubes are not small nor hollow, but rather normal full size cubes, just not enough, you probably have an intermittent problem with your icemaker, replace that.

The way I understand how Hoshizaki machines work, the model number is usually what the unit will produce, in pounds of ice. Their manual states: "Approximate production/ 24 hours @ 70 degrees air/ 50 degrees water (incoming)" So, yours should be producing 450 pounds a day, approimately. Since I can not pin point your exact model, I found one that is close. It states: "Ice Production per cycle: 6.6 pounds, 360 pcs." Again, it is not you exact machine. Their web site does not show this model either. So this is the best info I can get for you. Hope this helps.

The thickness probe should be approximatly 1/4 inch off of the evaporator.Sounds like you might have loose grids on the evaporator.turn the unit off and remove the curtain.use a flash light and inspect the grids.There should not be space in between the joints,if there is the ice will freeze behind the grids and not properly release when in harvest. Also gently pull at the grids,if they pull towards you or wiggle then they are separating. I have removed one of the grids and had the unit continue to run for sometime until the evaporator could be replaced.The plating being spotty causes release issues as well.Finally check the level of the machine,front to back and side to side.Not being level will also cause release problems

Something is holding your Ice Slab at the bottom from your description.
Some causes are
1 Dirty - scaled up evap, or just dirty w muddy covering,
2 the vacuum breaking holes are stopped up If it is making a sla whith the evaporator warm no ice take a flashlight and hold it where its shining to the back of the evap and look for the light on th cube forming slots next to the ones your shining the light into Upper corners of each hole must be open.
3 The slab is freezing uneve most like cause is a stopped up distributor tube at the top thats feeding the water down the evaporator.
4 On some models thay had a closer fitting water curtian (the cover in front of the slab) and the top of the sheet touched this and caused the slab to stay uprite and continue the "slide" forward.If your curtian is of the older style and has metal hooks on it with verticle slots n the curtian look at the slots and see if the slots are worn making the whole curtian slide down ward I have seen this several times.4B On some older models there is also a plactic coated wire diverter on the bottom infront of the evaporator. If the palstic coating is gone or the bottom or is not even, the slab could hang up there. 4C If you have the newer plastic pins make sure thay are seated in the mounting properly.
5 Nickel plating could be comming off (any copper color on the lower 1/3 of the evaporator?).
6 I have seen some of the horizontal plates them selves be loose and not in flush try pushing and pulling on them especially the ones at the bottom. ANy that are loose and comming out is your problem.
This lengthy extrapolation is by no means all of the possibilities but most of the common ones. If this helps you solve your proble please rate me accordingly. If it leads you to the correct and completed repair WOULDNT WE MAKE A TEAM?? And Good luck to you.

hoshizakis make ice cubes depending on the amount of water in the sump. if you are starving for water the sump only partially fills in the fill time allowed . then it makes ice until the water is used up and the float switch drops and the cubes are little slices. you can adjust the size of cubes you want by raising or lowering the float assembley in the sump. if its to low the water rises and the float rises and tells the machine you happy with little slices. if you raise it up to max height you can max fill before float satisfies and max ice cubes. But if you are starving for water the time to fill will run out before the sump fills and cubes will be small no matter where you set the floats assembly. water starving can be due to crud in the water line, to small a water line, most hoshizes take a half inch line ,or a clogged water filter. if you suspect a filter take it out . if fill is drastically improved you need a new filter. be aware that starving for water on a hoshizaki will eventually lead to broken evap plates. big time expensive.good luck. i put in a new machine ruined by starving water and the new one made little chips of ice real quick. i finally pulled the filter out and voila! big cubes and great production.