McDonald's ice cream machine

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"Taylor C602" redirects here. For the company that manufactured it, see Taylor Company.
Peach Blossom soft serve ice cream served by McDonald's

The

ice cream machines at its various locations, but primarily those made by the Taylor Company. In 1956, Ray Kroc, who would soon become the founding owner-operator of the McDonald's franchise business, made a handshake agreement with Taylor for that company to supply milkshake machines for the fast food chain as its exclusive supplier, and the strong relationship between the two companies has continued to the present day.[1]

The most prominent of the machines is the Taylor C602, which is used at about 13,000 of the 40,000 McDonald's restaurants (as of 2021) and is notorious for reliability issues.[2][3][4] In 2000, an internal McDonald's survey showed that a quarter of restaurants were reporting that the machines were nonfunctional. The machine is used to produce both shakes[a] and ice cream desserts including soft serve cones, sundaes and McFlurries.[b] In recent years, McDonald's has also allowed franchisees to purchase other machines made by Carpigiani.

History

The equipment manual for the Taylor C602 used by McDonald's identifies it as a "combination shake and soft serve freezer" that is "manufactured exclusively for McDonald's" according to the Taylor Company.[6][non-primary source needed] In March 2017, McDonald's began allowing franchisees to purchase other machines made by Carpigiani, saying they are faster to clean.[7]

Since 2019, Kytch has sold a device that intercepts the Taylor C602's internal communications to provide franchise owners with clearer error messages. Kytch was endorsed by Tyler Gamble, a prominent member of the largest conference of McDonald's franchises National Owners Association, in October 2020, leading to a surge in sales.[3] However, after about 500 Kytch devices were purchased, McDonald's emailed franchise owners in November 2020 to instruct them to remove the Kytch devices immediately, citing safety risks that could lead to "serious human injury", the leak of "confidential information", and Taylor Company warranty violations. The email promoted upgrading the machines to versions with Taylor Company's new "Taylor Shake Sundae Connectivity" user interface feature, which offered capabilities similar to the Kytch product's capabilities, to substitute for the Kytch device.[3][8][9]

In a lawsuit against Taylor, Kytch claimed that Taylor had copied aspects of the Kytch device when developing its "Connectivity" feature and was sabotaging Kytch's business.[9] Kytch also sued McDonald's for its actions to promote Taylor's competing product and prohibit the use of Kytch's device.[9] Kytch's request for an injunction against Taylor's new "Connectivity" feature was denied, as the judge concluded there was no evidence that Taylor's system "was built with or incorporates any Kytch trade secret".[9]

Machine design and maintenance

The Taylor C602 freezes ingredients in spinning barrels, pulls sheets of the mixture off the sides of the barrels using scraping blades, and mixes the sheets to create the ice cream. The ice cream is pushed out through nozzles. Unlike most ice cream machines, the Taylor C602 uses two hoppers[clarification needed] and two barrels and uses a pump to push the ice cream out of the system. Taylor C602 machines are equipped with a display screen. A menu displaying the viscosity of the ingredients, the temperature of the glycol,[clarification needed] and the machine's error messages is accessible by inputting a sequence of numbers.[2]

The Taylor C602 is prone to bacterial contamination.

pasteurize them, and are then refreezed—a process that takes about four hours.[10] Preparing for the cleaning cycle requires employees to create and use a sanitizing mix and rinse the parts.[11] The pasteurization process can suffer from human error; if the device is unplugged during the process or an incorrect amount of mixture is placed in the hoppers, the process must be repeated.[2] When the machine fails to work properly, it can be difficult to determine why, and the typical procedure is to simply repeat the pasteurization process to see if the problem goes away.[10]

Taylor is the only company authorized to fix Taylor C602s. Repairs account for a quarter of the company's sales,[12] and it can take weeks for a technician to arrive on site to address a problem.[10]

Taylor Company also makes a different model called the C709, which operates similarly.[13][14]

Reception

The McDonald's version of the Taylor C602 is notorious for reliability issues.[15] iFixit identified overheating issues creating liquid ice cream or shutting down the machines completely and accused Taylor of maliciously writing vague error codes to increase repair sales.[14] In 2000, an internal McDonald's survey showed a quarter of restaurants reported that the machines were nonfunctional.[11]

In 2017, three women attacked a McDonald's employee in Florida after learning that the machine was broken, leading to support from some Internet users. The McDonald's Twitter account referenced the reliability of the machines in August 2020, joking that the company had a "joke about our soft serve machine" but worried that "it won't work".[2]

In October 2020, the independently operated website McBroken was launched to track whether the ice cream machine at every McDonald's is currently working or not, displaying the status on a map of the locations.[16] The site operates by using the McDonald's online ordering system to submit a request for an ice cream sundae at each location every thirty minutes, and then checking whether the order is accepted or rejected as currently unavailable.[16] The website was immediately endorsed by David Tovar, McDonald's's US vice president of communications, who tweeted that "Only a true @McDonalds fan would go to these lengths to help customers get our delicious ice cream!"[16][17] The site later partnered with Jack in the Box to advertise them as an alternative to McDonald's in 2022.[9]

In July 2021, the

Biden administration push for right to repair legislation.[18]

 McDonald's Twitter
@McDonalds

we have a joke about our soft serve machine but we're worried it won't work

Notes

  1. ^ In some markets including the United States, McDonald's, like many other restaurant chains, refers to its frozen dairy-based beverages as "shakes" rather than "milkshakes" for legal reasons.[5]
  2. M&M's candies, or crumbled fragments of Oreo
    or chocolate- and peanut-butter-flavored cookies.

References

Citations

  1. ^ Casillas, Ofelia (April 6, 2006). "Handshake Put Ice Cream Machines in McDonald's". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e Greenberg, Andy (April 20, 2021). "They Hacked McDonald's Ice Cream Machines—and Started a Cold War". Wired. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Duff, Owen (April 24, 2021). "There's New Legal Drama Around McDonald's Soft Serve Machines". Eat This, Not That. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  4. ^ "2021 Annual Report" (PDF). McDonald's IR. February 24, 2022. pp. 3, 8, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 30, 43, 44, 48, 55. Retrieved July 18, 2022.
  5. ^ "Why You're Technically Not Able To Order A Milkshake At McDonald's". Daily Meal. September 9, 2023.
  6. ^ Taylor Company 2005, p. 1.
  7. ^ Jargon, Julie (March 2, 2017). "McDonald's Customers Scream, and Get New Ice Cream Machines". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  8. ^ Greenberg, Andy (March 2, 2022). "Ice Cream Machine Hackers Sue McDonald's for $900 Million". Wired. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e Wellen, Brianna (March 14, 2022). "The Unending Saga of McDonald's Broken Ice Cream Machines". The Takeout. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  10. ^ a b c d Main, Kelly (September 9, 2021). "Why $4.7 Billion in Profits Won't Fix McDonald's Ice Cream Machines". Inc. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Jargon, Julie (January 19, 2017). "Why Is the McFlurry Machine Down Again?". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  12. ^ Cronin, Brittany; Vanek Smith, Stacey (January 11, 2022). "Why are McDonald's ice cream machines always broken?". Planet Money (Podcast). Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  13. ^ Purdy, Kevin (August 29, 2023). "iFixit tears down a McDonald's ice cream machine, demands DMCA exemption for it". Ars Technica. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  14. ^ a b Chamberlain, Elizabeth (August 29, 2023). "What's Inside That McDonald's Ice Cream Machine? Broken Copyright Law". iFixit. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  15. ^ Cramer, Maria (March 12, 2022). "McDonald's Ice Cream Woes Have Inspired Memes, Mockery and Now, a Federal Lawsuit". The New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  16. ^ a b c Chin, Monica (October 23, 2020). "Meet the 24-year-old who's tracking every broken McDonald's ice-cream machine in the US". The Verge. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  17. ^ Molina, Brett (October 23, 2020). "This website checks whether ice cream machine at local McDonald's is broken". USA Today. Retrieved August 29, 2023.
  18. ^ Haddon, Heather (September 1, 2021). "McDonald's McFlurry Machine Is Broken (Again). Now the FTC Is On It". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved August 29, 2023.

Bibliography

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