PURE WATER IN, CLEAN ICE OUT

Ice is only as clean as the water it came from

People assume freezing "cleans" water. It doesn't. Freezing doesn't kill bacteria — it just puts them to sleep. The moment the ice melts into your rum punch, your child's juice, or a customer's cocktail, anything that was in the water wakes right back up. Whatever was in the water is now in the glass. That's why we don't start with raw tap water.

Our process: reverse osmosis, then freeze

Before any water reaches our ice machines, it runs through a 500 litre-per-hour CBFI reverse-osmosis (R/O) purification system. It's a multi-stage process:

1. Sediment pre-filter — strips out rust, silt and grit picked up from old distribution pipes and storage tanks.
2. Activated-carbon filter — removes chlorine, its by-products, and the chemical taste and smell that come with municipal treatment.
3. The reverse-osmosis membrane — the heart of the system. Water is forced through a membrane so fine it blocks dissolved solids, heavy metals (like lead leached from old plumbing), and microscopic contaminants — removing the overwhelming majority of total dissolved solids.
4. Purified, freeze-ready water — what's left is clean, neutral-tasting water that we freeze into crystal-clear tube ice.

At 500 L/H, we can keep that purified water flowing fast enough to meet big event and wholesale demand without ever cutting the corner of "just use the tap."

What's actually in raw tap-water ice?

Kingston's municipal water is treated, but by the time it reaches a tap — through aging mains, rooftop and black storage tanks that aren't always cleaned — it can carry things you don't want frozen into your drinks:

• Chlorine & chemical taste that taints every drink the ice touches.
• Sediment and rust from old pipes and tanks — the reason tap-water ice often looks cloudy.
• Dissolved minerals (hard water) that make ice cloudy, brittle and quick to melt.
• Bacteria and contaminants if a storage tank is poorly maintained — and remember, freezing preserves them rather than killing them.

Most ice sellers freeze that water as-is. You can't taste or see the dissolved contaminants — but they go into the glass all the same.

Why filtered ice is better for you

Putting purified water in means a cleaner, safer product comes out:

• Cleaner for your body — you're not swallowing chlorine by-products, sediment or whatever a dirty tank was holding.
• Better-tasting drinks — neutral, odour-free ice that doesn't hijack the flavour of your cocktail, juice or water.
• Clearer ice that melts slower — purified water freezes harder and clearer, so it lasts longer in the cooler and looks the part on the bar.
• Peace of mind — for your family, your guests, your customers, and anyone more vulnerable to what's in unfiltered water.

The Ice Makers JA difference

Plenty of ice in Kingston is just frozen tap water. Ours starts with reverse-osmosis purified water, every single batch — whether it's a 10-pound bag for your cooler or a KingKong bin for a 200-guest fete. Same purity, every order. That's the standard we hold, because the ice you serve says something about you too.