12 services · Miami, FL
Food and Beverage Ice Blasting
Dry ice leaves no chemical residue on a food contact surface, and no water in a place where standing water is a sanitation problem. That is the whole reason it is used in food production.
What we clean, and what it is covered in
The build-up here is carbonized product, fat, starch, sugar residue and burnt-on build-up. Cleaning is usually scheduled around sanitation and production windows.
Most of the people who call are sanitation and plant managers. What they are protecting against is a chemical residue finding its way onto product, which is exactly why an abrasive or a solvent is the wrong answer.
All 12 services
Every food job we take
Questions about this work
What makes dry ice right for this work?
Dry ice leaves no chemical residue on a food contact surface, and no water in a place where standing water is a sanitation problem. That is the whole reason it is used in food production.
Do you clean in place?
Cleaning is usually scheduled around sanitation and production windows. Most of this work does not need a teardown.
Will it damage the surface?
On most substrates, no. The pellet is soft and sublimates on impact, so the work is thermal rather than abrasive. We test an inconspicuous spot first on anything unusual.
Is there any residue afterward?
None from the media. Dry ice sublimates, so what is left is the contaminant we came to remove, and that is ours to clean up.
Do you come to us?
Yes. The rig is mobile and works across South Florida from Miami out to roughly a hundred miles.
What does it cost?
It depends on the equipment, the contaminant and the access. Describe the job and we will give you a real figure rather than a guess over the phone.
What comes off
The deposits we see most
Most calls involve one of the following. The common factor is a bond between two things that should not be bonded.
- Food residue
Carbonized product build-up in a plant where neither standing water nor a chemical film is acceptable.
- Grease and oil
The greasy base coat that traps grit and dust. It releases early and takes the loose material with it.
- Carbon and soot
Heat-bonded black deposit. Because heat put it there, a sudden cold front is what breaks its grip.
- Adhesive and sealant
Cured sealant, old gasket, tape glue and sound deadening, the residue left when something was removed but its bond was not.
- Resin and mold release
Release agent and resin build-up on tooling, where a solvent fix trades one residue for another.
- Paint and coatings
Removed selectively where the substrate underneath has to survive, which rules out most abrasive approaches.
- Salt and corrosion product
Salt deposit and the oxidation it starts. Anything abrasive removes the protection along with the salt.
How a job runs
What happens once you call
If you have not seen this done before, the process is worth reading once. Nothing below is hidden in a footnote.
- You look before we pack up
Inspect it with the rig still set up. Anything you are not happy with gets another go before we leave.
- You describe the job
We start with what it is and what is on it. Whether it can come offline matters as much as the contaminant, and a wrong-tool answer is one we give up front rather than after the invoice.
- We look at access and containment
Where the compressor sits, how far the hose has to reach, what gets masked or moved, and where the removed contaminant ends up. On food and electrical work this is most of the planning.
- We test a small area
Pressure and pellet size get dialed in on an inconspicuous spot before we touch anything visible. Painted parts, soft alloys and older finishes all behave differently, and the right setting on one is the wrong setting on another.
- We blast, then clean up
The media disappears on contact; the contaminant does not. Gathering what came off is included, not a line added afterward.
The comparison
Why not just pressure wash it
- Hand scraping
Slow enough to be uneconomic on a machine, and the tool always leaves a trace.
- Media blasting
Cuts into the substrate by design. Fine on structural steel, wrong on aluminum, plating, machined faces or anything with a tolerance.
- Pressure washing
Water gets into everything and has to come out again before the equipment runs. Around electrics it is off the table entirely.
- Solvent and degreaser
It dissolves the deposit and often the finish underneath, then leaves a film behind either way.
- Dry ice
Thermal contraction cracks the bond between deposit and surface, then the pellet gasses off. Nothing abrasive, nothing wet, nothing left.
What happens in your space
Solid carbon dioxide leaves no residue at all. What it does do is displace air, so an enclosed space gets ventilated as part of the job rather than as a precaution added later.
This is not a quiet method. Ear defenders are standard issue on site for anyone nearby.
Surfaces come out cold. On some jobs that means waiting a few minutes before handling, and on others it means condensation as the part returns to ambient temperature.
Everything the rig needs arrives with it. No tap, no drain, no outlet.
Why us
How we do business
- The rig comes to you
Compressor, hose and operator arrive at your shop, plant, driveway or dock. Nothing needs to be transported to us.
- We clean up after ourselves
The ice is gone; what came off your equipment is not. Gathering it is included.
- Firefighter owned and operated
Giancarlo and Kenny both came out of the fire service, and the discipline that job demands is the discipline this one gets.
- You speak to an owner
The person who picks up is the person doing the work. Nothing gets lost between the quote and the job.
- We will tell you no
Some jobs want a different method. We would rather say that up front than discover it on your machine.
- We test before we commit
Anything unusual gets an inconspicuous test area first. Painted parts, soft alloys and older finishes all behave differently.
Describe what you are dealing with.
Tell us what the machine is, where it is and what is on it. A photo or two speeds it up. One of the owners calls you back.