Crystal-clear, slow-melting Naixer cylinder ice is a luxury you must experience to appreciate. These unique, hollow-centered shapes won’t clump or rapidly dilute your premium beverages, ensuring every pour stays perfectly chilled and fresh. It’s an elite standard of cooling that your venue and your customers truly deserve.
Naixer TH-GD140 Jelly Ice Machine – 140 lb/Day Commercial Chewable Nugget Ice Maker
There’s a reason customers keep coming back to the soda fountain with the chewable ice. It’s not just about the drink — it’s about the ice itself. Soft, flavorful, and satisfying to crunch, cylindrical ice cubes turn an ordinary beverage into an experience. The Naixer TH-GD140 is a self-contained cylinder ice machine built to deliver that experience, day after day, in cafés, bubble tea shops, cocktail bars, and convenience stores that understand the value of the right ice.
With a daily production capacity of up to 140 lbs (63 kg), the TH-GD140 produces thousands of small, hollow-centered cylinders — each one roughly 30mm across and 25mm tall — and stores them in a built-in 40 kg insulated bin. Because the bin is part of the machine, there’s no separate storage unit to purchase, no compatibility matching between an ice head and a bin, and no hidden add-on costs. One delivery, one installation, one warranty.
Three things that make the TH-GD140 a practical choice:
Soft, chewable ice that customers love. Cylindrical ice has a distinctive hollow center and a texture that’s easy to chew. It absorbs beverage flavors, which makes every sip taste better — and it’s the reason bubble tea shops, smoothie bars, and quick-service restaurants report higher drink sales when they switch to this ice type.
Self-contained design with no hidden bin cost. Many commercial ice machines — especially from premium brands like Hoshizaki and Scotsman — are sold as a head only. The compatible storage bin is a separate purchase, typically adding $600 to $1,500 beyond the head price. The TH-GD140 includes its bin right in the chassis. You pay once and install once.
A 3-year full machine warranty covering core systems and key components. In a market where many compact ice machines ship with just 12 months of coverage, this extended protection directly reduces your ownership risk over the machine’s 7- to 10-year service life.
Why Cylindrical Ice? The Shape That Turns a Drink Into a Destination
A cylinder ice maker doesn’t produce the hard, dense cubes you’d use for whiskey service. It creates something entirely different: small, cylindrical pellets with a hollow core — soft enough to chew, structured enough to hold their shape in a glass. The shape itself is the product.
The hollow center isn’t a design quirk; it’s the feature that makes cylindrical ice behave differently from every other ice type. More surface area means drinks chill faster. The open core means liquid flows through the ice, picking up temperature quickly and carrying flavor with it. And the thin walls make the ice easy to bite through — a texture that customers actively seek out.
From a practical standpoint, cylindrical ice also solves a persistent kitchen problem: clumping. Because the pieces are uniform in shape with smooth, curved edges, they slide past each other in the bin rather than freezing into a solid mass. That means faster scooping during rush periods and less time spent breaking up ice blocks behind the bar.
For businesses that build their identity around beverages — bubble tea shops, craft cocktail bars, smoothie cafés — the choice of ice is as deliberate as the choice of ingredients. The TH-GD140 lets you serve the ice your customers prefer, at a volume that matches your demand, without the complexity or cost of a large modular system. If you’re still comparing ice types for your specific operation, our guide to commercial ice types breaks down every option — from full cube to flake to nugget — with recommendations by industry.
How the TH-GD140 Produces Consistent Cylindrical Ice, Batch After Batch
The TH-GD140 uses a vertical evaporator plate system with 48 individual ice-forming cells. Here’s the sequence that repeats throughout the day, automatically and without intervention:
Water flows over the chilled plate. A pump draws water from the built-in reservoir and distributes it evenly across the evaporator surface, which is kept well below freezing by the refrigeration circuit. The water freezes in layers, building outward from the walls of each cell.
The hollow center forms naturally. Because water doesn’t pool in the center of each cell — it flows over the surface and drains — the ice forms as a cylinder with an open core. This is what gives the ice its distinctive shape and chewable texture.
The ice releases and drops into storage. When each batch reaches the correct thickness, the freeze cycle ends and the ice releases from the plate, falling into the built-in 40 kg bin below. A level sensor monitors the bin and cycles production on and off as needed, so the machine never over-produces or runs short.
The R290 refrigerant system is both energy-efficient and environmentally responsible, with a lower global warming potential than traditional HFC refrigerants. Because the TH-GD140 is air-cooled, it uses zero water for condenser cooling — which keeps your monthly utility bills predictable, even during the summer months when ice demand peaks.
Where the TH-GD140 Cylindrical Ice Machine Fits Best
A cylindrical ice machine isn’t a general-purpose appliance — it’s a specialized tool for businesses where the ice itself is part of the product. Here’s where the TH-GD140 delivers the strongest return:
Bubble tea and smoothie shops. Cylindrical ice has become something of a standard in the bubble tea world. The soft, chewable texture complements tapioca pearls and fruit chunks perfectly, and the ice absorbs the tea’s flavor rather than diluting it. A single TH-GD140 producing 140 lbs per day easily covers the ice needs of a busy shop through afternoon and evening peaks.
Cocktail bars and craft beverage programs. While full cube ice is the go-to for straight spirits, cylindrical ice shines in mixed drinks — mojitos, mint juleps, and frozen cocktails — where the ice is part of the drinking experience. Bartenders appreciate that it scoops easily and doesn’t clump in the well during a rush.
Convenience stores and bagged ice sales. Customers recognize cylindrical ice by sight and will pay a premium for it. The TH-GD140’s built-in 40 kg bin provides a ready supply for bagging throughout the day, and its compact footprint fits into a back room or storage area without crowding out other equipment.
Healthcare and senior living. Patients who have difficulty swallowing hard ice — or who simply find it uncomfortable — often prefer soft, chewable cylindrical ice. It’s commonly used in hospital hydration programs, post-operative recovery, and maternity wards where staying hydrated is a priority.
Small cafés and dessert shops. Shaved ice desserts, affogatos, and specialty iced coffees all benefit from an ice that enhances texture rather than just chilling the drink. The TH-GD140’s modest footprint and 220V single-phase power make it accessible to small independent operators who can’t accommodate a full-size commercial ice system.
Built in a 30,000 m² ISO9001-Certified Smart Factory — Not Assembled from Generic Parts
The TH-GD140 is not assembled from parts sourced from multiple anonymous suppliers and sold through layers of distributors. It’s designed, fabricated, and assembled in Naixer’s own 30,000 m² ISO9001-certified facility — one of the largest dedicated commercial ice machine factories in the world. Over 200 professional technicians, more than 300 active technical patents, and an annual production capacity exceeding 200,000 units form the manufacturing backbone behind every machine.
Before any TH-GD140 leaves the factory, it passes a complete validation chain: automated cooling performance verification, helium leak detection on the entire refrigeration circuit, electrical safety testing, and an extended burn-in under simulated extreme conditions. This is the same infrastructure trusted by KFC, Luckin Coffee, and over 5,000 commercial clients across more than 100 countries — brands that cannot afford equipment downtime during peak service.
This manufacturing depth is the reason Naixer confidently provides a 3-year full machine warranty on the TH-GD140 — comprehensive coverage that dramatically exceeds the 12-month warranty typical of compact budget alternatives. For guidance on keeping your machine running at peak efficiency, see our Naixer ice machine cleaning guide, which covers daily, weekly, and quarterly maintenance routines specific to evaporator-plate ice makers.
How the TH-GD140 Compares to Other Cylindrical Ice Machines
When you’re evaluating a cylinder ice maker for your business, the sticker price is only part of the equation. Modular systems from premium brands — the kind sold by Hoshizaki and Scotsman — separate the ice-making head from the storage bin. That means you’re buying two pieces of equipment: the head you see quoted, and the bin you still need to purchase separately. A compatible bin for a machine in this size class can add $600 to $1,200 to your total cost, plus the time and labor to install and align both components.
The TH-GD140 is a self-contained unit: the ice maker and 40 kg bin are integrated into one chassis. You don’t get a surprise second invoice for the bin, and you don’t need to figure out which bin model is compatible with which head. One purchase, one installation, one warranty.
At the other end of the market, budget-level cylindrical ice machines often carry attractive upfront prices but come with meaningful trade-offs: limited warranty coverage (typically 12 months), uncertain parts availability, and no transparency about where or how the machine is manufactured. The TH-GD140’s 3-year full machine warranty, ISO9001-certified production floor, and factory-direct support represent a fundamentally different ownership model — one built around lower long-term risk and direct access to the manufacturer when you need service.
And because Naixer sells factory-direct, the price you pay reflects the engineering and materials in the machine, not the multi-tier markup of a distributor network. For a broader understanding of what commercial ice machines cost to purchase and operate — including installation, maintenance, and hidden costs — see our 2026 ice machine price guide.
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