How much does a Restaurant Ice Bin Cleaning cost to buy?

A typical Restaurant Ice Bin Cleaning sells for 1.4x to 3.3x seller's discretionary earnings. With estimated SDE of $63K, expect to pay roughly $88K to $208K before adjustments for assets, debt, growth, and local market quality.

How much does it cost to start a Restaurant Ice Bin Cleaning?

Startup costs range from $4K to $45K depending on location, equipment, and scale.

Route

Restaurant Ice Bin Cleaning

The dirtiest clean-looking thing in the restaurant

Bottom line

Accessible entry point; validate local supply before buying.

Restaurant ice bin cleaning routes deep-clean, sanitize, descale, and document ice bins, soda ice wells, hotel ice machines, bar wells, and ice-storage areas. It is a simple food-safety niche with a surprisingly strong sales hook: ice touches drinks directly, but bins are easy for staff to neglect.

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Acquisition score

Excellent

Avg Revenue

$180K

Profit Margin

35%

Acquisition Multiple

1.4x - 3.3x

Startup Cost

$4K - $45K

How It Works

Operators schedule monthly or quarterly stops, empty and protect ice, scrub bins and drains, descale mineral buildup, sanitize contact surfaces, document before-and-after photos, and tag completed equipment. Revenue comes from recurring per-location service, emergency cleanups, filter changes, drain cleaning, and bundled ice machine maintenance referrals.

Revenue Range

Low End

$50K

Typical

$180K

High End

$550K

BizBite underwriting snapshot

Pass for now

Restaurant Ice Bin Cleaning has enough high-level data for a first look, but BizBite has not assigned a category-specific operating model yet. Treat the score as preliminary.

Speculative / 100

Data confidence

low

40/100

Financing fit

medium

Category-level fit before lender-specific diligence.

Confidence cap

Weak source data caps the final score.

Why it may work

+Attractive 35% estimated margin profile

Be careful

!Source link status has not been verified yet
!No last-checked date yet
!No SBA category enrichment yet
!No category operating model yet
!Low data confidence

Pros

+Route-dense recurring service with low startup cost
+Strong visual before-and-after content for sales and retention
+Can attach to hood cleaning, kitchen deep cleaning, bar maintenance, or ice machine service
+Food-safety framing makes it easier to justify regular schedules

Cons

-Small tickets require dense routes or bundled services
-Night or off-hour work may be required
-Must use food-safe processes and avoid contaminating active ice supply

Best For

Kitchen cleaning routes, bar maintenance vendors, ice-machine techs, and owner-operators targeting restaurant clusters

Operating Costs

Costs include sanitizer, brushes, descaler, towels, PPE, buckets, portable pumps, photo documentation, labor, and mileage. July 2026 research found cleaning businesses can produce 20-35% margins when route density and labor control are strong; BizBite models ice-bin cleaning as a higher-margin specialty add-on but with smaller average tickets than full kitchen deep cleans.

SBA Financing Estimator

Adjust the deal — see if it cash flows after debt service

+$1K/mo

after debt service

Deal price — $400K

Range: $160K (1.4×) to $770K (3.3×+)

Down payment — 15% ($60K)

SBA minimum equity injection is 10% for change-of-ownership

Interest rate — 8.00%

Current prime-based SBA rates: 7.5–10.5%

Loan term — 10 years (120 mo)

Standard SBA 7(a): 10 years for business acquisition

Down payment

$60K

15% equity injection

Loan amount

$340K

85% SBA-financed

Monthly payment

$4K/mo

$155K total interest

Monthly profit

$5K/mo

at 35% margin

Monthly cash flow after debt service

+$1K/mo

Down payment paid back in ~54 months

Estimates only. Excludes owner compensation, capex, working capital draws, and taxes. Margin assumes average occupancy and volume. Actual SBA terms vary by lender and borrower profile.