System and method for automatically cleaning and washing ice cream or yogurt machine

An ice cream or yogurt machine, comprising:

• a liquid container for storing one or more raw materials for producing ice cream or yogurt;
• a freezing cylinder connecting with the liquid container;
• a mix hopper, for containing a soft-serve material mixed by the one or more raw materials stored in the liquid container, being in flow communication with the freezing cylinder;
• a dispensing device;
• a pipeline including a feeding pipeline connecting the liquid container with the mix hopper and a dispensing pipeline connecting the freezing cylinder with the dispensing device;
• and
• a system for automatically cleaning and washing the ice cream or yogurt machine wherein the system comprises:
• a rinse containing device including a water tank containing a rinse water and a detergent tank containing one or more detergents;
• a pump adapted to selectively pump the raw materials or the one or more detergents and the rinse water into the freezing cylinder;
• a heating unit operatively connected with the freezing cylinder to heat the freezing cylinder;
• and
• a control module adapted to control a cleaning operation to stop feeding the one or more raw materials from the liquid container to the freezing cylinder and the pipeline,
• drain out the ice cream or yogurt inside the freezing cylinder and the pipeline,
• operate the heating unit to heat the freezing cylinder to warm up and melt ice cream or yogurt residues inside the freezing cylinder and feed the rinse water through the freezing cylinder and the pipeline by the pump to clean and washout the ice cream or yogurt residues until the ice cream or yogurt residues are completely drained out from the freezing cylinder,
• feed the rinse water from the water tank and the one or more detergents from the detergent tank into the feeding pipeline, such that the rinse water in the water tank and the one or more detergents in the detergent tank are pumped into the pipeline and the freezing cylinder to clean and wash said freezing cylinder and the pipeline, and
• feed the rinse water from the water tank to the pipeline and the freezing cylinder until remaining detergent residue in the freezing cylinder and the pipeline is cleaned and drained.