Edge Sports Center Moves Ice Temps Up with REALice

29 Jan Edge Sports Center Moves Ice Temps Up with REALice

January 29, 2019 – The Edge Sports Center in Bedford, MA has two indoor ice pads that run year round. In December, 2018, the Edge installed the REALice water treatment system for its Upper Rink. Utility incentives for the project were applied for and received from both their natural gas and electricity suppliers, NationalGrid and Eversource to help lower the project expense and encourage Edge to install this MTAC-approved technology.

Once the REALice system was installed, operations manager Mike McGrath could immediately see the ice was freezing too quickly using the same brine settings as before.

“That was my red flag to turn the temperature up a bit,” McGrath says. “So we started creeping it up.”

Two months into their REALice installation, the Upper Rink is now running 5°F warmer than what it was before REALice was installed, and McGrath is happy with his ice. “We’re making sure we don’t have overlap ridges between the lanes anymore – that’s one way we could tell that our ice was running too cold. Before we had the temperature right, when the ice was at 17-17½°F, the ice was breaking off in shards and creating a lot of snow.”

Edge’s owner, Scott Fusco, is also impressed.

“I’m ecstatic,” says Fusco. “The building is 12-years old and we have two refrigeration systems and two separate Zamboni rooms, one for each rink. If it goes well for the Upper Rink, we’ll be installing REALice in the Lower Rink too.”

McGrath says the run time on their compressors is also down by about 50%.

“They were running 15 or 16 hours a day and now they’re running about seven,” McGrath explains. “This past weekend, for example, our lag compressor ran only 8 hours for the entire weekend! The compressors are running substantially less.”

Special Invitation – February 11th at Edge Sports Center

Join us for a Show & Tell session at Edge Sports Center on Monday, February 11th at 9:00 a.m. In addition to seeing the ice, Mike McGrath and Scott Fusco will be on hand, as will Hakan Gronlund from H2OVortex, the international distributor of REALice. And REALice sales rep Jack Norton will also be on hand – Jack is a hockey dad with two sons who played in the NHL (Brad and Jeff) who is been in Massachusetts rinks all his life, as well as l representatives from several different Massachusetts utilities. Let us know if you’ll be there by sending an email to support@realice.us

Edge Sports Center
191 Hartwell Rd
Bedford, MA 01720

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ABOUT REALice

REALice’s cold water resurfacing technology takes the place of using extremely hot water to resurface the ice. The patented, 3D-printed system is a brilliant example of fluid dynamics, using only the water pressure available at the arena to run the system, without any further consumables needed like filters/membranes or chemicals to remove the micro air bubbles that are trapped in the water. The resulting water freezes faster, demanding less load from the refrigeration system and delivers ice that is clear, dense and durable.