To dispense with discharge of the ice remaining in an ice storage chamber 12, prior to washing the chamber after the time point of completion of consumption of ice, or to enable discharge of the remaining ice in a short time, by making nil or very small the amount of the ice remaining at that time point, in an ice making machine equipped with the ice storage chamber 12.

The ice making machine is equipped with an ice making mechanism 20b and the ice storage chamber 12 storing lumps of ice made by the mechanism 20b, and the drive of the mechanism 20b is controlled according to the amount of the ice stored in the storage chamber 12. The machine is equipped with a time control means 31 which can change setting of an operating time of the machine, and by setting arbitrarily the operating time of the ice making mechanism 20b by the means 31, the ice making operation corresponding to the amount of consumption of ice is executed.