Customers have finally taken one of McDonald's biggest problems into their own hands

• An app called "Ice Check" allows customers to see which McDonald's currently have functioning ice cream machines.
• Broken ice cream machines are a top McDonald's customer complaint.
• McDonald's is supposed to replace its ice cream machines with a new model that fixes problems.

---

For years, McDonald's customers have complained about the chain's often broken ice cream machines.

Now, one woman has taken matters into her own hands.

A free app called "Ice Check" allows users to check and see which nearby McDonald's have functioning ice cream machines.

The app relies on users to mark machines as "on" or "off" in the app when they visit McDonald's, saving others the annoyance of showing up to a McDonald's craving a McFlurry, only to find the ice cream machine "broken."

"I came up with the idea for the app around a year ago, after a late night Oreo McFlurry craving went unfulfilled due to the ice cream machine being down," Raina McLeod, the creator of the app, told BuzzFeed.

News broke that McDonald's would its ice cream machines across the US earlier this year, awakening hope that the fast-food giant would finally be able to reliably serve up late-night McFlurries across the US.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the old machines require a nightly cleaning cycle that can last four hours. When machines are being cleaned, they can't serve ice cream.

The new machines are supposed to fix that problem. However, as of August, the chain still hadn't rolled out the new machines in new stores - making the app even more necessary.