Ice Vending Machines
Ice vending machines have been around since about the late 1990's. The first ice vending machines were very small stand-alone machines that were primarily suitable for indoor use.
They are still commonly seen today at places like small yacht clubs, indoor sporting venues and motels.
They can fit into a small indoor space.
These earlier types of ice vending machines only dispense a small amount of ice. The user has to provide
their own container for the ice and sometimes there will be a roll of plastic bags provided adjacent to the machine for this purpose.
Operation of these types of ice vending machines is not very sophisticated. Exact change is usually required as they are not equipped with a coin changer. Spillage of the ice is common and the fault rate on these types of machines is
quite high, due to the small nature of the parts inside.
They are very susceptible to dirt and require regular cleaning. Water quality is
of the utmost importance, as scale and contamination is the major factor
effecting performance. They have very limited storage capacity and as such the
ice supply is depleted very quickly in times of high demand.
These machines are not designed for outdoor use as the ice maker capacity is only rated for room temperature (20 degrees Celcius).
Any temperature above this causes the ice maker output to be seriously effected.
These types of ice vending machines do have a place in the market and would be
handy in places of low demand where ultra convenience is required, such as a
motel or small apartment block.
Later Ice Vending Machines
From about the early 2000's, large ice vending machines started to appear around Southern Georgia in the USA.
Invented by a group of cotton farmers, these machines were fully automated and
could dispense bagged and bulk ice automatically without any human intervention.
These machines become know as an "Ice House".
Full commercialisation of the idea started about the mid 2000's, and since then
the Ice House has revolutionised the packaged ice industry in the USA. This
business became what is now know as Ice House America, and today over 2500 Ice
House ice vending machines have been installed in the USA. This is still only
a small amount compared with the potential market in the USA.
Ice vending machines have a natural advantage over the traditional packaged ice
business model as the transport component is eliminated.
Other types of machines have now followed, with new companies being formed to
cash in on this new bonanza industry call Ice Vending. Some of these new
companies have been started by ex-staff members of Ice House America, and others
have been started by people involved in general machine automation.
Spurred on by the success of Ice House America, the new smaller operators are all
trying to get a slice of the "ice vending pie", and some of the newer machinery
available does have a place in the market, but for reasons outlined on this
website you will find that the Ice House is truly the market leader when it
comes to ice vending machines.
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