Water quality influences the flavour of ice. You will get ice which leave a less than enjoyable taste in the drink as soon as it melts, in case you have bad h2o. If you use fresh water, the ice will taste amazingly great, on the other hand. Spring drinking water includes a clean, clear taste, so it is a good choice to use in ice vending machines. Nevertheless, spring water may also be relatively more costly compared to simple plain tap water. Be ready to invest a little extra on your water than you are accustomed to if you plan on purchasing a great ice vending machine.

For the entrepreneur who both does not have the actual cash to open up an actual company or simply doesn’t want to, ice vending machine equipment is a perfect thing to get. Because it’s less costly and far much easier to function, ice vending machine equipment is a great substitute for the traditional enterprize model. With ice vending machine equipment, you just choose a concept location to position the ice vending machine and allow the buyer come purchase ice when they will be in the mood for it. You don’t have to hire a staff or pay any major power bills!

Companies that will suit all of your ice vending machine wants tend to be ice vending machine organizations. Whatever ice vending machine resources you may want to get your own personal ice vending machine operation up and operating in no time may be provided to you personally by an ice vending machine company. Consider very hot metropolitan areas exactly where ice is vital and will be required every day whenever figuring out where you wish to begin your ice vending machine business. When you are deciding where to place the ice vending machine, make sure you talk with the property owner.

Hot as well as exotic areas such as the south west or island destinations will see ice to be a essential thing to have. Ice is another good thing to have in case you are trying to keep the drink chilly on a very hot summer day. Ice vending machines are excellent items to put in this kind of environments, and you will actually produce a lot of cash if you make a good purchase today. Before deciding who to offer your money to, look around on the web and look for the best ice vending machine business you can. There are plenty of vendors out there.

In relation to ice vending machines, there is a lot to master. If you are interested in ice vending machines, look at our web site at www.bagofice.com to find out more about ice vending machine.

So after you have made the decision to get into the ice vending business the next question is do you add water vending to your machine. Adding water gives your potential customers another reason to visit your machine. It also provides them with one stop shopping. If you have placed your machine in a blue collar area where you have many day laborers such as construction, landscaping, etc. then you should remember that they almost always have the orange Igloo (or equivalent) that is filled up with ice and water every day. What better way to insure that they come to your machine than to provide both features.

What you need to consider is how much you are going to charge for the water and how much the system will be to add to your machine. Generally you can charge between $0.25 and $0.50 per gallon for water. If you sell 20 gallons of water (probably only 4-8 customers since water is often sold 5 gallons at a time) then you will make between $1800 and $3600 per year for the water sales. If the cost of the water dispensing system is reasonable you will have paid it off in a year. Bag of Ice can add water vending to any of their machines for only $1500.

Finally you will probably ask do I need to use reverse osmosis to get good water. The answer is no you don’t. First any RO system will add several thousand to the cost of the machine. A good filtering system with effective carbon and sediment filters will provide you with great tasting water. The carbon filters remove the organic chemicals and chlorine that destroy the taste of the water. A final pass through a UV source insures that the water is bacteria free.

Visit www.bagofice.com or email to info@bagofice.com for more information.

When you are researching different ice vending machine placement locations, take a digital water quality tester along. This simple to use handheld tester will enable you to determine the amount of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the water. If the water has a high level of TDS, and you are still certain you want to place your ice vending business there, then find a local water-testing firm and ask them to do a complete analysis of the water and provide that analysis to multiple water filtration professionals, including your ice vending manufacture. Multiple opinions are necessary, as some companies will use scare tactics to sell you unneeded equipment. Most ice vending machines come equipped with a filtration system and can be further equipped with expensive water softeners, ionization, and or reverse osmosis systems. In most cases reverse osmosis systems are unnecessary as most cities and counties already R/O their water and are constantly monitored by the EPA. If you are attaching your vending machine to a well, R/O or additional water filtration systems may be necessary.

Before you start your ice business, you should understand that poor water quality means you will be replacing water filters and cleaning your ice maker and its components often. Water filters range from $18 – $50 each and most ice vending machines use three filters. Ice vending business owners sometimes spend up to four hours cleaning their own ice maker, and some hire commercial ice machine or refrigeration companies to clean their ice makers at a cost of $200-$300. This can become very expensive and tiresome, resulting in an unhappy ice vending business owner.

A reliable ice vending machine that can produce up to 90 ten pound bags per day is your answer to both of the problems above. First if you average 20 bags there are going to be days when you have a higher demand and this machine would certainly meet your needs. For example the Bag of Ice Compact model comes standard with a 900lb ice maker and a 300 lb storage bin. This means that if you have days of 50-70 bag sales you have no worries. In fact you can have several days in a row (say a weekend or holiday) with this type of demand and still not run out of ice. Also the ice will be fresh, not the stale brick that would happen if you only get deliveries once per week.

So does this make economic sense for you? Let’s look at the numbers. The Bag of Ice Compact model retails for $25,000. You need to provide water, a place to drain and 220V single phase power (you have this available if you have merchandisers set up). So if you sell 20 bags per day (a very conservative figure) and are paying $1.00 per bag then your gross income is just over $6,800 per year in addition to the profit you already make on the ice. If you average 40 bags per day you will make about $13,600 additional profit. If you are paying $1.25 per bag (not uncommon) then the numbers go to $8,500 and $17,000 respectively.

Finally the Bag of Ice vending machine is an attractive addition to your store and can go either outside or inside, is capable of operating year round and has proven to be a reliable and valuable addition to many C-Stores. Contact Bag of Ice at www.bagofice.com or email info@bagofice.com for more information.

Keep in mind that the exterior of this equipment will be outdoors and hence enduring the elements. Just as soda machines left outdoors for a few years look in poor condition, so will your ice vending machine if plastic exterior parts are utilized.

On the other hand, the inside of the machine will be moist, making stainless steel and aluminum optimal interior materials. Internally, the frame, component boxes and floor pan should only be constructed from aluminum or stainless steel, otherwise corrosion and rust will quickly set in.

Equally important is the material used to manufacture the ice storage bin and the components with in it. Augers and agitator bars are generally installed inside the ice storage bin to circulate and deliver the ice. Using any material besides food-grade stainless steel to manufacture the bin and its components will greatly reduce the ability to keep it thoroughly clean, and dirt decreases the longevity of your vending machine. So insist on food-grade stainless steel.

Not unlike the ice storage bin, the machine front – where the consumer vends ice or water – should also be made of food-grade stainless steel. Not only does it keep its attractiveness, sterilization is easier and the surface will not degrade over time like plastics and other base metals will.

Before you invest, personally examine the construction, materials and fasteners that go into the construction of the machine. Cheaper parts mean shorter life. If you are not knowledgeable on these matters, find someone or hire someone that is. The bottom line: If you are going to make the investment into this very profitable field, invest in reliable equipment that is manufactured with quality, long-lasting materials.

Bag of Ice vending machines not only adhere to the above, they are the leaders in innovations that insure the quality and reliability of your long term investment.

First, an ice vending businesses can be run without employees as any maintenance required can be done by the owner. Collecting your profits (cash and credit combos or credit alone acceptors can reduce or eliminate this need), cleaning the machine, changing filters and keeping the location clean are fairly straight-forward requirements. If an owner does not want to perform these tasks or lives out of the area, they can hire a reliable firm to maintain the machine as needed.

Second, operating costs are low. Rent is one potential operating cost that is flexible. There is no rent if the owner also owns the property where the machine is located. As an alternative to paying rent, rental space for a machine location can be negotiated with a property owner in exchange for a profit-sharing agreement.

Utilities can be a major issue when choosing an ice vending machine. With machines that use freezers, there can be significant storage costs to run the freezers to keep the ice cold. With more streamlined units, such as the machines sold by Bag of Ice, the storage bins are insulated. Thus there are no storage costs which mean that any utility costs are limited to those needed for creating and selling ice.

Utility costs to make the ice average $0.50 per 100 lbs of ice. Plastic bags cost about $0.15. Thus each 20lb. vend would cost the owner $0.25 if a bag is used. If the customer chooses to put the ice directly in his ice chest (an option that is available on all Bag of Ice models), the cost reduces to only a dime! Other costs are fairly basic and related to quarterly maintenance like filter replacement and should be a part of any business plan.

When choosing a machine, keep in mind: the more parts, the more the machine will need maintenance or repair. Bag of Ice machines boast the fewest moving parts and provides one of the most reliable machines on the market.

So, how much money can you make? If you sold 30-twenty pound vends per day on average for the year at $2.50 per vend, then your gross revenue would be $25,000; increase your sales to 50 vends per day and your gross revenue would be $42,000. Not bad for an investment that can be as low as $35,000. And with a lifetime of 20+ years, the machines provide a long-term cash flow.

For an added bonus, it is easy to supplement this income with water sales by adding a water dispenser to the unit. Given that a gallon of purified water costs less than a cent, almost all of the water sales are pure profit!

Of course no one can guarantee your profit, but it is easy to see that there is a lot of money to be made by selling frozen and purified water. Contact info@bagofice.com for more information on this growing industry.

The key to long term success is purchasing a vending machines that is reasonable in price, easy to install and provides long service life. Bag of Ice Vending Machines provide these qualities. Ranging from a model(C-Store) which can profitably service a 20-30 vend per day location to the XL-1900 Plus which can provide up to 10,000 pounds of ice per day. The footprint of the largest machines still only take up less than a parking space of area making them suitable for nearly any parking lot. In addition they are all constructed with Stainless Steel bins and ice delivery systems. The exterior is constructed with both Stainless Steel and corrosion proof aluminum. These two factors alone insure that that the service life of the machine should be 20 years or more.

August 10, 2012 by Dane Carlson | 0 Comments

Bag of Ice is targeting vending operators with a versatile line of machines that the company says are designed to make it simple to profit from selling ice.

The compact venders come in four models — the smallest measuring 34” wide x 52” deep x 112” high — that produce quantities of ice equal to much larger machines, according to the company. This opens more doors for placement in high-traffic sites like retail storefronts where floor space is at a premium and ice vending is typically most successful. Strip malls, car washes, convenience and liquor stores, and large apartment complexes are among the sites Bag of Ice recommends for placing its machines.

The machines offer a selection of 10, 16 or 20 lbs. of ice, which can be dispensed into a bag supplied by the machine that the customer hangs on the ice chute or into his or her own cooler.

Bag of Ice venders do not offer an auto-bagging feature. The company said it finds the technology to be unreliable in smaller-footprint machines, and that eliminating them assures a higher vend rate and fewer maintenance problems.

Vend prices range from $1 to $3, $1.25 to $4 and $1.75 to $6, respectively.

Depending upon the model, ice bin capacities range from 300 lbs. to 1,500 lbs. with the ability to produce 1,250 lbs. to 3,720 lbs. of ice per day. The average cost of producing a 10-lb. bag of ice is 25¢, including bag and utilities, the company said.

Insulation keeps ice frozen in the storage bin, eliminating the need for a refrigeration system, keeping the operator’s electric bill and maintenance costs to a minimum and reducing the machine’s environmental impact. Bag of Ice’s SmartTech cooling system recycles the cooler air and water back into the system for optimum ice-making efficiency.

The venders can also be equipped to dispense purified water into the patron’s container in up to three different portion sizes. The average vend price is 25¢ to 50¢ for one gallon; 50¢ to $1 for three gallons; and $1 to $2 for five gallons. The cost to the operator to produce the pure water is about 1/2¢ per gallon.

The machines feature Hoshizaki icemakers, which are supported by a network of factory-trained representatives that can service machines throughout the U.S. The ice augers, beater bars and storage bins are made of food-grade stainless steel.

The machine frame and cabinet are built with heavy-duty, corrosion-free aluminum for outdoor placement. They can be customized to match an existing facade or to meet local regulations.

Bag of Ice said its machines incorporate few moving parts, which minimizes maintenance. Routine service includes collecting funds, cleaning the machine’s exterior and replenishing its bag supply. Beyond that, the equipment requires quarterly icemaker cleaning, replacing water filters as needed, cleaning coin mechanisms and bill acceptors weekly to monthly depending on the environment, and lubricating machine components annually.

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