South Korean home appliance rental company SK Magic Inc.’s new ice maker Super Ice is on a roll with over 1,000 units being rented out in just three days since its launch, according to the company.

Thanks to such strong demand, its monthly rental service subscribers would reach around 6,000 units, higher than the firm’s initial estimate of 4,000, said Lee Bok-soo, head of SK Magic rental marketing division.

Thanks to direct water feed function, the new stand-alone ice dispenser can produce clean ice cubes by reducing the time to produce them, added Lee. It takes only 15 minutes for the machine to make 10 ice cubes which weigh 10 grams each. Over 100 ice cubes can be stored in the dispenser. It also comes with a self-cleaning feature that kills germs using ultraviolet (UV) light twice a day for a total of six hours.

SK Magic also plans to roll out commercial ice makers for restaurants and coffee shops around May after testing its luck with Super Ice made for households.

The firm has been drawing much attention in the home appliance rental market with its Super series of home appliances including water and air purifiers, as well as the newly launched ice maker. The company’s cumulative registered user accounts for the Super series exceeded 1 million last year, up from 600,000 in 2014. The number is expected to surpass 1.3 million this year, much thanks to water purifiers made in 2015 which account for 80 percent of the company’s total rental demand.

Of 300,000 newly rented out water purifiers last year, 180,000 ones were those with the direct water feed function. The purifier has been rented out over 25,000 units every month. The firm’s air purifier which incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) also has caught on the market seeing its sales grow 60 percent compared to last year.

SK Magic rented out as many as 13,000 air purifiers in the first three months this year and expects additional 50 million subscribers for the first time this month.

By Jin Young-tae

[ⓒ Pulse by Maeil Business News Korea & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]