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Glass front - Robot Arm Drink machines


moondog

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I been in vending for awhile now and have a number of multipriced bubblefronts located that don't seem to cause me too much trouble.

I'm now considering picking up a glass front with the robot arm. As I have a hard enough time loading the aluminum cans without breaking them, I think the drop fronts are definitely out. I've looked at the exploded manual views of the Dixie and Royal models and am real leery of anything the basically relies on two rubber bands to function.

Is anybody out there using these machines? Is so what's your experience?

Thanks

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I been in vending for awhile now and have a number of multipriced bubblefronts located that don't seem to cause me too much trouble.

I'm now considering picking up a glass front with the robot arm. As I have a hard enough time loading the aluminum cans without breaking them, I think the drop fronts are definitely out. I've looked at the exploded manual views of the Dixie and Royal models and am real leery of anything the basically relies on two rubber bands to function.

Is anybody out there using these machines? Is so what's your experience?

Thanks

I've got the DN5000, the Coke version glassfront with the conveyor belt, they are pretty good machines. I've also got a number of the Bevmax machines, I love them. Also operate a number of Vendo Vue 40's, if they have been upgraded with the latest software and "hands" they are also pretty good machines.

Any glassfront will not be as reliable and dependable as a traditional stacker machine because they are "loose" in how they handle product. They have to be in order to accommodate the different size and shape packages . If I had to choose one exclusively it would without question be the DN Bevmax series.

Don't worry about the rubber bands either they are a heck of a lot more durable than you think. Any problems I have had are not from those parts.

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Yep Travis,

I'm a Royal fan myself. Mission leans toward the Bevmax which a lot of people I talk to swear by. If I go that route I'll probably stick mainly to cans until I get a few of the glass fronts going. I don't expect enough volume to offer botttled products with just one machine given their shorter shelf life.

Thanks Guys

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I work on all of them. The Royal, The Vendo Vue, All of the DN robots ( Coke conveyer and Bev Max) and the old slide style slid DN. To be quite honest as a mechanic I do not care for them. To much electronics, moving parts, programming. breakdowns) etc. The Coke and Pepsi Distributors here refuses to put them out "robot" machines on their company locations because of the problems they have with them. They will only do so if they are forced to do it because the account is big and it is a deal maker if they do not do it. They will order them for large 3rd part vendors but have let us know that they will not offer technical service for them ( and they do not) They will order parts for you but that's it. We use Vendo, Royal and DN for phone in tech advice. I am not an expert on any of them but I have been doing this over 20 years. I know more about the DN machines than the VUE and Royal . We have 70 or more "robots" machines out on location.. The great majority of them are the DN slide tray and Bev Max styles. The rest of the field is made up of the VUE and the Royal machines. My favorite glass front machine is the older Slide tray DN glass front . We have very little problems with dropping cans popping.

True story when we installed the first Bev max style glass fronts we had so many problems with them that on more than one occasion we had to remove them because the customers said get it out or pick up all of your equipment. These were account we could not lose. We were unable to keep the earlier Bev Mav machines operating because of the poor design ( electronics, door port,,etc.) We would install another new machine with same results. In these cases we reverted back to installing the old DN slide tray drop style machine and problem solved. The New style Bev Max is a different animal. It is a good reliable product.

The tech service at Vendo is not terrible. The machine is OK. Now be ready to hang on the phone at DN. because you can not get them to answer the phone, they are OK with their Tech advice after they answer the phone but as I said getting them to answer is the trick. I don't care for the Royal product yet they have the best Tech service out there.

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  • 1 month later...

I been in vending for awhile now and have a number of multipriced bubblefronts located that don't seem to cause me too much trouble.

I'm now considering picking up a glass front with the robot arm. As I have a hard enough time loading the aluminum cans without breaking them, I think the drop fronts are definitely out. I've looked at the exploded manual views of the Dixie and Royal models and am real leery of anything the basically relies on two rubber bands to function.

Is anybody out there using these machines? Is so what's your experience?

Thanks

Just wondering if you did end up getting yourself a glass front or not & which brand you decided on going with?

Yep Travis,

I'm a Royal fan myself. Mission leans toward the Bevmax which a lot of people I talk to swear by. If I go that route I'll probably stick mainly to cans until I get a few of the glass fronts going. I don't expect enough volume to offer botttled products with just one machine given their shorter shelf life.

Thanks Guys

If you were looking at just doing cans to start with I would go with The Royal Vision as you can get them configured to have more selections and capacity than the Bevmax4 or Vue40.

Capacity is the main problem with most glass fronts as they will need servicing more often.

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Kiwi,

I ended up with a Dixie 5591 - picked one up for $800 US. It was a little chewed up but I yanked the graphics a gave it a nice paint job. I also put a better pad in the vend box as this is a drop front model.

The account I placed it in already has a Royal 660, 12 selection but the guys were asking for Gatorade and water and I didn't want to remove any of the current selections which were all selling pretty well.

I put all the plastic bottles on top shelves and added some cans to the lower shelves and haven't had any breakage problems.

THe Bevmax IV and the Royal looked great but I couldn't find one for less than $4,500

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Kiwi,

I ended up with a Dixie 5591 - picked one up for $800 US. It was a little chewed up but I yanked the graphics a gave it a nice paint job. I also put a better pad in the vend box as this is a drop front model.

Even chewed up this is a good price. The best deal I have ever found locally is 2500 used.

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Mission,

Here in So Cal there's just a glut of used machines - the great deals don't happen everyday but as part of my routine, I check Craigslist every morning. Last month I picked up a Royal GIII 804 for $400 (that was the asking price) - it needed a validator

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Kiwi,

I ended up with a Dixie 5591 - picked one up for $800 US. It was a little chewed up but I yanked the graphics a gave it a nice paint job. I also put a better pad in the vend box as this is a drop front model.

The account I placed it in already has a Royal 660, 12 selection but the guys were asking for Gatorade and water and I didn't want to remove any of the current selections which were all selling pretty well.

I put all the plastic bottles on top shelves and added some cans to the lower shelves and haven't had any breakage problems.

THe Bevmax IV and the Royal looked great but I couldn't find one for less than $4,500

Nothing wrong with a Dixie 5591 & for US$800 you definitely got yourself a good bargain! The only thing I don't like about them is the Drop Sensor but you can easily disable them.

I wish I could get a Bevmax4 or Royal Vision here for $4500.. I would be looking at around $10000-$12000 for one here!

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kiwi,

They run about $5,500 here new - I'm not sure what the NZ to US exchange rate is but I'm pretty sure the shipping would be "killer"

US$5500 is about NZ$6500 & shipping is not to bad if your bringing a container.

The problem is that we run off 240vac power so need to have machines especially manufactured for our market. We can't order directly thru the manufacture as they already have distributors that we would need to buy off.

The only problem with that is there is only really two distributors here which means they don't have any competition & they can charge whatever they want.

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I work on all of them. The Royal, The Vendo Vue, All of the DN robots ( Coke conveyer and Bev Max) and the old slide style slid DN. To be quite honest as a mechanic I do not care for them. To much electronics, moving parts, programming. breakdowns) etc. The Coke and Pepsi Distributors here refuses to put them out "robot" machines on their company locations because of the problems they have with them. They will only do so if they are forced to do it because the account is big and it is a deal maker if they do not do it. They will order them for large 3rd part vendors but have let us know that they will not offer technical service for them ( and they do not) They will order parts for you but that's it. We use Vendo, Royal and DN for phone in tech advice. I am not an expert on any of them but I have been doing this over 20 years. I know more about the DN machines than the VUE and Royal . We have 70 or more "robots" machines out on location.. The great majority of them are the DN slide tray and Bev Max styles. The rest of the field is made up of the VUE and the Royal machines. My favorite glass front machine is the older Slide tray DN glass front . We have very little problems with dropping cans popping.

True story when we installed the first Bev max style glass fronts we had so many problems with them that on more than one occasion we had to remove them because the customers said get it out or pick up all of your equipment. These were account we could not lose. We were unable to keep the earlier Bev Mav machines operating because of the poor design ( electronics, door port,,etc.) We would install another new machine with same results. In these cases we reverted back to installing the old DN slide tray drop style machine and problem solved. The New style Bev Max is a different animal. It is a good reliable product.

The tech service at Vendo is not terrible. The machine is OK. Now be ready to hang on the phone at DN. because you can not get them to answer the phone, they are OK with their Tech advice after they answer the phone but as I said getting them to answer is the trick. I don't care for the Royal product yet they have the best Tech service out there.

Repairman

I think I have two of the DN DMV 72W machines in the storage units I picked up, they have slids that pull out to load cans. Can you tell me more about them? I cannot find any info on them and would like to put them to use if possible. Also they look to be a MP machine because they had a board in them.

Thanks Mike

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Kiwi,

Sounds like your local distribution is blowin' smoke up your okole. All you need is a simple 240v to 120v, 10 amp stepdown transformer which you could probably install yourself. Specially "remanufactured" ? I doubt it

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  • 2 weeks later...

Kiwi,

Sounds like your local distribution is blowin' smoke up your okole. All you need is a simple 240v to 120v, 10 amp stepdown transformer which you could probably install yourself. Specially "remanufactured" ? I doubt it

Thanks for the advice & I am sure it would work but I am trying to find out if this also would meets our Electrical Regulation Standards.

I have read where if you don't comply & something goes wrong I would lose my Public Liability Insurance. I know older soda machines that were imported here were 110v but had 230v refer units installed in them. If I left the 110v unit in they would run hot because they would be running on 50hz instead of 60hz & may risk the chance of something catching fire. I will keep you updated on what I find out & once again thanks for the advice!

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Thanks for the advice & I am sure it would work but I am trying to find out if this also would meets our Electrical Regulation Standards.

I have read where if you don't comply & something goes wrong I would lose my Public Liability Insurance. I know older soda machines that were imported here were 110v but had 230v refer units installed in them. If I left the 110v unit in they would run hot because they would be running on 50hz instead of 60hz & may risk the chance of something catching fire. I will keep you updated on what I find out & once again thanks for the advice!

You get a "plug and play" transformer for less than $100 but the hertz is the issue. Basically you're looking at fewer cycles per second which could cause significant damage to the motors. Fifty years ago there were areas around here like that and just buying a simple toaster was a real pain.

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  • 1 year later...

I have a vue sanden its awesome u can put whatever tou want pretty much. Wat nicer than the usi chill centers. Had problems at first but now i have virtually no problems. I have one in my best account i service every 3 days. Bad thing is only 8 cans fit in some columns so if someone keeps choosing the column it will look empty even though theres still product. No shims or anything. The only upside is its sooo huge and caries only like 350 drinks. Also i get queezy just thinking how many vends it does and how all those moving parts havent messed up. I got mine for 500 :)

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I am looking into a bevmax4 or possibly the Vue...I like how the Vue has FIFO.

 

What are your thoughts on FIFO for drinks? If they move is it really important to rotate?

You mainly need to watch the dates on the sodas, juices,tea,monster and sports drinks have much longer dates and if those are expiring they shouldn't be in the machine in the first place. For sodas what I would do when filling is that I would have 2-3shelfs totally dedicated to sodas and I would fill a empty column halfway and then pull older cold drinks from another row and push the warm ones to the back. That way my customers got cold drinks and product got rotated.

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I ALWAYS rotate my soda in my glassfronts.  As Mission pointed out, by putting the warm (new) bottles behind the cold (old) bottles, it creates a FIFO order AND it makes sure that the product that gets vended is cold.  It would be absolutely stupid to put warm bottles in the FRONT while the old cold bottles go in the back.

 

I do get lazy at times like when I transfer bottles from my stack vendor to my glassfront.  If it's something like Coke or Mt. Dew, I just push them straight in.. but that's because those flavors sell so fast that I often sell out of the glassfront.  That reminds me, I need to adjust those flavors for more coke and coke zero!

 

Glassfronts require MORE time, MORE maintenance, and MORE unnecessary words due to frustration, but they can generate MORE revenue.  Don't expect a $50/week bottle machine to do much more than $75/week out of a glassfront, but a $200/week bottle machine might pay for itself if you installed a glassfront machine.  It just depends on what type of setting it is and how much traffic it gets.  At a HOT factory with 100+ people that don't make more than 2x minimum wage, I would expect a good $300+/week in soda sales, and I would NOT put a glassfront.  I would put 2 newer (or new) bottle vendors such as 501e's, Royal GIII's, or Vendo V21's in there.  The reliability of stack vendors, and their ability to take abuse make them superior options for such a location.  Now a college campus with a bunch of students... that may require a glassfront in order to capture the maximum revenue possible.  If you don't have what they want, too bad!  And they may be willing to pay $1.50 for water, or $2.00 for a 20oz soda.  A lot of those college kids think money is printed by the credit card companies that their parents do business with.

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