24/7 or On and Off

[Spencer]

Hello,

My school has a vending machine which has the option to turn off the refrigeration during times its not usually in use i.e. night. While this seems like a good idea at first, I now cant decide whether or not to use it. The argument against using it is that it might be easier and cheaper for the compressor to maintain its operating temperature 24/7, compared to turning off every night and re cooling in the morning.

Its like a car. A car takes more gas to accelerate, than to maintain a speed its already at.

What do you guys think?

 

 

Also, what is the ideal temperature to run the vending machine at? It has both sodas and snacks. 

Thanks

[AZVendor]

You need to post the model of machine you're asking about.  The ability to turn off refrigeration will require a couple of hours of precooling at the beginning of the day.  Is there a requirement to do this?  If not then don't bother as you will spend some time programming the feature and then it might not work right if you don't program it right.  It won't save you much life of the compressor and you'll lose any sales to people who would be there at night such as evening programs or your janitors.

 

I forgot to add that the normal temperature for soda is 38-42 degrees.  Snacks and chocolate especially, should be no cooler than about 75.

[Spencer]

You need to post the model of machine you're asking about.  The ability to turn off refrigeration will require a couple of hours of precooling at the beginning of the day.  Is there a requirement to do this?  If not then don't bother as you will spend some time programming the feature and then it might not work right if you don't program it right.  It won't save you much life of the compressor and you'll lose any sales to people who would be there at night such as evening programs or your janitors.

 

I forgot to add that the normal temperature for soda is 38-42 degrees.  Snacks and chocolate especially, should be no cooler than about 75.

Thanks AZVendor!

The machine is an AMS 39-vcb 1-0904-0556

You said 38-42 for drinks and warmer than 75 for snacks. What if they're in the same machine? 

Thanks

[AZVendor]

Unless your machine has a divider between the sodas and the snacks you will be refrigerating the entire machine.  That's the way most AMS machines are made.  As long as you're selling through your chocolate pretty fast you shouldn't see any degradation of the chocolate.  If it is a slow seller then you will see some whitening of the chocolate.  There is a divider available to separate the sections of the machines if you need to do that.  You can PM me if you want to keep the snacks warmer by using that divider.

[rmorris1953]

Compressors cycle is approx every 15 min. Off 15 on 15. So turning it off for 8 hours isn't going to shorten its life and may even extend it. For me I would turn the entire vendor off at 10 pm and back on at 6 am. Turning off the vendor will help retain the temp longer because the lights evaporator fan motors and electronics won't be running causing secondary heat within the cabinet. Be careful not to set temp on ams at 41 degrees that will activate the health control and will cause the health safety to activate and the vendor won't come on and vend without it being reset. Just go by a timer and mount it on the back or top of vendor. If it gets tampered with you might have to wire it inside. 

[Poplady1]

They probably do not want the students to have access to the machines.  See if you can just plug in the door.  The machine will continue to stay cool but the door will be off.