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Coffee hot drink vending advise


scamper

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I have the option to buy a coffee / hot drink / soup vending machine. At this stage I know very little about it as it belongs to a club and they only go there weekly so am waiting on more info.

the question i have is how many people use these type of machines and are they worth the hassle?

As in, how much time is involved in cleaning etc vs profit made?

I like the idea of snack and drink vending as you only need to give it a little bit of a clean and top it up, but if these need hours of cleaning to keep them going I am not sure if it is viable.

thanks in advance.

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31 minutes ago, lacanteen said:

2 questions:

1-What make and model-as many specifics as possible

2-What state to you do business in?

I am still waiting on the make and model. I have a photo but that is it. and I am in country WA.  Australia, 

$_20.JPG

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Judging from the picture, it's a Crane/National. The viewer window to the right of the menu tells me it's a bean grinder, fresh brew.

The good: If it's a model in the 670s (677) it's a good one. Whole bean gives you the flexibility to control the profile of the beverage and adds a perceived benefit to the customer.

The bad: If not a 670 series, stay away. The brew system is so complicated the designers didn't understand it. Also, the grinder system is not as robust as others and must be constantly calibrated (not difficult) to maintain quality. Also, the grinder motors tend to fail.

The ugly: The more one of these machines get used, the better they work. You say this machine is only used once a week so the chances of leaky water valves is exponentially greater. I also don't see you getting a great return for your investment in a "once a week" club.

Sorry mate, I wish I had better news.

 

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Thanks for the reply. When I get more info I will know better.

The club is where it is at the moment, I have the opportunity to buy it for $200. In Australia, that is pretty damn cheap.

I would be removing it from the club and have a potential site at a laundromat which has a very regular clientele. 

I already have a snack/ drink machine going in there and given we get coolish winters here, I thought a warm drink machine may also do well.

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I don't know how common coffee machines are in odd places like laundromats there but in the states we would never put a coffee machine into a laundromat unless maybe it was a very upscale one in a ritzy part of town or in a ritzy hotel or apartment building.  I seriously doubt you'll get a good return on it unless your coffee market is like the state of Washington in the US where Starbucks and other companies started

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I had a similar model (677) for about 2 years at a very good location.  It was a premium brand and I was able to charge premium prices (average $2 a cup) which might not be a viable price in a lot of locations.  The machine has to be serviced at least every 7 days because of the automatic cleaning cycle.  After 7 days the waste bucket is full and the overflow preventer shuts the machine off if the bucket is not emptied.  A normal service and quick cleaning weekly is about 20 minutes; deep cleaning about every 3 or 4 visits usually took me about 40 to 50 minutes.  Clean is important to quality; quality is important to price and repeat sales.  It's a good machine but needs a very specific type of location to be profitable.  Price is excellent but I would not put it in a laundromat at any price, not a busy enough location, and too humid for the bulk product anyway. 

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Thanks for your replies.

I live in a small country town and we don't have many places to get coffee except Mcdonalds, and Australia has become dependant of take away coffee, buggered if I know why when you can make a cup and home, but I digress.

I am not too worried about servicing regularly, because of the closeness, but yeah, I may look at other sites, I just liked the idea of the Laundromat because aside from the regular clientele, It is right near the high school and I can picture every second kid going in and getting a coffee or hot chocolate on the way too or from school.

I may just give it a try and if it gets to be too much trouble or not earn enough, I am sure I could flip it and make my money back anyway.

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For $200 I don't think you will lose money on it, but as has been said, you need a busy place to get the sales to keep the machine in good working order. I have just placed a machine up for sale on eBay that I got as part of a run I bought. It was at a train station with a snack machine that only needed servicing every two weeks and was over an hour drive away;  the drain bucket on the coffee machine would fill up after a couple of days and put the machine out of service with less than $10 of sales for the collection.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I picked up the machine yesterday. I contacted him and asked a few questions and he told me the lock was gone and he didn't know the condition, so i said I would give him $100, he agreed, so I now have a model 637H  Crane coffee machine.

I have started pulling it apart to give it a clean and see what is what. It looks all ok, but will know more when I get it plumbed up and plugged in.

At the very least I will have some scrap metal and a coin mech which I am sure I can use :-)

 

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