sherlock Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Someone I know owns a carwash and is getting some full-line machines for his shop. He asked if snack machines from the company "Automated Products" were reliable. I searched TVF and found little/nothing on that company and figured that wasn't a good sign. But, I thought I'd ask you guys before getting back to him. I don't have the model, so just looking for general reputation from anyone who may know something about the company and/or their machines. Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dogcow Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I assume he means "Automatic Products" if so they are good machines, however very old AP machines are still in service so you might consider the model #/price before buying. Also you should recommend your friend to use a professional vending company before buying a big snack machine for his car wash. Owning *one* snack machine even at a very good location you can and probably will end up with an unreasonable amount of spoiled product because you are vending 20-30 different products depending on the machine size. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 I assume he means "Automatic Products" if so they are good machines, however very old AP machines are still in service so you might consider the model #/price before buying. Also you should recommend your friend to use a professional vending company before buying a big snack machine for his car wash. Owning *one* snack machine even at a very good location you can and probably will end up with an unreasonable amount of spoiled product because you are vending 20-30 different products depending on the machine size. Absolutely true. Unless he's going to vend car-care products... but an AP is almost surely going to have NO drop sensor technology and if he is going to vend car-care products (or anything else with a very long shelf life) then he needs a drop sensor or the machine will get smashed as soon as it doesn't vend something. Just find out the model number OR take a picture of it. I am sure that virtually any of us full-liners can tell you what type of AP machine it is with a decent picture. Also keep in mind that candy will melt in the summer time and turn white which will lead to more unhappy customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Thanks for the replies/info. I will get more information. The carwash is a full-service wash and there's an indoor waiting area. So, the machines will be placed indoors making weather a non-issue. But, the drop-sensor is a great point I wouldn't have thought of. The fact that one machine is not going to go through enough product to keep items from going bad is also something I hadn't warned the him about (because I hadn't thought of it). Thanks again, folks...I'll try to get more details. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted February 21, 2012 Share Posted February 21, 2012 Even the old AP machines are pretty decent equipment, if they have not had the crap beat out of them, though some are now getting so old that its not worth trying to upgrade them. Model info and/or a pic would be helpful. Since we share some of the same zip codes and the guy is a friend of yours, you can give him my phone number and I'll be happy to go check it out for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted February 21, 2012 Author Share Posted February 21, 2012 Even the old AP machines are pretty decent equipment, if they have not had the crap beat out of them, though some are now getting so old that its not worth trying to upgrade them. Model info and/or a pic would be helpful. Since we share some of the same zip codes and the guy is a friend of yours, you can give him my phone number and I'll be happy to go check it out for him. Thanks, I appreciate that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 12, 2012 Author Share Posted March 12, 2012 Alright friends... It took a while but I was finally able to get the model on the Dixie Narco. Still waiting on the snack machine specifics. The DN is a model DNCB 180CC/105-5 It's supposed to be a really old machine....but has a decent track record from the research I've done. Any full-line folks have opinions on these -- good or bad. Also -- dogcow's assumption was correct. I was misinformed: The AP snack machine was NOT an Automated Products, it's made by Automatic Products. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Also -- dogcow's assumption was correct. I was misinformed: The AP snack machine was NOT an Automated Products, it's made by Automatic Products. I think I can safely assume that automated products and automatic products are synonymous with AP. Trust me... sometimes I am not even sure if it's automated or automatic and I have been in plenty of AP machines in my career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 12, 2012 Share Posted March 12, 2012 Alright friends... It took a while but I was finally able to get the model on the Dixie Narco. Still waiting on the snack machine specifics. The DN is a model DNCB 180CC/105-5 It's supposed to be a really old machine....but has a decent track record from the research I've done. Any full-line folks have opinions on these -- good or bad. I'm not 100% sure on this as I don't think I have serviced many machines of that model in my life but I am feeling pretty confident that it's a single-price machine (meaning... everything can only be ONE price... probably from $0.05 up to $1.25) and it probably only vends cans and maybe the older style juice bottles. From what I have seen, they only have 5 selections which is not necessarily bad... but I am thinking that this machine holds 2-3 cans deep and about 13 cans high. Being that it's a "180", it probably holds 30 cans per selection in 4 of the selections and 60 cans in the main selection. I would be concerned with the type of refrigeration it uses as it might be hard to deal with in the future (but I don't know for certain) but overall DNs, even of that age, are known to be work-horses. For $150, I would *consider* it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mission vending Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 Alright friends... It took a while but I was finally able to get the model on the Dixie Narco. Still waiting on the snack machine specifics. The DN is a model DNCB 180CC/105-5 It's supposed to be a really old machine....but has a decent track record from the research I've done. Any full-line folks have opinions on these -- good or bad. Also -- dogcow's assumption was correct. I was misinformed: The AP snack machine was NOT an Automated Products, it's made by Automatic Products. Good workhorse, limited capability, limited capacity. if he is doing and kind of volume with it he will likely be filling it nearly every day and I'm pretty sure that it is a single price machine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 I'm almost positive it vends cans and bottles. It does seem to have limited capacity just judging by size. I wonder if this would an issue for him, since he or his wife is there every day running the carwash anyway. But, I don't know...it may be a high-volume account based on his needs. A little more background about his needs: He was selling canned soda and bottled water out of a glass-front cooler for a couple years and decided a vending machine would reduce the man-hours used in selling the drinks since the customers can just make the purchase from a soda-machine with no employee-interaction. Seems employees would have to stop doing what they were doing to ring someone up for a single drink. This was happening often enough to get him interested in a vending machine. Thanks for the info so far...looking forward to any more feedback/advice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 I'm almost positive it vends cans and bottles. It does seem to have limited capacity just judging by size. I wonder if this would an issue for him, since he or his wife is there every day running the carwash anyway. But, I don't know...it may be a high-volume account based on his needs. A little more background about his needs: He was selling canned soda and bottled water out of a glass-front cooler for a couple years and decided a vending machine would reduce the man-hours used in selling the drinks since the customers can just make the purchase from a soda-machine with no employee-interaction. Seems employees would have to stop doing what they were doing to ring someone up for a single drink. This was happening often enough to get him interested in a vending machine. Thanks for the info so far...looking forward to any more feedback/advice. If it sells bottles, it's almost certainly old fashioned bottles or maybe 16oz bottles. I highly doubt that it vends 20oz bottles. I would be surprised!!! Even if it did though... I believe it would hold about 12 bottles in 4 of the selections and 24 bottles in the large selection for a grand total of 72 bottles!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walta Posted March 13, 2012 Share Posted March 13, 2012 This machine was designed before the 20 ounce bottle. When the 20 oz appeared Dixie had to do a major redesign the models designed for 20 oz bottles have an E in the model number the 501E being the most common. That being said in some areas water is bottled in packages that will vend for a premium price. More often I find 500 ml bottles stuck in there with a cam adjustment. Q Will it dispense bottles? A Sometimes. Q When it jams will the motor be damaged? A Often. Walta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sherlock Posted March 13, 2012 Author Share Posted March 13, 2012 Cool. Thanks for the clarification on the bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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