Advice on Saeco 7P Plus Coffee Machine

[Mike32110]

Hello everyone,

One of my locations has a Saeco 7P Plus coffee vending machine that I recently acquired. I so far have had some minor issues with it, and was considering replacing it with a newer model. I bought it on location for $2500 CAD (sales about 70 per week). The biggest issue is that generally it requires frequent upkeep. There is a water line attached to the water tank, however, it is not running due to it producing poor quality water; this is a temporary issue as I am planning on getting a filter placed on the machine soon. For the time being I have been using their water cooler bottles, which runs out about once per week.The second issue is that the hoppers that contain the cream, hot chocolate, or french vanilla mixtures are quite small and don't last that long, in addition to constantly developing "holes" in the middle of the hopper. For example, the container has a little wheel (looks like a water wheel) that essentially create a "hole" in the middle of the hopper so that all of the powders adhere to the sides, and only 20-30% of the material is ultimately accesssible. In fact today,after only 25 cups being dispensed, i was phoned in because the creamer and french vanilla wasn't working, I checked both and the creamer had a small hole but looked like it should still be working, I tried it myself and it was fine. Finally, the machine generally looks cheap and run down on the inside, I will take a picture next time I go in to service it. From looking online, it seems they are being sold from anywhere between $250 to $2000 used. I generally am thinking to take this machine out and replace it with a Saeco SG 200 as it looks much nicer (should increase sales), has larger hopers (they look at least twice the size), and I'm assuming would generally run much smoother. My assumption wuold be that if I replaced the machine which has a 200 cup capacity, with the larger hopers working properly, I should be able to service the machine every two to three weeks (it averages about 50-60 cups/week).

My other idea is pretty interesting as well. So this machine is located at an adult learning center (short term courses on stuff like technology, using word, etc.) which has two f/t admin staff that work in teh office, and generally buy 1-2 cups each per day. I have 3 different keys for the main machine, the stoage bin, and the cash box in the storage bin. My idea was to give them a copy of the keys (except the cash) and offer them free drinks in exchange for once/week maintence of topping off the hoppers and coffee, replacing the water tanks, and emptying out the waste containers. Honestly, it would take maybe 5-10 minutes of work per week to do this, so to get 14-28 coffees for 5-10 minutes worth of work seems like a good deal for them, and it takes me like 15-20 minutes of driving each way to service the machine, so the $3-6 in product cost is worth much less to me then an hour of my time. Even if they decided to go to town on the machine and use $10-15 dollars worth of product a week, I stil think this is better.. I would therefore come just once a month, collect the cash, replenish supplies, and do a more thorough cleaning.

I am considering both of those options, and even getting a new machine AND giving them access to the machine. Now I know that this has the potential for abuse, so i am considering other ideas.

Did I post this in the right forum?

[Mike32110]

Also, I was told today by the lady that works there that the coffee machine was taking longer than normal to brew. Do you think that just means that the machine needs some descaling?

[kiwi]

Also, I was told today by the lady that works there that the coffee machine was taking longer than normal to brew. Do you think that just means that the machine needs some descaling?

Depends what you mean by taking longer than normal to brew? If you are meaning that the machine is taking longer to come back to temperature after making a coffee then you could have scale build up in boiler or could be a faulty element or temperature sensor. If you mean the machine is taking longer to make a cup of coffee it could mean that your grind setting is to fine & you will need to adjust it.

How long is it taking?

[kiwi]

Hello everyone,

One of my locations has a Saeco 7P Plus coffee vending machine that I recently acquired. I so far have had some minor issues with it, and was considering replacing it with a newer model. I bought it on location for $2500 CAD (sales about 70 per week)The biggest issue is that generally it requires frequent upkeep. There is a water line attached to the water tank, however, it is not running due to it producing poor quality water; this is a temporary issue as I am planning on getting a filter placed on the machine soon. For the time being I have been using their water cooler bottles, which runs out about once per week.

I would put water filter on machine ASAP as this is not very expensive or hard to do if you already have a mains water connection on site. It will also eliminate the problem of your machine running out of water.

The second issue is that the hoppers that contain the cream, hot chocolate, or french vanilla mixtures are quite small and don't last that long, in addition to constantly developing "holes" in the middle of the hopper. For example, the container has a little wheel (looks like a water wheel) that essentially create a "hole" in the middle of the hopper so that all of the powders adhere to the sides, and only 20-30% of the material is ultimately accesssible. In fact today,after only 25 cups being dispensed, i was phoned in because the creamer and french vanilla wasn't working, I checked both and the creamer had a small hole but looked like it should still be working, I tried it myself and it was fine.

What your referring to is what we call funneling which is where product sticks to sides of canisters instead of flowing correctly. This could be due type of product you are using or the design of the canisters on the Saeco 7P. We have attached small springs on the wheels of some of our canisters on our machines to help scrape product out that stick to the sides. Another thing you could do is when you fill canister use a knife or stick to scrape old product that has been building up on sides into centre.

Finally, the machine generally looks cheap and run down on the inside, I will take a picture next time I go in to service it. From looking online, it seems they are being sold from anywhere between $250 to $2000 used. I generally am thinking to take this machine out and replace it with a Saeco SG 200 as it looks much nicer (should increase sales), has larger hopers (they look at least twice the size), and I'm assuming would generally run much smoother. My assumption wuold be that if I replaced the machine which has a 200 cup capacity, with the larger hopers working properly, I should be able to service the machine every two to three weeks (it averages about 50-60 cups/week).

The Saeco 7P is a old machine that Saeco stopped manufacturing a few years ago. To be honest I wouldn't even pay $250 for one. The Saeco SG200 is a ok machine but is still not my preferred choice. The hoppers on the SG200 are not that much bigger than the Saeco 7P but it does look better so should definitely improve your sales. Finding a SG200 at a reasonable price would be the hardest thing.

My other idea is pretty interesting as well. So this machine is located at an adult learning center (short term courses on stuff like technology, using word, etc.) which has two f/t admin staff that work in teh office, and generally buy 1-2 cups each per day. I have 3 different keys for the main machine, the stoage bin, and the cash box in the storage bin. My idea was to give them a copy of the keys (except the cash) and offer them free drinks in exchange for once/week maintence of topping off the hoppers and coffee, replacing the water tanks, and emptying out the waste containers. Honestly, it would take maybe 5-10 minutes of work per week to do this, so to get 14-28 coffees for 5-10 minutes worth of work seems like a good deal for them, and it takes me like 15-20 minutes of driving each way to service the machine, so the $3-6 in product cost is worth much less to me then an hour of my time. Even if they decided to go to town on the machine and use $10-15 dollars worth of product a week, I stil think this is better.. I would therefore come just once a month, collect the cash, replenish supplies, and do a more thorough cleaning.

This is what we call co-op service. We use this style of service alot with our "Free Vend" coffee machines but have a few customers on pay vend also. The hardest thing is to find someone onsite that is going to look after machine properly. If you can find the right person & train them properly then this option will work. If not it can cause you more headaches than doing it yourself.

There are some useful videos on youtube on how to clean a Saeco 7P. Just search CoffeeAtYourPlace to find them. You will also need to show them how to remove coffee brewer if you are only planning on going in once a month.

I am considering both of those options, and even getting a new machine AND giving them access to the machine. Now I know that this has the potential for abuse, so i am considering other ideas.

I think you have some good ideas here. Just take your time on deciding on which option is best for you. Coffee is abit different to snack & drink where machines require alot more attention.

Good Luck!

Sorry I had to copy & paste. I couldn't figure out how the multi quite function works.

[Mike32110]

Hello everyone,

One of my locations has a Saeco 7P Plus coffee vending machine that I recently acquired. I so far have had some minor issues with it, and was considering replacing it with a newer model. I bought it on location for $2500 CAD (sales about 70 per week)The biggest issue is that generally it requires frequent upkeep. There is a water line attached to the water tank, however, it is not running due to it producing poor quality water; this is a temporary issue as I am planning on getting a filter placed on the machine soon. For the time being I have been using their water cooler bottles, which runs out about once per week.

I would put water filter on machine ASAP as this is not very expensive or hard to do if you already have a mains water connection on site. It will also eliminate the problem of your machine running out of water.

The second issue is that the hoppers that contain the cream, hot chocolate, or french vanilla mixtures are quite small and don't last that long, in addition to constantly developing "holes" in the middle of the hopper. For example, the container has a little wheel (looks like a water wheel) that essentially create a "hole" in the middle of the hopper so that all of the powders adhere to the sides, and only 20-30% of the material is ultimately accesssible. In fact today,after only 25 cups being dispensed, i was phoned in because the creamer and french vanilla wasn't working, I checked both and the creamer had a small hole but looked like it should still be working, I tried it myself and it was fine.

What your referring to is what we call funneling which is where product sticks to sides of canisters instead of flowing correctly. This could be due type of product you are using or the design of the canisters on the Saeco 7P. We have attached small springs on the wheels of some of our canisters on our machines to help scrape product out that stick to the sides. Another thing you could do is when you fill canister use a knife or stick to scrape old product that has been building up on sides into centre.

Finally, the machine generally looks cheap and run down on the inside, I will take a picture next time I go in to service it. From looking online, it seems they are being sold from anywhere between $250 to $2000 used. I generally am thinking to take this machine out and replace it with a Saeco SG 200 as it looks much nicer (should increase sales), has larger hopers (they look at least twice the size), and I'm assuming would generally run much smoother. My assumption wuold be that if I replaced the machine which has a 200 cup capacity, with the larger hopers working properly, I should be able to service the machine every two to three weeks (it averages about 50-60 cups/week).

The Saeco 7P is a old machine that Saeco stopped manufacturing a few years ago. To be honest I wouldn't even pay $250 for one. The Saeco SG200 is a ok machine but is still not my preferred choice. The hoppers on the SG200 are not that much bigger than the Saeco 7P but it does look better so should definitely improve your sales. Finding a SG200 at a reasonable price would be the hardest thing.

My other idea is pretty interesting as well. So this machine is located at an adult learning center (short term courses on stuff like technology, using word, etc.) which has two f/t admin staff that work in teh office, and generally buy 1-2 cups each per day. I have 3 different keys for the main machine, the stoage bin, and the cash box in the storage bin. My idea was to give them a copy of the keys (except the cash) and offer them free drinks in exchange for once/week maintence of topping off the hoppers and coffee, replacing the water tanks, and emptying out the waste containers. Honestly, it would take maybe 5-10 minutes of work per week to do this, so to get 14-28 coffees for 5-10 minutes worth of work seems like a good deal for them, and it takes me like 15-20 minutes of driving each way to service the machine, so the $3-6 in product cost is worth much less to me then an hour of my time. Even if they decided to go to town on the machine and use $10-15 dollars worth of product a week, I stil think this is better.. I would therefore come just once a month, collect the cash, replenish supplies, and do a more thorough cleaning.

This is what we call co-op service. We use this style of service alot with our "Free Vend" coffee machines but have a few customers on pay vend also. The hardest thing is to find someone onsite that is going to look after machine properly. If you can find the right person & train them properly then this option will work. If not it can cause you more headaches than doing it yourself.

There are some useful videos on youtube on how to clean a Saeco 7P. Just search CoffeeAtYourPlace to find them. You will also need to show them how to remove coffee brewer if you are only planning on going in once a month.

I am considering both of those options, and even getting a new machine AND giving them access to the machine. Now I know that this has the potential for abuse, so i am considering other ideas.

I think you have some good ideas here. Just take your time on deciding on which option is best for you. Coffee is abit different to snack & drink where machines require alot more attention.

Good Luck!

Sorry I had to copy & paste. I couldn't figure out how the multi quite function works.

I am planning on descaling the machine this week, as the previous owner said it's been about 9-10 months. I cleaned off the brewer two weeks ago, I figured it would be a monthly/bimonthly event,but you think it should be sooner?

I have been trying to research the water filter, but I have been overwhelmed with various options. Do you have any idea as to how much I should spend on the filter? I've seen some basic ones for like 40$ and others for $400! I want to get really good quality water, so I don't mind paying extra.

I am confused as to how small springs would work in the hopper, could you help me out with that? Did you mean the springs were attached to the wheels almost to "shake" the container when it turns?

I think part of the problem is that I switched the creamer that he was using before with Coffee Mate (suprsingly cheaper), so I wonder if that maybe caused it to stick more?

Right now I can get a SG 2000 new for 1500, or used with 10,000 vends for 1k OBO, and another guy is selling 5 (4 lightly used,1 new) for 4800. Do these seem like good deals?

Regarding the coop vending, I tihnk it's a really good idea for the coffee machines. I am setting up a larger location right now with a coffee machine,a nd there is no observable water line, so i'll need to replace the water tanks. I'm thinking of getting the water tank guy to deliver one or two bottles per week, then giving the manager a key to change the bottles, and maybe anotehr guy to add stuff to the hopper if necessary (not sure about the latter), however the cashbox will be seperate. In exchange for very minor maintenence, I would give them X dollars of coupons for coffee every week. Etc.

So you are saying coffee machines require less attention? May impression would be that coffee machines would be more prone to problems, but overall are less work to stock per dollar earned.

[sleepnmaui]

Hi Everyone

I just bought 4 Saeco 7 plus vending machines in good condition but one the water doesnt get hot. Is the heater out or do I need to check the conections for loose wires or hoses. Also anyone with this type of machine can you please send me a copy of the recipe book so I can program the amount of powder and water is to be used to make the different products.When I bought it from the previous owner it was missing.

Mahalo