Advanced vending technologies?

[orsd]

I saw some ads on cl for these machine and was wondering if they were any good?

[AngryChris]

This is weird because apparently they go by advanced vending technologies AND automated vending technologies. When I first heard about them, around 2008'ish, they only had two products related to vending to my knowledge. They had the RAM 4000 and the RAM 5000 (if I am correct). The RAM 5000 was a refrigerated glassfront snack machine if I recall, while the RAM 4000 was simply a non-refrigerated snack machine.

Here were the issues. While they had some neat designs for their products, they were prone to issues (such as when you pulled the shelves out, the weight of the product might actually pull the spiral out from the motor). These machines seemed to be designed with the idea that nothing would go wrong! Unfortunately, they had so many issues with failed vends due to odd product shapes/sizes and "user error" that the customers got absolutely ticked! AVT had ensured my employer (at that time) that a drop sensor technology was being shipped right away! Within a few months after being assured and re-assured that the drop sensor was coming, the account had switched to another vendor and, even then, the drop sensor never came.

So... while I like the idea of having some new companies to choose from, I don't think AVT is what you should choose for vending. They seem to have stepped away from snack/soda types of merchandise and moved onto other types of merchandise with other types of machines. In fact, they seem to be making so many DIFFERENT types of vending machines that I get concerned that they are spreading their R&D resources too thin and focusing too much on trying to get into every market and not focusing enough on just one or two markets.

[AZVendor]

ORSD,

You will be happiest with machines that are manufactured in the US from long standing companies such as Dixie Narco, Vendo, Royal, Automatic Product (AP), National/Crane/GPL, and Wittern Group/USI/Selectivend/FSI/Avanti. Any vending machine sold under any other name in the states is likely to be manufactured outside the country and sold without any kind of parts or technical support (no matter what they claim).

[kiwi]

ORSD,

I would agree with AZ & stick to the US manufactured machines that he listed along with adding AMS to that list. They also have a very good reputation for being quality machines.

The US machines are far superior to any European or Asian manufactured machines that I have seen over the years. We get all kind of makes & models down here.. FAS, GPE, Necta, Wittenborg, Wurlitzer, Kimma & Jiangsu to name a few.

The only time I would look outside the US was if I was looking at purchasing coffee machines..

[AZVendor]

Thanks, Kiwi, I forgot to mention AMS. I knew I was forgetting someone.

[kiwi]

Thanks, Kiwi, I forgot to mention AMS. I knew I was forgetting someone.

I knew that you had just forgotten to mention AMS as they are probably at the top of your list!!

On the subject of AMS.. have you had a chance to play with any of the "new" Epoch Series models yet?

[AZVendor]

I haven't seen any of the Epoch machines show up in Arizona yet. The main difference between *** and the previous version of snack is the newer updated control panel on the door. The front escutcheon now protrudes off the door, kind of like the Crane machines do and the keypad is lighted as with Crane. The lighted keypad with larger buttons is one of the ADA compliant features. I believe they are still using the Sensit 3 system, as their parts book hasn't been updated to reflect newer electronics. You can also get LED lighting now and it may be standard with the Epoch series. I do like that in the lower temperature models they have gone to a modular cooling system that should just allow us to slide the cooling deck out without removing 1 or 2 shelves and about 1 billion screws. They need to have a modular unit in all of their chilled machines and hopefully that is coming.