bulknoob Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 Hi All -- I have a 501e placed at my kids school and happened to witness a double vend of 20 oz. Ice Mountain water bottles. I had my key with me and opened the machine up, and ran several motor tests to try and replicate the double vend, but was unable to do so. My guess is that maybe that bottle of water had a little less pressure in it, and slipped out after the first bottle dropped. Seemingly a random thing that I guess may happen every now and again with those waters. Which got me thinking... Does anyone know of a vended-product sensor that is compatible with a 501e, similar to what some newer snack machines have? Where if the machine did not sense that a bottle dropped, it would cycle the motor again until a bottle is released? Just curious whether anyone's heard of anything like this, not sure if it exists or not. Thanks all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Southeast Treats Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 To my knowledge, the DN's only use the sold out switches. Royal, USI, and Vendo mostly have drop sensors attached usually to the bottom of the pan to detect that a drink has dropped based on the vibration. They can't tell if the drink vends properly beyond that, so if it hangs up for some reason before falling into the delivery chute it will not detect that. Machines with drop sensors go into sold out mode on a selection usually after 2 failed vend attempts on a single purchase. I am not aware of a drop sensor kit for DN machines. As far as double vends I am not sure. A lot of the smaller USI's use the drop sensor in place of a selection depth setting, so if they read two drops they would reset from single depth to double depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 I don't think there is any kind of kit for that nor do I believe the SIID boards are capable of such a thing. I THINK that the latest stack models Dixie produced (the "P" models) had drop sensors but they are very poorly rated here. Your problem, being that you had a double-vend, was likely something wrong mechanically. In all honesty, a properly working 501e RARELY RARELY RARELY misvends. Dixies are, in my opinion, notoriously reliable when it comes to their design WHEN working properly. Being that it is a 501e, it is a pretty modern machine but it could be anywhere between 10 and 20 years old (I am not exactly sure). Regardless, 501es are generally deemed very reliable machines. Your problem is likely to be either a sticking brake or a switch that is acting up. I recently took the brake off of a motor and cleaned it because the machine was constantly vending mountain dew after you would insert money (single-price machine). The problem was that the brake was stuck too long and didn't stop the motor fast enough.. causing it to stop between the notches on the cam.. so on the next visit when someone met the credit amount to purchase something, the motor would automatically turn as the switch tried to find a notch to settle into.. only to have this continue for multiple purchases until the brake engaged fast enough to stop it. Since you couldn't duplicate it, you might have have much of an issue.. but cleaning the brake is pretty easy if you just pay attention to how it comes apart (so you can put it back together) and replacing a switch is even easier.. it literally takes maybe 1 minute to remove a switch and replace it. In my opinion, a properly functioning 501e is more reliable than a machine with a drop sensor.. but that's my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AZVendor Posted January 29, 2018 Share Posted January 29, 2018 If you have soft water bottles and that is the item that double vends then you need to make sure you're using a vendible bottle. No store brands or Nestle branded bottles will work. Nestle does have regional brands that they bottle in 16.0 oz bottles that are ribbed for vending. Otherwise you should look for Dasani or Aqua Fina bottles that are firm when warm which means they are nitrogen-charged so they don't get soft when cold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulknoob Posted January 31, 2018 Author Share Posted January 31, 2018 Thanks for all of the ideas. Very good info on the vendible bottles. Though I'd really like to be running 20 oz. water bottles, the 16.9 dasanis are working a lot better. I found some advice to use a can shim, and put 2 rods in the cylinder, in both the A and C holes. I've run a bunch of those 16.9 dasanis through it with that config and it appears to be working reliably now. Can't help but feel like vendable 20 oz bottles not being available without a distributor is an effort to squeeze out the little guys. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Thanks again everyone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted January 31, 2018 Share Posted January 31, 2018 6 minutes ago, bulknoob said: Can't help but feel like vendable 20 oz bottles not being available without a distributor is an effort to squeeze out the little guys. Maybe I'm just paranoid. Thanks again everyone. I don't think so. Those bottles are so easy to get from virtually any distributor... I think the reason why you don't see the hard plastic bottles at grocery stores and wholesale clubs is because the vast majority of people just want the cheapest water bottles they can get, and the soft plastic ones are the cheapest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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