Just bought a machine. got some questions on how to set it up.

[Vendonoob]

Hey boys,

Me and my friend just bought our first vending machine. Think it's a Vendo 681. We are having some issues. When we are vending bottles it works just fine, but when we wanna vend cans it doesnt work very well. We have done some googling and we know we have to change the settings from bottles to cans, but we can't figure out how to do it with this machine. Also its not the regular american short and fat cans, its the european tall and skinny ones, will this be a problem? And there are these long, thin metal sheets that we have no idea what they are used for. some of them fell out the first time we tried to vend. See the first pic. 

 

Would be great if anyone could help us here! Also if anyone have any videolinks to this particular machine. 

gif of how it vends cans:

https://imgur.com/a/7hCw0tq

some pics:

https://ibb.co/D1Wzp4X
https://ibb.co/gTVhf8R
https://ibb.co/vqdvpMj
https://ibb.co/kxdM7JZ
https://ibb.co/FncCrmL

[Vendo Mike]

Unfortunately, that being a machine from Italy, I have no experience with it.  I would advise speaking with the person you purchased the unit from for some clarification on package setup. or reach out to SVE (SandenVendo Europe) for a manual. 

Judging from the pics,,the drink rests on more than one of those rotary paddles (for lack of better term) at a time.  In that case, I would expect those paddles would have to be linked in order to drop the drink evenly as opposed to "nose diving". If those metal sheets aren't shims, they may be a mechanical link between those paddles to tie them together.

[Vendonoob]

Thank you for the reply! After searching a ton i found some manuals online for a machine similar to mine, i managed to enter the menu and change some settings, and prices and so on. And i messed around a bit and think i figured out what the metals sheets are for. You can put them in above the "paddles" when you are vending thinner cans so that they trigger the not empty trigger.

I believe there is a way to program the paddles so I can choose which ones open, but i haven't figured this out yet. Now they are all configured for bottles so they open two at a time. What i would like to do is have the first paddle open, then the two middle ones, then the last one, so that we can have cans three deep. For now we just have an empty space between the cans as a quick fix. 

[Vendo Mike]

It looks like the paddles are sized for 12oz cans and can be joined for taller packages. In order to drop cleanly (no nosediving) you're going to need all paddles that the drink is resting on to release at the same time.  If a bottle is sharing any part of two paddles, they both need work together.  Basically, it's set up for 4 deep, 12oz cans (each paddle releases individually ) or 2 deep bottles ( release in pairs front to back ).  This is simply based on the mechanism I'm looking at in your pics and general knowledge of how a stack operates so I could be mistaken.

[Vendonoob]

Replied earlier but I don't think i submitted.

I think you are correct with regards to that it is set up for 4 regular cans or two bottles. There are latches between some of the flaps that i can fasten or release. 

Regarding the 'nosedive', is that really such a bad thing? Could the product be damaged from it?

[rick98]

First vending machine? I would advise selling that thing and spending your time doing something else. Vending is one of the most amount of work you can do, for the least amount of money things you can do. Your on one machine and just hitting the tip of the iceberg on problems your going to encounter( Just read this forum ). Get out now while you can. 

[AngryChris]

51 minutes ago, rick98 said:

First vending machine? I would advise selling that thing and spending your time doing something else. Vending is one of the most amount of work you can do, for the least amount of money things you can do. Your on one machine and just hitting the tip of the iceberg on problems your going to encounter( Just read this forum ). Get out now while you can. 

So you're basically saying that absolutely no one should ever get into vending and anyone that's in vending should just quit because you believe it's not worth it.

 

[Vendonoob]

8 hours ago, rick98 said:

First vending machine? I would advise selling that thing and spending your time doing something else. Vending is one of the most amount of work you can do, for the least amount of money things you can do. Your on one machine and just hitting the tip of the iceberg on problems your going to encounter( Just read this forum ). Get out now while you can. 

Hahah that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. You will have problems with whatever you do in life. Anyway, for now this is just a hobby project for me and my friend, we wanted a machine at our place of work. But if this works out we do hope to buy some more machines and put at more locations. 

[rick98]

People in the vending industry are some of the hardest working on the planet. The compensation even for the most successful pales in comparison to almost any other industry. As an industry veteran I could not honestly recommend it to anyone, it is a poor choice. If you are in the vending business you should be looking for ways to take money out and put into something else. The ROI just is not good. It is what it is. Facts and advice I am sure no one on this forum will listen to. I get it, I still own a vending company, like some bad crack habit Lol. I have made the decision to buy more vending machines or invest in something else many times. It does not matter if your buying one machine or 100, the something else is almost surely better in the long run. 

 My opinion, apparently I am just dumb though,

Happy Vending

[AngryChris]

5 hours ago, rick98 said:

People in the vending industry are some of the hardest working on the planet. The compensation even for the most successful pales in comparison to almost any other industry. As an industry veteran I could not honestly recommend it to anyone, it is a poor choice. If you are in the vending business you should be looking for ways to take money out and put into something else. The ROI just is not good. It is what it is. Facts and advice I am sure no one on this forum will listen to. I get it, I still own a vending company, like some bad crack habit Lol. I have made the decision to buy more vending machines or invest in something else many times. It does not matter if your buying one machine or 100, the something else is almost surely better in the long run. 

 My opinion, apparently I am just dumb though,

Happy Vending

Here are a few things to consider.  You keep mentioning ROI.  If you simply bought a small vending business with one route and a cargo van.  And let's say it generated 5k/week with good pricing and good equipment.  Maybe you paid 200k for this business.  It's totally realistic to see a 25%+ return.  Maybe even upwards of 35%.  Yes, you'll work full time but you'll net anywhere from 60-85k/year.  Are there businesses that can generate better returns?  Of course.  But is it a bad return? Not at all!!

Now, once you have several routes, you need a bunch of overheads like an office worker or repair guy.  Now you have more people to deal with, more wages to pay, and I can see where an operator can feel like it's not worth it.  Maybe you're there.  But maybe you just don't appreciate what you have.  Maybe you've done it for so long that you don't know/remember what it's like to do something else and you don't appreciate being in control of the business.  Maybe you've let it get out of control and now the business runs you.  If so, you need to snap out of it, get control back, and appreciate what you can do.

If you have multiple routes and you aren't able to pay yourself 80k+ year if you wanted to, then you're probably doing something terribly wrong.  

But here's my main issue with what you've said about getting out of vending.  You clearly made a point that there are better investments, but how many of those investments can be had without a loan?  How many people can afford to get into these investments when they are young or barely making $12/hour?  How many people can find the flexibility to run these high roi investments while also working a full time job?  Vending is one of the few things I know of that just about anyone can get into.  I work 45-50/hours per week currently.  Prior to COVID, the business was at about 28% margins after expenses (not including equipment purchases) and I was capable of paying myself a pretty good salary, much more than any entry level job would pay and more than many people make with decades of experience in their fields.  It's a business that allows you to grow as you wish and it's pretty reliable once you get established.  A lot of high-roi investments can fail quickly when something happens.  Vending can get through bad economies when other companies are going completely belly up.

So... I think I made my point that I believe vending is a good investment to the right people.  It's not for everyone but it's an opportunity that so many people have access to if they wish whereas so many other investments aren't so accessible to many people.