How often to update equipment

[Zachsea]

This is something thats been on my mind lately and i want to get some outsider input. How often do you guys update your equipment to newer machines in the same accounts? In 11 years of business we’ve done this one time at accounts that we thought were deserving of it. Totally out of curiosity. 

[AZVendor]

At the prices of new or rebuilt machines now and the dearth of any newer machine actually being a good machine I would say never.  What did you upgrade from and to before?  I would simply remanufacture some really dependable machines and put them in.  LED lights, new paint and graphics, new labels and an upgraded logic board go a long way to making machines look new.  Even taking the leg levelers out, cleaning floor wax off the threads then lubing and threading them back in makes a difference.  Decades ago, I put rebuilt Rowe 447 cold food machines into some of a retail chain's breakrooms and I got more compliments on the "new" Rowe 447s than I got on my truly new Rowe 5900 snacks and new Rowe coffee machines.  

Others will probably tout the latest and greatest Crane pieces of plastic garbage or maybe even new USI stuff.  I would go USI or AMS over the overpriced Crane stuff any day if you have to buy new.

[Zachsea]

7 hours ago, AZVendor said:

At the prices of new or rebuilt machines now and the dearth of any newer machine actually being a good machine I would say never.  What did you upgrade from and to before?  I would simply remanufacture some really dependable machines and put them in.  LED lights, new paint and graphics, new labels and an upgraded logic board go a long way to making machines look new.  Even taking the leg levelers out, cleaning floor wax off the threads then lubing and threading them back in makes a difference.  Decades ago, I put rebuilt Rowe 447 cold food machines into some of a retail chain's breakrooms and I got more compliments on the "new" Rowe 447s than I got on my truly new Rowe 5900 snacks and new Rowe coffee machines.  

Others will probably tout the latest and greatest Crane pieces of plastic garbage or maybe even new USI stuff.  I would go USI or AMS over the overpriced Crane stuff any day if you have to buy new.

Awesome feedback it is much appreciated. As for what we upgraded we updated our very first account. A nursing home that we had a refurbed 407 vendo and rowe 4900 to a 501e and a 168. 

[AZVendor]

You have the right idea then.  Get good used machines and make them look stellar and they will be as good as new, as they say.  Single price to multi-price, cans to cans/bottles, red credit display to blue display.  The little differences all make the machines look different and new.  Just make sure they work as good or better than the old machines.

I was afraid that you wanted to go new or that your accounts were expecting new.  I have had customers deal with new locations that required new machines be put in and I never advised anyone to do that.  What an account wants and gets are two different things.  This is a business and it has to be profitable. Most good accounts don't even warrant new machines. It's truly a decision of the operator.  I did a lot of new machines in the 90's because I was adding business like crazy and a couple of accounts were 40 machines and 100+ machines.  For those I did new machines due to the time constraints of obtaining equipment quickly and all at once. I also did bottler machines from Coke and Pepsi when those accounts came along.