My UltraVend Triple Head Fell Apart After Six Months

[Bender]

Yes, it finally fell apart. When I bought it from a Craigslist seller, I really didn't want to buy it, but it came as part of the package, I had to take it if I wanted the two Seaga triples. I put it in storage. Later, I placed it in the entry foyer to retail store to replace somebody else's abanodoned Vendstar. Since then, it has been one of my best selling triple heads.

My old UltraVend must be at least 10 years old. When I placed it on site, it was in pretty good shape, with all the parts, and a slight cigarette burn on the black top lid. Keeping it clean kept the quarters coming and the complaints away. The deep candy tray keeps the candy off the floor and still edible. Nevertheless, it took six months for the screws securing one of the coin mechanisms to come loose, allowing the mechanism to separate completely from the machine. You couldn't see the coins below or get to the candy, but you couldn't buy candy from that head. It earned on average $50 per month. It would be nearly empty every six weeks.

My Ultravend never jammed, and it didn't steal quarters or misvend product. It doesn't have a dropthrough coin mechanism, but I never arrived to find a penny or nickel stuck in the slot blocking sales. I got about a dozen slugs and foreign coins, but thanks to the weak dollar, the joke's on them: those canadians are worth more than an American quarter! I also was lucky enough to find one silver quarter in the mix early on.

The coin mechanism fell off a few days before my last service interval. The store clerk told me the mechanism had been resting in the tray for a few days, but when I arrived, it was nowhere to be seen. The two heads with good mechanisms were almost totally empty, and the missing mechanism had about 1/3 product left.

I reluctantly took it home and priced UltraVend parts, which amounts to $30-50 for a coin mechanism and door. I'll think about it for a while, but in the meantime I replaced it immediately with a Seaga Triple to get that location back to work.

Who says those plastic machines don't perform? Who'da thunk it?

[Hillbilly]

Bender, I have a coin mech and door. PM me if your interested.