Category: Upkeep

A Comprehensive Guide to Vending Machine Cleaning & Upkeep

Owning a vending machine is a profitable business. In fact, the global vending machine market is projected to reach $37.2 billion by 2032. However, without proper cleaning, these profit-generating machines can grind to a halt, and sales will decline. Therefore, properly cleaning your vending machine is important to keeping customers happy and the machine running smoothly and profitably.

This blog dives into the benefits of a clean vending machine and shares helpful DIY videos that will help keep your vending machine clean, efficient, and profitable. 

Why Vending Machine Upkeep?

It’s plain simple. A clean vending machine isn’t just about aesthetics. It’s a strategic investment that pays off in multiple ways. Here’s why:

Positive Impression: First impressions matter. A well-maintained vending machine creates a welcoming atmosphere and reflects positively on the business, conveying a message of caring about the customer experience.

Retention and Sales: A clean vending machine with a clear product display creates a smoother and more enjoyable customer experience, resulting in retention and more sales. 

Reduced Costs: Keeping your vending machine clean helps prevent jams, spills, and other issues, such as blockages and malfunctions, which lead to costly repairs and downtime. Regular cleaning ensures a healthy vending machine, improves machine longevity and function, reduces downtime, and ensures customers consistently get the desired products.

Healthy Vending Machine, Healthy Outcomes: A dirty vending machine can become a breeding ground for harmful bacteria and viruses. Routine sanitation is essential to ensure the safety of consumers.

Your Ultimate Vending Machine Cleaning Guide

Vendnet’s DIY Cleaning Section is the ultimate resource for keeping your vending machines clean and working at their best. This guide provides step-by-step instructions and tips for handling everything from sticky buttons to cleaning your machine thoroughly. Here’s an overview of our DIY section for cleaning:

Clean Air Intake Grill

This video highlights the significance of regularly cleaning the air intake grill under your vending machine to maintain peak efficiency and longevity.

Cleaning & Disinfecting Your Vending Machine

This video demonstrates easy and safe techniques for thoroughly cleaning your vending machines without causing any damage.

Coffee Machine Cleaning

This video shows a step-by-step process for cleaning the coffee machine, which includes flushing the canisters and brewers, wiping the cup area, cleaning the dip tray, etc. 

Bill Acceptor Cleaning

This video guides you on how to clean your vending machine’s bill acceptor to help prevent jams. 

Card Reader Cleaning

This video demonstrates and shows the simple process of cleaning a card reader. 

Air Filter Replacement 

This video shares and walks you through the steps of replacing your air filter to ensure machine cleanliness. 

It’s Time to Shine

A clean vending machine is a profitable vending machine. By keeping your vending machine clean with the help of Vendnet’s DIY videos, you can ensure your vending machine remains clean, efficient, and profitable. Have questions about vending? Our specialists are here to help answer all of your vending questions. Get in touch with us today! 

As much as we sometimes wish it were true, we can’t remember everything. When thinking about the longevity of a machine, oftentimes what pops into our minds are steps we can take to maintain its factory-new condition. One of the most efficient and successful ways of prolonging the life of a vending machine is to regularly check it.

Detailed business recordkeeping can be a lifesaver. If you write something down, you don’t have to actively try to remember it. When it comes to repairs and maintenance, writing down even the most minute details can save you from headaches later.

You should keep detailed notes when:

• You complete any self-repairs
• An Independent Repairman or Service works on the machine
• An Operator Provided Technician services the machine

Basically, your vending business recordkeeping should keep track of any service done to the machine, no matter who is completing it. But detailed notes don’t always mean you list who, where, and when. There are several things you should always keep track of beyond these items.

What You Should Always Write Down:

• Who serviced the machine
• When they serviced the machine
• Where the machine is located
• Every step they took to ‘fix’ the machine
  • And what each action was supposed to fix
• Parts they replaced and where they got them
• Vending Machine serial number, manufacturer, and model number

While writing so much information down can be tedious, the lack of panicked searching and stress later is well worth the work you do in the present.

There are many reasons to keep track of everything with vending business recordkeeping so diligently:

• Helps you keep track of reoccurring maintenance checks
• Assists with finding parts in the future
• Gives you a sense of a machine’s history

Should something not be resolved the first time around, you then know exactly what has already been tried

Of the reasons listed above, one is more unassuming than the others: Knowing the history of a machine. It probably isn’t the first thing to cross your mind, but it can be quite beneficial to use business recordkeeping to be able to see if a machine has a history of issues, especially if you have purchased a used machine. We recommend asking the previous machine’s owner about the machine’s history prior to purchasing. It can help you identify machines near or at the end of their lifetime, and in the end, can help you make the decision of purchasing a new vending machine for sale over continuing to service a machine past-its-prime.

For more information on the upkeep of your machine, click HERE or contact Vending.com at 1-800-548-1982.

It is something that is mentioned in every manual and set-up guide, yet it is consistently overlooked. Every vending machine should be leveled right away. It is an easy step that is skipped, most often because it is deemed ‘unimportant.’ This could not be further from the truth.

Vending machines can be very sensitive. They literally, in their most basic parts, are refrigerated boxes. What happens, however, when the box does not seal all the way? When it is jostled every day because it is unsteady, the longevity of the box drastically declines.

One of the most important reasons that you need to level your vending machine is to protect the door. Given enough time while unlevel, the door of a vending machine will, eventually, not close anymore. They are built to align with precise locking mechanisms and intricate wiring. The vending machine being unlevel puts more pressure on the door than originally intended. The long-term effect could be permanent damage to the hinges, seals, and locking mechanisms of the door.

Even within a few weeks of being unlevel, the door might become harder to open. The probability of the door getting stuck increases exponentially when a machine remains unleveled. If you have a refrigerated vending machine and its door does not close all the way, you risk damaging other components of the machine as well, such as the refrigeration units. The doors are designed to seal all the cold air in, so the hot air can be pumped out. This process does not work properly if the seal is broken.

All the above consequences can be avoided by leveling your machine during the setup process. All it would take is 5-10 extra minutes of set-up, and in the end, that 5-10 minutes could save you the need to buy a completely new machine!

For more information on the upkeep of your machine, click HERE or contact Vending.com at 1-800-548-1982.