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AUSTRALIAN Coke Vendo 56 Square-Top Machine


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Hi,

 

 

I am looking for someone who is familiar with Vintage Coke Vending machines, specifically a Coke Vendo 56 Square Top Glass bottle Vending machine, in the Adelaide area. The fridge, coin mech, and bottle release mechanism all works, but the machine desperately needs a service and the electricals and mechanicals looked at.

 

I know this is not a Pinball machine, but this machine has similarities to them, and was hoping someone either has experience with them, or enough technical skill to at least check it out to make sure its safe. I am not looking for a full restoration, like what you see on the History Channel shows. I just wanna make sure the machine will run OK, and not short out and catch fire etc. I also want some advice on how to maintain these things. I am willing to pay for work done.

 

 

I know some current Coca Cola Amatil (CCA) technicians and retired ones are familiar with the machine in question. I actually met one in a Coles today fixing up a modern display fridge, who when asked said he used to service and rebuild these very machines for CCA back in the day when they were in use. Unfortunately, his current job is non-stop, and isn't looking for any paid side work :(

 

 

 

 

http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/image.php?id=ktpdq&f=1'

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http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/image.php?id=5p2oa&f=1'

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http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/image.php?id=doska&f=1'

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http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/image.php?id=jxpyg&f=1'

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http://www.overclockers.com.au/pix/image.php?id=unjv5&f=1'

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These things have been bought and sold on ebay and gumtree for years. I know Coke either scrapped them, or had them gutted and converted into standard fridges. The ones that survived were rescued by Coke Employees. Never heard Coke hunting people down who sold them online. The one I bought had been on Gumtree on and off for 5 years

 

EDIT: The previous owner even had a guy from Coke come out with a collection of keys to open the machine up, because the key had been tossed into the cap catcher box.

 

2ND EDIT: Every vintage machine I have tried to buy over the years were either from someone who worked at Coke, or they had bought it from someone who had worked at Coke, or they had bought it from someone who bought it from someone who worked at Coke.

 

One guy I know had a current Coca Cola Amatil employee at the time 25 years ago bring him a gutted fridge for free, as he was just out of the Army and needed a fridge. Has Coke ever tried to reclaim one of these 60's retired machines?

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Coke own all red fridges, and will confiscate if they know you have one, seeing its red on the inside, its a Coke owned machine.

I do know this for a fact, as I have had the phone call and asked if I would like to surrender the machine or they will take it from me legally, of course I surrendered it, cant remember the guys name but he explained it to me that Coca Cola Australia have never sold a machine nor do they let employees take them, all out of date machines are used for parts or destroyed, he told me to open the door of the machine, and if the paint on the inside is red, its owned by Coke, if it was black, white, blue or any other colour it's a operator machine and not owned by coke.

So do be careful who you ask about looking at it.

A normal fridge mechanic can fix them, I have owned many over the years and they are just a standard fridge with a vending mechanism.

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it is true that coke did not sell their machines and would ask for them back. I had coke check out out my 1980's dixie narco machine they suspected was one of theirs, thankfully the serial never matched any of theirs.

I Suspect they were hoping it was one of theirs for the reason My machine sold coke much cheaper than the one coke them selves had sited in town, a few weeks later they removed their machine as it wasnt making much money since mine came on the scene. The vending machine rep who serviced their machine was the first to ask about my machine, he said they often ask their reps to check out the competitions machines in-case they are actual coke machines.

Im sure I could legally have refused them to look if had wanted too, Unless they had some legal stuff requesting me todo so, maybe police checking and so on. But I let them just to get them off my back as a knew it wasnt a coke serial number.

Sometimes machines were sited in venues that went bust and were sold that way by liquidators, So I guess there would be some grey areas in those situations. well thats what Ive been told by a vending service company, when I talk them while they were servicing my machine.

I doubt however they would care about that model you have. I would assume unless it was sited making money, as people have said Any fridge mechanic would be able to work on your machine.

 

you would think however if coke had made an insurance claim on a machine stolen Which One would assume they would have insured, it isnt actually their property anymore but in fact the insurance companies machines??, some may have even been sold in police Auctions also. So there maybe a number of ways they could have been sold outside of coke, but who knows

 

the colour in the door is a good indicator but not always 100% as some independent vendors might paint their machines red. but Serial numbers is the give away.

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I doubt however they would care about that model you have.

you would think however if coke had made an insurance claim on a machine stolen Which One would assume they would have insured, it isnt actually their property anymore but in fact the insurance companies machines??

 

Coca cola Australia dont care how old it is, its theirs and they dont want you to have it, and they are self insured.

 

It sucks, as I for 1 legit paid for mine, they rocked up in a Coke truck and took em

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Coca cola Australia dont care how old it is, its theirs and they dont want you to have it, and they are self insured.

 

It sucks, as I for 1 legit paid for mine, they rocked up in a Coke truck and took em

 

 

fair enough,

Edited by jason1
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Coca cola Australia dont care how old it is, its theirs and they dont want you to have it, and they are self insured.

 

It sucks, as I for 1 legit paid for mine, they rocked up in a Coke truck and took em

 

Was the machine at your house or sited? If it was at your house how did they find out that you had it?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

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Coca cola Australia dont care how old it is, its theirs and they dont want you to have it, and they are self insured.

 

It sucks, as I for 1 legit paid for mine, they rocked up in a Coke truck and took em

 

EDIT : Ooops sorry, you already answered my question.

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They were for sale on gumtree, the guy from coke told me they dont actively look for machines but do scour ebay and gumtree from time to time.

I first of all did not believe he was from coke, so I googled his name, he was the head of security and fraud from Coca cola, I had a bit of a chat to him about 20 minutes on the phone, he set the record straight for me :(

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They were for sale on gumtree, the guy from coke told me they dont actively look for machines but do scour ebay and gumtree from time to time.

I first of all did not believe he was from coke, so I googled his name, he was the head of security and fraud from Coca cola, I had a bit of a chat to him about 20 minutes on the phone, he set the record straight for me :(

 

some of them definitely do go out of their way to check out competitors machines, thats how they went about looking at my dixienarco, I was filling my machine and saw this guy watching me fill my machine, I was about to tell him to move along,as I dont like people looking at the insides of the machines as I worry they are looking for ways to break into them.

But then He had a coke shirt on and the coke vending machine truck was over the other side of the road.

I asked him if he was checking out my prices and was going togo back to his machine to compete lol. he replied no, But I want to see if it was one of ours. i said no Its mine.

he then left And i saw him standing on his phone about 10meters away from me. I was thinking He was definately going to go back to the coke machine and change his prices, But He came back and asked to see the serial number, I said sure but I thought your were joking about if it was one of yours, lol. He looked really serious in reply and continued to look and said nope its fine not one of ours.

I was rather happy though it wasnt one of theirs and the advice of the vending service company was correct, I had only recently upgraded the mechanism and modernized the entire machine inside. would have sucked to have lost all that.

Next time Brivend come out to service my machine I will ask them for interest sake what Indicators there are on the serial number that gives away a coke machine, would be handy to know to avoid such Mistakes as buying one of cokes

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ASBESTOS!

 

The putty used around the pipe exiting the cold box is asbestos based. It’s fine If un-disturbed but if it needs to be moved use correct technique to remove and dispose

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Can you explain what the cold box is. Is is the whole compressor compartment, or a part of the fridge unit etc?

 

Sigh, and I was feeling so happy about finally finding one of these machines :(

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Step-Father worked for CCA for 15 years. All machines they no longer use are stripped and scrapped. Far as CCA is concerned just about all machines in the wild are stolen as they’ve never sold any in their history. They do chase down machines they suspect are stolen no matter how old they are.

 

Best bet is to source an American machine.

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Step-Father worked for CCA for 15 years. All machines they no longer use are stripped and scrapped. Far as CCA is concerned just about all machines in the wild are stolen as they’ve never sold any in their history. They do chase down machines they suspect are stolen no matter how old they are.

 

Best bet is to source an American machine.

 

 

Jesus. Ebay and Gumtree have been listing these machines for years. I know of a few machines that have been sold and re-sold, and others that have been for sale online for years.

 

I knew that using this machine in a public setting to make money was a no no, as Coke usually stripped out all the internals or the coin mech and associated connections at the very least to prevent specifically that. A lot of the shells got made into a standard fridges over the years.

 

I figured since most of the complete working fridges were saved by Coke employees, there was nothing untoward about it.

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Can you explain what the cold box is. Is is the whole compressor compartment, or a part of the fridge unit etc?

 

Sigh, and I was feeling so happy about finally finding one of these machines :(

 

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Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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now I'm scared reading this [ATTACH=CONFIG]135023[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]135024[/ATTACH]

 

Mine has those 2 plates missing, although that is not uncommon. To be honest, I thought about sourcing those plates form a roached machine and adding them for authenticity. I know I can buy the Vendo plate repo from Fun-tronics in the US.

 

For all I know, my machine is from NSW, or QLD etc. Seen a few variations over the years.

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