Short drop coin acceptors

[OurTown]

We have a Parker Slugbuster III on a modified Doyle vac and having issues with it. The main issue is that it gives a dollar coin a single pulse instead of four. The other minor issue is that many times it rejects a quarter if it has not been used in a while. Then it will accept a quarter every time after that. After talking to Parker I moved the transformer far away from the acceptor (to under the dome) and fiddled with the adjustments. It seemed fine for months and now it is cheating the dollar coins again. Maybe because it got cold outside? We have two more vacs to convert over but I'm hesitant to use this acceptor. The only other short drop I can find out there is the Magikist SecureCoin 5. They sure seem much simpler and the only programming/training needed is for tokens. Are the Slugbuster IIIs junk? Are the SecureCoin 5s good? Is there something I'm overlooking?

 

[chaz]

Slugbuster III is GREAT! May need to adjust the sensitivity and make sure sample coins are tight in position..maybe even swap those coins. Easy instructions on their web site,or call them.....great, fast and reasonable service when needed

 

[Randy]

We’ve had nothing but good luck with the Parker Slugbuster III coin acceptors, except for the occasional coin jam they’ve been pretty much problem free. We have probably 50 in service. They are a hell of a lot better than the IDX MA-800s. The Magikist SecureCoin 5 aren’t the best coin acceptor, I haven’t heard anything good about them. I made a test unit for adjusting my coin acceptors and timers, that way all I have to do is unplug the face plate take into the equipment room, do whatever I have to do and reinstall it. The electronic ring of the Dollar coin is almost the same as a Quarter.

 

[MEP001]

I'm switching from SB II and SB III to Microcoin QL. Slugbuster II's will take a dollar coin but give credit for a quarter. I don't take dollar coins, so I bought a couple SB III just to be able to reject them, but if you drop a dollar coin (or a token that isn't yours) through several times it will eventually get through the gate and steal it. In this aspect, Slugbuster II and III are junk. Everyone else can tune out and reject a dollar coin.

 

[Kevin James]

I'm switching from SB II and SB III to Microcoin QL. Slugbuster II's will take a dollar coin but give credit for a quarter. I don't take dollar coins, so I bought a couple SB III just to be able to reject them, but if you drop a dollar coin (or a token that isn't yours) through several times it will eventually get through the gate and steal it. In this aspect, Slugbuster II and III are junk. Everyone else can tune out and reject a dollar coin.

MEP if you have the capability to accept dollar coins why would you not accept them? What kind of token are you using? Who's it made by? We have a number of Microcoin QL and we get a good number of other car wash tokens. We also have a few SB III coin acceptors and they seem to work fine.

 

[MEP001]

MEP if you have the capability to accept dollar coins why would you not accept them?

I don't want to have to pick through the quarters for dollar coins. If I miss one it'll jam the changer. My tokens are worth 25¢ so I just dump them in the changer with the quarters.

What kind of token are you using? Who's it made by?

I don't remember what alloy, they're just cheap .984 from Hoffman.

We have a number of Microcoin QL and we get a good number of other car wash tokens.

I had tokens from someone else that were supposed to be the same alloy, but when I replaced some acceptors with Microcoin and programmed with my new tokens, the old ones wouldn't work. The Slugbuster II and III can't distinguish between the two.

 

[OurTown]

I guess it sounds like the SB IIIs are worth fiddling with and will look at it again today. I remember having to adjust the pots to the extreme recommended positions.

 

[mikempls]

These are all short drop acceptors that I'm referring to. We had slugbuster II and switched to slugbuster III because we wanted to accept quarters, high security tokens and gold dollars. We had constant adjustment issues when we switched to the slugbuster III units (may be related to the token we use, not sure). After about a year we switched to Secure Coin and have had really good luck. We've been using them since about 2010. They did a design change a year or two ago and I guess some people had issues when customers dropped coins in quickly but they corrected that issue. We purchased an 8 bay about a year ago and changed all the bays to Secure Coin with zero issues. We have them in two locations (14 bays total).
My first choice would be MicroCoin QL which we have in all of our vacuums, but I think they are long drop only?

 

[soapy]

I have used the secure coin mechs for years and really like them. Since they started installing the spring loaded gate they are easy to unjamb which is the only problem they ever had IMO.

 

[OurTown]

We had constant adjustment issues when we switched to the slugbuster III units

This is what I'm concerned about if we stick with them.

 

[OurTown]

My first choice would be MicroCoin QL which we have in all of our vacuums, but I think they are long drop only?

Yes. As far as I can tell the only options right now for short drop is the Slugbuster and Securecoin.

 

[OurTown]

Mrs. OurTown fiddled with it yesterday and got it to work. According to her the dollar pot was cranked way past the 2 o'clock maximum recommended position. Hopefully that was the issue and makes me think they are going to fine to install in the others. Could the short drop versions be more finicky or more likely to go out of adjustment than the long drop versions? (or more sensitive to installation variables) If so that would explain why some here have good luck with them and others that use short drops have worse luck.

 

[OurTown]

On another note, what is the name of the Magikist coin acceptors? I see Kleen-Rite calls them SecureCoin but some of the photos show that name but some have the iCoin name on them. Everywhere else on the internet including the Magikist website they are called iCoin. Are they Canadian and used to be Australian? I think I saw an older thread (2008?) that they went out of business and the coin acceptors were taken over by Magikist. According to their website only Dultmeier is shown as dealer. Also they show Slugbusters on their website. Strange.

 

[soapy]

Secure coin was the name used by some folks who marketed them in the US under exclusive contract. They went out of business years ago and magickist took over. Since MagicKist is now direct they work much better and service is very good.

 

[OurTown]

This thing worked okay for a whole whopping month. Now it has the opposite problem where every once in a while it gives four pulses for a quarter. We audit the timer coin counts every pull and the last two pulls it was off. The counter stated 142 pulses and there were 130 quarters in the vault. (no dollars this time) If my math is correct it happened four times this last time. I tested it by dropping about 50 quarters in it and it gave four pulses twice and all the rest were one pulse. Once it rejected a quarter. Also before I realized this time the count was off I checked a dollar and the first time it rejected it. I'm trying to figure out what the instructions are telling me to do because they don't exactly state this problem. I'm thinking I should turn the dollar pot counterclockwise to make it more sensitive but I could be thinking backwards on this. What I don't understand is why it rejected the dollar the first time I tried today.

 

[MEP001]

FWIW I had a new Slugbuster III not read my tokens. Since I was trying to tune out tokens that weren't mine, I started with it all the way down and turned it up slowly until it would accept them, but it just kept accepting both good and bad at first. I had to adjust it all the way up and down a couple times before it worked right.

 

[Randy]

FWIW I had a new Slugbuster III not read my tokens. Since I was trying to tune out tokens that weren't mine, I started with it all the way down and turned it up slowly until it would accept them, but it just kept accepting both good and bad at first. I had to adjust it all the way up and down a couple times before it worked right.

Probably because the tokens are made of the same metal. If you have 2 different competitor tokens but they are of the same metal type the SBIII will accept both of them no matter what you do. That's one of the problems when you buy a cheap token, your going to get every else's. We had a tavern here that had a nice nickel plated token that they dispensed from a bill changer, 8 for a dollar. That token worked in all the car washes that used a inexpensive Hoffman token.

 

[Randy]

This thing worked okay for a whole whopping month. Now it has the opposite problem where every once in a while it gives four pulses for a quarter. We audit the timer coin counts every pull and the last two pulls it was off. The counter stated 142 pulses and there were 130 quarters in the vault. (no dollars this time) If my math is correct it happened four times this last time. I tested it by dropping about 50 quarters in it and it gave four pulses twice and all the rest were one pulse. Once it rejected a quarter. Also before I realized this time the count was off I checked a dollar and the first time it rejected it. I'm trying to figure out what the instructions are telling me to do because they don't exactly state this problem. I'm thinking I should turn the dollar pot counterclockwise to make it more sensitive but I could be thinking backwards on this. What I don't understand is why it rejected the dollar the first time I tried today.

You might want to call Doug at Parker engineering and pitch a bitch to him.

 

[OurTown]

I talked to Parker and they told me that if a quarter gives four pulses then turn the dollar pot clockwise. If a dollar is giving one pulse then turn the quarter pot counterclockwise. The wording in the manual does not state it exactly like that. It's working fine now. They told me to send it in if it keeps going out of adjustment.