AMS SlimGem vending machine

[Kevin James]

I don’t have the room to put in a big Shurvend vending machine or wall space to put one in the wall at our car washes. Has anyone seen or know anything about the AMS SlimGem vending machine? www.amsvendors.com/vendors.aspx?ID=12 It’s only 28 1/2” wide by 29 1/2” deep. This is about prefect for our car washes. It has a pretty attractive price of only $2300.

 

[waterway]

I don’t have the room to put in a big Shurvend vending machine or wall space to put one in the wall at our car washes. Has anyone seen or know anything about the AMS SlimGem vending machine? www.amsvendors.com/vendors.aspx?ID=12 It’s only 28 1/2” wide by 29 1/2” deep. This is about prefect for our car washes. It has a pretty attractive price of only $2300.

I just bought a Etowah Valley "Old Faithful" it has a small footprint and mounts on the wall like Luarel mechanical vendors do. I'm very happy with it.http://www.angelfire.com/mech/evmanufacturing/vending.html

 

[cantbreak80]

Looks alot like a Fawn Vendor (the universe's worst piece of junk, imho).

For about the same size and price, take a look at a Crane GPL 172

PosiVendTM guaranteed delivery system
Compact design
Product capacity up to 960 items
Free-vend, cash, credit or debit card capable

I bought one about 5 years ago from a local distributor. He set it up for me, delivered it to the wash and hauled away the Fawn...for free! I would have happily paid $100 just to get rid of the Fawn.

I bolted it to the wall next to the bill changers, loaded it up, plugged it in and put the manual in the library...it's still in it's sealed envelope.

My machine accepts nickels, dimes, quarters, $coins, $1, $5, & $10 bills and gives change. If there's insufficient funds in the change hopper, it returns the customer's bill...pretty cool! Except for testing purposes, I don't believe the PosiVend system has ever been activated....there's never been the tell-tale foot prints that were so prevalent with the fawn.

 

[Whale of a Wash]

The one to the left of the slim Gem is the refrigerated version of the shurvend. The only negatives is that you need some front protection, Lock protection, and Keypad protection. They need alot more protection for a carwash. Contact Shurvend and see if he could put an armor package on it, otherwise it may be a little too vulnerable, unless you have someone there all the time.

 

[Uncle Sam]

AMS SlimGem @ Car Wash

Kevin,

The SlimGem is the smallest vendor that AMS makes and was built in response to the demand for a less expensive vendor. The WideGem is the low priced version of the ShurVend 51. All AMS vendors are built for use inside a building in a lunch or break room setting except for the Outsider. That is the only one made for an outside setting. The SlimGem and WideGem can be priced cheaper because there is no insulation in either and other short cuts have been made. The electronics and software on all AMS vendors is the same.

The problem with trying to use the SlimGem/WideGem versions is they are not weatherproof and the security is non-existent. The glass window is especially vulnerable. We have sold some Outsiders on occasion, but they get vandalized and torn up when put into certain car wash environments. The sheet metal on the Outsider and the SlimGem/WideGem is only 24-26 gauge and can be cut into rather easily with cordless tools. (I have pix of an Outsider vandalized badly to get to the bill validator if anyone wants to see what happens.) I don't know what real cold weather would do to any of the Gem series, but it could freeze the products inside these non-insulated vendors.

The SlimGem probably can be "hardened" up to place in the car wash environment, but then we would lose the size contraints that seem so important in your case. I am going to be at AMS this next week to visit and I will look again at the SlimGem to see if we can secure the vendor without getting into too much cost and "bust" your budget. The savings over the standard vendor may not be that much.

Uncle Sam

 

[Uncle Sam]

A New Look at the AMS SlimGem

Kevin,

I visited the AMS plant last week and took a hard look at the SlimGem for use at a car wash site. Here is what I think needs to be addressed before it will survive at a car wash site.

1. The window is glass and will have to be covered with polycarbonate to make it secure against breakage. We can do that.
2. The popout T-Handle closure for the door is made of pot metal and will have to be covered with a steel cover for more security. We can do that.
3. The control panel where the bill validator, selection buttons, coin slot, and display needs to covered with a stainless mask to secure it. We can do that.
4. The vendor is not weather-proof nor does it have a rubber seal around the door so some weather-proofing will have to be done. I think we can do something to keep rain water from dropping onto the electronics when the door is opened for servicing. A canopy over this vendor at the wash to keep rain off of it would almost be a requirement.
5. Lastly there is no insulation at all in the vendor and no fan to circulate air inside the machine. In the West, South West, and Southern parts of the U.S. this vendor would probably work, but in the parts of the U.S. where there are long winters and it gets below zero for longer periods of time, some of the pouch packs inside the vendor may freeze.

I think there are certain markets where the SlimGem would work as a medium security vendor versus the High Security "Ghetto Ready" vendors we have been selling for years.

The price point could be attractive for this medium security package in the economic situation we all find ourselves in right now. We will do some further study and see what kind of lower priced package we can put together.

Thanks for the questions about the SlimGem machine. We learn something each and every day.

Uncle Sam

 

[Waxman]

Sounds like alot of work when you could purchase a 51 selection combo machine with a security cage; new or used.

Then you could just fill it up with great carwash vending items and plug it in.

 

[MEP001]

I can see a place for it. A smaller car wash wouldn't need 51 selections. The base SlimGem is $2,300 - with the changes Uncle Sam listed it could likely be kept near $3,000. That's much less than half the cost of a large vendor, and wouldn't be as big a target. It would take up about as much wall space as two drop-shelf vendors, something just about every wash already has, or should have. It would even be cheaper than 3-column and a 5-column vendor.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Reinventing Ourselves to Meet the Market

Well, Kevin, your post got my "gears grinding" to see if we could meet your wants. We did some "out of the box" thinking here at ShurVend about using the SlimGem vendor as a medium security vendor in the car wash environment. We tried out some ideas and we did come up with a 28-selection vendor using the SlimGem as the base vendor of our new medium security vendor called the "Slim-Jim". That name is not my idea but Leslie's idea for our new offering.

The ShurVend "Slim-Jim" medium security vendor will have polycarbonate window protection, a locking steel cover over the T-handle door closure, the mask over the control panel for money protection, a method for securing the vendor to a concrete pad or against a wall, and lastly a new "WeatherCap" on top of the machine to make it weather proof. The WeatherCap means the ShurVend "Slim-Jim" can be located almost anywhere on the wash site. We will be showing this new "Slim-Jim" vendor at the ICA Show in Las Vegas in May.

The new ShurVend "Slim-Jim" vendor is equipped with the new S3 control board, Guaranteed Delivery, and has all the capabilities of the larger machines that are built by AMS. MEP was pretty close in guessing the price of this new medium security vendor with all the above security features added; $2995 plus bill and coin and freight to your location.

There is an old saying that "Necessity is the Mother of Invention" and the ShurVend "Slim-Jim" is a great example of that. So Kevin, we think we have a vendor for your situation and many others as well, so thanks for your speaking out and your input.

Uncle Sam