MEI bill acceptor (with recycler) not taking $5's

[Rudy]

I have a MEI bill acceptor that's starting to NOT take $5's in my ShurVend vendor. It takes $1, $10, and $20's ok.

Any ideas?

 

[Randy]

I have never heard of one having problems with just fives. Try cleaning the bill validator with spray glass cleaner on a clean cloth, clean around belts and the LED and sensor housings, blow out with air and turn the switch from high security to high acceptance. If that doesn't fix it, send it in for repair.

 

[1carwash1]

Over the years, I have had a number of different MEI acceptors in service. And yes, we have had problems with five dollar bill acceptance too.
As strange as it sounds, I have noticed that if I crumple up and then flatten the five-dollar bill that the acceptor is rejecting, it improves the acceptance rate. Some fives are accepted without any problems while other fives are repeatedly rejected. We generally do not have this problem with $1, $10, & $20 unless the acceptor needs service.

 

[Rudy]

Per Randy's suggestion, I cleaned the optics both top and bottom. The unit was already set for low security/high acceptance. I also have a recycler for the 5's. I read somewhere online, that unloading and reloading the $5's often helps.

Guess what I found? Turns out that about 1/2 of the (quantity of ten) bills inside the recycler were doubled over (folded). I removed them, and then blew everything out with air.

When reloading, like 1CW1 said, some bills were accepted first time....other took much longer.

It doesn't make sense that folded bills in the recycler would have anything to do with the acceptance rate.

However, it appears that things are better now. Not perfect, but better than before.