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STA Hamilton Validator - Repair

W

washallday

Member
I have six STA SS validators from Hamilton and I love them but as we all know they do not make them anymore and I need to find a place that repairs them at a reasonable cost. Does anyone out there know of a place, please let me know.

I am sad that they stopped supporting the repairs for these and do not sell them. I did get the XLE or XL, I think, replacement that is black and all metal, the front that sticks out of the machine started to show signs of rust in the first year. Who make crap for a car wash that is not rust proof?????

I will say the Hamilton has a great over the phone help department, they are the best.
 
Suncoast Changer repaired mine a few years back. I recommend stop spending money on hamilton, rowe and any other validators repairs. When it is time, just convert to mars validator and you life will be much simpler. A mars validators last 4-7 years easily. i can buy a new mars validator on ebay for less than $250 all day long. Don't repair the mars validator also, change the belts and if it didnot work just throw it away.
 
Hamilton stop production of the STA validator on January 1, 2011 and stopped supporting/repairing them in March of 2017 when the existing parts supply ran out.
We’ve repaired or overhauled hundreds of Mars validators over the years. There a little more to overhauling a Mar validator than putting on new belts and wiping it off with a damp rag. We completely disassemble the validator, clean everything, replace the capacitor on the main board if it’s over 3 years old, check the 2 motors in the stacker assembly, Mars had a bad run of motors a few years ago, replace all 4 belts and tires, replace the upper and lower LED housings, upgrade the software and put the validator on the computer to check the operation. The computer program telling you everything about the validator, how many bill insertions by denomination, how bills have been accepted or rejected and the serial number of the validator. The cost of overhauling a Mars validator all depends on what it all needs, $110 - $130 is about normal, if it needs a stacker motor or a control or LED boards it could get expensive. You want to be very careful about buying a Mars on EBay. There’s a guy on EBay who sells new or nearly new Mars validators. I had a customer who bought one and after about 8 months it failed. He sent it to me on warranty only to find out after we put it on the computer that it was 7 years old. What the EBay seller was doing was swapping the guts of an old validator with a new validator and selling the new Mars with old guts on EBay. The EBay buyer thinks he’s getting a heck of a deal. The same thing applies to “Refurbished” Mars validators on EBay. Buyer beware on EBay.
 
I've had no problem with any eBay Mars purchases, nor have any of the dozen or so people who have bought one as a spare at my recommendation. The key is to look at the name, it should be a real company, and have 100% positive feedback with a high feedback score. Gaming and vending companies tend to be reliable.
 
Looking for existing wisdom before being forced to "upgrade" the GoldLine bill acceptor. It appears that moving to the MARS acceptor is the preferred "upgrade" based on what I have read online and above. However, my local repair shop is pushing upgrading to the XE validator. I am looking for other owners thoughts and experiences. Fortunately I am not in a position where I have to do something right now, but do want to be ready when my second STA dies. Also, I do need to be able to accept Hamilton coupons.
 
You don’t have much choice. The Mars won’t take Hamilton tokenotes. I think the STA and XE use different stackers. It looks like you’re going to have your STAs rebuilt.
 
FWIW.....I've been running Iowa Validators in my ACW's for years with GREAT results. The Iowa Validators take Hamilton TokenNotes. They are a drop in replacement for the XE validator.
 
slcw said:
Looking for existing wisdom before being forced to "upgrade" the GoldLine bill acceptor. It appears that moving to the MARS acceptor is the preferred "upgrade" based on what I have read online and above. However, my local repair shop is pushing upgrading to the XE validator. I am looking for other owners thoughts and experiences. Fortunately I am not in a position where I have to do something right now, but do want to be ready when my second STA dies. Also, I do need to be able to accept Hamilton coupons.
Click to expand...
I've done a a lot of Mars Goldline conversions and sold a lot of conversion kits for them. There probably the simplest conversion of any ACW. The only problem is the Mars/MEI validator will not accept Hamilton Token notes.
 
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