vac lock advice

[washman9]

we have industrial vacs and a local criminal seems to have keys to our service doors. apparently they are only 1-2 differenty types of keys that will fit most all servicie doors. he is comming by at night, jamming the slugbustes, then returning later to pocket the pitiful amount of change. in the meantime my customers are obviously livid about loosing the money and i am sick and tired of unjammin the slugbusters, just cant seem to every catch him. what would be best solution for greater security? thanks,

 

[Randy]

I can understand your frustration, been there more than once. By service door I?m assuming that you?re talking about the face plate that the coin acceptor is mounted to. Have you tried changing the locks on the service door? You can also alarm the face plate with wireless alarm. Have you called the police?

I had a guy breaking into my clean out doors every night. I called the police and when he showed up I ripped into him like a Marine Gunny at boot camp. I called them everyday and filed a police report. They got pretty tired of me calling so they made it a mission to get the guy and a couple of night later they had him, no more problem.

 

[washman9]

i am referencing the face plate doors. we have changed the locks but apparently he has several sets of keys and is hitting all the washes in the area.

 

[jprb]

Some of the Industrial Vacs have a slots for a locking bar that goes across the front of the face plate. You can put the lock bar on with your own (high security) padlock.

JPRB

 

[washman9]

when we use the bar you cant drop quarters / tokens.

 

[jprb]

Washman,
The bar blocks the quarter slot?? Could you cut a slot in the bar? That seems to defeat the purpose.

JPRB

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I had a welder come out and weld a s.s. "U" bar over the door lock and I use a disk lock, I think it's a Buffo that locks through the "U" covering the door lock.
Haven't had a problem since.

 

[Earl Weiss]

As indicated if it only blocks part of the slot perhaps you can gringd clearance in the bar. You could also relocate or enlarge the slot so the bar clears the quarter path.

 

[Jeff_L]

So they are just taking the quarters which jam up in the coin slot? Seems like a lot of work and risk for a handful of quarters. If it's happening regularly, I personally would stake out the place from across the street and wait for him to come by. What you'd do when you saw him would be up to you. Just keep yourself out of handcuffs!

 

[MEP001]

We had someone come by our wash with the standard "AH01" key Industrial used for 20 years on all their new vacs. He used a 24V shop vac and a crevice tool to suck most of the quarters out of the vaults, then locked them up again. Luckily a customer saw him (The fool did it in the middle of the day) and called the police.

You can use a standard Gem camlock in place of the original one. You'll have to grind about 1/8" off the tip of the cam, otherwise it's a direct fit. Ours came with slots for an extra lockbar, which I installed after someone pried all the top doors open and performed the shop-vac trick again. There is a bar made with a cut-out to leave the coin slot clear.

 

[washman9]

where can i find the bar with the coin cut out. i do not see it in the kleen rite catalogue. we have video surveilance and use tokens and in spite of all that the guy will still come at all times of the day. i am beginning to wonder if he is sucking some of the quarters out of the vault. he is also in a white mini van so it does not look inappropriate or out of the norm.

 

[Patrick H. Crowe]

It seems to me there is useful information here for all owners,i.e. Do not allow crooks access to any lock, ever. I know the frustration of having to have security devices fabricated which demand the crook come with a torch or go elsewhere.

Years ago I did an article exposing the fact that there were only a few keyed alike disk locks. Any rookie crook could easily have all the keys. Soon, not nearly soon enough, Abus/Buffo came up with a high security lock, then a rekeyable one. Thanks.

The message is simple: Leave no lock unprotected - - even the ones on vac clean out doors, certainly all the ones on coin boxes, face plates, vendors.

The alternative message is this - - I've said it many times: Why can't the manufacturers off a high secouiry model of all tehir products - - I mean nothing lighter than 10 ga. stainess and lock protection up the wazoooo. I'll gladly pay the extra cost because I know from painful experience that havingthis stuff fabricated a few at a time costs far more.

Patrick H. Crowe

 

[Ghetto Wash]

when we use the bar you cant drop quarters / tokens.

On my IVS vacs, the lockbar that goes over the meterbox has a notch in it so the quarters can still be inserted. The lockbar over the coin box does not. I think both if them are from IVS.

 

[MEP001]

where can i find the bar with the coin cut out. i do not see it in the kleen rite catalogue.

Call Kleen-Rite, IVS or Fragramatics. I don't know if IVS is still in business or not, but Fragramatics was selling their vacs through them and vice-versa, so they should know how to get hold of the parts.

I used the Buffo lock along with the stainless shroud for extra protection.

 

[Randy]

I?d go to a Medeco cam lock. It?s almost impossible to get another key or get a spare key make for one of those locks.

 

[Fabman]

Security cover

At one time IVS made a security cover that covered the hole front face of the box. It had a slot that allowed the coin to be inserted and a coin return hole too. It is called a security cover. We designed it when I worked there. I don't know if it still exists. I do know they have 4 different lock bars. I don't think any of them have a slot for the coin. You could always call them and ask for there advice. It is Gin San now. You could also drill a hole in the top of the box and order a pin lock and panel from cleenrite and have the pin welded in and convert it to a pinlock. A liitle expensive, but it would frustrate your crook.

 

[MEP001]

I don't think any of them have a slot for the coin.

We ordered them from Kleen-Rite, who drop-shipped them directly to us from IVS.