Customer Reviews

Personal 12-Can Soda Vending Machine

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1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been running one of these by my bed for two years so I can have cold soda upstairs. It keeps the drinks at refrigerator temperatures, but if the soda is put in warm, then it might take 4-6 hours to get it really cold. It is best to chill the soda in the fridge first, and then put it in. The advantage of this kind of unit over a compressor unit is that it is much smaller and quiter. It uses Peltier junction electronic cooling and a 12v fan.

The problem is that it draws much more current then the 50W power supply provides. The original power supply partly melted when it gave out after about 6 months. You need a 12V DC power supply of at least 80W, and 110W would be better. These can be bought on the Web for $40-$50. Just splice the new AC Adapter onto the original power cord. Obviously, if you've never repaired or modified a small appliance, this is not for you. But if you have some experience with wiring, this is really easy. It's really nice to have chilled soda with such a quiet machine and such a small footprint.

We used our unit for about two months in our gameroom before the power supply/fan gave up the ghost. It did get used frequently by our two children and their friends but was never left on for more than one or two hours at a time. Unfortunately, even that level of usage was too much for the unit to handle.

We found out quickly that the unit functioned more as a cooler and that drinks needed to be chilled prior to being placed in the machine. Now that my husband has taken out the non-functioning power supply, we just use it as a standard cooler with a novelty twist. I wish that I had read the previous review before my handyman husband threw out the old cord because he would have been able to do the modifications easily.

I would certainly never recommend that anyone purchase this product.

I purchased this item as a gift for my 13 year old because of it's nostalgic appeal. It was really cute, but that's about the only good thing that I can say. It did a really poor job of keeping the cans in place, they frequently rolled out the back and down through the dispenser. The biggest disappointment was that it only lasted about two months. The cooling device quit, rendering the unit useless. It was definitely a bad choice and I would have been better off purchasing a small refrigerator.