Customer Reviews

SkyBox by Maytag Personal Beverage Vendor, Pitch Black

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

In regards to the Franklin, TN review, I had the Maytag man out, and my fan is installed properly, and my machine still isn't getting colder. For the soda and water, you can add ice, but why should I have to after waiting 3 months and paying $500 for this thing!! And as far as beer is concerned, FORGET IT!! If you like warm beer, this machine is for you!! I know my original review shot down the stand for being a waste of money, and that you should use the $69 for buying beverages. Don't do that, use it to buy the ice you are going to need to keep the stuff cold. It's amazing how an employee from Home Depot the other day was on the floor of the store trying to put this thing together. I walked up to him and said that I had bought one, and how difficult it has been so far, and he told me that he was told that Maytag may have to recall the item, because of problems with the cooling system of the machine.(He also mentioned that he had been working on the assembly of the stand for 1hr. 45 minutes, and he still had to drill new holes to get the stand and the machine lined up properly). Also, my team cards came today, and they were torn on each corner; now that could be blamed on UPS, but just everything involved in this machine has been a nightmare. For all of you that are still on the waiting list for this thing...CANCEL!! Maybe if they get the motor running better on this thing, then get one later, but take it from one of the guinea pigs, wait awhile and use your money to buy COLD beer and put it in your refrigerator!!

Bought my Skybox on Wednesday and had it in place in less than an hour. Home Depot had 11 in stock. [The base only has maybe 20 screws so I don't quite understand where the complaints with the base come from]. I waited until late Thursday afternoon before calling Maytag, but did because like most reviews here my unit would not cool below 40-41 degrees. [I was mad because I had read the reviews and knew this was a problem] I was surprised to hear that a repairman would be at my house Saturday afternoon. He came, with a new memo regarding the Skybox in hand, and performed the cooling fan flip in less than 10 minutes. Beverages are now cooled to a chilly 34-35 degrees [they advertise a range of 35-40 degrees]. I looked at the memo while he was working on the unit and it looks like the problem has been corrected in the newer units. The memo listed the serial number ranges that had the reversed fan problems. The memo says Black cabinet serial numbers less than 10292261CX and Silver cabinet serial numbers less than 10319445CX would have the fans reversed. Today I received my University of Michigan panels and they look great [GO BLUE!] and delivery time was less than two weeks. The Skybox is awesome... a bit pricey, but I love it!

I, like many people, bought this item with a degree of skepticism. I was fully anticipating mediocre cooling performance. I ended up buying it from Home Depot, who has a free gift card offer via a rebate. I got this thing home by myself (2 people are definitely a plus, unless you have a really good back), and set it up in a matter of a couple of minutes. I have to tell you I was pretty impressed with how fast it got cold. I put a thermometer in it, and after about 2 hours of running at max, the inside temp was 28 degrees. I backed it off to about 3/4 of the max setting, and it is running right around 34 degrees. Perfect! I tested the item with pop cans, beer cans, and even beer bottles, and it has worked flawlessly so far. I can't remember if the description indicates it or not, but the front of the vendor is backlit with 2 flourescent bulbs, which get pretty bright. There is an on/off switch to turn the lights off if you don't want them on. The graphics in the front, as well as the selection buttons are backlit. This looks pretty cool! One more thing the description doesn't mention is on the capacities of the individual slots. The top row only holds 10 cans or 5 bottles. The other 3 slots hold 18 cans or 9 bottles each. This gives you a max of 64 cans or 32 bottles. The bottles cannot be taller than two stacked pop/beer cans, and must be less than 3 inches in diameter. This is plenty enough for any beer bottles I have run across. I tried this unit with Summit beer bottles (a St Paul, MN local brew) which are shorter and fatter than the macro brews, and it worked great. There is a suspended fabric catch net at the bottom, which seems to prevent foaming pretty well. The unit is also very quiet. You can barely hear it run when standing next to it. I would not hesitate to buy this again, even though it is a bit pricey.

Ernie wrote a review in May 2004 about the fan being reversed. I bought my Skybox from HomeDepot on Sept 6th 2004 - guess what. The freakin thing doesn't work. I checked my serial number and sure enough it was one of the ones he warned against. I could not have imagined that this is STILL a problem. How can Maytag, knowing that this is a problem, continue to ship defective parts. This is the only Maytag product I own and it will likely be the last. It has not been fixed yet as the Maytag people couldn't fit me into their schedule. I don't want to take it back as it is pretty darn heavy. Home Depot played dumb - said 'never had a problem with them' - well I did. I do think that it will be pretty neat once it works. I got the platinum and yea it is kind of grey, but it looks good in my all white with stainless steel kitchen. In summary, it is cool but Maytag is so not cool for continuing to ship known and totally non-functioning products. Check the serial numbers - they should be on the outside of the box.

Update Sept 11. As many read this I'm sure many will think I am an idiot. I agree. I'm an idiot, I'm stupid... The novelty of this item is quickly wearing off. The first mistake I made was not checking serial numbers. The second mistake I made was not taking the darn thing back IMMEDIATELY after I found it to be defective. Shame on me! Maytag came out to put the fan in the right way - he left - the GD thing STILL DOES NOT WORK. So I call Home Depot (where I've spent about 30K in the last 5 years) and they tell me it's Maytag's problem now b/c I've had it for more than 48 hours. (Florence, KY Home Depot). Even though my kids think of Home Depot as 'Daddy's Toy Store' Home Depot is NOT your friend. It would be nice if somebody would take some responsibility for selling a likely KNOWN defective appliance. We asked for a replacement from Maytag and I'm sure you know the answer - 'we'll send a repairman' Now I have to wait another 5 days while this thing occupies space in my house.

In summary here's what I suggest if you want to buy one of these things. 1) Buy a thermometer. 2) Buy it after making sure the serial number is OK (See Ernie's review) 3) Do not assemble the base. 4) Turn it on. 5) Check the temperature after 24 hours. That should give you enough for arguements sake. 6) Take it back immediately if you are not satisfied with the temperature or function. Maytag says on its website it chills to 35 degrees C (should have said 45 for mine) Now since you didn't assemble the base you can also take it back too if needed. 6) If you have any problem make sure you take names. You never know when it's going to snowball. I have been taking names. I'm not a complete idiot

Update: Sept 14th. The Maytag guy came back out (nice guy). Looked at the back and said something about a seal being "unsealed" and it was unfixable. Got a new one that night from Home Depot. Drinks are very chilly and all is well... Did not enjoy lugging an unboxed Skybox back into Home Depot and bringing another one home.

Update 2009, The darn thing stopped vending about 5 or 6 months after I bought. I'd like to give mine away. I wouldn't buy a used one either. I'd be surprised if Maytag still sells it. Has to be one of the biggest flops ever brought to market. It still cools the cans but how cool can it be if it won't vend.

For whatever fortunate reason I'm not having any of the problems that some of the other people are saying about this machine. Mine I got yesterday and intentionally forced it to spit out drinks 12 times(both cans and of course bottles). It failed once but after consulting the manual I'll say that was related to my own loading errors. As far as cooling is concerned get this mine is in my garage. I went out and bought a small thermostat and hung it in the room. The temperature in their got up to 97 degrees. The manual states that the machine was designed to work within 50-80 degree temps. but mine is just fine. Although I was a little concerned about the drinks, which were barely cold after 5 hours, now after just being patient and resisting the temptation to immediately return it (due to other reviews I read) the thing is now ice cold. It appears to have taken approximately 24 hours to fully cool the drinks. Also I've been told that during shipping the refrigerant has to settle again, and maybe that was the case for me. Whatever it is this thing rocks! Must have for sports room or pool table area, completely turns your friends heads. It's also got me into using my pool table again. In closing its true that you could just buy a refrigerator for alot less money and hold way more cans or brews but you could also buy a used $2000.00 hyundai to get to and from work, but would you? My only reason for rating it 4 stars is that your essentially buying a customizable nostalgic fridge with kudos for the complete customization part (sports fans dreams) yet their aren't any NBA teams available. I'm thinking about making my own. One last not I checked out buying an actual vending machine and if you think this unit is overpriced wait until you investigate that option, not to mention what you'll do when it needs work.

I have to admit that for me, the SkyBox by Maytag was an impulsive decision (which probably accounts for a large number of its sales). Why would anyone need a beverage dispenser when you already have a refrigerator? I asked myself this question, but I ignored it. Face it, it's the novelty, folks.

Definitely a luxury item, the SkyBox pretty much does what it claims to do. I was able to load this into my car at Home Depot by myself, then lugged the SkyBox and the stand into my house from the garage, and ultimately into position. Be warned, however, it's heavy - so unless you're really strong (I'm not really, I'm just big), get someone to help you. It's well over 100 pounds empty, and could be dangerous if it falls over. It took about an hour to put the stand together - it's kind of tedious to do it. From there, I hoisted the unit up onto the stand by "cheating" it up onto the empty stand box, then up onto the top of the stand itself (again, get someone to help you with this - it's heavy!). I filled it with 3 levels of cans, and 1 level of longneck bottles, then I plugged it in. The instructions tell you to wait 3 to 4 hours, which I did. Word of advice, turn the temperature dial to "Max", and wait longer than 3 or 4 hours. Wait at least 24 hours for it to cool down. You might want to stick a refrigerator thermometer in it if you're curious.

Over the course of 2 days, all drinks dispensed ok, but it did jam a couple of times. May have been from improper loading since it was new and I was still getting a feel for it. Never fear, there are loading instructions right inside the door. I tried putting short bottles of Dasani water (12 oz.) in the unit, but they aren't heavy enough to roll all the way out the dispenser trap door. Plus, you can only load 5 of them at a time. That's because the 12 oz. plastic Dasani bottles are short, but still too tall to load them 2-bottles deep in the bin (like you can with standard cans). The basic rule is, containers need to be at least as tall as a soda can, but no taller than 2 cans stacked one on top of the other. Still, there is plenty of beverage variety that you can load into the SkyBox.

Like other reviewers, I was worried about the temperature issue. The product brochure says it will cool down to 35 degrees (assuming you turn the temperature dial to "Max). However, after the initial 4 hours, mine was still above 40 degrees even on the "Max" temperature setting. After a day, it dropped to 40, and after 2 days, it's been hovering around 38-40 degrees. Just to be safe, I am having Maytag service come out and see if we can get it closer to 35 degrees. Still, trust me on this - 38 to 40 degrees is plenty chilly for a soda or beer. In fact, it is a good, cold drinking temperature. My guess is that Maytag has the unit set up so you CAN'T drop it below freezing (or come close), because at 32 degrees F or below, drinks would start to explode. Imagine that mess...wouldn't do Maytag wonders for the marketing of the product, either. So I'm assuming the product was designed with this in mind.

A good starter set of drink-button cards come with the unit, including most popular selections. Still, you won't find any beer labels, or any off-brand labels. You can pick these up on the Maytag SkyBox site, or you can get them at www.SkyBoxcards.com. Cards at SkyBoxcards.com are $2.49 EACH, and a set from Maytag is $4.99. Here's a tip, however. If you can't wait for a Bud Light card, do what I did. Save the image of the Bud Light card from the website, and print it out on 4"x6" photo paper. The dimensions of the image are good enough that you won't lose much quality, and the photo paper slips nicely into the button slot on the SkyBox. :)

I selected the black SkyBox, because to me, something about the platinum one looked kind of "cheap" (your opinion may vary - if in doubt, see it in person at a Home Depot store). Custom sports panel inserts for the unit are available on the Maytag site - I have my Buccaneers panels on order for $40.

Bottom line, if you have an extra $500-$600 burning a hole in your pocket, the SkyBox is a guilty pleasure for a corner of the kitchen or game room. There's a certain emotional satisfaction from punching a button and seeing your drink pop out of the slot. Your friends will love it, but you'll probably end up spending a lot more money on drinks.

Well despite the negative reviews I plumped down my heard-earned cash for one. Firstly, it's huge; much bigger than the amazon pictures suggest - the depth of the unit surprised me. And it's quite heavy at 100lbs unladen, about 140 loaded up with drinks.

So the pluses - it's a sturdy chunky item that looks the business. The much touted 'ka thunk' as the drink plops out is definitely vending machine quality and the drinks are cool as ice. It also looks great and the default supplied front panel translight is more than sufficient and looks great. Also important to note is the drinks are NOT shaken up when they hit the bottom - it uses some sort of series of rollers to drop the can to ensure you don't get drenched when you crack it open even if it's fallen from the top shelf.

On the minus side, it only comes with soda drink cards (a lot of them) but no stock beer brands so I ended up making my own using a scanner, a beer coaster and photo paper. Looks great though. As I mentioned it's also big - it dwarfs the mini-fridge I had originally in its place. That isn't really a minus but do be prepared for its size and if you don't buy the base (I didn't) then ensure it's placed on a *very* sturdy table.

Overall I think this was a great buy. Everyone who has seen it in my bar is impressed despite it being rather over-the-top. Recommended!

Me again. Got my skybox in and I love it. It is cold too, I have it on max, but it's cold. I am glad that I did not cancel my order, some reviews scared me. The best part is that at www.skyboxcards.com they have the beer cards, not generic ones.
($2.50 a pop) I think maytag should have supplied us with them though, but I am just happy to see the corona cards coming in.
Hopefully they will be getting more college panels in too!
Here's a tip, try ebay for some panels and beverage cards.
My friends love it, now all i need is a jukebox!

I called Maytag. They sent out a technician. Cooling fan was installed backwards - thus air not flowing as designed. He fixed and now my temps have gone from 42 to 46 down to 37 to 42. Significant improvement, but still a little warm for the upper bin. I have not decided what I will do regarding return, yet. However, for those that have the unit, you may want to consider calling for service if you are having problems. Based on the technician's conversations with his main office, it sounds like many of these cooling fans may have been installed backwards.

Kentuckyfusion, I have an answer for you since I solved the same problem: There is a sensor that detects when the beverage goes through the flap and exits the machine. If the machine does not sense that the flap opens after vending, it assumes that the beverage is jammed near the exit and shuts down to prevent further damage. The machine has what I will call a proximity switch and a magnet on the flap that tells the switch when a beverage goes through the flap. My unit did the same thing until I took the following action:
1. open door and remove two screws and plastic cover on right of the flap
2. locate proximity switch and (gently) bend slightly toward the flap opening (about 1/16" or less)
3. close door and try dispensing; if it works then good -- if not repeat step 2 with a little more force. Once I moved the switch about 1/16" on my machine, it started working properly.

This proximity switch should not interfere with the operation of the flap, so be careful not to push it too far. Also, be careful not to break it or the "jam fault" will occur forever.
I suppose that your problem could be due to a fault within the circuit, but this is a good first thing to try since it is free. I had the same exact problem shortly after buying the machine and it has been fixed for over 1 year after my corrective action described above. When everything works, but the plastic cover back on.

SECOND PROBLEM: Defrosting
I find that I have to defrost my machine about twice per year. A large block of ice forms in the back of the machine and locks up the motors for the middle two beverages if I do not. I have disassembled the vending mechanism (which comes out in one piece if you remove about 8 or 9 screws), but that only speeds up the defrosting process. The easiest way is to open the door and clear the machine out and leave it unplugged for 24-36 hours.

All said, this machine requires a bit of TLC, and I would imagine that these problems contributed to the short sales life of the product. I, however, enjoy my machine and think it is a nice addition to my bar. It does a good job of storing and dispensing beverages and it is quite attractive. Better and more robust design would earn 5 stars.