Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Tips For Keeping Your Vending Machines Clean

The sanitation of your vending machines is crucial for maintaining their performance. If the customers don’t get fresh and hygienic products from clean vending machines, they will not be satisfied with the quality of your service. That means negative impact on customer perception and lower sales in future. For any vending machine operator, this situation needs to be avoided at all costs.

So, it is imperative to keep your vending equipment and the surrounding areas in a good condition. If you have bought a reliable vending machine like Planet Antares vending machines, there will not be much sanitary issues as the vending company provides these services for you.

i. While cleaning your vending machines, you should refill them and then remove all the trash, empty boxes, cans, etc.

ii. Make sure that the vending machine is placed in a well lit area so that you can easily recover any pieces of vending products lying on the floor or spilled over the machine.

iii. There should also be a trash receptacle and protection against overhead leakage, condensation, breakage of pipes, etc.

iv. It is a good idea to mount the vending machines on a stand to allow for easier cleaning under and around the vending machine. The average height of this stand may be around 6 inches.

v. While cleaning the machine, check whether the surface of the vending machine is dusty or sticky. This must be done for both inside and outside layers of the vending machine.

vi. Another thing to be inspected properly is the door of the vending machine. This should be tightly fit to avoid spoilage of food or beverages. If there are any worn or damages parts, you must get them replaced from the vending company to prevent dust or moisture from entering the vending machine.

vii. There should be facility for washing hands near the vending machine so that technical personnel or operators can get cleaned up easily.

viii. Servicing for vending machines with certain potentially hazardous vending products will require special care. For example, some food items may require refrigeration, thermostatic controls and heat units to ensure freshness. There will have to maintenance of a particular temperature to keep the items fresh and consumable.

ix. You must also verify the provision for backup and automatic control in case of power failure or breakdown to avoid vending of products.

x. Your Antares vending machine should have a delivery tube or chute with a tight fitted self closing cover.

xi. While selecting a vending machine, keep in mind that the exterior must be designed in a way to prevent entrance of rodents and insects effectively.

xii. Proper screening of the openings in the vending machine and ventilation louvers is essential.

Apart from the equipment hygiene, there should be emphasis on the personal hygiene of the personnel who undertake the task of servicing the machines. They should have washed hands, use gloves while handling products, wear clean garments and prevent use of tobacco while doing the cleaning part of the vending equipment.