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Hi all, I'm new here and hoping the experts can assist me a little.  I'll try not to be a huge pest.

I bought a Westinghouse WB222-6B-20 Coke machine for $50, so me and my boys had something to work on together when we have free time.  It's not a collectible and it's not a faithful restoration that I'm after.  In fact, we're going to decorate it up for our fave football team, the Redskins.

Anyhow, I'm having a hell of a time finding any instructions or service manuals for this thing.  I was hoping someone might have an idea where I could go to get something to help me out?  I've tried just about every company online that deals in soda machine restoration, and nobody has anything.  I'm waiting for Vendoco to get back with me in the off chance they might still have that on file.

I've done some cleanup on the machine and traced out all the wiring, in the event I have to do this blindly.  Right now, I have an issue with the cooling system.  It comes on, runs about 5 minutes or so, then cuts off for about 30, and kicks back on for 5.  I don't know if it's low on freon, if the thermostat's bad or what.  Any suggestions would be great!

Thanks again!
Bill

Hello & welcome  to the site!

As a basic test, you can temporarily jumper out the thermostat & see if it runs longer. If it runs & cools continuously with the Thermostat jumpered, then you know it's acting up on you.

NOTE: unplug the machine BEFORE you ad your test jumper as the Thermostat operates at line voltage... :wow:


also note there are two types of basic thermostats, one is a "contact type" which has it's sensing element clamped to the evaporators metal body, or is inserted into a metal tube that runs through the evaporators coils, or there is the "non-contact" type which senses the Temperature directly from the air

So lets say that someone had a air-temp sensing ( non-contact) type T-stat handy & mistakenly mounted it into contact with the evaporators metal housing, then you'd have symptoms similar to what you are describing. ( a short run time & a longer Off time

Now if you were to take a "contact" type T-stat & just hang it in the air inside the machine, the unit would never shut off until it would get well below freezing as these T-stat's usually don't turn of until the evaporator is a about 28-26 degrees/F on average.

Time to check it out.

PS... did you meant to say Vendo instead of "Vendco"?   Vendo wouldn't have any info on a Westinghouse machine, but the coin-mechanisms could be a Vendo "Vari-price" model.

I'll try that trick with the thermostat.  It has a contact type installed in it now, and seems to have a place for the wire to feed into a tube, so I think, at the very least, it's the correct type of thermostat.  Thanks for the info.  If I just basically connect the two wires that were connected to the thermostat, that would be safe for testing purposes wouldn't it?  I won't short anything out or blow myself across the garage?  LOL

If the unit needs freon, I don't know if I want to try having it charged or simply replace the entire unit with a known working part.  I'm not in a huge hurry to have this up and running, but when it does get to that point, I want it to be as close to trouble free as possible.

As far as Vendo goes, the link I was given by Westinghouse was for www.vendoco.com, so hopefully they sent me to the right people.

Yes, you can join the two wires at the back of the T-stat onto one terminal, it will only turn on the compressor itself, it wont short out the machine, insofar as if it needs freon, you wont know until the puppy runs a bit longer,

the link they gave you is for Sanden/Vendo Sanden now owns Vendo corp. they will have nothing on a Westinghouse machine, unless they made the machine for Westinghouse before they (Westinghouse that is ) got out of the vending machine business, ( look the machine over & see if you see a tag that says "Made for Westinghouse by the Vendo corp.")  or something like that.

It looks like there's a few different model WB-222 manuals available out there.  I would assume that most of the wiring diagrams and parts are the same, the only difference would be adding a couple of similiar wired buttons/motors. 

If you're looking to do a Redskins theme, one thing that I have done is buy some of the FatHeads wall graphics and made lighted signs out of them with a piece of white plexiglass. 

I make decals and signs for a living....and since it's for personal use, I have no issue making a few Skins decals to throw on this bad boy. 

I managed to get time to jump the thermostat leads, removing it from the system altogether, and so far, for the last 10 minutes it's been running strong.  I never got past 10 minutes with the thermostat that was in it in place, so I have a good feeling it was a bad Thermostat at this point.  I'm letting it go for a while with the door shut to see how it cools, and will judge it from there.

Thanks for that tip JohnnieG, you may have saved me a ton of headaches.

Now if I could just find a replacement theromostat.....ugh.

Several sponsors here on the SMC site have them...

I've contacted about 4 different companies and nobody has the one I need.

Anyhow, I let this machine run for about an hour or so, and the condenser coils frosted over.  I'm assuming that means I'm low on refrigerant? 

      Don't worry about the exact number that's on your thermostat, you need only be concerned about temperature range.
      I think you mean your evaporator coils are frosted up and that is a good thing.
Is the fan behind it blowing air at a high rate of speed?

I think I meant the evaporator after a little more investigation.  The compressor and fan runs fine, but after an hour it was actually warmer inside the machine than cooler.  So something's off somewhere, I'll have to go out there and dig around a little see what I can see.

I'm basically vending stupid, so I'm learning as I go along.

Thanks!

There are two fans - one by the compressor (condenser fan) and one inside the cabinet (evaporator fan). The evap fan should run continuously (24/7) circulating air through the evaporator coils. The condenser fan only runs when the compressor is running.

When I get back in the garage tomorrow, I'll check all that out.  Thanks again for the help guys.  Eventually I'll get a handle on this thing.

So, after jumping the thermostat and unearthing the evaporator fan, I found that there was a huge ball of lint, probably an old mouse nest, stuck under the blade of the fan.  Removed it and it cooled the machine just fine.  Thanks guys!

Now I need to find a thermostat for this machine.  Veii didn't have one, said they don't sell parts for Westinghouse machines.  I didn't think thermostats were machine specific?  Anyone with any ideas on this?

Thanks again!  I'm finally getting to re-wire the machine properly now. 

Got a pic of your T-stat? Why won't one of the contact type T-stats that a sponsor sells work for you?

I have no idea why a different one wouldn't work for me.  I've asked around and all the retailers say "Nope, don't have it, try these guys".  Then I'm told, we don't know how to cross reference it to something newer or by a different manufacturer.   :darn:

I'll try to get a photo of it later and post it here. 

I got busy with work, so I haven't had a chance to get that tstat photographed yet.  I hope to this weekend.

It's just a simple dial thermostat, labeled 0 - 9, with a 27 inch lead off the back.  One terminal labeled cut in, one labeled cut out.  Seems there would be something that should work in place of the actual original piece.