SMC Discussion Areas

Where's the best location to solder in a service valve on a Vendo 81 cooling unit ?

You mean "Braze" not "Solder", but in general you should install one on the high side & one on the low side of the system. Which begs the question...why? ( needs a shot of freon?)  :biggrin:

Cat pee ate this line . Going to have the line replaced .

I was just going to ad a service valve after having this line replaced .

Is that literally what happened to it?  :Oo:

Yes . Guy had a cat In His basement that was spraying the pop machine and other things down there . He had a jukebox down there and all the chrome and aluminum was ate up on it from the pee .

First thing I did when I got it home was to disassemble it and pressure wash and neutralize the pee.

The machine has nice paint and no dents but the lower 1/4 of the machine had the paint  ate off .

That's awful.  :down: The 81 is one of the most collectible machines going, and he let his cat ruin the cooling system. :veryangry: Or at least deal it serious damage anyway. Did he say if it cooled before the cat got to the lines?

I bet the jukebox was pretty nice too. If it was me, I'd probably ran away from it. I gotta give you props for your determination to fix them.  :smile:

Yeah, when you first asked the question, I figured it was probably cat pee.  One of the more common reasons for installing a service valve. :Oo:

You would run away from this ?  :jawdrop:

Yes he probably would its not square and only vends bottles. Kinda limited on what it can do!

Good seeing you this weekend Vince.

Yay I forgot about it being a slant shelf multivend that only does bottles . Wonder why they never did wood grain on these .  :tounge:

       At first I thought the cat pee was a joke but looked it up and it does damage metal. Now I can understand it damaging the finish on paint, chrome and aluminum..........but to eat through that steel line would take any cat way more than 9 lives.  :darn:

        Anyway, you found a leak in that line from rust. In addition to replacing it, you must install a new filter or rust will continue to haunt you.

        I serviced a nice unrestored 81A a few months ago that had the same steel line mounted to the baseplate, and it had a rust pinhole at the floorline. After changing the line, the new filter got clogged up. Then after cleaning the system 3 more times I discovered there was also a smaller pinhole in the condenser. I thought it must have been caused by standing in water but the rest of the compressor area didn't look like it, so maybe it was also cat Pee?

I just think it's awful that someone would let their cat whizz on something like this often enough for long enough to let it ruin the metal work. I admit, I don't totally have room to talk about taking care of machines and parts, but I certainly wouldn't knowingly permit a tomcat to damage a Vendo 81 like this. I suspect this occurred over at least 2 years, probably several.

Even if it were outside, I could see a loose/stray/his own pet tinkling on it once in awhile. I still don't like it, but it's kinda hard to stop outside. However, this was indoors. I wouldn't have a cat or dog indoors anyway, but hypothetically if I caught that thing relieving itself on my $2000-$3000 machine, I'd chuck it out so fast it wouldn't even know which end would hit the ground first.

It'd have to be a heck of a good deal on an otherwise complete machine for me to consider it. My position on coke machines is different from most collectors. It's not so much that I'm averse to this type of machine, just the glass soda bottles.  :tounge: Also, I couldn't afford the massive amount of repair work something like this entails, if you'll pardon a pun there.

Keep it simple. A working USS (BTW, I don't like woodgrain.  :glare:), and maybe a working Corny slider (I'd make that an an Ideal or Glasco if they weren't $$$$). Perhaps a junk USS too if need be. Later on maybe I can turn my thoughts to the serious machines. Unless one of the better ones falls into my lap.  :biggrin:

I think there may be both a non-sequitor and an oxymoron there, at least on it's face. I don't really mind the woodgrain so much on the short kinda squarish Cornelius sliders, I just don't like it on upright machines. I never quite got the rough "rule of thirds" red, white, and woodgrain style popular on mid-60's through late-70's square tops.