Regular fruit machine maintenance helps to avoid costly downtime when you are unable to take customers’ stakes, but in recent years there have been several changes that might mean it’s time to update your fruit machine maintenance schedule.
With the introduction of polymer banknotes, some pub fruit machines needed bringing up to date, they were either given new note validators or had their existing validators updated.
The same is true of coin slots with the introduction of the new bi-metal £1 coin in place of the old round coin. We are now coming to the first round of inspection and maintenance for these new additions.
Even if your fruit machines are working well, it’s important to schedule regular fruit machine maintenance to check the inner components are still in good order.
Challenges of polymer banknotes for fruit machines
Some of the first releases of validators and software were found to struggle with the new polymer notes, causing increased incidences of note jams. These have largely been remedied now with subsequent firmware updates.
However, generally speaking, the transition to polymer banknotes has been a successful one, especially for venues who had the necessary fruit machine maintenance carried out in plenty of time.
With polymer £20 notes coming next year, it’s a good time to have all of your note feeders inspected and any required maintenance work done so that when the new note launches it’s easy to update machines for them to start accepting them.
It’s not just about the money
Of course, being able to accept all forms of legal tender is important to maximise your profits, but fruit machine maintenance is not solely about the coin slot and note validators.
With many more modern fruit machines in circulation since the currency change your maintenance service needs to be up to scratch too.
Our expertise means we are able to offer fruit machine maintenance services for modern machines and recently launched titles – and of course, if you get your pub fruit machines directly from Manco Automatics on a profit-share arrangement, we will be familiar with their inner workings.
From a quick polish of the front panels to replacing dead bulbs and performing software updates, we provide all of the necessary fruit machine maintenance you need on an ongoing basis and would urge all customers to have their machines overhauled in 2019, before the extra work of the £20 polymer launch adds to demand in 2020.
