SkyBox by Maytag Personal Beverage Vendor, Pitch Black
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of SkyBox by Maytag Personal Beverage Vendor, Pitch Black
Customer Review: Skybox STILL has problems.
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Problems and solutions
Summary: 3 Stars
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.
Customer Review: Go Buy IT
Summary: 4 Stars
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.Customer Review: Cool Product and Easy to make cutom front panels!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Got mine as an early father's day gift. It must be a new model, put the thermostat all the way and in a couple of hours the coke's were nearly frozen......iced out. Now I leave it at the half way mark, works less to keep it cold and the coke are still damm cold.Panel Tips and Cards!!!
I made a custom NBA logo for the front. Awesome!! I took the Lakers,(yea i know but I'm a die hard fan from the 80's) desktop paper from their website and took it to a local digtal/blueprint shop. They took the jpg picture and printed it on Transparent film, so that the black light could shine through. It came out clean. But I was worried about protection, so I had it laminated w/ 10mil clear. Now it should last years and no one else has a NBA panel. It did cost about $50 though. It important to note that the original skybox material and panels are made from lexan...not really clear and made more from a durability stance. The transparent film is much glossier by 200%. And the Lexan it to expensive to buy a small sheet.
As far as the skybox cards go, just do a search using yahoo or google images search. Type in your search....ie Coke, Budlight etc. Then make sure the image is at leat 200k or so in size so the quality is decent. Print the image to 3.5" wide by 2.25" high fiting the image to that size on glossy photo paper and bend the end and your set. I might try using transparent film for sky box cards too in the future....i tried printing on transparent paper.....but it came out w/ no white in the print. Well hope this was helpful.
If you need help or questions about my NBA panel, hit me an email at jreyes63@aol.com. I'll post a pic of it at http://skyboxcards.com/v-web/gallery/skybox. See ya.
Joe.
p.s. I'm looking for a good corona, corona light and newcastle image/scans.
Customer Review: Amazon "Wait-List" Diss by Maytag.....
Summary: 1 Stars
I ordered my Skybox through Amazon almost 5 months ago and still have not recieved the unit. I happened to be shopping at my local Home Depot today, and guess what I saw in the appliance section - a Skybox! It was actually the first time I've seen one in person, and it looked pretty cool (although the display unit was not operational). I grabbed a sales person to inquire if they had any in stock - and to my surprise they had 6. My first thought was to cancel my Amazon order and have the unit in my hands today. I asked the sales person if he had received any feedback from customers of the unit - which he stated he had not (this cooling issue is weighing heavily on me - I want cold beer!). After telling the sales person I wanted to check on cancelling my order with Amazon before I bought the unit from them, he mentioned that they have a functional Skybox on display next to the customer service counter. Wow, what luck I thought! I headed over to the customer service counter and there it was - it even had an NFL insert and installed on the stand. I hit the button, and out drops a Dr. Pepper! I reached for the Dr. Pepper, and to my surprise it was luke warm - or cold, depending on how you look at it. It definitely was not cold enough for me. It was at that point I decided to not cancel my order with Amazon - in the hopes by the time my unit arrives Maytag will have worked out the cooling problem. I guess that my biggest gripe of this whole process is that Maytag seems to have put all us Amazon wait-list customers on the back burner - while shipping all the completed Skybox units to Home Depot for their highly publicized joint sales venture, even though we preordered the unit way before Home Depot's launch (March 1, 2004).