Recently, Gatorade came out with a new bottle.  It's hard to tell what's different about the bottle without knowing what to look for, but they are significantly different in how they vend out of the BevMax elevator-equipped soda machines.  The change that occurred was a deepening of the grips around the bottle, the problem that caused, was that the "knuckles" on the vend gates now sink into the deeper grips, and won't open far enough for the bottle to come forward into the picker cup.  Once one bottle gets stuck at the front of a column, it is stuck there permanently until the next service call when you push the bottle backwards out of the grip of the gate knuckles. There are a couple of solutions to this problem.  The first one is purchasing an upgrade kit that updates the whole tray to a new style of gate that is currently being used on new machines at the factory.  The gates are different, can now vend Pure Leaf tea bottles, and also vend the new Gatorade bottles with no problem.  The part number for that kit, which updates just one tray (5 needed to do a whole machine), is 6571610.  The tray upgrade is by far the most expensive solution to this problem.  We sell a tray kit for $82.38.

The next option, a cheaper option, is to change the picker or plunger arm on your picker cup.  You could also buy the current picker cup, as they all come with the new arm now.  The new arm now has an "extension" on the face of it; it's just a thicker slice of metal that allows the picker cup to push the vend target in farther, and open the gates much wider.  See picture below - red arrow is the old arm, green is the new.  So far, I have found this will fix the Gatorade vending problem 99% of the time.  The part number for the picker arm itself is CR0023106, and the part number for the whole cup is CR0025156.  We have both in stock.

The least expensive option to fix the Gatorade vending problem, is to modify your existing gates.  The modification will allow Gatorade to vend seamlessly, and while most other bottles can vend out of the modified gates, all might not, so try to perform this modification solely on columns out of which you intend to vend Gatorade 20oz bottles.  The tool I use to make this modification is a Dremel tool with an extension arm and metal cutting blade on it.  Be sure you smooth off your cuts so there are no jagged edges remaining.  See pictures for a demonstration of the process.

RH gate with one knuckle of two removed.

LH gate with both knuckles cut off.

Finished product.

Be sure you clean any shavings off the slides when you're done.  If you have further questions or parts needs related to this bulletin, call 970-623-1272.