All Vending Machine Tricks

[theevilmonkee]

I know there have been previous threads about this, but here is a list of all vending machine tricks that have worked for me...

The trick's color indicates its degree of suspiciousness deemed by me (red=very suspicious, orange= moderately suspicious.  (I had a green here, but soon realized that it didn't quite apply to anything.)

Basic precautions include:
*Having a good excuse prepared if someone asks (ex. "it ate my money").
*Having friends huddle around the machine to hide what you're doing OR...
*Making sure no one is around.

I only list those now so that I won't need to mention them anymore.

SODA MACHINES:
Conveyor belt B.O.G.O.
TASK:
Get up to 3 sodas for the price of one.
WORKS ON:
Coke machines w/ glass panel and conveyor belt (not to be confused by the similar one on the right):

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Insert money for most expensive soda you want of the 2 (or 3) you'll be getting.
2. Make your selection.
3. Place your hand on the black door, making sure the soda does not pass it.  Continue this when the machine retries to give you the soda.

4. After the machine is convinced that there must be no soda on the conveyor belt, it will mark it "sold out" and give you your money back.
5. Insert the money and make another selection.
6. Put your hand against the door to the point where the sodas are touching, and remove it to collect both of them.  The process can be extended to get 3 sodas as well.
NOTES:
Some machines have updated filmware preventing this, so that you won't receive money back in step 4.  If this happens, just notify the front desk so at least you won't get you won't get ripped off.  Out of the five machines I've tried this on, only one has this new filmware.
LINKS
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IInWe8KWgLM
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itl39OmZzb4

Bottom Row Snagging
TASK:
Get as many sodas you want from the machine's bottom row.
WORKS ON:
Glass paneled Pepsi machines (usually labeled with Mountain Dew or Aquafina) which drops sodas straight down through a hatch.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Put your hand in one of the slots.
2. With little effort, you can work open the hatch and twist your arm so that you're ready to snag sodas.

3. To allow the drinks to release easily, press in on the tab with the price.
4. Take as many sodas as you damn well please.


LINKS:
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFoY-GS4E1Y
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWJtDRZbrSc

Blind Can Plucking
TASK:
Blindly reach into a basic old Coke can machine to get free drinks.
WORKS ON:
Basic old Coke can (not bottle) machines.  They're not all exactly the same so it will not work on all of them.

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Grasp ahold of the one-way soda hatch and pull it open.
2. Put your arm up inside the machine.  If you can't get any more than your forearm in, this probably won't work for you.
3. Stretch your arm in as far as it'll go, to the point where you feel the bottom of the cans.  Pluck these down and let them fall right into the slot.

CANDY/GUMBALL/COIN TURN MACHINES
Coin Taping
TASK:
Get unlimited amount of contents (candy) from machine.
WORKS ON:
U-turn candy machines (usually yellow, and have logo that says U-Turn).

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Get 5 inches of scotch tape and wrap the last inch or so of around a quarter.
2. Insert the quarter to the coin slot.
3. Slowly turn the nob, applying tape to the cog until you have done a full rotation.
4. You'll notice that the quarter remains secure in the slot, and you can twist it infinitely.
5. When you're done, just pull out your quarter and do your best to pull the rest of the tape off the cogs as well.
LINKS:
*http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i003nKFFQc

SNACK MACHINES
General Bottom-Row Grabbing
WORKS ON:
There's not a specific brand to look for, but every now and then you'll come across a vending machine which has no security hatch.  If any hatches are triggered shut as you push the flap in, then it will not work.  Here's a pic I took of one that worked (note the items already taken)-

INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Determine if the machine will work (see "works on").
2. Put your forearm into the dropping area and work its way up so that you're in grabbing range of the bottom (and maybe second) row.
3. Once you've grabbed the ones in front, twisting the springs can bring the snacks closer.
***********************************************************************************************
Those are about everything useful I've successfully done.  If you know of any others, please mention them and I'd be glad to try them out and add em to the list.

I'd still like to verify bill-taping tricks (http://www.textfiles.com/anarchy/FDR/fdr-0097.txt) and see how those would work out.

I also know that pouring salt-water down an old snack machine's coin slot can get you all kinds of free shit, but IMHO, destroying a machine is taking it too far so I've never attempted it.

[rbcp]

Nice post!  You forgot this one for crane machines:

1. Get your girlfriend pregnant.
2. Wait 3 or 4 years.
3. Get your new kid to climb in the prize slot and toss down everything.

Here's a pic:


Also, there's the using the crowbar to bust out the glass on a candy machine.

I used to do the salt in the coin slot thing, but I've heard it only works on coin-only machines, which are probably impossible to find these days.

[ravenmaddox]

I used to do the salt in the coin slot thing, but I've heard it only works on coin-only machines, which are probably impossible to find these days.

In my experience you can only get drinks from a coin only machine *BUT* I once salted a pepsi machine that takes dollars (and you'd laugh to know where this machine was) and I got a buttload of change from my "overpayment". It cleaned the hopper until it had dry-heaves, but I never got one soda. I had to wait until the next day to buy one with the pocketfulls of change. 

[purity]

When we salted a machine as kids on a Naval base w/ civilian housing, we dumped an entire gallon: In theory could i just use a saltwater-filled 24oz Gatorade bottle w/ the lip-spout stream (better aim + incognito), or would i need more saltwater to really flood it?

[ravenmaddox]

When we salted a machine as kids on a Naval base w/ civilian housing, we dumped an entire gallon: In theory could i just use a saltwater-filled 24oz Gatorade bottle w/ the lip-spout stream (better aim + incognito), or would i need more saltwater to really flood it?

That's all I used - a sports water bottle with a spout and I had cut a small plastic "holiday inn" cup in a triangle shape to make a funnel to fit the slot. The sports bottle is great because you can exert a little pressure so that the stream will reach the electronic counter instead of just pouring down the front of the machine. I had also made a super solution of salt water... whether or not this helped... but I boiled the water so that it would accept more salt and then poured the boiling water into my plastic sports bottle. If you repeat my experiment, make sure you start with a LARGE sports bottle because as I learned with some self-inflicted pain and suffering, the boiling water will shrink the thin plastic bottle by about 50%