Pyramid Bill Acceptors...Yay or Nay?

[renobastian100]

Pyramid Apex 5400... how reliable is this brand?
MEI branded cash boxes are almost 3 times as expensive...

[Ken Layton]

Depends on the application and amount of use it'll get.

I service an account that has a high capacity dollar bill changer. It came with two Pyramid bill acceptors. They kept jamming every couple of days. The jam occured right where the bill exist the acceptor just before entering the bill box/stacker. This was happening for over six months. Pyramid was no help so we replaced them with two Mars bill acceptors. Granted, the Mars are very expensive, but in the year and a half that the Mars have been installed, there have been ZERO service calls and zero jams.

The Pyramid/Apex 5400 would be ok in low usage locations and you can update them for new currency with a laptop & free downloaded software. Pyramid makes retrofit circuit boards to update older Mars bill acceptors that Mars no longer supports. I have used some of these retrofit boards and they are excellent.

[renobastian100]

thanks!
The areas are high traffic locations; therefore, I wont mess with pyramid. Looks like Mars is king [$$$]...
Can you point me in the direction of the retrofit boards (link)? Are they relatively easy to install? I want to hook these up via PC.


Lastly, how familiar are you with the ICT branded acceptors?

[Ken Layton]

Here's the link for Pyramid's upgrade retrofit boards:

http://www.pyramid5.com/

Sorry, I have no experience with the ICT brand. I've heard of them and see them on sale in Happ controls' flyers.

[money]

I have worked with Pyramid acceptors on a number of occasions. They are a great value and hardly cause me any problems. When I do encounter problems their service department has been nothing but helpful in getting my acceptors back up and running. That is more then I can say for MEI. They are overpriced and don't give me nearly the value as a Pyramid. Good luck with your MEI, but I choose the Pyramid acceptors.