This article covers troubleshooting the Syncotek brand of card dispensers.

They are black in color and is shown in the picture below:

If your card dispenser is silver in colour, you most likely have an Asahi-Seiko card dispenser (shown below):

First thing to check is to make sure there are actually laundry cards inside the card dispenser's hopper.​

If the card level is below the arrow on the low card sensor, this will trigger the low card message to be displayed in your VAC's status:

If the card's in the card dispenser are above the level indicated on the low card sensor, but you are still seeing this warning message on the LaundroPortal you'll want to inspect the low card sensor that's mounted on the side of the card dispenser:

Remove all cards from this card dispenser, and check the inside of the hopper to see if you can locate the sensing lever for the low card sensor.​

This lever contacts the cards that are placed inside of the card dispenser's hopper:

The low card sensor's lever should be protruding into the hopper so it can come into contact with the laundry cards.

Check to make sure the lever is present, and that it is able to come into contact with cards that are placed inside the hopper.
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The low card sensor is mounted to the card dispenser with 2 Philips screws.

Remove these screws to inspect the low card sensor and ensure the sensing lever is able to move freely:

To test if this low card sensor is working correctly, while the VAC is powered ON, and all wiring harnesses are connected simply press and hold this lever inwards (push down towards the low card sensor's circuit board).
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When looking at the LaundroPortal's VAC status page, this page updates every 10 mins, so you will not see the low card message update immediately.

To manually get your VAC to update it's status, you will need to press the Red Refresh button located on the VAC's control board in the bottom right hand corner:

Once you've pressed the red refresh button once, wait up to 1 min to see if the the low card message goes away when this lever is held down (you also need to refresh the LaundroPortal's webpage to see the updated VAC status)
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If the low card message does NOT clear when this lever is held down, and the status is refreshed, the issue is with the low card sensor.
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If the low card message DOES clear when this lever is held down, there may be an issue with how it's sensing lever contacts the laundry cards.

Reinstall the low card sensor, making sure it is mounted flush with the card dispenser, and ensure the sensing lever is able to contact the laundry cards that are placed into the dispenser's hopper.

If you experience an issue where occasionally you find laundry cards stuck half way inside your dispenser, this could be the result of a hardware issue with the dispenser, or a software issue with how the VAC triggers the dispenser.

Get in contact with our support team so we can update your VAC software incase it's being caused by an older software issue of the VAC kiosk.

However, in most cases, this issue is caused by 1 of 2 things:

First try removing all laundry cards from the dispenser and Fan-out all cards before putting them back into the card dispenser:

This is something we recommend doing for all new laundry cards that are put into the dispenser, as sometimes the plastic coating on the laundry cards can cause them to get stuck together, especially during hot summer months.

It is always recommended that you fan out the cards, before placing them into the dispenser, to break any stickiness caused by the card's coating as this is the most common cause of laundry cards getting stuck inside the card dispenser.

If it's not an issue with cards getting stuck inside the dispenser, it's usually an hardware issue related to the thickness of the gap that cards are dispensed out of the dispenser.

To remove a Syncotek Card Dispenser from the VAC, you will be removing 4 nuts that hold the card dispenser to the VAC cabinet.

There will be 4 nuts that hold the Card Dispenser's mounting bracket to the VAC, and another 4 nuts that hold the Card Dispenser itself to it's mounting bracket.

It is usually easier to remove the Card Dispenser from it's mounting bracket first, then remove the mounting bracket; but it is technically possible to remove the Card Dispenser while it's still attached to it's mounting bracket.

The picture below shows the location of the nuts that hold the Card Dispenser to it's mount, and the mount to the VAC cabinet:

These Card Dispensers are a plug and play replacement part, so no programming is required when replacing a Syncotek Card Dispenser with another Syncotek Card Dispenser.

If replacing an Asahi-Seiko card dispenser with a Syncotek Card dispenser, review our Converting from an Asahi-Seiko to a Syncotek Card Dispenser article for details.

In select cases, our support team may advise you to adjust the gap thickness of your card dispenser.

This is NOT something we recommend doing unless you've spoken to our support team about this issue.
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If you are advised by our support team to increase the gap thickness of your card dispenser follow the instructions below to make this adjustment - there are 2 sets of instructions, depending on your version of this card dispenser.