How to Use a Coca‐Cola Freestyle Machine

1. 1
   Recognize that besides the screen, there are essentially two other things that can be used - a button and a lever. Each of these will be described as that, as well as their approximate place.
2. 2
   Purchase your drink cup from wherever it is sold at that restaurant, then take your cup over to the machine. Walk slowly- empty cups won't be very heavy, but you need to proceed cautiously to ensure you don't bump into other people on the way there.
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Place your cup down onto the pad that holds cups and is located near the overflow area, where spilled liquids are stored.

1. 1
   Press the lever inside the housing area to dispense ice. The harder you push, the more the ice will come out; however, it may take several seconds for the ice to be dispensed at first. Once you hear crunching, it activates the mechanism to send the ice into your cup.
2. 2
   Tap the screen when the screen says it's waiting for action. It might say "Start vending - tap to start" or similar. If it shows just a plethora of Coca-Cola soda options, proceed to the next step.
3. 3
   Look at the screen and tap the soda option you'd like. Freestyle machines have many different varieties in many different layouts. From the more common Sprite, Fanta, Diet Fanta, Coca Cola, Coca Cola Zero and Diet Coke, to the not-so-normal Seagrams Ginger Ale and Seagrams Diet Ginger Ale, Barqs Root Beer, Barqs Diet Root Beer, Barqs Creme Soda to even more different with Power Ade, Mellow Yellow and Doctor Pepper, Dasani and Dasani Flavored Water, Hi-C and many different choices of Minute Maid juices, you need to pick one.

   • If necessary, filter the list with the choices at the bottom buttons at the very bottom of the screen.
   • There's also a regular Water choice, which is just tap water that's cooled by the machine.
4. 4
   Watch the screen change. You can mix in a flavor, once you tap the choice on the screen to change the soda's taste - if you'd like (and the benefit that only Freestyle machines can produce). Some sodas produce shorter lists than others: Common flavor mix-ins might include Grape, Strawberry, Raspberry, Vanilla, and several others.
5. 5
   Tap the flavoring you'd like to dispense with your drink - if you'd like to change up its taste a little bit.
6. 6
   Hold onto the cup as you press the dispense button. The circular dispense button should be directly underneath the screen, but could have either a large Coca-Cola drink cup on it or something else. Keep the cup underneath the machine as you vend.

   • At first, vending from this machine can produce a forceful first result, but once the machine starts vending, it gets easier.
7. 7
   Let go of the button, as the soda nears as full as you would want it. You can give it shorter pumps as it nears the top, but don't let the screen time out or you'll have to walk through the selections again of the soda and flavoring.

   • Screen time-outs may vary, but will often be no more than ten to fifteen seconds of inactivity.
   • Pushing the button harder won't dispense larger streams of soda than pressing the button lighter.
   • If the machine stops dispensing soda mid-dispense or it doesn't dispense any soda at all, it might have reached the end of the soda level to fill up your cup. Tell an employee and either find another machine to dispense the remainder, or pick another soda to dispense (or both) - drinking what you have in the cup first. It takes quite a bit of time for the flavorings to run out, but it is possible at times for those to run out as well.
     • Sometimes, a jam-up of the soda inside the machine may make the machine stop dispensing. However, this is unusual at most Freestyle machine location spots.
8. 8
   Pick up your cup carefully and place it down nearby to cap it with a lid. This differs from restaurant to restaurant, and while some give it to you when you pick up your cup, others keep it sitting in their holder nearby.
9. 9
   Don't forget to take a straw before you walk away - if it's still self-service near or at the machine.
10. 10
    Let it time out, if necessary. If you give it several seconds, it'll change back to the start screen, or whatever screen it starts at, waiting for the next user to dispense their drink from the machine.
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