“The snacks are on fire!” 🔥

Posted by filco86@reddit | talesfromtechsupport | View on Reddit | 60 comments

Got a call from a client saying: “The vending machine is smoking… I think the snacks are on fire.”

You can imagine the panic on their side. When I arrived, I was expecting to find something burned inside the machine — maybe a short circuit or something serious.

But once I opened it, everything inside actually looked fine. No burned products, no obvious damage.

So I started checking more carefully and moved to the back of the machine.

That’s where I found the real issue: the relay of the refrigeration unit had completely burned out.

There’s a small fan in that area, and it was pushing the smoke from the back into the cabinet, making it look like the whole machine was burning from the inside.

In reality, nothing inside had caught fire — it was just the relay creating all that smoke.

Weird situation, but a good reminder: sometimes the problem isn’t where it seems at first.

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DodgyRogue@reddit

“My Snacks are on Fire” sounds like Sesame Street port of a Kings of Leon song

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OffSeer@reddit

I think you meant Halt and Catch Fire. More ITish.

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filco86@reddit (OP)

😂 now I can’t unhear that

“This snack is on fiiire…” 🔥

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Serenity1423@reddit

It made me think of The Roof is on Fire

The snacks, the snacks, the snacks are on fire

We don't need no water, let the motherfucker burn

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O-U-T-S-I-D-E-R-S@reddit

Your snacks are on fire? Don't stand so close to the fire...

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commentsrnice2@reddit

Is it weird that you don’t have to change a single word for it to also be a Rihanna song? “This! (Girl)Snack! Is on Fiiiiiiiiire!!!!”

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commentsrnice2@reddit

You’re right, it’s been a long day and my brain is fried. My point still stands though

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MasterClown@reddit

We don't need no relays, let the chocolate bars burn Burn, chocolate bars, burn

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Elvessa@reddit

Side note: I have met Wierd Al, and he was the nicest guy ever.

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anonymouslosername@reddit

That's been the consensus of everything I've heard/read, but I've not been fortunate enough to speak from experience.

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Raneynickelfire@reddit

There are literally zero stories of him being anything but that. Al is a real one.

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DodgyRogue@reddit

Certainly something Weird Al would do!

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syntaxerror53@reddit

But you'll write the hit "Smoke in the Vendor" /s

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Equivalent-Salary357@reddit

B+ for effort...

I was entertained, for what it's worth LOL.

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GlitchTheFox@reddit

Why do almost all of your comments have a very long em dash painfully inserted into them?

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bhambrewer@reddit

Microsoft word turns a double dash into an emdash. Or someone who isn't a native English speaker using mechanical translation.

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plotthick@reddit

The snacks

The snacks are on fire

We don't need no lunches let the motherfuckers graze

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dickcheney600@reddit

Well, you were mostly right - there was an electrical fault with the actual machine. :D

Did the previous "repair" tech put a nail or gum wrapper in the fuse slot, by any chance? Usually when I get an arcade game where it's had multiple owners over the years, I find either that, or a fuse that's much too big for the circuit it supplies.

Fuses will either be sized to protect the smallest wire on that "branch" within the machine, or whatever the maximum current that can flow through the transformer / PCB traces indefinitely, without overheating it.

If too big a fuse is present, the machine will still temporarily work, but NEVER actually attempt this! Otherwise, when a part eventually fails shorted, instead of just the fuse breaking, you either have a melted transformer, a PCB that is unrepairable when it might have just needed a $4 part replaced - or worse, you could die in a fire.

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Dr-Beeper@reddit

"In reality, nothing inside had caught fire — it was just the relay creating all that smoke."

Was the relay inside the machine?

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JaschaE@reddit

No, the relay had been towed outside the environment.

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lycoloco@reddit

What are the odds on that?

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JaschaE@reddit

Voltage? In a relay? One in a million surely!

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FlorianTheLynx@reddit

Surely there’s no smoke without fire.

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MirrorUpper9693@reddit

Electric motors run on magic smoke. When the smoke comes out of them, they are broke. No fire required.

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spaceraverdk@reddit

Anything is a smoke, if you operate it wrongly enough.

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TheRealPitabred@reddit

It's also really hard to get the magic smoke back in once it's released. Some would assert that it's impossible.

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ahazred8vt@reddit

It let all the Magic Blue Smoke out?

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filco86@reddit (OP)

Haha usually yes 😄

In this case the “fire” was just the relay cooking itself in the back — enough to make smoke, but luckily nothing else caught.

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filco86@reddit (OP)

Yeah, it was a Necta Minisnakky.

The relay sits in the rear section next to the compressor, so technically inside the machine but in the refrigeration area — not near the products.

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Ch4rl13_P3pp3r@reddit

Back in the early 90s I got a call to PC Support from a secretary saying her “Aldus Pagemaker” wasn’t working and it was really urgent. I was on my way to her building anyway, so decided to pop in to see her first.

When I got there, flames were shooting out of the top of the monitor. Thankfully there was a fire extinguisher nearby. Nobody in her office had, had the forethought to try and contain the fire. I have no idea what world have happened if I’d done the other job first.

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BoulderNerd@reddit

Was there no yearly mandatory training about responding appropriately to emergencies? We had to learn how to deal with a number of types of situations and when it was appropriate to call security and evacuate.

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