Buying arcade machine spare parts is not optional. Every cabinet in your order will lose a button, a coin mech or a power supply long before it loses its frame. The only real question is which parts, how many, and how you write the list so the factory ships the version that fits.
TL;DR
- Rank your list by motion, not by price. Parts that switch, rub or get pushed fail first.
- Count what is installed on your machines, then apply a percentage. Do not order a “standard kit”.
- Four parts stop a machine dead: power supply, coin mech, bill acceptor, display.
- Every line needs voltage, terminal width, mounting hole and currency version.
- Send the first kit by air. Send the rest inside the next container.
1. The Parts That Fail Are the Parts That Move
Look at a cabinet and split it in two. There is structure, and there is everything that moves.
Structure rarely fails. Steel frames, glass, cabinet board, T-molding and the main wiring harness will outlast your lease. What fails sits on the other side of that line. A pushbutton contains a microswitch with a spring and a plunger. A joystick has a pivot, a spring and four switches. A coin mech has a comparator, a gate and a motor. A bill acceptor has rollers, belts and a sensor stack. A power supply has a fan and capacitors that dry out in a warm room.
All of those parts share one property. They have a finite number of cycles, and every player consumes some of them. A busy cabinet in a shopping mall can take more actuations in one weekend than a home cabinet takes in a year.
That is why an arcade machine spare parts order should be built from a count of moving parts, not from a catalog page.
2. Count the Wear Parts Inside Each Machine
Take your own model list and count four columns for each machine type. The table below shows typical configurations for the categories BLEE builds most often.
| Machine type | Pushbuttons | Joysticks | Coin mechs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Two-player fighting cabinet | 24 | 2 | 2 | 20 gameplay + 2 start + 2 coin |
| Retro upright / Pandora console | 12 | 2 | 1 | 8 gameplay + 2 start + 2 coin |
| Claw crane | 3 | 1 | 1 | Drop button, prize button, service |
| Basketball machine | 4 | 0 | 2 | Two player stations, two nets |
| Boxing machine | 2 | 0 | 1 | Pad sensors are separate wear items |
| Kiddie ride | 2 | 0 | 1 | Timer board and speaker also wear |
| Air hockey table | 0 | 0 | 1 | Puck return motor is the wear item |
Two columns are missing from that table on purpose: power supplies and displays. Almost every machine carries exactly one of each, so they scale with unit count rather than with configuration.
Write this count once and keep it. It becomes the input for every future spare parts order, and it stops the annual argument about whether you need more buttons.
3. Size Your Arcade Machine Spare Parts by Percentage
There is no failure rate you can look up that will be true for your site. Heat, humidity, coin quality and how hard players hit the panel all move the number. So do not chase a rate. Set a policy instead.
The policy uses one formula:
Installed quantity × Stock rate = Spare quantity
The rates below are decision rules, not measurements. They follow one principle: stock generously whatever is cheap and stops a machine, and stock thinly whatever is expensive and lasts.
| Part | Stock rate | Why this rate |
|---|---|---|
| Pushbuttons | 4% of installed | Low unit cost, highest exposure |
| Joysticks | 6% of installed | Fewer units, more force per unit |
| Coin mechs | 1 per 25 machines | Serviceable, but comparators drift |
| Power supplies | 1 per 10 machines | Fan and capacitors age together |
| Bill acceptors | 1 per 20 machines | Rollers and belts wear, units are costly |
| Displays | 1 per 20 machines | Rare failure, total stoppage when it happens |
Round every line up. A spare parts box with 22 buttons is worth more than one with 20.
4. A Worked Order for Forty Machines
Assume an order of 40 machines: 20 two-player fighting cabinets, 10 claw cranes and 10 basketball machines. This is how an arcade machine spare parts list should be built before you price anything.
Installed quantities from the earlier table:
- Pushbuttons: (20 × 24) + (10 × 3) + (10 × 4) = 480 + 30 + 40 = 550
- Joysticks: (20 × 2) + (10 × 1) = 50
- Coin mechs: (20 × 2) + (10 × 1) + (10 × 2) = 70
Apply the rates:
- Buttons: 550 × 4% = 22 → order 24
- Joysticks: 50 × 6% = 3 → order 4
- Coin mechs: 70 ÷ 25 = 2.8 → order 3
- Power supplies: 40 ÷ 10 = 4
- Bill acceptors: 40 ÷ 20 = 2
- Displays: 40 ÷ 20 = 2
That is 39 pieces of hardware in a single box. It weighs very little, it costs a small fraction of the container, and it removes the most common reason a new arcade goes dark in its first six months.
5. Four Parts That Stop a Machine Dead
Not every arcade machine spare parts line deserves the same urgency. These four convert a working machine into a dead one with no warning.
Power supply. A failing supply drops voltage under load. Symptoms look like a software fault: resets mid-game, dim LEDs, a board that boots sometimes. Technicians spend hours on the game board before testing the supply.
Coin mech. A jammed mech does not break the machine. It breaks the revenue. Players walk away and the location manager calls you, not the factory.
Bill acceptor. Rollers glaze, belts stretch and the sensor stack collects paper dust. Acceptors also carry a currency version, so a spare from another market may reject every note in your country.
Display. Rare, expensive and completely fatal. One spare per twenty machines is cheap insurance against a cabinet that cannot be sold or operated.
6. Writing the List So the Factory Ships the Right Version
Most wrong-part shipments are not factory errors. They are unclear lines on a purchase order. Every line of an arcade machine spare parts list needs five details.
- Voltage. 110V and 220V versions are not interchangeable. State the destination country’s voltage, not the voltage you assume.
- Terminal width. Pushbuttons for Japanese-style panels use 2.8 mm terminals. American-style buttons use 4.8 mm. A button with the wrong terminal will not fit your existing harness without crimping new connectors.
- Mounting hole. Sanwa-style snap-in buttons need a 30 mm hole. HAPP-style buttons need 28 mm. Panel diameter is fixed once the metal is cut.
- Currency and firmware version. Bill acceptors and game boards are region-specific. Name the model number and the market.
- Connector type and pin count. A 28-pin JAMMA harness is not the same as a 60-in-1 harness, and neither matches a Pandora board’s pinout.
Attach one photo of the existing part with a ruler against the connector. That single image removes more errors than any written description.
7. Ordering Arcade Machine Spare Parts After the Container Sailed
The usual mistake happens in month three, after the container has arrived and a mech jams.
At that point you have three routes. Air freight a small parcel, which costs far more per kilogram but arrives in days. Add the parts to your next machine order, which is cheap but slow. Or source locally, which is fast but often means a different connector standard.
The practical answer is to split the order. Ship a compact air parcel with the parts that stop a machine: two power supplies, a handful of mechs, one display. Consolidate everything else into the next container, where the marginal freight cost is close to zero.
8. What a Spare Parts Kit Costs Against Downtime
Put your own numbers into this comparison.
Take one machine earning R per day at your site. Take a downtime of D days while a part ships from China. The loss is R × D. Now compare that with the cost of the part plus its air freight.
You rarely need a precise failure rate to settle this question. Fill in R and D for one cabinet and compare the result with the cost of the carton. At most sites the two numbers are not close. That arithmetic, not a failure rate, is the argument for stocking arcade machine spare parts at all.
Run it with your revenue figure before you decide the kit is too expensive.
9. Arcade Machine Spare Parts FAQ
How many spare buttons should I order per machine? Roughly one spare button for every 25 installed. That is about 4% of the total, rounded up. Buttons are the cheapest part on the machine and the most frequently replaced.
Do spare parts ship with the machines in the same container? Yes, and that is the cheapest way to move them. Ask the factory to pack the kit in one labeled carton on top of the load, so you can pull it out without unloading the container.
Can I use a 110V power supply in a 220V country? No. The supply will fail immediately. Match the supply to the destination voltage, and label every spare with its voltage before it goes into storage.
Are Sanwa and HAPP buttons interchangeable? Not directly. They use different mounting hole diameters and different terminal widths. Adapters exist, but the clean answer is to standardize on one standard per site.
What is the most commonly forgotten spare part? The coin mech comparator and the bill acceptor belt. Both are small, both wear, and neither is included in a typical “button kit”.
How long can spare parts sit in storage? Capacitors in a power supply age even when unused. Rotate stock, and use the oldest unit first. Keep the storage room dry and below 30°C.
10. Bottom Line
An arcade machine spare parts order is arithmetic, not shopping. Count the moving parts on your machines, apply a stock rate, and write each line with voltage, terminal width, mounting hole and currency.
Do that once and you have a reusable list. Skip it and you will buy parts twice, pay air freight in a hurry, and lose revenue while a machine waits.
Next Step
Send your machine model list with quantities. I will return a spare parts schedule built on your actual configuration, with part numbers, quantities and a packed carton weight so you can price the freight before you commit.
Related pages
- Arcade Joystick and Button Wiring Guide: Sanwa vs HAPP vs Zippy —
/arcade-joystick-button-wiring-guide/ - How Many Arcade Machines Fit in a 40HQ Container —
/how-many-arcade-machines-fit-40hq-container/ - Arcade Machine Minimum Order: What If You Only Need 5 Machines? —
/arcade-machine-minimum-order-lcl-shared-container/ - Arcade Machine Power Supply
- ICT A6 Bill Acceptor
