Heating devices and methods which are particularly useful in vending machinesfor hot products. Products, such as beverages, contained in individualcontainers suchas cans, are rapidly heated to serving temperature by induction heating fordelivery to acustomer. Various types of products with different heating characteristics arerapidlyheated without deleterious effects on the product by varying the power andtiming of theinductive heating. The type of product is identified by machine-readableindicia on thecontainer which are automatically scanned prior to heating. The containers areagitatedbefore, during and/or after heating to mix the contents and distribute heatevenly. Thecontainers are heated in a manner to safely heat the product withoutoverheating orcausing damage to the container. A power management protocol turns off non-essential components of the vending machine while the inductive heater isenergized topermit the vending machine to operate on a standard 120 VAC, 15 A electricalcircuitwithout overload.
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