Buy a 24V printer-driven drawer that plugs into your receipt printer. That's the setup almost every POS system in New Zealand expects, and a standard 4-note drawer costs about NZ$95–160 incl. GST. The one thing to get right is the match between drawer and printer, not drawer and POS.
If you're still choosing the printer, sort that first on our receipt printers guide. The drawer follows from it.
How a cash drawer opens
There are three kinds of drawer, and they've barely changed in fifteen years.
- Printer-driven (the standard). An RJ11 or RJ12 cable runs from the drawer into the drawer port on your receipt printer. When a cash sale finishes, the POS tells the printer, the printer sends a short electrical pulse, and the drawer pops. Lightspeed's help centre puts it simply: drawers "connect to a supported receipt printer and open automatically when a transaction is processed and receipt printed." Back in 2010 this site called printer-driven drawers the most popular and recommended type, and that's still true.
- USB. The drawer plugs straight into the computer or a hub. Fewer systems support it. Lazygrid is one that says so: it works with "standard USB or printer-driven cash drawers".
- Manual. Opened with a key or a lever, no connection at all. Fine as a backup, but your POS can't open it at the end of a sale, and staff can open it any time.
A combined printer-and-drawer unit, such as the Star mPOP, is the neat option for iPads: it's a Bluetooth receipt printer with the drawer built in. Bustle, Lightspeed and Loyverse list it, and Shopify POS still supports it, though Shopify's hardware store no longer sells it.
Why printer-driven matters for security: the drawer only opens when the POS finishes a sale (or someone with permission presses "open drawer"), so every opening leaves a trail.
Quick answer by POS system
| POS | What it says about drawers |
|---|---|
| Bustle | Any drawer that's 24V with an RJ12 plug, connected to a supported Star or Epson printer. Bustle sells its own 24V drawer for NZ$129. The Star SM-S220i mobile printer can't run a drawer. |
| Lightspeed (Retail X-Series) | Supports the Minota 16" drawer; also lists Star SMD2, CD3, CD4 and mPOP as compatible. "Any cash drawer" that connects to a compatible printer by RJ12 or CD-101A cable works. Its NZ store sells a cash drawer for $149.01. |
| Shopify POS | Lists the VPOS 16" EC410 as available in Australia and New Zealand. |
| Hike | Says it supports "industry-standard… cash drawers on PC, Mac and iPad", and lists a VPOS cash drawer on its NZ hardware page (no price shown). |
| Loyverse | Lists Vasario printer-driven drawers, the MMF VAL-U Line (24V, printer-driven), Star CD4-1416, APG Series 4000, Volcora and Bematech CD415. |
| Lazygrid | USB or printer-driven drawers; opens automatically when a cash payment goes through. Its bring-your-own-device page estimates a cash drawer at $80 to $150 (GST not stated), and drawers are part of its hardware kits. |
| Tabin | Doesn't publish a drawer list. Ask Tabin which printer and drawer it supplies. |
APG drawers, which this site reviewed in 2010 (an APG Vasario standard-duty drawer), are still about: Loyverse lists the APG Series 4000.
Read our Bustle review · Read our Lightspeed review · Read our Shopify POS review · Read our Loyverse review
Sizes: full width, compact and flip-top
Drawers come in roughly three shapes. Measure the space under your counter before you choose.
- Full width, about 410mm. Tillman sells the VPOS EC410 as a "410mm wide" drawer, Lightspeed supports a 16" Minota, and Loyverse lists a 16" Volcora. Lightspeed's compatible Star drawers range from 12" × 12" (the mPOP) to 16" × 17".
- Compact. Smaller drawers such as the Star CD4-1416 (4 note slots, 5 coin cups, 2 media slots, per Loyverse) or a SAM4s small drawer suit tight counters and market stalls.
- Flip-top. A lid that opens upwards, for counters with no space for a drawer to slide out. POS Central sells several, from NZ$169 incl. GST.
The old guide on this page also covered tray layout and media slots, which still matter. "4 note / 8 coin" means four note compartments and eight coin cups. Count the note denominations and coin types you actually handle, and check for a media slot (a slit at the front) if you want to drop in cheques, vouchers or large notes without opening the till.
The old guide also split drawers into standard and heavy-duty builds, and that split is still on sale: Loyverse, for example, calls the APG Series 4000 "the ultimate heavy duty industrial-grade cash drawer". Expect to pay more for it.
What cash drawers cost in NZ
POS Central's prices, read on 5 October 2026, all including GST:
| Drawer | Price |
|---|---|
| VPOS EC410, 4 note / 8 coin, 24V | NZ$95.00 |
| Nexa CB-910 with RJ11 connector | NZ$119.00 |
| Goodson CD410 (24V) or Maken CK-410 (24V) | NZ$129.00 |
| VPOS EC410, 4 note / 8 coin, 12V | NZ$139.00 |
| VPOS EC460, 5 note / 10 coin, 24V | NZ$149.00 |
| VPOS flip-top, 6 note / 8 coin, 24V | NZ$169.00 |
| HP standard full size, 24V | NZ$276.00 |
| Posiflex CR-3100 | NZ$299.00 |
POS vendors' own stores: Bustle's 24V drawer is NZ$129 and its printer-plus-drawer combos run NZ$519–1,289; Lightspeed's NZ store drawer is $149.01; Tillman lists the EC410 at $159.00. None of those three pages says whether GST is included.
Note the two EC410 lines: the same drawer comes in 12V and 24V. Buy the voltage your printer's drawer port expects.
Do you even need one?
If you don't take cash at all, you don't need a drawer. If you do take cash, a drawer is cheap compared with everything else, so it's rarely worth leaving out. Use the true cost calculator to see your whole setup, hardware included.
Cash register or POS? A stand-alone cash register is one machine that rings up sales and holds the cash. A POS system on an iPad or computer does far more (stock, reports, integrated EFTPOS), and the drawer becomes a cheap add-on. If you're weighing the two, compare POS systems first.
When the drawer won't open
Work through these in order.
- Key position. Many drawers have a lock with an "open/locked" setting. If it's locked, the pulse can't release it.
- Cable. Is the RJ11/RJ12 plug in the printer's drawer port? It looks like a phone socket. Don't confuse it with the network (Ethernet) port, which is wider.
- Voltage. Drawers are sold in 12V and 24V versions. Check the label on the drawer matches what your printer's drawer port expects.
- Did a receipt print? On printer-driven setups, the drawer opens when the printer gets its command. If the printer is offline or out of paper, nothing happens.
- POS settings. Check your POS's printer or hardware settings to make sure the drawer is set up for that printer.
- Mobile printers. Some small mobile printers have no drawer port at all. Bustle notes the Star SM-S220i can't work with a drawer.