Testimonials

Rear vented F3-CB Jotul on a 45 degree corner install into a tee outside. You can read his testimonial here.

Dear John,
I would like to thank you for producing what I consider to be the most revolutionary product for drafting a fireplace. I had contacted your company after seeing your product video on Youtube. I have been searching for solutions now for over a year since my neighbor placed large trees on our property line causing my terrible draft issues. I spent over $900.00 on various products (ie. chimney liner extension, fan draft inducer, Vacu Stack) to no avail and thought that I was simply destined to live with smoke filled rooms ..... until I got the Draw Collar. After placing the Draw Collar on my rear venting Jotul F3CB I could not be happier. I simply plug it in, let it warm up for 20 minutes and light my fire. I have not had any issues getting a good draft/fire going immediately WITHOUT ANY SMOKE!! Your product is well worth the money!! I was quite impressed with its construction design as well as the quality materials used in the product. Thank you again for solving my draft issue!! We could not be happier now that we can once again look forward to many warm evenings WITHOUT SMOKE!!

Very truly yours,
Y.E.

The Draw Collar even works horizontally!  

We are so very grateful to have come across the Draw Collar. We had
desperately been searching for a solution for our down draft problem.
We have a 38' stove pipe from our basement to the peak of our roof.
Before getting the Draw Collar we would have smoke bellowing into theroom every time we went to start our wood stove. We tried everything
from a heat gun to try and blow hot air up the stove pipe prior to
starting the stove, to a new chimney cap which was suppose to eliminate
down drafts, to lighting balls of newspaper to try and create a chimney
effect and the list goes on. None of these options seemed to fix our
problem. We were tired of having soot and smoke in our home and all
the smoke alarms going off in our house each time we wanted to light a
fire. I kept search on the internet for a solution and finally came
across the Draw Collar. It really does do the trick just as it is
advertised to. We plug it in and run the draw collar for at least 30
minutes which sends hot air up the chimney. After the
stove pipe is “primed” by doing this we light off our fire and then
unplug the draw collar. It has totally solved all our down draft
problems that we use to have when first lighting a fire. It is well
worth the price. It looks nice and is easy to install and rugged.
Thanks so much!

Warmest,

R. N. from New Hampshire

The Draw Collar is a very popular product amongst homeowners who have used it. Here is a testimonial from Lincoln and Jilene C.

John,

February 1999 we purchased a wood burning stove from The Fireplace Place Inc. at 1678 N State St Orem, UT. After years of struggling with smoke from our stove we heard about the "Draw Collar" which had just been developed. It was installed and to our great delight there was no smoke problem. The fire started immediately and the smoke went directly up the chimney. We would recommend this "Draw Collar" to anyone who may be having problems with smoke from their wood burning stove.

Thank you,

Lincoln and Jilene C.

We love to hear from our satisfied customers!  Don't forget, we are so confident that our Draw Collar will solve any of your drafting or draw issues, we guarantee it - or your money back!


p.s.  our website will be ready soon, thank you for your patience!

Expo Report & Introducing the IPI Solution!

HPBExpo 2011 in Salt Lake was great!  We were so pleased to meet so many new people, and reconnect with some of those who we already deal with.  It's good to see the word spreading about the Draw Collar, and to hear stories of satisfied customers whose smoking stove problems are being solved by our product.

This year, we were pleased to partner with Jotul to create a solution for gas inserts that have the IPI systems, and the problems inherent with them.  By using our technology, consumers can now use their IPI inserts - in IPI mode - year round.  Like it says on the banner, "The only IPI gas insert that's not afraid of the cold!"

The picture of the display illustrates the air movement in a typical IPI gas insert without Draw Collar Technology.  The bottom box simulates how the cold air just settles and makes it difficult for proper functioning at ignition.  With Draw Collar Technology, the air/draw is going prior to ignition, thereby resolving all of the complications that customers complain about.  --Not to mention the fact that by being able to use the IPI system year round, customers save hundreds of dollars vs. having the standing pilot (even just for winter months)!

This technology included in the Jotul GI 450 II and the Scan 45I were recognized as a finalist in the Vesta Competition this year.  Once again, we are excited to be a part of innovation in the industry.

This final picture is of our tireless team celebrating the end of a busy, productive show.  Thanks guys!  Your efforts and contribution to our success is immeasurable.  

2011 Expo Here We Come!

Thank you for your patience as we try to get our website back up and running...

In the meantime, we are busily preparing for the 2011 HPBExpo here in Salt Lake City! It's hard to believe that this will be our 3rd Expo!  If you make it to the Expo, come and see our exciting  new products (hint - it's not just for wood anymore...), as well as some changes to the design of our DCWS (wood stove Draw Collar).   We are also excited to announce that we finally have 8" Draw Collars available!

Come see us in booth 4433

  Since we have been selling product, we have YET to have one that did not solve the customer's smoking stove issues.  We are so confident that the Draw Collar will work for you, that we will guarantee it.

If the Draw Collar does not solve your draft/smoke issues, we will refund your money.

We have dozens of testimonials from satisfied customers, and the feedback has indicated that not only does the Draw Collar solve the smoke issues, but it has helped with carbon monoxide problems as well.  To see some testimonials, visit our facebook page, where we have posted many of those with pictures of installed units.

ETL and CSA Approval

We are thrilled to announce that after jumping through all of the hoops, the Draw Collar is now available in Canada!

Introducing...

The Draw Collar for wood inserts (DCWI)!

From the beginning, we have been asked about the availability of a Draw Collar for those wood inserts that have the same (if not worse) problem as the wood stoves - difficulty in achieving draw. And now, the DCWI is ready to go!

It's low profile design allows the DCWI to slip into the fireplace cavity with ease. It has the same high temp output as the original Draw Collar, but its stainless steel construction allows the heat to pass through hotter and longer - which is essential for the unique flue situation of the inserts. An insert flue is typically colder because of the chimney chase being so much more exposed to the outside air than the flue on the wood stoves that are usually inside the room.

The DCWI is designed to fit any wood insert - both new installs, and retrofit situations.

The DCWI also comes with a thermostat control that will kick the unit on and off in order to maintain the optimum temperature for draw. This enables it to eliminate back puffing as the fire dies down, and it also uses 1/3 less power than just leaving the unit plugged in the entire time.

Make sure to visit our website for details.

Just a Couple of Satisfied Customers

Hi John

Just wanted to let you know how satisfied I am with the Draw Collar. I have had our stove for a few years and as others have mentioned, the biggest problem is the associated smoke you get when you light a fire as a result of the cold down draft from the chimney. It was so frustrating I was ready to convert to alternative methods when I visited a fireplace and stove facility who introduced me to the Draw Collar. I thought I would try the Draw Collar before making any alternative heating changes. I installed the collar and I am very pleased and satisfied. I now can light my stove and enjoy a comfortable fire without any smoke. I would highly recommend the Draw Collar. Thanks John

Gary
Naperville, IL



John, I just wanted to let you know how the draw collar is working. It's great! We were ready to remove our woodburning stove from our basement, the downdrafts were so strong and frequent. I found the draw collar online and after speaking with John, decided to give it a try. My only regret is that I didn't get one sooner. It's works great, and I've never had one problem--not ONE--since installing the draw collar. We have a tall mason flue which I was skeptical of the draw collar heating effectively. This product works, and I will comfortably recommend it to everyone who is having back-puffing problems. Thanks so much for a quality product! Submitted By: Joe
Cokeville, WY

2009 Fall Home and Garden Show

Things have been moving along here with the Draw Collar. We had a booth at the Fall Home and Garden Show here in Sandy, Utah. It was a great success - in that we were able to talk to a lot of people and get the word out that there is finally a fool-proof product available to solve the problem of smoky wood burning stoves.

It has been wonderful that as people purchase and install the Draw Collar, they have been thrilled with it's performance. Not one person so far has said that it didn't fix their problem. In fact, we have received many more testimonials from customers who have been completely satisfied.

We are also excited to finally have a programmable 7-day digital timer available. This timer will allow people to set specific times for turning the Draw Collar on and off for every day of the week. Very convenient, especially if there is a regular time that they like to have a fire - every night after work, Sunday mornings... the flue will be primed and ready for a fire whenever they are! Easy!

*Things to watch for:

We will be having an ad in the November Hearth and Home Magazine along with an article about our product, and we hope that this helps to build name recognition.

We will soon have the necessary documentation to begin distribution in Canada, and we are excited to watch things grow there.

Things are moving right along, and we are just so excited to bring this product to the market.

Time is A-flyin'

Ok - 2 months has just flown by since our last post. We managed to take a break from building Draw Collars for most of July, and we're starting to gear up to resume production. (however, we do have a wedding in the family this month, so it may be a little light on the Draw Collar side of things...)

John has been spending a lot of time on the phone and emailing to get distributors excited about things, and hopefully to spur them into placing an order. We have been getting a few small-ish orders here and there, but nothing huge. But still, it's progress!

This past weekend John was back in New York (Arcadia) for a dealer show put on by Empire Distributing. It was a great trip and John was excited to talk to some new dealers and to teach them a little about how to sell the product once it's in their stores.

He was also able to debut the new showroom sized display box that demonstrates the powerful draw that is created by the Draw Collar. These display/demo boxes are available for purchase, and are a great tool to help customers see for themselves how it works.















This is not the GREATEST picture of the box, but it does show the smoke being sucked back down the clear pipe, and through to the other side...


We are getting ready to place ads in some industry magazines, and hopefully there will be a few editorials that will discuss the merits of the Draw Collar. Hopefully as the fireplace season starts to gear up, we will start seeing the orders pouring in...

It's Not ALL Work

John spent yesterday and today in Minnesota meeting with a new distributor. But true to form, he managed to squeeze a little fun in.






He made it to the Mall of America where he wandered around aimlessly and ended the night at a movie. Lucky guy.

The meeting with the distributor went well, and we're excited about the impressive response to our product that continues to come in.

Now if only we could get product manufactured fast enough!

I never fully understood the intricacies of this whole process. To go from idea, to patent, to development, and finally to production is much more difficult than I'd imagined. Although, I do understand that even with as slow as it feels things are going, it's still remarkably fast in terms of the typical time frame for this process. And we're immensely grateful.

And They're Off!

We shipped our 1st full pallet of 60 units last night. I wish we'd gotten a photo of the tower of Draw Collars perched precariously in the back of the pick-up! It was quite a sight. But they made it safely to the trucking company, and are on their way to Colorado.

Soon, we will be receiving enough product to build 1000 units, and then we'll really be on our way!

New York Trip

John just got back this week from Arcade, New York where he was invited to participate in a show featuring the new products that debuted at the HPBExpo this year. It was a truly quick trip. His flight left SLC at 11:15 Friday night, got the booth set up on Saturday mornig, managed a quick trip to see Niagara Falls, spent Saturday night in a little town called Hamburg, worked the show on Sunday, caught a plane out of Buffalo, NY Sunday afternoon, and he arrived back here Sunday night (Mon. a.m.) around 1:30. He's still trying to recover.

The following pictures are of the show that Empire Distributing put on back East for the retailers that didn't make it to the Reno Expo. The guys back there at Empire are awesome and John was really impressed by the quality of show they put on. There were over 100 retailers that showed up, and the folks that John was able to talk to were very excited about the Draw Collar.

There was a stage set up, and when John got up to do his presentation, he told the audience that he needed to take their photo for his Public Speaking Merit Badge to earn his Eagle...

The show was set up in Empire Distributing's gigantic warehouse.

The Draw Collar display. You can't actually see the Draw Collar on the stove because the top is lifted up. But like I said, it went well, and people were very excited about the product.

We are looking forward to a great relationship with Empire Distributing and their retailers.

Testing

John is coming home today after spending time at Intertek (a testing facility similar to UL) where they ran some high intensity tests on the Draw Collar.

They hooked the collar up to a fuel generator and fired it up. They heated that bad boy up to nearly 2100 degrees. The pipes were glowing red. (the draw collar is the black thing on the top of the flue pipe)



After it cooled, they went and plugged it in, and the thing still worked! Success!

They also tested the clearances. Single wall pipe has to be 18 inches from walls, and double wall must be 6(?) inches. So we needed to know if the Draw Collar would affect those standards. Success again! It is good to go.

We were very relieved that this testing is done, and that we can move forward with confidence knowing the product is safe.

And our website is now up and running (there's still a few minor details we're going to tweak, but feel free to check it out! I linked it on the sidebar.) A huge thank you to Matt B. for all your help in hooking us up!

It's Starting!

We're starting to get actual orders placed for Draw Collars!

Mostly small-ish orders, but a few bigger ones are starting to come in as well. We are thrilled.

As distributors & retailers get them and actually test them out and see how effective they are, word will spread quickly.

Our official website should be up and running within a week or so. We're very excited. It will look amazing.

Our instruction/warnings manual should be getting finished right away, and all of the other myriad of details associated with starting a business are getting resolved, so hopefully we can manage to do this without too much drama.

This is such an exciting time for us. We can't wait to see what the future holds for this company!

Our First Post

The Draw Collar is a device that is installed on a woodburning stove (replacing a 1 foot section of pipe) which is plugged in and will heat up, warming the air inside the flue - creating a draw before a fire is ever lit - thus eliminating smoke coming out into the room.


It's been a long, long road in many ways.

But in others, the time from idea conception to winning a prestigious industry award has been mind-blowingly short!

A little background - John has been in the fireplace industry for about 14 years in varying degrees. The past 5-6 years have been in depth.

My family has a cabin in the Uintah Mountains, and a few years ago, John put in a new wood-burning stove. The flue of this stove is probably 20 feet long (or more), and it was difficult to get a draw going. We tried many things - lighting paper inside the flue, holding a torch up in the pipe - all of the normal things. One particular trip up there, inspiration struck. The concept that would become the Draw Collar was born.

The next little while was dedicated to securing a patent, and then on to the practical development. Attempts at having a prototype made started in China, and have ended with a local metal company, Metco. We have been so grateful for Randy and his crew - for their excitement and willingness to go above and beyond the standard.

Person after person has come into our lives that have contributed in various ways, and we are forever in their debt.

This past week was spent in Reno at the HPBA Expo. Response was greater than we ever anticipated, and the dreamed about and coveted Vesta Award was ours!


Now, as we move forward in our efforts to build this business, we will use this blog as a means to document our journey. The frustrations, the elations and the hard, hard work that will go into turning our invention into a successful business.