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.