Hi Everyone,
This is definitely NOT the update I want to share with all of you guys especially after being so patient with us. Well here we go. The Clingies shipment showed up and were delivered as expected per our last update. I was excited to open the boxes and see the towels, upon our inspections there were towels than were not up to our standards as far as quality goes but a good portion were great. I decided to take one of each and wash them with white towels to check bleeding and fading. All seemed to be going good until I peeked in our dryer and saw one of them sticking to the heat inlet section of the dryer, I didn't think it was a big deal until I opened it and looked at the back of the towel. IT WAS BURNT! I thought no way, how could this be? How has this never happened with all the cycles that myself and my friends and family have done with the test towels? How have I not thought about this? Apparently it doesn't happen often but obviously from the picture below it can happen. The entire back of the machine is not magnetic, only the heat inlet section. I made a trip to home depot and nearly all dryers are the same with the heat coming in at the back.
My initial thoughts on the fix.
Hang dry only. It's simple right? Take it out of the washer and simply stick it on the dryer and the heat from the outside of the dryer will even speed up the drying process. I tried this and it works. All we would need to do is remove the tag that says tumble dry and have a new one sewn on (via a local seamstress) that says hang dry only, fire hazard - per my attorneys suggestion. While this may work and would help to protect myself from lawsuits etc. this does not change the fact that these towels still may end up in the dryer by mistake or someone not realizing it should not be placed in the dryer. I could not live with myself knowing I created a product that burnt someones house down or even worse caused a fatality. I looked up "how many dryer fires per year" and the stats were NOT good. All the stats varied but one that stood out was 16,000+ per year and 50+ deaths in 2010. I was amazed at these numbers. Honestly even if it was much less, it's not worth the risk. I refuse to put people and myself in that situation.
My new thoughts on the fix.
Yes there was margins and I was actually making money on these towels selling them to you guys my backers on Kickstarter. What I did with what was profits was roll it into ordering more inventory so that we could sell them after the campaign. With that being said I now have to dip into my own pockets, money not raised via Kickstarter in order to fix this problem, unfortunately. To be honest it will be money well spent and my mind will be at ease and you guys will not have towels that are fire hazards. I am currently working on a plastic clip that will house the magnet and pinch the top portion of the towel where the magnet currently rests. This will require us to remove the original magnet pouch that is in-between the folded towel (easy to remove without causing any cosmetic issues or damaging the towels) and place them in the new clips. These clips will attach to other towels as well allowing you to turn other towels into "Clingies". I have some prototypes that are currently being worked on and should be testing the beginning of next week (working on this the last 3 days). I already have several injection mold companies that we work with and we could potentially have the mold completed and production running in 6-7 weeks if all goes good. It really depends on how testing goes next week. I may have to go back to the drawing board a couple times to get the clip perfect. Please keep in mind this is NOT some big chip clip type deal, it is a custom clip made just for the towels. They will be minimal, sleek and not a big eye sore. The part that I will be testing the most is how easy the clip breaks away from the towel if it manages to go into the washing machine. Generally you could just remove it and stick them on the fridge or on the exterior of the washing machine when washing the towels but if one does make it to the washer it will stick to the drum and the towel will break free which eliminates the fire hazard.
Suggestions?
I hope you guys understand my concerns here and I hope most of you will be on the same page as me. I am open to other suggestions on the issue and I am willing to listen to any ideas. To be honest I think the new design may actually be a blessing in disguise because you are not stuck with just our towel but you can now use our the Clingies and Docking Dots system with other towels and most of all there will be no risk of fires. I am completely aware that we are past due on delivering these and I know some of you are going to be upset so I want to say I am genuinely sorry for the way this project has gone and the delays we have faced, I hope in the end it's all worth it.
Once I get the prototypes and give them a test next week I will post an update showing you guys what to expect and how they work.
Thanks for your time,
Chuck and Jessica
This is definitely NOT the update I want to share with all of you guys especially after being so patient with us. Well here we go. The Clingies shipment showed up and were delivered as expected per our last update. I was excited to open the boxes and see the towels, upon our inspections there were towels than were not up to our standards as far as quality goes but a good portion were great. I decided to take one of each and wash them with white towels to check bleeding and fading. All seemed to be going good until I peeked in our dryer and saw one of them sticking to the heat inlet section of the dryer, I didn't think it was a big deal until I opened it and looked at the back of the towel. IT WAS BURNT! I thought no way, how could this be? How has this never happened with all the cycles that myself and my friends and family have done with the test towels? How have I not thought about this? Apparently it doesn't happen often but obviously from the picture below it can happen. The entire back of the machine is not magnetic, only the heat inlet section. I made a trip to home depot and nearly all dryers are the same with the heat coming in at the back.
My initial thoughts on the fix.
Hang dry only. It's simple right? Take it out of the washer and simply stick it on the dryer and the heat from the outside of the dryer will even speed up the drying process. I tried this and it works. All we would need to do is remove the tag that says tumble dry and have a new one sewn on (via a local seamstress) that says hang dry only, fire hazard - per my attorneys suggestion. While this may work and would help to protect myself from lawsuits etc. this does not change the fact that these towels still may end up in the dryer by mistake or someone not realizing it should not be placed in the dryer. I could not live with myself knowing I created a product that burnt someones house down or even worse caused a fatality. I looked up "how many dryer fires per year" and the stats were NOT good. All the stats varied but one that stood out was 16,000+ per year and 50+ deaths in 2010. I was amazed at these numbers. Honestly even if it was much less, it's not worth the risk. I refuse to put people and myself in that situation.
My new thoughts on the fix.
Yes there was margins and I was actually making money on these towels selling them to you guys my backers on Kickstarter. What I did with what was profits was roll it into ordering more inventory so that we could sell them after the campaign. With that being said I now have to dip into my own pockets, money not raised via Kickstarter in order to fix this problem, unfortunately. To be honest it will be money well spent and my mind will be at ease and you guys will not have towels that are fire hazards. I am currently working on a plastic clip that will house the magnet and pinch the top portion of the towel where the magnet currently rests. This will require us to remove the original magnet pouch that is in-between the folded towel (easy to remove without causing any cosmetic issues or damaging the towels) and place them in the new clips. These clips will attach to other towels as well allowing you to turn other towels into "Clingies". I have some prototypes that are currently being worked on and should be testing the beginning of next week (working on this the last 3 days). I already have several injection mold companies that we work with and we could potentially have the mold completed and production running in 6-7 weeks if all goes good. It really depends on how testing goes next week. I may have to go back to the drawing board a couple times to get the clip perfect. Please keep in mind this is NOT some big chip clip type deal, it is a custom clip made just for the towels. They will be minimal, sleek and not a big eye sore. The part that I will be testing the most is how easy the clip breaks away from the towel if it manages to go into the washing machine. Generally you could just remove it and stick them on the fridge or on the exterior of the washing machine when washing the towels but if one does make it to the washer it will stick to the drum and the towel will break free which eliminates the fire hazard.
Suggestions?
I hope you guys understand my concerns here and I hope most of you will be on the same page as me. I am open to other suggestions on the issue and I am willing to listen to any ideas. To be honest I think the new design may actually be a blessing in disguise because you are not stuck with just our towel but you can now use our the Clingies and Docking Dots system with other towels and most of all there will be no risk of fires. I am completely aware that we are past due on delivering these and I know some of you are going to be upset so I want to say I am genuinely sorry for the way this project has gone and the delays we have faced, I hope in the end it's all worth it.
Once I get the prototypes and give them a test next week I will post an update showing you guys what to expect and how they work.
Thanks for your time,
Chuck and Jessica