Yesterday we received our final set of Spouti™ samples and we have officially approved the new production round!

It has been a long journey but we are in the final stages of our official launch! Xometry is currently crafting Spouti parts and will be gathering as many as they can produce to ship out to us, potentially on the 27th. If shipping routes hold we expect to receive a shipment around June 8th which we can begin immediately assembling and shipping.

Last month we reached this point, we got the taste of the finish line, and this coming month the end is in sight!!

2 years ago Spouti™ was nothing more than a couple tubes of moldable silicone and a dream. We wrote a patent, designed the packaging, forged relationships with so many amazing people and now? To be so close! I want to thank everyone who chose to put their faith in us, to make a pre-order, and who have stuck by our side this whole journey! You are an amazing source of motivation and inspiration. You sent in your votes on colors, and you offered your support for the clear Spouti™ when we found that we could not produce Spouti™ in colors.

You had our back when we had to put on the brakes and modify the design. That was a cost we definitely weren’t expecting, and a cost we could afford because of your support.

I may have invented Spouti™, and I’m definitely the one stewing over it every night and day, but it is your faith and support that made this possible.

From the Kickstarter to our Production Launch, from the depths of my heart I thank you!

So, what’s up with more samples? I thought we were done with that? After the recent mix up Xometry is sending us a final set of samples. These samples will be the Shore 20 firmness that we expected the original shipment. We are doing a pre-order inspection to guarantee that they will make the cut! Xometry is prepared to get the full order re-created as soon as we give the approval, which means we can get back to assembly and shipping a couple of weeks after the samples arrive!

As always, we are dedicated to transparency and keeping you up to date on Spouti™ progress and the status of your pre-order! We have received confirmation that this set of samples will be shipped out to us some time between May 10 and May 15!

We will make another update as soon as we receive the Shore 20 samples and can provide you with an estimated shipping date for the production order. We can’t wait to hit this next and final stage of our journey so you can start yours!

Resolving the Error & Getting Back On Track

A couple of weeks ago we learned our Spouti parts were made with the incorrect material – it was a rough day for us, and we definitely had to take a few deep breaths to remain positive. It was extremely difficult to believe we were so close to completing these orders, only to go all the way back to “testing samples again”. Yesterday the analysis returned and confirmed our suspicions.

It turns out the sample parts were accidentally made twice as hard: Shore 20 instead of Shore 10. We absolutely loved them! However, due to the nature of the mistake we have to test another set of these Shore 20 samples to ensure that when made intentionally they still meet our needs.

Getting these samples will take a couple of weeks. We are currently testing the Shore 10 Spouties just to be sure we can’t use them, but so far our feelings have remained the same: The current Spouties we have just aren’t holding up to standards. They are harder to place and prone to leaks – two issues that make them unacceptable. 

We learned several new things about Spouti™ that we had not previously known, and so far the process for resolving this error has been smooth, if somewhat slow. Between the sample testing and COVID-19 related shipping and factory delays we do not have the information necessary to give an estimate, but we expect another 4-8 weeks before we can ship out orders and as soon as we have stronger information we will make an announcement.

Material Updates

Well folks, it would seem our journey will continue on a bit longer.

Last week we received a box of Spouti™ parts. You may have received an email update reporting the arrival of the parts or seen our YouTube video with the unboxing and assembly speed run. As we began assembling orders we noticed something unusual about the parts. A quick test confirmed that they were much softer than the sample parts we had approved a few weeks earlier.

It appears that the materials used were Shore 5 and not Shore 10. We are working closely with Xometry to begin testing the materials to confirm our suspicions, but until the testing is complete these are just that: suspicions. Physical comparison indicates fairly clearly that the material is significantly softer than the approved samples.

So, what does this mean for our timeline? Unfortunately we are estimating that this will put us behind another month. Currently our rough timeline is as follows:

1. Samples of the improper parts have been sent to a 3rd party testing facility. This will take at least a week and a half.

2. The 2nd half of the order will arrive April 20th. These parts are likely to be incorrect as well. If they are not we will send those out, but the chance is slim.

3. Once Xometry has confirmed the error we will order a 2nd run of the product. This will likely take 3 weeks to complete and another week to ship.

In short, unless the 2nd half of our batch comes in correctly we are looking at another month before we can begin a 2nd attempt at assembly and shipping.

Needless to say this is not the happy event we anticipated this month, but at least we have a plan and we have already begun the first steps toward a resolution.

As always our top priority is to deliver you a Spouti™ that is perfect. We will continue doing whatever it takes to fulfill that mission so that you never have to deal with leaking STPs again.

In The Meantime:

Enjoy this video demonstration!

There have been questions about how to clean Spouti™ – We recommend simply using hot water and soap, but we did a boil demonstration for fun! Spouti™ can be boiled if more stringent disinfectant measures are desired!

Xometry Has Shipped!

Time for another update folks! 

Xometry shipped our parts!

We attempt to bring you each new update as they come in. We feel that you deserve to be kept in the loop! 

It seems our long wait is about to be over! Xometry has shipped the Spouti parts from their factory – it is now a matter of time before we can begin assembly and shipping on our end!

We will make an announcement here, and on our other social platforms, once we have received the parts so stay tuned!

Once your Spouti™ has shipped you should receive an email with your tracking number, we have had some test results that suggests it may get caught in your spam filter so be sure to check once the announcements have been sent out.

It’s been a long journey – thank you so much for taking it with us!

Let’s get ready to break out the champagne!!

Direct From Xometry – April 10th

Time for another update folks! 

Xometry has sadly delivered another update with a delay

We attempt to bring you each new update as they come in. We feel that you deserve to be kept in the loop! 

Today we received an unexpected delivery of some sample Spouti™ parts. Suffice it to say that these samples are immaculate! The modification is incredibly pliant and comfortable, the firmness of the rim is precisely the right level to be comfortable to wear and easy to place.

We are beyond thrilled with the changes we have made and you will be too!

That being said, when we got the samples we immediately called our contacts at Xometry. If you recall, we opted to skip the samples in order to speed up production time. Seeing the box of samples gave us pause. Our project engineer at Xometry informed us their factory cannot send us the partial shipment due to the cost of making that shipment and that we should now expect our shipment to be completed and shipped from the factory on the 7th of April, ultimately arriving at our assembly location on the 10th instead of March 31st.

While April 10th is only 10 days later than March 31st, we have insisted that alternate solutions be explored. We are extremely dedicated to delivering your product to you as soon as we can and we feel that these continued delays should be mitigated through any means available. As alternate options become available we will update you again!

This has felt a lot like a “two-steps forward, one step back” process, but we are on the brink! April 10th is just 15 days from now! We will send out some great photos of the bounty once it arrives so stayed tuned here and on all of our social media platforms!

As another side-note: We’ve upgraded the Discreet Mailers from envelopes to boxes! We felt it was important to ensure that our customers who wanted things a little more low-key would have the same great packaging experience as everyone else – just with a little less flash! Everyone’s order will come with small pack of 6 colorful pipe cleaners and an additional replacement tubing as a thank you for your support.

We had some questions about the reasoning for the tubing so let me elaborate on that! Each Spouti™ is attached to 10″ of tubing to allow for aiming. Several people have asked if it is possible to trim the tubing if they found that 10″ was too long. There is some wiggle room there if desired, but if you find that you’ve cut your tube too short you can simply grab your replacement tube and switch it out!

The Mold Is On Its Way!

Time for another update folks! 

Xometry is working on fabrication!

So where does that leave us?

Do to the extensive testing we did with the samples previously we had a chat with our engineers at Xometry.
In order to save another 2 weeks on fabrication time we are going to go ahead and roll out the full order! We currently have an estimated shipping date – from Xometry to our assembly location – set for

March 20th!

Once the parts arrive at our assembly we will immediately begin assembling and shipping Spouti out! I estimate that will begin March 25th – but until the actual shipment arrives that is just an estimate.

But that means we are on track! I am super excited to get these shipped out and I know you are too!

The Mold Is On Its Way!

Time for another update folks! 

Xometry has completed the mold analysis, we’ve approved the modifications, and the down-payment has been made!

So where does that leave us?

Xometry is going to make the physical changes to the mold and run another set of test samples. We currently expect the samples to arrive at our assembly location on March 6th.

We will begin testing immediately. Given that we have conducted several in-house and third-party tests we are highly confident that this modification is the final solution.

We will be posting another update once the samples arrive!

Hello! Welcome to the Spouti Newsstand!

Here we plan to keep everyone updated on our progress!

First off – thank you for supporting us! It has been a crazy ride getting Spouti put together and I am very excited about the upcoming steps!

So – Recap! On january 7th we got our first professional sample parts from Xometry – we did an unboxing video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5i0o_FmKnA

I personally tested the samples for a couple of days and found that the silicone softness that we originally wanted was not viable. The cup was too thin with this silicone so sides of the cup folded in, eliminating the seal. This was obviously not acceptable.

We had a 2nd set of harder silicone samples, Shore10 (versus the Shore5 we wanted) I made an in-shop modification to this model and found a solution!

I talk about that in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgJWi27ca1s

On Friday, February 14th we sent in an updated CAD model to Xometry for analysis – once they come back with the quote we will get them to modify the mold!

Once the modification is complete we will review a second set of samples. I am extremely confident in the success of this modification and I expect that we will be able to get approval through quickly so we can move on to the actual production stage!

As we move forward we will continue to update this page with posts, letting you know what step we are on, what we think of the samples, and any dates that we can confidently offer.

Thank you for your support, for your patience, and for joining us on this journey!

Stay tuned!!