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!