08 April 2021 by Calan

It's been a little while since our last update and a lot has been going on with finalising our manufacturing. We wanted to wait to communicate until we were sure of the production timelines and thankfully we’re now there. We really appreciate your patience and are very excited we can give you some good news – your Looguns are being made & assembled as you read this and before long will be on their way to your homes!

In addition to redesigning and retooling the valve and reservoir cap, we also decided to add a base cover to the bottom of the stand. We felt the device had an unfinished look about it and we didn't like the exposed bottom. It now looks complete and we've added some custom rubber feet to the bottom of the base to give it a nice feel on the bathroom floor.

The last few months of tooling has not been without its challenges. The Loogun consists of over 50 custom parts that require large moulds to be created for manufacturing. Certain parts require absolute precision, such as nozzles, which have been refined in increments of 0.1mm and modifications to any internal part has an impact on the spray velocity. We've been through around 15 rounds of production samples, making slight changes to parts that we felt needed to be strengthened or improved, and I'm thrilled to report that we're very happy with the final result. The Loogun works beautifully, but the real test is to get your feedback once we start shipping.

We are now fully in production and everything is coming together nicely. The packaging looks good, the protective inserts are great, and we're adding a small screwdriver to every box so that you don't need to hunt for one in order to get started.  

In terms of timescales, the tooling factory has been really good about rushing through new tooling as we've iterated. The new base and rubber feet, as well as a new battery contact we added is almost done. It's going to cost us 2 weeks in additional manufacturing time as we had to wait until after Chinese New Year to start, but the result is totally worth it. We'll have manufacturing complete by 20 April and then get the Looguns straight onto the ship. It takes a month to get them landed in the UK and they'll be mailed out to you the day they arrive in our warehouse.

You have my sincere apologies for the delays, its dragged way beyond our original estimates. All I can say is that it's a very difficult process to rush without sacrificing quality, and that while the Loogun seems a simple product when you use it, the internal engineering is far from it. We've learned a lot and will be able to plan future iterations a lot more accurately.

On the business side, we've been part of the TrueStart retail accelerator for the last 6 months. It's a great initiative that invests in innovative retail and consumer product startups and culminates in an evening in the Shard where we presented our business to over 250 investors and retail executives from across the country. It's been a great experience and has really helped to expand our retail contacts and spread the word about Loogun.

We've had an exhibition stand at the UK's premier home show over the last 2 weeks. It's been great to introduce so many people to the Loogun and hear thoughts and feedback on our production samples. Overall the feedback has been really good, but reasonably, some people are sceptical about whether you can clean under water using a jet of water. It's a new concept and many people very close to me have been sceptical about this until they try it themselves. We’re confident you’ll be pleased with the product but we’re looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Beyond that, we're gearing up for launch and planning on making some noise with our fantastic PR team. The culmination of two and a half years of work is very nearly real. It all now rests in what you think of the product and we're anxious to get as much feedback as possible.

I'll send another update out if anything changes, though it should be pretty straightforward now. I'll be in China again for a final inspection just before we ship and then it's a short wait until you receive your Looguns.

Thanks so much for being patient and all the support. We started this process hoping to stick to our estimated timeline but ultimately this process doesn't always go as smooth as one would hope. The product has a better finish than we’d originally thought so we think it’s been worth the wait.

All the best,
Calan