As you have probably deduced from this blog in the last couple of weeks, we have disappeared into something of a design vortex, from which I think it is easy for a commercial proposition to vanish and never reach the marketplace
So in the parlance of an old teacher of mine it’s ‘pens down’ time
It’s time to move from marshes of design to the production runway, and get this thing flying
In summary;
- there will be no wooden knobs, just the classic black grips that still look fresh and crisp in design terms, to my eye at least. they have a timelessness about them and we all know they look almost as good when they are 10 years old as when they leave the factory. there are many talented wood-workers out there offering bespoke solid wood handles in a vast array of exotic timbers. it is a business in itself if you are to do it well – its not something we want to dedicate the necessary resources to managing on an on-going basis. whatever we went with it would always prompt an avalanche of requests to do it in a slightly different finish, or a slightly different timber, or a different section of timber, or a different profile. i think you get the idea, so we are scrapping it – we’ve got to stick to our core business
- the Luxe will not have the black powder coat on the boiler housing; it will have a mirror polished stainless steel exterior. the glass sides and polished internals will remain unchanged, with the black interior
- the standard offering will not be available in different colours as i originally planned. instead i have decided to offer coloured stainless steel drip trays as an option, with the grill/grate remaining in mirror polished stainless the two will work well together
- the grate/grill punch pattern will be the same shaped punching, but reworked with offset rows to increase the percentage of punched area relative to the total surface area of the drip tray. this will ensure there is no pooling of water and no cascading over the edges of the tray
- the pink pump will stay. i have the opportunity to change to different brands of pumps to change the colour to red or black. the red one is considerably less reliable and the black one is too large for the space we have available, so pink it is. yes it is a vibe pump. i have read across many forums of people’s dislike for vibe pumps, but remember that ours is only loading the boiler, it is not loading the group. if you want additional peace of mind Fracino told me this evening that they now use the pink pump in all their machines for which this size of pump is appropriate and they only know of one pink pump that has failed, despite it being fitted to hundreds of their machines
- Hope to offer the machines for sale tomorrow, subject to finalising pricing and the gross weight of the fully packaged machine
- Lead times until machines are ready to ship is expected to be 21 days, and 28 days for the Luxe
- These lead times will fall after the first 4 to 6 months as we will hold the components in stock as a pattern of demand emerges
- Some of you will be disappointed with the changes outlined above, but the only reason I am doing it is to streamline the process so we can bring you a well made product, at the right price, with a short lead time, anywhere in the world, anytime of year, including the European summer as Fracino keep their production line open throughout the year