Duo invents device to stop buildup in appliances
Faced with his usual enemy, dust, clogging a customer's domestic appliance, Shane K. decided he'd had enough. "There ought to be a way to fix this," Shane thought. So he and his colleague Tracey C. created "Dust Stoppers," a device that promises to stop the buildup of dust in appliances and save gas and propane users some $75 annually in service calls. "It's a very expensive little thing for the customers," Tracey said of dust. "It makes my job a lot harder," Shane added. Dust Stoppers will cost around $20 and will work for all gas and propane-fueled domestic appliances, Shane said. The gadget is currently under the control of an invention company, which is seeking a manufacturer. "It's going to have to go through research and production," said a representative of Invention Technologies Inc. He said he could not say when Dust Stoppers will hit the market. Because a manufacturer has yet to be licensed, Shane and Tracey said they could not give out details of how the product looks or works.
But it is about 99 percent effective, Tracey said. And it will cater to a huge market. In 2003, there were 61,857,913 residential and 5,150,925 commercial natural gas consumers in the United States, according to the Energy Information Administration. Shane said there are about 8 million propane users. The idea hit the two inventors during a routine service call, a 30-second task for Shane that cost the customer some $40. "We were out on a call," Tracey explained. "I was helping him one day." "It was like a light bulb went off," Shane said. "We were both standing there and got talking about it," Tracey said. The two, who have been friends and colleagues for a number of years, started burning midnight oil at the long, wooden table in the back room of their job. They fiddled with several design, striving to find one that would work with all appliances. It took a few days, but Dust Stoppers was born. A patent search revealed no similar product exists, Shane said. "There's nothing," he said, and they both burst out laughing.
So, what happens if the big bucks start streaming in? Tracey shrugs off a suggestion of an opulent lifestyle. "We're simple country boys" he said. "This could turn into something huge for our families." Both he and Shane are dreaming of spending their potential cash on kids and sports. "There are a lot of kids out there that don't have things," Tracey said. Shane's 6-year-old son requested a new house with a ball field in the back, Shane said.