Project H³O laid to rest

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Spinner
Posts: 1337
Joined: Tue Feb 10, 2004 12:00 pm

Project H³O laid to rest

Post by Spinner » Sat Feb 28, 2009 4:14 pm

Below is an email I've received. While it wasn't exactly unexpected, it's nonetheless a shame to hear what we feared - there just isn't the market for high-powered blasters at the moment.
Dear friends and supporters of Project H³O,

We have bad news for you. Over the past few weeks we have finished a preliminary
design of our prototype. We focused mostly on a well working, functional interior
design and kept the exterior appearance simple and down-to-earth.

A week ago, we started with calculating our cost structure with the help of an engineer.
The results do not look good. Interestingly, getting the parts together that enable the
gun to work in the way we want (e.g. valves, pipes, pistons etc.) isn’t the problem.
The exterior casing however requires us to develop very complex injection molding
tools which we simply cannot do ourselves. Outsourcing this part of the production
process would increase our fix costs exponentially. To talk numbers: An additional
100.000 – 150.000 € would have been necessary. This in turn would force us to produce
higher numbers of water guns in order to keep the cost per unit on a reasonable level.
Unfortunately in our opinion the market for the line of guns we had in mind is simply
not big enough.

For these reasons we will have to discontinue Project H³O and take this website offline
by the end of the month. We would like to thank everybody who supported us by posting
ideas in the forums and taking part in the polls. The Monster XL will be send to the user
“creysec” who was randomly selected yesterday. Congratulations! After March 1st you
can still reach the website under http://www.project-h3o.tk for about one week and you are all
welcome to use our bulletin board to exchange your contactinformation to stay conncected.

Well, we hope you had as much fun as we did with this project. Even though it did not
work out in the end we appreciate all your effort! All the best to you and once again:
THANK YOU!

The people behind Project-H³O
Homemades are still the way to go for power, then, it seems.
ISS: Soaker Sagas

Submit your saga and see it up with other titans of water warfare.

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isoaker_com
Posts: 458
Joined: Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:00 pm

Re: Project H³O laid to rest

Post by isoaker_com » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:05 pm

I'm not too surprised that they found that making a higher-performance water blaster costs a little more and would require a good amount made and sold to make the endeavor a profitable one. I am, though, a little surprised they opted to give the MXL prize to a member who never posted on their forums, but 'twas their contest.

That said, seems like higher-powered water blasters shall remain in the realm of homemades for now, though I still have the hope that one day we'll also see more potent water weaponry in stores eventually.

:cool:
:: Leave NO one dry! :: iSoaker.com / iSoaker.net ::

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cantab
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Joined: Fri Oct 19, 2007 1:35 pm

Re: Project H³O laid to rest

Post by cantab » Mon Mar 02, 2009 4:44 pm

I'm interested to hear that the troublesome part, though, is nothing to do with the internals (that would be what one expects to cost more for higher performance), but the casing. Certainly worth bearing in mind for anyone else who wishes to start manufacturing water guns.
I work on Windows. My toolbox is Linux.
Arsenal:
Super Soaker: XP215, 2xXP220, Liquidator, Aquashock Secret Strike M(odded), Arctic Blast M, CPS1200, CPS2100, SC Power Pak, 3l aquapack, 1.5l aquapack
Water Warriors: Jet, Sting Ray M, Shark, Argon M, Tiger Shark, PulseMaster
Others: Waterbolt, The Blaster, Storm 500, Shield Blaster 2000, generic PR gun, generic backpack piston pumper (broken), 3l garden sprayer M, 10l water carrier:

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Silence
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Re: Project H³O laid to rest

Post by Silence » Mon Mar 02, 2009 6:27 pm

Ideally, if you want professional-quality plastic casing, you'd go to a VC or toy company, as Lonnie Johnson did in the 1980s. Of course, then you'd lose sole ownership of the brand.

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C-A_99
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Joined: Tue Aug 01, 2006 11:09 pm

Re: Project H³O laid to rest

Post by C-A_99 » Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:21 pm

I agree with iSoaker on the XL. If the member doesn't respond to the offer, it might have to go around.

Its a pity that the casing - the least important part of the gun's functuality, was what stopped them. You don't need a fancy case to get good handling and triggers. However, a gun that looks like the guts of a household plumbing device, even painted dark with the logo and everything, probably won't sell.

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