Developing New Hands-free Faucet Product

Hello all. This is my first post here on HBT. Hopefully it will be of interest to you all.

I am working on developing a product and would like to see if it would be of any interest to you. I am targeting small batch (~50 bottles) systems but future versions of the product could be targeted for larger batches.

PROBLEM:
With current solutions the user must fill each bottle 1 by 1, while holding each bottle manually, and monitoring the amount of liquid that enters each bottle.

SOLUTION:
An auto-stop faucet attachment.
-Hands-free system.
-Auto-stop based upon fill height.
-Option to expand # of auto-stop attachments.
-All mechanical.
-Easy to clean.

MY QUESTIONS TO YOU?
-Would this product interest you?
-What would you consider paying for this product?
-Are there any needs that this product does not solve? (In regards to the filling process)

Please respond with any feedback or questions! Thanks everyone!
(Sorry in advance. I will not be able to show any product prototypes.)

Like most home brewers I reuse bottles from beer that has come from the store and even though they all are 12oz or what ever some are diffrent shape and size. For instance my Sam Adams bottles are taller than my Abita. So, the device would have to be able to adjust to diffrent bottles on the fly.

Also,(IMO) If the cost is more than a keg set up It would not be worth it.

To make it hands free you would have to load bottles in to a magazine and make them move to the spout(s).. or move the spout to the bottles, either way they have to line up just right in a just right pattern. The initial set up would seem to be a pain, and if you use diffrent size bottles you would have to put them in the same spot the pattern was set for.

I forgot to add like most people I am limited to space and wife approval, so it cant take up much room.
I noticed at McDonalds the drink fill systems they have with the small convayor (that always over fills and makes a mess) and think how would I convert that into a way to bottle but to get it to insert a tube to the bottom of the bottle everytime with out making a mess would be difficult.

I can't see the value to me. For the reasons stated above and because once I have all of my stuff set up and sanitized, etc. the actual bottle filling is the easy part.

This sounds like one more thing that needs to be cleaned and sanitized very carefully...

Thanks for your feedback Latamir and Homercidal!

Would a more simple replacement for the faucet be of any interest?

The user would simply insert the fill tube into the bottle in the same manner as the current solution. However, liquid flow would begin by sensing the upward force of the top of the bottle. And stop by either (1) the user moving the bottle down or (2) using a set-able fill height sensor (detecting the distance of liquid compared to the top of the bottle).

Any thoughts? Potential price could be around the $20 range.

freestyler717 said:

Thanks for your feedback Latamir and Homercidal!

Would a more simple replacement for the faucet be of any interest?

The user would simply insert the fill tube into the bottle in the same manner as the current solution. However, liquid flow would begin by sensing the upward force of the top of the bottle. And stop by either (1) the user moving the bottle down or (2) using a set-able fill height sensor (detecting the distance of liquid compared to the top of the bottle).

Any thoughts? Potential price could be around the $20 range.

Click to expand...

Option #1 is essentially how a basic spring tip bottle filler works currently. The bottle lifts the plunger against the bottom of the bottle, and closes when the bottle is lowered. A basic bottle filler is about $3. A $20 version would have to do something very special to justify the 7x increase in price.

No offense, but it sounds like you are describing what we already use with jazzier terms and adding electronics that are unnecessary.

What about the ferrari auto bottle filler. It fills and auto stops ams I think out is about twenty bucks. Mostly sold to wine folks I think.

I'm curious to see where this goes

Agree. The existing system is cheap, effective, easy and quick. There isn't a market need to improve upon this, at least in the way your describing.

But whatever you do, it has to improve upon the current design, be very cost competitive, be light and mobile, have a strong warranty, easily cleaned. I think the production cost would far exceed the actual cost per unit for your target market.

Thank you all for you input. I am new to home brewing and this is somethingbeing designed as part of a mechanical design class. Wanted to look into its viability as a potential retail product.

edecambra: That is a cool product. Our vision is something along those lines. Here is a video if you havent seen it.

With the added discription. It sounds like something I already have. I have a piece of hose 2in long connected to my short bottle wand and the spout on my bottle bucket. I set the bucket on the counter open the spigot. pull up a chair and slide the bottles up one by one. I realize that I just started brewing myself in Dec., but it seems to me if you keep the wand clean the spring and botton it doesnt fail. I am not sure how a to improve on this system short of hireing a day laborer for 10 bucks to do it for me.

I am one of those guys that likes to bottle and I dont understand why you would want to complicate it by adding an electronic thing-ama-gig whachma-danger.

freestyler717 said:

Thank you all for you input. I am new to home brewing and this is somethingbeing designed as part of a mechanical design class. Wanted to look into its viability as a potential retail product.

edecambra: That is a cool product. Our vision is something along those lines. Here is a video if you havent seen it. Ferrari Automatic Bottle Filler

Click to expand...

Something like that would be nice if it were affordable. Generally when I am bottling I end up focusing on something else or just daydreaming and suddenly I am spilling beer, which is never good. Perhaps I'd buy a product like this - perhaps not. If you could integrate it into my existing bottling wand somehow as an attachment, even better. If it were a standalone piece of equipment, it would have to differ in respect to the 'ferrari' filler in that there would need to be a tube reaching to the bottom of the bottle, reducing aeration.

I would like to see the ability to fill more than one bottle at a time over automating filling 1 bottle at a time. If I could fill a 6 pack at a time, I would pay 20$ for that.

I was at a ball game a few years back and saw a cool beer dispenser where cups with valves in the bottom were placed on top of a coupling and filled from the bottom up. It was metered so it stopped flowing at a certain level.
That would be kind of cool to have but would be pricey to buy and then you would have to buy special bottles. Then it would be hard to put a valve in a glass bottle... I dont like plastic myself, but some might not care. It would have to be pressureized to flow like that. Again, kegging would be cheaper.