Michigan startup sees opportunity in water-saving technology for toilets

by Sven Gustafson | Michigan Business Review

Friday August 07, 2009, 12:30 PM

An uncle-and-nephew team is targeting the humble but ubiquitous toilet as a business opportunity for a new product that fuses the promise of water conservation with a made-in-Michigan business model.

SelectAFlush principals John and David Bauer have created a dual-flush toilet valve replacement kit that makes standard toilets perform like low-flow toilets for a fraction of the price.

The company claims the product can save more water than a low-flow toilet when installed on a standard 3.5-gallon toilet or smaller. And saving water, of course, equates to lower water bills.

The two are deliberately sourcing every component, down to the box packaging, from Michigan companies.

John Bauer, the company’s vice president who runs the business from his home in Mattawan, was a chair of the Great Lakes Tool & Die Collaborative, an organization created by legislation in Michigan that grants tax abatements to manufacturers to help them compete.

“It was devastating,” he said. “We’d quote jobs and quote jobs and they’d simply go to China. I thought, ‘enough was enough.’

“This was a great job to show that we could do it… and serve as a model that you don’t have to go to China to come up with a great product.”

The product works through a combination of floatation gravity, with two floats on a stem that work against one another to allow for the appropriate selection of water.

The upper valve lifts and allows a partial-tank flush when the flush handle is pushed in one direction, while both valves lift when a larger flush is needed.

David Bauer, the product inventor, said he stumbled upon the idea for the device while studying for his LEED accreditation exam as an under-employed building contractor.

He knew toilets were big water-wasters but that more efficient dual-flush toilets were expensive and not widely used in the U.S. So he visited various hardware stores, purchased books on toilet repairs and flappers, valves and floats and began playing around with various designs at his home near West Palm Beach, Fla. in early 2008.

David showed his finished design to his uncle John, who had worked in plastic molding and tooling sales.

“We had a lot of tooling background in Michigan,” said David, an Ann Arbor native whose grandfather was the founder of armored vehicle manufacturer Cadillac Gage. “John had kind of stuck with it over the years. Also, Michigan needs the work. There’s so much empty capacity right now in Michigan that we decided, let’s do it here.”

The family startup has enlisted Holland-based LS Mold Inc., a rapid prototype molding firm where John Bauer formerly worked, to make the valves. It also sources chrome plating from Wyoming-based Electro Chemical Finishing and packaging from Kalamazoo’s Arvco Containers Corp.

The self-funded company worked with Grand Rapids-based economic development agency The Right Place on commercialization strategies and links to potential investors. For now, the company is primarily selling its $29.95 product online.

David Bauer said the product, which has so far sold about 5,000 units, is the first of several water-saving ideas he wants to tackle. The company is looking to partner with Novi-based plumbing supplier BrassCraft Manufacturing Co. on water-saving kits for bathrooms, John Bauer said.

“My image is that we need to desperately penetrate the water districts and public housing agencies with our product,” John Bauer said. “Because we’re made in Michigan, there is tremendous pressure for us if we go retail, to go to China with that because of the cost differential. Our goal right now is to go the non-retail channel.”

For LS Mold, the product could add to an automotive, consumer goods and medical-device customer base. President and co-owner Larry Koning said he recently met to discuss pricing with another inventor looking for a production partner.

“You never know when this guy or gal walks in the door and has the next pet rock,” Koning said. “And hopefully, if you get him through the prototyping and how plastics work, when they’re rich and famous, they remember you for production tooling… and it all snowballs into other opportunities.”

Sven Gustafson blogs about energy technology for Michigan Business Review.

• Contact reporter Sven Gustafson at (734) 302-1732 or sveng@mbusinessreview.com. Or follow him at www.twitter.com/sveng.