Decent Suitcase v2 - torture testing
We've started to work on a major revision to the Decent Espresso Machine Suitcase, as part of moving to a new supplier.
We have learned quite a bit over the years, and have a few changes we'd like to make to our suitcase design.
We were happy to find that people who manufacture for Plevo are nearby to us. Plevo is an ultra-high-end suitcase https://www.plevo.co/en-en/cases/plevo-infinite
We've visited this manufacturer. We're impressed by the quality of their work, and we want to collaborate with them.
Some things we want to improve in our suitcase design:
- removable wheels, so that we don't have “air space” in the cardboard box, which can be easily crumpled.
- Being mounted on corners, wheels unfortunately also transfer shock into the suitcase itself, and thus increase the damage caused by transport companies throwing your DE1 off a truck.
- The removable wheel design we most like is similar to the Plevo's, with very thick plastic that serves to greatly strengthen the corners, when the wheels are removed.
- You'll receive the wheels inside the suitcase and clip them into place. You can then remove the wheels again, if you need to ship the suitcase back to us.
- the space savings from removing the wheels are significant, removing about 2kg of “volumetric weight”, which is about USD$40 in shipping cost, per espresso machine.
- riveted-in corner protectors. We currently add corner protectors in the packing process, but these are usually discarded by the customer on arrival.
- top-side-open, for easier packing. The zip in the center of our current suitcase is a bit difficult to close, since we transitioned to much denser foam. The problem is that the foam needs to be compressed as the suitcase closes, which isn't easy. This new design solves that.
- overall improvement in build quality. While I have no complaints with our current supplier, the Plevo suitcase is *gorgeous* and is a big bump up in quality.
- Yes, the suitcase will cost us substantially more from this manufacturer, but we have enough profitability that I don't mind spending more, to get something nicer. Plus, we'll be able to much easier control quality and deliveries, by using someone nearby.
- We're probably 6 months away from moving to a new design, and still in R&D on this. Success is not assured, but I'm hopeful.
- Note: we won't sell this new suitcase on its own to people, because we ship everything via UPS/Fedex, which means it would cost $300 to ship an empty suitcase to you, which doesn't make financial sense. We'll transition to this new suitcase design, once we run out of the current v1 design, for sending new espresso machines.
ps: If you have a “wishlist” of changes you'd like to see made to our current suitcase design, now would be a great time to voice them. I'm “all ears” !
-john
Updated 2022/08/03