Hearthlist Digest #125 - Monday, March 30, 1998 HPA AWARDS }8>) by "by way of Craig Issod" <[email protected]> Craig's comments the 1998 HPA show by "Keith Slattery" <[email protected]> Re: Hearthlist Digest #124 - 03/29/98 by "John Crouch" <[email protected]>
(back) Subject: HPA AWARDS }8>) From: [email protected] (by way of Craig Issod) Date: Sun, 29 Mar 1998 18:37:11 -0400 PHANTOM REP TRADE SHOW AWARDS Well another show has come and gone. We must be getting jaded with age.... it seems all the after hour parties were a blurr and duller than usual..... Of course they may have livened up after 9pm but I wouldn't know..... and my cohorts wouldn't tell. As for the show itself..... everyone seems a little grayer around the edges.... I personally think it's from all the notious gas smell in Hearth these days. And now for the >>>>> AWARDS<<<<<<<: MOST CREATIVE DISPLAY OF SHOW goes to Heat N Glo. It isn't very often you can see a live fish boil. The over the fireplace aquarium would make "What's for Dinner" a simple question to answer in any home....... almost as practical as the pants burning Bar from a couple years back. Their fountain fireplace display would be a hit in many hotel and restaurant lobbies across the country. I hope everyone stole that idea for future use somewhere. Great booth.... even if a little too tight inside. BEST NON-DEALER GREETING STRATEGY goes to Travis Industries. I must really thank Kurt Rumens for inviting me into the Travis booth, to show me all the great product they are producing that I can not sell...(yet). It was a great way to start a Trade show. Thank you for the motivation..... the line looks good... and it needs some duplicators we can sell. MOST INTERESTING BURN BOOTH SCENE was watching Dave Lennox try to "Blue-up" the flames in the new Lennox fireplaces. As long as they think yellow flame technology is the result of showing product in a yellow tent we are still all ok. ..... but watch out they are coming along. BEST BOOTH AT SHOW goes hands down to Majestic Insta Flame/VC.... Great settings,fabulous ideas.... well laid out and obviously well built. As Dan Hensley pointed out their watch tower in the middle could hold 3 Colins, myself and a dozen hamburgers without a shake.... and that is a full load. EVERYBODY'S GOT ONE AWARD goes to >>> Lotsa gas grills. In case you missed them at the show not only is there no margin available.... but everybody sells them.... and it appears that everyone is making them too. So pick your favorite and sell some. Best Improved Cast Gas Stove.... Dovre introduced two new models that are designed and priced to push past the VC lines. They should be winners on many showroom floors and take sales into many homes. VC will need some new designs and price strategies very soon to catch up to the Dovre challenge. Even the China models are creating a worthy challenge to the once prince of Cast Iron. NEW PRODUCT NOT SEEN at show >>>> still no challengers to Simpson DuraVent GS gas direct vent pipe systems. It is amazing but they still have the market sewed up and there is very little new product making any real efforts to challenge. MOST OVERUSED "Bad Phrase" seen and heard at show too many times >>>> "This is Campfyre style log set" Who wants a wimpy looking Camp Fire in their fireplace anyways? ..... give me a Bonfire at 25,000 btu's and you'll get our business. QUICK CHANGE BOOTH AWARD goes to >>>> Quad-Dovre-Arrow. Thankful for quickdrying sign paint Allen & Mike put on the final touches as the show opened..... and you would never have known most of the booth paint was still drying. MOST PRE-PUBLICIZED....Yet Hardest to Find Booth >>and the "WOOD STOVE POSSIBLE SAVIOR AWARD" goes to the folks at Energex Pellets..... If you where abe to find them..... their Pellet Grate may be a partial answer to the come back of wood stoves and pellet tonnage sales for next season. A big "Thoughtful Thank You" to the Umbrella and Poncho Brigade from St. Louis...... and a pair of sunglasses and a bottle of Sun Tan Lotion with instructions for use .... to the Trade Show Location Selection Committee.... "Go South Young Man, Go South" BEST "TWEAK" AWARD goes to the guys who forgot the orfices at the Golden Blount outside burn booth. We just loved those 300,000 BTU Texas Bonfire Log sets ..... And finally >>>> the Oburn Hospitality Room once again wins the Bill Sylvestor Award for "Worst Beer Served" ..... even in the hometown of BUDWEISER .... there ain't much skunkier beer than OKEKENOKEE ... the Okee-doekee Canadian wonder brew.... we love the stuff... cleans your system right now. Missing and noticed as missing was the Hearth-net webhead gathering >>> or maybe I just missed it??
(back) Subject: Craig's comments the 1998 HPA show From: Keith Slattery <[email protected]> (by way of Craig Issod) Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 13:33:50 -0400 Greetings. I agree with Craig that there certainly was not much revolutonary product at the show. Here are some of my comments about Craig's observations... * While many manufacturers want to promote a negative attitude towards pellet products, nobody can deny the positive aspects of burning this type of fuel from an environmental standpoint. Anyone that read the article in the most recent edition of Hearth & Home ( on global warming ) would have to agree on the environmental friendliness of this type of fuel. One truly revolutionary product at the show was the bio-mass burner displayed by Whitfield. While this product is certainly ahead of its time, I was amazed at the reaction from many people. Everyone has gas "fever". And rightly so... But it is comforting to know that many people who have been in this business remember it's core - alternative fuel - This product proves that alternative fuel can be cleaner than natural gas or oil. We live in a climate of consumers buying Licoln Navigators that get 10 miles to the gallon. I suppose it'll take a long time before enviromental friendliness is a major deciding factor in purchasing heating equipment for your home. We saw what happened with pellet stoves on the west coast years ago when the media and government publicized how dirty and horrible woodstoves are. No telling what can happen down the road when our government finally wakes up and starts doing something about this problem in our country. * I find it amazing how many new cast iron gas products are being offered to the market place. Granted, many of these new products will find their way into a much more varied distribution base than the core cast iron manufacturers (VC, Jotul, Hearthstone, Waterford, Dovre). My question is what happens to these guys when the gas fever starts to decline and solid fuel makes its comeback (I'm an optimist...) * On the subject of catalytic vent free, I have a problem with the design "concept" many manufacturers are using. According to the information we have received, catalytic "reactors" (I like to call 'em that...sounds more nuclear...) utilized in vent free products have one major impact on the products of combustion - They lower CO count... I have heard from a surprising amount of retailers that catalytics do the following - * Lowers CO ( ok...) * Eliminates all odors... * Eliminates water!! * Makes the air in your house cleaner - hey its not only a gas fireplace, it's an air purifier too... * Solves all the problems related to vent free products... So... be aware of some of the information being used to sell one product over another. I do agree that sizing is of utmost importance. And...I also need to acknowledge that there have been and are many vent free products sold on the market that have questionable quality and design aspects. Remember, not all of the problems that have been experienced relate back to the overall "concept" of vent free. In simple terms, some manufacturers have designed their catalytic vent free products as follows - Build a "dirty" flame, use a cat to clean it up. What happens if the product is not operating properly in regards to CO? The CO detector kicks in and saves the day. Other manufacturers have gone a different route. Ok... the market is interested in this technology - so let's take our existing vent free technology - which in reality is pretty clean in regards to CO... and stick a cat in it... If the cat malfunctions... no problem. This eliminates the need for a CO detector which frankly has never been the most accurate type of product on the market (given the amount of money manufacturers are willing to spend). I question the reliability of these detectors. In addition, the manufacturers may not be willing to admit it, but I would be willing to bet that the failure rate has been higher than they would like. I'm not implying that this type of product is unsafe, I just question the concept of building a dirty flame and than using a cat to clean it up. Why not start out with a clean flame and just make it cleaner? Keith Slattery Delta Marketing [email protected]
(back) Subject: Re: Hearthlist Digest #124 - 03/29/98 From: John Crouch <[email protected]> Date: Mon, 30 Mar 1998 15:45:38 -0400 Craig, Thanks for your thoughts on the show, but you left one thing out! The challenge: to <bold>everyone</bold> on this list to share our thoughts and reflections on the show. This is a great opportunity for all of us who watch this list and contribute very little, after all, if we don't chime in at this time of the year, will we have more time in the fall? Just a few of my thoughts, which revolve around of theme of 'things we already take for granted. 1) This was only the third year of Natural Gas in the outdoor burn area. Some folks may forget what a mess it was to have hundreds of LPG tanks, all over the place, not to mention the potential problems. Thanks to Mike Van Buren, HPA's Technical Director, (who lived in St Louis for two weeks), the outdoor burn area was safe, well organized, and even bigger than Reno. (Now if we can only get all the truck drivers to understand that you must never, NEVER, drive over a gas line, even if the gas is not turned on yet). 2) The computer education sessions, and the computer lab. Again, it was only four years ago that Charlie Page did a session of using contact management software to increase sales, which was, I think, the first effort at computer education at our shows (time to do it again, don't you think, Charlie?). The lab was a lot of work, and was only possible through the generous donation of time form the Volunteer hosts. Sue Kalish and I are VERY interested in any comments on the lab, since neither of us could spend more than 10 minutes there after the show opened. (If any list readers REALLY liked the lab, please send a big thank you to Larry James, of Larimie WY, <<[email protected]> who contributed a HUGE amount of time helping set up, and then re set up the PC's. (Craig did a wonderful job of helping with the MAC's as well, not surprisingly under Craig's skilled control it was up and running in no time). 3) The amount of education in General. When you add in the Education Badges, the Phd program attendees, and all the folks who attended HEARTH education seminars a LOT of people paid extra for continuing education. When the definitive history of the business gets written (when Dan Melcon has the time), the 90's will be the education decade. The years when we institutionalized continuing education, not just technical, but business education. More and more people are understanding education as the best defense of the specialty retailers against ALL the forces in our culture that work against them. OKAY, there are just a few of my impressions; I interested in ALL of yours. (Please, if you don't use an automatic signature block, please put your name and company) John Crouch Hearth Products Association