Have you ever seen the movie "Flash of Genius"? It's about a dispute between an inventor and the auto industry over a piece of equipment: the intermittent windshield wiper. Great invention; too bad the industry giants couldn't get their act together in a more civilized manner. Makes you wonder if there are any other inventions out there that could benefit the consumer that are being artificially suppressed for one reason or another.
Meet the DropStopper. the DropStopper is a flap that goes on the end of a fuel nozzle that completely eliminates the residual drops left in the nozzle after fueling. Have you ever pulled the nozzle out of a pump and spilled a few drops of gas on your car, shoes or the pavement? Where does this gas go? How many times a day does this happen? How many nozzles are there? Could this really matter?
Do the math.......The nozzle on the pump handle can hold up to 3 ounces of fluid. There are 128 ounces in a gallon. There are roughly 165,000 convenience stores selling gasoline in the US. Throw in a 100,000 private and government fueling stations, there would be 265,000 locations dispensing fuel. At 10 pumps per location, that would be 2,650,000 nozzles. If the nozzles are handled 10 times per day for 365 days, that would be 9.68 billion times per year. If 1/4 ounce is left in each nozzle, that is a potential of 18,891,601 gallons of fuel being spilled into the environment. The economic impact is even more staggering. At an average cost of $2.50/gallon, an ounce of gasoline costs $.02. In the above described situation the loss could be almost 50 million dollars. Adding in clean-up costs and environmental costs, the total impact would be much larger.
Dripless Technology.....Why Not?...... The technology is here. Why don't the nozzle manufacturers incorporate it into their equipment? That is a good question. Simply put, the nozzle manufacturers are waiting for the public to demand it. They do not want to take the risk of introducing a new product unless the market dictates it. This is kind of backwards marketing, but it is what it is.
What to do........ Go to our website at http://www.strictlygreenllc.com/ and view a video of the DropStopper. If you like what you see, the best way to get it implemented is to legislate the use of dripless technology. Beyond that you can contact the manufacturers directly. The largest manufacturer of nozzles is Husky.
You can contact them at:
Husky Corporation
2355 Husky Way
Pacific, MO 63069
Brad Baker
bbaker@husky.com
800-325-3558
Maybe a grass roots effort will sway the powers that be to do something that can benefit us all. Please feel free to direct this request to your associates.
