Mikey P
Administrator
[h=2]AirPath – Keith and Roy Studebaker[/h]“We’re cleaners first,” says Keith Studebaker of he and his father, Roy. “So we try to figure out the best way to clean. One of the next questions is, ‘How long is it going to take to dry?’”
Drying carpet after cleaning is done with airmovers. But in the early 2000s, the majority of the airmovers on the market only blew air in one direction, forcing cleaners to have to continuously move them around for proper drying. That’s when Keith and Roy Studebaker got the idea to develop a 360-degree airmover.
“We made a couple of early prototypes that we’d use when we cleaned,” Keith says. “We thought that it was a pretty good idea, so we started talking to a patent attorney on it.”
From there, the Studebakers got serious with it. They made a lot of different prototypes – some of which were completely scrapped – and did a lot of different testing. They carefully analyzed things like how many inches the airmover blade was from the floor, the pitch of the fan blade, rpm and experimented with other ideal combinations for fast carpet drying.
After they decided on the right combination for this airmover – which they called “AirPath,” – there was the matter of selling it. The Studebakers started by building it and selling it themselves, and it wasn’t easy convincing cleaners to purchase an $800 airmover.
“They thought spending that kind of money on a fan was ridiculous,” Keith recalls. “But they’d buy them, then usually about a week or two later they’d call up and order another one.”
In 2007, the Studebakers sold the AirPath patent rights to Dri-Eaz and the Legend Brands company then began supplying the direct flow carpet dryer.
“It’s changed the way guys market their business, sets them apart a bit from the other guys out there,” Keith said of AirPath. “They have something they can push a little bit, even if (the carpet) is not ‘dry-dry,’ it can take hours off the dry time.”
The AirPath eventually gave way to future developments from the Studebakers, such as the compact carpet and flood dryer, the Dri-Pod.
“It all comes just from being a cleaner and coming up with a better, faster, easier way of doing a job,” Keith says. “Anybody can have a truck and a wand – it’s the specialty tools that make a difference.”
Drying carpet after cleaning is done with airmovers. But in the early 2000s, the majority of the airmovers on the market only blew air in one direction, forcing cleaners to have to continuously move them around for proper drying. That’s when Keith and Roy Studebaker got the idea to develop a 360-degree airmover.
“We made a couple of early prototypes that we’d use when we cleaned,” Keith says. “We thought that it was a pretty good idea, so we started talking to a patent attorney on it.”
From there, the Studebakers got serious with it. They made a lot of different prototypes – some of which were completely scrapped – and did a lot of different testing. They carefully analyzed things like how many inches the airmover blade was from the floor, the pitch of the fan blade, rpm and experimented with other ideal combinations for fast carpet drying.
After they decided on the right combination for this airmover – which they called “AirPath,” – there was the matter of selling it. The Studebakers started by building it and selling it themselves, and it wasn’t easy convincing cleaners to purchase an $800 airmover.
“They thought spending that kind of money on a fan was ridiculous,” Keith recalls. “But they’d buy them, then usually about a week or two later they’d call up and order another one.”
In 2007, the Studebakers sold the AirPath patent rights to Dri-Eaz and the Legend Brands company then began supplying the direct flow carpet dryer.
“It’s changed the way guys market their business, sets them apart a bit from the other guys out there,” Keith said of AirPath. “They have something they can push a little bit, even if (the carpet) is not ‘dry-dry,’ it can take hours off the dry time.”
The AirPath eventually gave way to future developments from the Studebakers, such as the compact carpet and flood dryer, the Dri-Pod.
“It all comes just from being a cleaner and coming up with a better, faster, easier way of doing a job,” Keith says. “Anybody can have a truck and a wand – it’s the specialty tools that make a difference.”
