Products

Recently I was walking down the aisle of a wholesaler hardware show when I saw a long-time industry friend, Barry Surran, who was representing ThermaFreeze Products. As with all good salesmen, it was inevitable that Barry was going to tell me about this new line of products he was selling.

The ThermaFreeze line of products is a reusable ice alternative that definitely has potential in the right hardware store that stocks sporting goods or seriously sells impulse items and changes out their end caps on a regular schedule. The ThermaFreeze products are sheets of product that you simply dunk in water (remove excess water with a paper towel) the product soaks up the water and then you freeze it.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But here’s the great part, unlike ice and ice packs, it DOESN’T sweat! The ThermaFreeze products come in several convenient sizes. You can also cut them into smaller sizes to fit specific applications or cooler sizes. Barry was explaining that the ThermaFreeze product was great around any cooler application where you wanted to keep food products cool and it is.

But here is another application that is not typically associated with hardware sales. I had just had knee surgery and as you can imagine walking the show floor was not a part of what the doctor (or my wife) had in mind when he cleared me to go back to work. When I asked Barry if I could sit in his chair in the booth he also gave me a ThermaFreeze pack to wrap around my knee. It was just like, an ice pack without any sweating or excess water from a leaking plastic bag. This in my opinion makes it a great impulse item for a hardware store where every customer at some point will strain something or smash something in the process of fixing or building what ever they are doing. For more information simply go to www.ThermaFreeze.com.

The ConservCo has seen a need and has developed a product that really does help make potentially bad situations easier to deal with. They have taken the concept of a hand bilge pump from the marine industry, adapted it and made it better for DIY repairs.

The “Gulp” is a hand operated suction pump that the user can use to empty water or fluids from areas that need to be repaired or worked on. What makes the “Gulp” different is that each stroke of the pump removes 12 ounces so eleven stokes of the hand pump will remove over one gallon of fluid.

The pump shaft is stainless steel and the barrel of the pump is clear so the user can actually see that the pump is picking up the fluid. The barrel of the pump also has a non-slip hand cushion with a strap. But, in my opinion, the best feature is that it comes apart so you can clean the pump thoroughly when you are finished. It’s also reasonably small making it easy to store until it is needed again.

Let’s face it, removing water from a toilet before you pull it up from the floor or emptying the dish water from the sink before you snake the drain are not easy or pleasant jobs when the fluid is not removed. The “Gulp” is also very helpful when you need to remove water from a fountain, fish pond or water from a hole where a pipe has broken.