[00:00:00] Eric Goranson: It's around the house.

[00:00:05] Harris Wattles: You know, if you're a household of four people, you know, you're probably going through at least two towels per person per week. That's an entire load of laundry of towels a week that you have to wash. If you can use a single towel a whole week, you cut your laundry loads in half, um, right off the bat.

[00:00:22] Harris Wattles: And so, you know, an average tile warmer is like 150 watts, so it's like two or three candescent light bulbs. Compare that to, uh, you know, Dryers are somewhere between what, like two to 5,000 watts on average, and then you've got your washing machines. And then for me, on top of that, it's, it's the time you can't get time back.

[00:00:39] Harris Wattles: You know, you can't put a, a dollar value on time. Um, so it, not only is it the cost savings, but I mean, for me, laundry is a ban of my existence. And I will literally leave my laundry, whether it's towels or clothes in the dryer or in the hamper until I don't have anything in my drawer to pull up, pull out.

[00:00:55] Harris Wattles: Again, when it comes to remodeling and renovating your home, there is a. [00:01:00] Well, we've got you covered. This is around the house.

[00:01:05] Eric Goranson: Welcome to The Round the House Show. This is where we help you through your home, through information and education. Thanks for joining us today. We're gonna heat things up a little bit today and uh, I can say this as I'm a firm believer cause I have one in my house.

[00:01:19] Eric Goranson: We've got Peter and Harris from AMBA products. This is the most crazy heated towel racks that you could put in your home. Thanks for coming on the show guys.

[00:01:30] Harris Wattles: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks Eric.

[00:01:32] Eric Goranson: This is great. Well, let's talk about what you guys do. I know I kinda let the cat outta the bag early there, but man, I tell you what, uh, I've stayed at people's house and I've had it, you know, for a weekend, but until you put one in your own home, it changed how I do laundry, how I took a shower, uh, all of those things, uh, it's a life changer and something so simple I did not predict.

[00:01:57] Harris Wattles: Yeah, it's uh, it's quite a. [00:02:00] I don't know if I'd say revolutionary product, but it's, it's certainly something as you, you kind of nailed it right on the head. That'll change your, your morning, your bathing routine. Uh, I don't know if I'd go so far as to say your life, uh, but, um, you know, it's, it's really something that a lot of people don't know what they're missing until they've experienced it and then they kind of have that aha moment where they're like, holy crap, how have I lived my life this long without this product?

[00:02:26] Harris Wattles: Um, So, yeah. Here at, uh, AMBA products, we are a, uh, manufacturing distributor of towel warmers or heated Tower X, uh, uh, kinda a very niche market in the interior design product world. Um, but yeah, it's a, it's a great, great product that we're trying to, uh, kind of spread the gospel to around the, the US and, and North America.

[00:02:50] Eric Goranson: Nice. Harris, let's talk about you for just a second. What's your role there? Uh, so

[00:02:53] Harris Wattles: I'm the general manager here. Um, so, uh, kind of wear one of many different hats, [00:03:00] uh, depending on the time of the day. Um, so I do sales for the Midwest and west part of the, the us. Um, and then I work with our factories on product r and d.

[00:03:11] Harris Wattles: Um, and, uh, get involved with our operations manager with purchasing, um, And, and just, you know, people managing, making sure the team is, is operating and, and full force and everybody's happy. And, uh, you know, we're doing the best we can to provide the greatest product and service, uh, support to our customers and their clients.

[00:03:33] Eric Goranson: Nice man. Peter, let's talk about you for a second. Welcome to the show,

[00:03:37] Peter Manidis: man. Yes, sir. Thanks for having us. Yeah. Uh, myself, I work, uh, I do basically anything from marketing to visualization, so any of the, the photography, the renderings, uh, all the way to the website to, uh, supporting the sales staff, uh, you know, through web scraping and, and for data collection present, you know, basically anything that touches a graphic design, marketing, uh, you know, small [00:04:00] business.

[00:04:00] Peter Manidis: Uh, Fun times when, as Harris says, we wear many hats of many different sizes, colors, and shapes. Uh, so it's, it's a, you know, fun process to, to really be, you know, uh, working on the different things, but also having that input, uh, you know, between all of our coworkers, uh, you know, we, we've, Harris and I, uh, we actually went to school together, uh, I think kindergarten, in fact.

[00:04:21] Peter Manidis: So we've known each other for a long time. Um, so, you know, it's, we have stories then. Oh, absolutely. Uh, way too many. Um, but, um, you know, it's, it's great to have that, uh, especially when something, uh, we're all sort of passionate. We all kind of. Uh, experience this with our own towel rack. So, you know, once you get used to it, we sort of say, uh, having going without one is really, it's, it's definitely a first world problem as they say, uh, you know, yeah.

[00:04:47] Peter Manidis: Oh, my towel rack turned off and I forgot to turn it back on, and I have to not have to shower with the, with the cold towel. Like, this is cold towel. Oh, this is the worst. You know, I mean, it's so, uh, yeah, but it's, it's, it's great. It's, it's

[00:04:59] Eric Goranson: funny, [00:05:00] it's like heated seats in a car once you've had it. You feel like you get robbed anytime you don't have it?

[00:05:05] Eric Goranson: Absolutely.

[00:05:06] Harris Wattles: Exactly. I kind of, uh, you know, correlate towel warmers to, you know, more in the same kind of industry to the bide toilet seats in the heated toilet seats that, that people are going for. And it's, you know, people are like, oh, I don't need a bidet. I've, you know, I've used a regular toilet for my entire life and Americans have used regular toilets for, for generations.

[00:05:28] Harris Wattles: Why would I need something that's gonna do all these weird. Funky, fancy things. And then, you know, they experience one and they're like, all right, I need to put one in there in my master bathroom, in my guest bathroom. In the kid bathroom. Um, it's

[00:05:41] Eric Goranson: guilty is charged by the way,

[00:05:46] Harris Wattles: fear of the unknown if you. Uh oh. It is

[00:05:50] Eric Goranson: that the Americans have a fear of the to of the Bday toilet seed. There is a honest to God fear of there's buttons and this thing looks like it could eat me. [00:06:00]

[00:06:01] Harris Wattles: Exactly. So it's. Yeah, I definitely correlate towel warmers or heated towel racks to kinda those bday toilets as something that most people don't think that they want until they try it and they're like, wow, this is unbelievable.

[00:06:16] Peter Manidis: But it's also something that we interact with every day. I mean, towel racks, uh, you know, we've had towel bars of all, so it's, it's something that you've never really thought to be like, you know, is there a better option? Is there something that's more modern, more, uh, you know, has benefits built into it and can really work for me versus, you know, we use our towels every day.

[00:06:32] Peter Manidis: I don't think that there's a lot of. You know, appliances and stuff that we, you know, of that scale I guess, that we would use on a daily basis. And I mean, for some of us you shower twice a day. You know, that's two interactions and, and uh, you know, that's a pretty intimate. Relationship you have with your towel.

[00:06:46] Peter Manidis: Um, and you know, you, if you didn't know that you could be helping out your towel by putting it on a heated rack, you know, you're, that's a whole new world of possibility and, and benefits that you don't even know exist. So once you do, it's sort of, if you open the floodgates and, uh, you're like, wow, I, [00:07:00] I.

[00:07:00] Peter Manidis: I've used my towel for a week and it still feels like it just came outta the dryer. Sort of just washed it. Um, and that's something that it's, it's from a marketing perspective, it's very difficult to convey that because it is such a tactile, uh, experience really when you reach and you grab that towel and it's just sort of this, um, uh, I've, I have friends especially that.

[00:07:18] Peter Manidis: Shower in the mornings and the night and you know, sometimes that towels still Dr. Damp in the morning and talk about, you know, you're starting off your

[00:07:24] Eric Goranson: day a hundred percent. I'm the same way. If I'm out, you know, get up in the morning, take a shower, I go out and film DIY stuff for my TV show. I come back in and with our weather now it's 90 degrees and so I, you know, I, I get home and I'm like getting the sawdust and sweat off of me.

[00:07:40] Eric Goranson: Yeah. Before that towel could be easily damped. The late afternoon Yeah. From the shower in the morning. Or I'll get home and I'll want to take a steam shower, and I sit there and oh my gosh, I just, I just got beat today and, and having a cool damp towel is not good. And what I'm gonna do, wash it every day.

[00:07:59] Eric Goranson: And that doesn't make [00:08:00] sense either. So the energy savings to me, even on the laundry side of thing is a game

[00:08:05] Harris Wattles: changer. Absolutely. And that's something that we, we try to push a lot when we're, we're talking to customers and, and end users and, and just educate the, the general public about it is, you know, it costs a lot of money.

[00:08:18] Harris Wattles: It uses a lot of electricity and water to wash and dry towels. You know, if you're a household of four people, you know, you're probably going through at least two towels per person per week. That's an entire load of laundry of towels a week that you have to wash. If you can use a single towel a whole week, you.

[00:08:35] Harris Wattles: Cut your laundry loads in half, um, right off the bat. And so, you know, an average tile warmer is like 150 watts, so it's like two or three incandescent light bulbs. Compare that to, uh, you know, dryers are somewhere between what, like two to 5,000 watts on average. And then you've got your washing machines and then, For me, on top of that, it's, it's the time.

[00:08:55] Harris Wattles: You can't get time back. You know, you can't put a, a dollar value on time. [00:09:00] Um, so not only is it the cost savings, but I mean, for me, laundry is a bane of my existence. And I will literally leave my laundry, whether it's towels or clothes in the laundry machine, or, or sorry, in the dryer. Or in the hamper until.

[00:09:13] Harris Wattles: I don't have anything in my drawers to pull out, pull out necessity. If I can save, save that time and, and not have to do that thing that I really dislike, um, you know, I will do everything that I can to, uh, avoid it. So,

[00:09:29] Eric Goranson: you know, Peter, you brought up a great PO comment as well. There just, just a point that I want to make sure that we, we highlight because it's so important.

[00:09:35] Eric Goranson: If you're that person that takes two showers a day, you need to have one of these. Absolutely. And. And it's gonna save you money in the long run. Just plant it into your project. It's not that hard to bring electrical over really. An electrician can do it if you're not capable. It can be done. It's just drywall, you know?

[00:09:53] Eric Goranson: You can get in there and do it, and it's a game changer.

[00:09:57] Harris Wattles: Yeah. And it's, it's regular, you know, 1 10, [00:10:00] 1 20 volt circuits. It doesn't need dedicated or it doesn't need a dedicated circuit. So, um, Like you said, it doesn't require anything fancy besides an electrical, um, supply, which, you know, yeah. Is very easy to run.

[00:10:14] Eric Goranson: I had run one when I designed my bathroom. I knew I was gonna put one in, so I had left a circuit ready to go right there for it. So it was one of those things that I had it in the wall ready to go, what had happened. But it's just like everything else. When you were planning for that bathroom remodel, There's two things that people forget to do.

[00:10:31] Eric Goranson: They forget to run power for the toilet. Yep. They forget to run it for the tile warmer. And it's so inexpensive when you're doing it. Whether or not you're going to do it now, bring it in, put an outlet there if you have to. Yep. But just, you know, it's so simple to do it when the walls are open and, uh, there's.

[00:10:48] Eric Goranson: Basically zero cost to that. I mean, you, you may not have a little bit in a wire and a, and an outlet Yeah. And some time for an electrician, but when it's open, you're not gonna even notice it on the budget. Yep,

[00:10:58] Harris Wattles: absolutely. And, uh, [00:11:00] to, to your point that you made earlier, as far, you know, showering twice a day.

[00:11:04] Harris Wattles: I mean, you've been showering once a day where, where you live and where we are in, in Atlanta, you know, it is humid, you know, pretty much 12 months out of the year. Um, absolutely. And so just your towel, even if it's just a single use of day, does not dry within that, you know, 24 hour time period just because of the ambient humidity in the air.

[00:11:23] Harris Wattles: Um, so, so having that towel on a. Heated tower rack dries it out. Um, we actually found a, um, a scientific lab in Houston. Uh, I think this was last year. Um, we've been, we'd always talked about the benefits of towel warmers from a health standpoint. Um, sure. Didn't really necessarily have. Hard facts to back it up.

[00:11:44] Harris Wattles: And so we found this lab in Houston. We sent them two of our free-standing towel warmers and a half dozen towels. They, they put three towels on each and they'd replicate daily use, wetting the towels each day, and then they'd take little coupons or samples from it and, um, measure bacteria growth on on them.[00:12:00]

[00:12:00] Harris Wattles: And what we found after three days of regular use, daily use, uh, the towels that were dried on the heat of tower rack had a 94% reduction in bacteria growth. Compared to the towels that were on the non-heated or equivalent to a towel bar. Um, and then after seven days, it was a 99% reduction bacteria growth on the towels that were dried, heated towel rack.

[00:12:19] Harris Wattles: So not only does it give you that luxury, that comfort, that pampering of a nice warm towel or bath, um, But it's got health and wellness benefits. You know, we're, we're now kind of merging, almost kind. I don't know if we can quite say post Covid era, but you know, people are still very, very concerned. Have a much more heightened sensitivity.

[00:12:41] Harris Wattles: Viruses and bacterias and just their overall health and wellness. Um, they don't necessarily think about their towels as being a, a contributor to, you know, potential harmful effects. Certainly if you have respiratory issues, that musty funky smell that you smell on your towel after two or three days of use, that's bacteria growth and that [00:13:00] can give all, you know.

[00:13:01] Harris Wattles: Kind of spit out spores and stuff like that into the air that could potentially exacerbate respiratory issues if you have those. Um, so having a, a towel warmer, your bathroom is going to improve the health and wellness of yourself and your experience, you know, in your morning or evening or, you know, twice a day bathing routine.

[00:13:19] Harris Wattles: Um, so

[00:13:20] Eric Goranson: that's huge. I mean, and the bathroom is, is is one of the most, you know, germies places in the house. Yep. I think it's only second to the kitchen, but. If you're, why are you washing yourself up, getting all clean and then wiping yourself down to the dirty towel?

[00:13:35] Harris Wattles: Nasty.

[00:13:37] Peter Manidis: And it's this idea that, you know, oh, I'm clean.

[00:13:39] Peter Manidis: I've just used shampoo and, and soap. I'm fine. My towel doesn't need to. You still have oils, skin cells and all that kind of stuff that makes this this delicious biological cocktail that bacteria feed off of. So, I mean, you, you might be the cleanest person in the world, but. That towel, if it's sitting there, it is a perfect Petri dish for bacteria.

[00:13:57] Peter Manidis: You've got a damp condition, you've got a, you know, [00:14:00] nice, uh, uh, kind of airy material to, to grow through. It's just, it's, it's sort of a, a perfect condition. So, I mean, obviously, you know, if you're as clean as your towel, uh, at the end of the day, perfect. Uh, when it comes down to it. Um, and that's something, I mean, a lot of people don't actually think about it even, uh, is the health concerns, you know, the, the.

[00:14:19] Peter Manidis: The, the, I I would say, you know, from a, a, a boundary standpoint where people look at this when people do not understand that they can do all these things, they look at the price tag and they say, well, this is a couple hundred dollars. You know, this is just a rack. And it's really, once you say, well, no, it's pre, you know, before you shower, it's, it is your towels gonna get it warm.

[00:14:38] Peter Manidis: You're after the shower, it's gonna be warm, it's gonna be comfortable, it's gonna be dry, it's gonna be bacteria free. When you put it back on the rack, it's gonna be dry within, you know, half an hour, uh, 45 minutes, and it's gonna be back to normal. I mean, those are things that you have to, uh, really go through the process and understand it and experience it.

[00:14:54] Peter Manidis: And then, you know, it's, it's sort of like a, exactly like the Bday toilet. It's like, how did we live without this, you know? Uh, [00:15:00] exactly. Pretty

[00:15:01] Eric Goranson: much. And then, you know, you guys, let's, let's switch it up a little bit. You guys have made some really pretty ones too. These look great. This is not like your, Your 1920s steam chrome thing that goes in the, in the, in the bathroom.

[00:15:15] Eric Goranson: This really has a beautiful decorative look, different styles for every home, and then you guys have the finishes to

[00:15:23] Harris Wattles: match. Yeah, no, absolutely. That's as, as the only product, as a company that we sell, that we offer bring to the market. We wanted to make sure that we have the widest variety of not only styles from.

[00:15:38] Harris Wattles: Contemporary modern square bars, uh, which is what you put in your home, um, you know, to transitional with round bars to more traditional that have like finial accents. Um, you know, so we've got quite a variety of styles. Um, but I think right now, even more important than, than styles, as finishes, finishes right now is, is kind of the name of the game in the industry.

[00:15:59] Harris Wattles: [00:16:00] Um, and so we stock, uh, now 10 different finishes. We just launched our, our newest finish actually last week. Um, a brush bronze finish. Um, and so we've got from brush bronze to matte black, satin brass polish gold, kind of your standard polish and brush stainless steels. We've got polish and brush nickel.

[00:16:21] Harris Wattles: Um, and kind of a, a unique thing about us is we can also do custom finishes. So whether it's, ah, what they call in Europe, ral color codes, which is the equivalent to Pantone color codes here. So, mm-hmm. Basically any color of the rainbow. Um, But we can also color match other manufacturers' finishes. So if you're working with another manufacturer on your shower heads and faucets and, and you know, whatnot, other, um, fixtures in the bathroom, we can color match, uh, a towel warmer to match or accent, um, the rest of those fixtures.

[00:16:51] Harris Wattles: So that way you have a cohesive, coordinated look in your bathroom and don't have, you know, mismatching. Fixtures and stuff. Um, which I [00:17:00] think is, see that's

[00:17:00] Eric Goranson: the problem Harris out there is, is that every company out there that's making fixtures, Decided to come out and go, we're gonna have our own color. So it's, you know, let's, I'll throw Brizo out there as an example cuz they're one of them.

[00:17:14] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. You know, and love the people at B Brizo. Awesome people. But I tell you what, as a designer going, okay, how am I gonna get this to match and this to match? Yep. When it's a product that they don't make, Yep. It's always a challenge and having that custom ability for a finish is massive, as you know, because Oh yeah, nobody wants to go, oh, I got kind of close, cuz kind of close looks really bad.

[00:17:39] Eric Goranson: You almost better to go to a a two-tone color. Yeah. Which, Isn't optimal.

[00:17:44] Harris Wattles: Yeah, right. You know, you thought we would've learned from, you know, 10 or 15 years ago with the, the aura bronze issue from your very dark chocolate browns to your Tuscan bronzes and kind of everything in between that. All right.

[00:17:58] Harris Wattles: That was just a, a [00:18:00] calamity of, of different colors and variations. Let's try to put some kind of. Structural organ organization behind these finishes. But, but no, every brand, you know, has to have their, their own way of doing things. Um,

[00:18:12] Peter Manidis: so, and their own special cool names to go along with it that, you know, not, doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the actual color.

[00:18:19] Peter Manidis: It just sort of, oh, this reminds me of honey. So it's, this is honey bronze now, so good luck if you have a different kind of honey out there, uh, you know. Tough luck. Uh, this is my interpretation and we're sticking with it. So yeah, paint colorization, it's like everybody has a,

[00:18:33] Eric Goranson: it's like paint colors.

[00:18:34] Eric Goranson: Everybody. If you go to a paint store, everybody's got a different name for everything. It could be the exact same colors, but it's

[00:18:39] Harris Wattles: two different names. Yeah. But it just gives us that opportunity to, to, you know, slide in with these options for custom finishes. So, For those situations where the customer does have that, that problem of trying to match fixtures, um, and finishes, uh, we can do that.

[00:18:56] Harris Wattles: So that's, that's something that's unique and sets us [00:19:00] apart from many of our, our competitors in the, in the market.

[00:19:04] Eric Goranson: So if people are wanting to look and start to design this out, where do you suggest they start? You know, as far as, okay, I'm thinking about putting in a, a towel warmer cuz I need to have one in my place.

[00:19:15] Eric Goranson: You know, for the master, for instance, which is probably the most common place, or, or even if you've got kids that hall, that hall bathroom for all the kids. Cuz you've got three kids running through tubs every night. You're just trying to keep everything clean. What's the best way to start with

[00:19:29] Harris Wattles: that? So I think, in my opinion, first of all, it's.

[00:19:33] Harris Wattles: Coming up with an approximate size for the unit. Um, you need to know based upon where, well, first of all, to your very original point is electricity. You gotta make sure where you're gonna put it. There's electricity, because no matter how hard you try, if there's not electricity, unless you're some wizard that you, you haven't shared your, you know, special features with us.

[00:19:54] Harris Wattles: Nicole

[00:19:54] Peter Manidis: Tesla, Tesla's secret, acdc.

[00:19:58] Harris Wattles: Um, Without [00:20:00] electricity, it's just gonna be a very fancy, very expensive towel rack. Um, so obviously picking the space where you have electricity, figuring out what those approximate dimensions or space that you have to work within. Once you've got those kind of set, um, then it's trying to figure out, you know, what kind of style are you?

[00:20:17] Harris Wattles: Very modern and contemporary. You're gonna want some kind of clean, straight lines and, and sharp edges, or you bit more transitional or traditional. Um, and then finish. So those are. Initial point that, that I would start with is, is the size, the style, and the finish. Um, you know, on our website we've got, um, nine different collections.

[00:20:37] Harris Wattles: There's kind of a, a way that you can see each of the different collections. I call it like the forest from the trees as far as the different, uh, styles. And then once you know, you can kind of see the style that you're gravitating towards based upon the aesthetic that you're going within that bathroom.

[00:20:53] Harris Wattles: Um, then you can kind of drill down into that specific collection and we'll show you all of the different sizes [00:21:00] that we offer. Um, and then you can kind of start going through the sizes, seeing, okay, what's gonna fit best for not only the space that you're looking or that you have to work with, but also how many towels or how many people are going to use this towel warmer?

[00:21:13] Harris Wattles: So if it's a primary bathroom, maybe it's. Two towels, or maybe you have kids as well, and they always shower in your bathroom instead of their own. So it's actually gonna hold four towels or something like that. Um, so you'll wanna pick a unit that's gonna hold the number of towels easily that you're planning to use in that specific bathroom.

[00:21:31] Harris Wattles: So that's typically where, where I would suggest people start is, is the size, the style, um, and then the finish. And maybe you've gotta. Pick two out of those three to really, you know, maybe there's not something that we have as a stocked item that's gonna nail all three of those on the head. Um, you know, we do have those, I said those special order options where you can do both, both custom sizes and custom finishes.

[00:21:53] Harris Wattles: Um, But at least if you're looking for something that's readily available, you know, maybe a week to two-week lead [00:22:00] time, um, maybe you have to sacrifice one of those. I ideally, I think you probably would be able to find something that nails all three on the head, but, um, otherwise size and either style or finish.

[00:22:10] Harris Wattles: Um, and, and starting there.

[00:22:12] Peter Manidis: Yeah. And I think one other component though is, uh, it's similar, it kind of falls under the size is really, is like the sort of the output of the unit. Um, you know, we do, since we are, I mean we, I think we are the, the only specialty supplier that we only do tower rack, so obviously we have a range, you know, price range, heat range, output, all of that.

[00:22:31] Peter Manidis: Um, so, and in fact, I mean we, we've actually made an effort to, to really stick to heated towel racks as the nomenclature. Because it's very specific to what we do. You know, a lot of people say towel warmer, which is technically it's true, but you know, there is existing towel warmers, which are sort of those little microwave boxes, um, yeah.

[00:22:48] Peter Manidis: You know, that are, or, or trays that you kind of pull out. Um, but you know, those are, Purely those are warming trays. Those are, you know, if you put a a, a wet used tile in there, you're probably going to make a [00:23:00] excellent, sort of a nice little bread box oven for your bacteria, uh, instead of clearing it. Yeah.

[00:23:05] Peter Manidis: Um, in that case. So, um, you know, that is one thing that. I would say, I mean, to be candid, it is actually an issue as people buy one of these racks and they'll buy a lower end model thinking, oh, I'll just, I just wanna spend a couple hundred bucks. Uh, not looking at the specs and realizing, Hey, this is a 75 watt unit.

[00:23:22] Peter Manidis: Yeah. You know, it is gonna dry my towels, but it's not gonna be, you know, the expectation of this. I pulled my towel out of the tumble dryer and it's like this. Like almost all encompassing warmth. That's like ra, you know, and of course you're kind of ignorant in the fact that you just spent, you know, 1200 watts to 2000 watts for 45 minutes to get that.

[00:23:40] Peter Manidis: Towel that way. So, you know, it's, it's sort of that expectation. It's like, you know, I put this thing on a rack for 15 minutes. Why is this not a hundred degree towel ready to go for, you know, I'm trying to steam my face and get open my pores. How, how come that's not the case? So, you know, it is, it is a little bit of expectation, you know, with any, uh, when you're buying cars, there's a range of cars of different, uh, speeds and gas [00:24:00] consumption.

[00:24:00] Peter Manidis: So it's exactly the same. So, you know, that is one thing to also keep in mind is to, to pay attention to those specs, um, and absolutely. Don't, don't expect, um, you know, to heat a room with the 75 wat towel rack, for example. Um,

[00:24:15] Eric Goranson: so yeah, you're, you're gonna have a, a lukewarm towel at best, cuz no matter what, you've gotta have the energy to go into that towel.

[00:24:22] Eric Goranson: Yep. And a towel is already insulated enough and so you've gotta be able to push through that to be able to do that and dry it. Otherwise you've got one side of the towel that might be warm, but the other side that's. On the, you know, room side for instance. Mm-hmm. If it's folded over in half, for instance, you're not getting the outside of the towel worm at all with that.

[00:24:40] Harris Wattles: Yeah. Yep.

[00:24:41] Peter Manidis: And exactly. And that brings up, uh, timers and, and other connections that we, I mean accessories that you can uh, sort of pair with our racks. Uh, you guys have a

[00:24:50] Eric Goranson: whole wide range of those from smart ones to countdowns and let's talk about that cuz those are important accessories.

[00:24:58] Harris Wattles: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:24:58] Harris Wattles: It's absolutely, [00:25:00] uh, Peter, you wanna take that?

[00:25:02] Peter Manidis: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, uh, we supply some, uh, leviton products that pair really well, and I mean, really, it, it comes down to what is your usage case. So, uh, for someone, I like to use the use case of military style. I'm up at six 30, my shower, I shower at seven o'clock every day.

[00:25:19] Peter Manidis: That is my regiment. I know exactly what my, my plan is. Then a programmable timer makes perfect sense because, you know, I'm gonna have my towel pop on an hour and a half before I shower. I'm gonna leave it on for three hours after I know my towel's gonna be good to go, and then that rack's gonna turn off and it's not gonna be consuming in the electricity, you know?

[00:25:36] Peter Manidis: So that's sort of the mindset. Uh, we also have countdown timers that we offer, which is, uh, you know, similar, but that's more of a, you know, I just got home, I'm gonna hit this button to, to have my towel rack on for the next six hours. And, you know, I will return and ha have my shower in an hour or so, but I know that that towel rack is gonna be off and by the time it's off.

[00:25:54] Peter Manidis: My towel will be nice and dry, uh, and ready to go for the next time. So, you know, then we have the smart [00:26:00] functionality, which, you know, just like any smart functionality, it, it, it uses an app to schedule. You can use stuff like geolocating. So you know, if you are leaving from work for example, and you've had that, uh, location sort of set in your phone, uh, you can have this app direct your tower rack to turn on the second you leave your office and you don't even have to worry about it.

[00:26:17] Peter Manidis: So it's just really about, um, Really operating your tower rack around when you use it. Um, and your use case, all of them are designed to be operated 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So, you know, I, I personally leave mine on, I don't think, you know, besides going on vacation. Ours have been on for years. Um, yeah.

[00:26:35] Peter Manidis: And I don't have a problem with that, but that's also, I, I, you know, working from home, I maybe go and run in the morning or run in the evening. I want that towel to be ready whenever I want, uh, wanna shower. I don't want to ever have a situation where I say, oh, you know, I wanna take a shower. But now I have to wait an hour and a half because I refuse to take a shower with a cold towel.

[00:26:53] Peter Manidis: So, you know, so those are just some ways of getting around that to sort of make them work a little bit better for you. But it's, it's not required. And I mean, what's [00:27:00] great about our stuff, uh, you know, they're simple, hardwired and plug-in appliances. Uh, if you don't like ours, you have a, a specific home automation system that you use, that you have a, a preferred brand if they have a hardwired controller.

[00:27:12] Peter Manidis: Uh, it, you know, odds are it will work with our, our rack, so you're not really, uh, beholden to our system or, or using leviton's, uh, ecosystem necessarily. Yeah.

[00:27:22] Harris Wattles: And

[00:27:23] Eric Goranson: the nice thing is that's tried and true,

[00:27:25] Harris Wattles: so. Absolutely. Yeah. Leviton is a, is a great brand. Um, That, that they make some great products, which is why we've, we've been, uh, selling their products, uh, with our, with our tile warmers for, for a number of years there.

[00:27:36] Harris Wattles: I wanted to expand real quickly on, on two of the, the timers, so the countdown timer. Another situation or, or, or application. Where I found the countdown timers are very beneficial is maybe this is a vacation home or a second home, or somebody who has an Airbnb. And they don't want to forget to have turned that tile warmer off or have a guest who have forgotten to turn that tile warmer off and [00:28:00] have it just running, um, without ne being necessary and consuming electricity when it's not needed.

[00:28:06] Harris Wattles: Um, so that's where those countdown timers can also come into, um, come into play being a very, uh, ideal option. For, for the bathroom. Um, and with the programmable timers, you know, maybe you do have a very irregular schedule. As, as, as Peter was saying, working from home. You know, he has a lot more flexibility than say, people who to be in the office every day or stuff like that.

[00:28:28] Harris Wattles: Um, You can also have it turn on at six o'clock in the morning and shut off at nine o'clock at night. And that way it runs throughout the entire part of the day when you would most likely shower. But then it's shut off at night when you know, you know you're not gonna need it. So there, there's a bunch of different use cases and scenarios and and variations within each of these different timers that you can use.

[00:28:47] Harris Wattles: Um, to really get the most out of the product for your lifestyle.

[00:28:53] Eric Goranson: Yeah, that makes sense. I mean, it, uh, for me, I'm the same way. Mine just runs 24 7. I am not, uh, although I [00:29:00] get up about the same time in the morning, the afternoon or evening or whenever is the part that I, I just don't want to go in there and.

[00:29:06] Eric Goranson: And, and have to worry about not having that towel. So it's alright. It's just gonna run and doesn't use that much energy

[00:29:13] Peter Manidis: anyway. Correct. Absolutely. Exactly.

[00:29:16] Eric Goranson: So, but uh, you know, it's different. If I was living in Southern California where afternoon energy rates were gonna nail me, I. I would probably look at something different and put in a timer, or probably put the smart timer on so I could really control it and be able to go, Hey, I know I'm gonna work out this afternoon, so I'm gonna fix this real quick.

[00:29:33] Eric Goranson: Yeah. And plan for it versus that. But, uh, if I'm that organized.

[00:29:39] Harris Wattles: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:29:40] Eric Goranson: Um, so what do you see for, uh, I mean this is something that I think people should be really looking at out there. What do you see in the future for. For where, where is this headed? I mean, this was big, you know, in, in the steam days that you would see back in when people had steam.

[00:29:56] Eric Goranson: Mm-hmm. You know, uh, heating their home and then [00:30:00] for some reason it went away for a while and now there's this big resurgence on it. Again, I. And maybe it's cuz of Covid and people were home and said, Hey, I'm gonna make myself as comfortable as possible since I can't do anything else. But it seems like this is just a, a growing segment and more and more people are finding out, you know, how one healthy it is and two, how comfortable it's,

[00:30:20] Harris Wattles: yeah, I mean, I think, you know, for us, a, a big thing obviously, Right now the bathroom is, is the main location where, where tile warmers are being placed, and that's still where I would say 95 and 99% of our sales are.

[00:30:32] Harris Wattles: Um, but one thing that we're really trying to push more is, is the, the versatility of the product outside of the bathroom. There's a lot of places that people don't necessarily think about, um, where they can provide a lot of functionality. So laundry rooms is the second most popular location. There's a lot of things, um, Particularly with ladies clothing, but even myself, any, uh, jerseys, t-shirts with printed logos, denim jeans, I don't put [00:31:00] those in tumble dryer because the jeans shrink and then I can't put 'em on, um, t-shirts with printed logos.

[00:31:06] Harris Wattles: The intensity from that tumble dryer will cause 'em to peel or crack or fade over time. And so having a, a towel warmer and, and a laundry room, it's, it's a heated drying rack. You know, if you have a a, a, a walk-in dedicated laundry room, most likely if space allows, you're gonna have some sort of drying rack feature in there to hang anything that sure cannot be put in the, the tumble dryer.

[00:31:26] Harris Wattles: And so if it's a heated drying rack, uh, not only will it help you get through that wash dry fold cycle much quicker because it's gonna dry those. Articles of plug out quicker, it can provide de wrinkling effects. So, you know, jeans don't get all wrinkled, T-shirts don't get all wrinkled and stuff like that.

[00:31:43] Harris Wattles: And they don't get hot enough to harm or damage, you know, the, the more delicate fabric. So silks and stuff like that, um, you know, cashmere sweaters and whatnot, and it doesn't shrink it like a tumble dryer would. So, um, you know, it's as far as where towel warmers are going within the home. [00:32:00] They're going outside of the bathroom, so they're expanding into laundry rooms.

[00:32:03] Harris Wattles: Um, in addition to that, whether you call it a mudroom, a wet room or a utility room, that's the other big, big location where they provide a lot of functionality. Whether it's the wintertime, uh, you know, maybe it's just snowed outside. Kids have been throwing snowballs or you've been shoveling the driveway, you've got wet jackets, gloves, scarves.

[00:32:22] Harris Wattles: You come back inside. Do you need somewhere to hang that stuff up to dry? Um, having a towel rack in one of these, you know, mudrooms wet room utility rooms when you walk back into the home to hang up to dry. It gives you that nice com comfort and convenience of not only. Hanging it up somewhere rather than throwing it on the floor.

[00:32:39] Harris Wattles: Um, but it dries it out for the next time you go to put it on maybe in a couple hours or the next morning or something like that. Um, and you know, same thing within the summer, maybe it's bathing suits and pool towels, wetsuits, life jackets, stuff like that. If you live near a body of water, something like that, you do some sort of outdoor, outdoor activities, you come back in, you gotta hang this stuff up to dry [00:33:00] somewhere.

[00:33:00] Harris Wattles: Um, again, rather than putting it directly in a tumble dryer, which consumes a lot more electricity than a towel warmer, um, and may not be readily available, um, having a towel warmer when you walk back into the house, uh, gives you a place to hang all that stuff up. And, you know, there's a lot of trends with these, you know, Uh, uh, entryways that are being built to be much more functional.

[00:33:20] Harris Wattles: You almost have like very nice fancy cubbies and locker room type fields and, and, and looks to them. You know, that's certainly an aesthetic option to put a towel warmer in there that can give you a place to hang 4, 5, 6 jackets and towels and bathing suits and whatever it is that you have. Especially

[00:33:38] Eric Goranson: like if you had that pool room, you know, pool room or something out there.

[00:33:41] Eric Goranson: The absolutely the little house for your swimming pool out there. Yeah. You can put it where all the kids come in and towels. Good. Hang up over there. And so those are always fresh and clean. So you're not just doing that, uh, hot tub as well, right? Oh yeah. If you've got that doorway that's going out to the hot tub, yeah.

[00:33:55] Eric Goranson: Probably should put one of those on the inside so that way you've always got a fresh Wendy Go tell coming outta the hot [00:34:00] tub.

[00:34:00] Harris Wattles: Yep, a hundred percent. And I mean,

[00:34:01] Peter Manidis: you have the, the entryway kinda laundry room. If you're in a, you know, colder climate, you've got snow boots, you've got jackets that will get snow and, and moisture on them.

[00:34:10] Peter Manidis: But then conversely, I mean, uh, a lot of people when I speak to them, you know, in Florida, whatever, they'll say, you know, oh, well, why would we want to use it down here? Uh, people don't think about humidity and how hard it is. If you are in an interior space without ventilation, that's not gonna dry you again, you're just, you have dead air.

[00:34:27] Peter Manidis: There's nothing moving that towel and moving that air. And I mean it, so if you have that, you know, uh, that towel rack there, uh, you don't even have to worry about that. You don't have to have ventilation necessarily. And I mean, I talk from my personal experience, I had one of our plug-in freestanding models, which is a very popular kind of entryway because it's, doesn't require any installation.

[00:34:47] Peter Manidis: Um, and it just basically sits on the floor and you plug it in. But I mean, I, I was in, I went to school here in, in Atlanta at scat and, and our, our dorms were a converted motel. Uh, that had a Oh, wow. A internal linked air [00:35:00] conditioning, uh, circulating in system. So not only were you struggling with your own, uh, tiny little motel bathroom with no ventilation, you had everyone else's bathroom sort of linked.

[00:35:09] Peter Manidis: So that was fun. But, uh, you know, having, ooh, Yeah, my bathroom was pristine. I mean, I, I, I'm pretty sure I plugged up my vents and I just said, you know what? Towel, towel rack, you know, I'm gonna rely on you. Please don't let me down. And so, you know, it, it makes a, a huge difference. Uh, I mean, especially in that case for dorms, um, you know, they're not, uh, I'm sure.

[00:35:31] Peter Manidis: Everyone's experienced, uh, a bunch of guys living in a, in a small, cramped area with no ventilation. You know, you do not, you want to give your towels every chance to survive in that situation. Like that's, you know, that's not, that's, I mean, ground zero for probably every bacteria in the world. Uh, so, you know, just, just having something to fight that.

[00:35:50] Peter Manidis: And, and, you know, and again, it's, it's passive. You don't, for, for kids, for people who are, uh, you know, lazy, um, Who end up throwing their towel on the bed in the [00:36:00] morning and then coming back and finding, um, you know, a nice, uh, moist, uh, mattress. Uh, you know. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's something that, it is one tiny thing that you do anyway, just, just hanging it up and there's actually.

[00:36:14] Peter Manidis: An intrinsic benefit from doing that. So, you know, having that reward from, from hanging up your towel, maybe, you know, I'm not saying it's gonna, uh, change anyone's habits anytime soon, but, you know, it may, may inspire you to, you know, do something for yourself. Do something for your towel, you know, poor towels, get a bad wrap and I mean, um, you know, we can do a little bit to take care of them.

[00:36:35] Peter Manidis: Um, you know, we should, we should definitely do that. They take care of us. We deal with a lot of our stuff, and I will

[00:36:39] Eric Goranson: stay, it will change that habit because naturally. You go and throw that on the bed, even if you're a 12 year old boy that I was at the day that did that sometimes and throw it on the bed the next day when I have a cold towel that's damp.

[00:36:58] Eric Goranson: In my head I go, shouldn't have done [00:37:00] that. Should have hung it back up. Yep. You're penalizing yourself by not doing it. So I think even a, even a kid that has no care in the world, whether, whether it's sitting on the bed and there's a wet spot on the bed of the bed because of the. Of Wau. I think naturally you're gonna train with that just because you go, oh man, I got this cold damn towel.

[00:37:19] Peter Manidis: Yeah. And I did this to myself, basically. Yeah,

[00:37:23] Harris Wattles: benefits. And then also, you know, you're gonna hopefully stop having mom or dad on you for. Not putting the towel back on the towel bar, you know, you put it on your bed or you left it on the ground, or blah, blah, blah. You know, eventually nobody likes to have their mom or dad yell at them over and over again.

[00:37:38] Peter Manidis: No. Yeah. No, not at all. I mean, so what is, I remember growing up, I mean, uh, I'm, I'm, I was born in South Africa. Um, in fact, that's where our first, uh, product line, uh, was sourced from. Um, and back there, um, we essentially have, um, circula, uh, hot water circulating systems for. For heating, um, which is then usually connected to radiators, um, in the bathroom.

[00:37:59] Peter Manidis: So you'd have these [00:38:00] giant, you know, iron thinned, uh, radiators that sit in the bathroom and it was sort of this thing. Um, you know, I remember specifically my grandma, she would make sure before we get in the bath, you gotta take your towel off the rack off off the, the single bar and you gotta throw it over that, that radiator.

[00:38:15] Peter Manidis: And that's really where. It came from. And I mean, that's, that built a habit for me very early on doing that because it was sort of a, I can do this one thing, which is moving this piece of fabric from there to there, and I get a warm towel afterwards. Like, that's so, so little work for such a great payoff.

[00:38:30] Peter Manidis: You know? It's, it's, uh, yeah, it's something that you don't forget and then you know you need it. No question.

[00:38:38] Eric Goranson: So where do these, where do people find these? So if you're out there and you're going, okay, uh, okay guys, you've talked me into it. How do people track these things down?

[00:38:47] Harris Wattles: So there's one of two ways.

[00:38:48] Harris Wattles: Um, so if you're working with an interior designer, architect, something like that, and, and you've been doing product selections in a showroom, uh, we sell through Kitchen Bash showrooms nationwide. [00:39:00] Um, on our website we have a showroom locator function, or, or where to buy, I think it's called Where to Buy.

[00:39:06] Harris Wattles: Um, it'll take you to a map of, uh, north America and you'll see all sorts of pins or dots all over the place showing, uh, retailers kitchen showrooms that we work with across the country. Uh, that are authorized distributors or sellers of our products. Uh, if you are more, uh, e-commerce inclined, then we also sell online through a whole variety of different, uh, e-commerce channels.

[00:39:31] Harris Wattles: And you can just Google, you know, AMBA if you know what model, after you've kind of done some searching and research on our website, you can just google that product, uh, into Google. It'll websites, big stores to independent, you know, more industry, kitchen focused e-commerce website. That is

[00:39:51] Eric Goranson: great because, uh, yeah, that's a game changer.

[00:39:54] Eric Goranson: And then how long, if somebody's gonna do a custom one, obviously that takes more time, cuz you've gotta have a. A finished [00:40:00] custom done, and then you've gotta produce the whole towel warmer. Is that something that takes, uh, you know, months and months, or how quickly does that

[00:40:06] Harris Wattles: go? Yeah, so custom finishes generally about a three monthly lead time, roughly product.

[00:40:14] Harris Wattles: All right. And then that's

[00:40:15] Eric Goranson: pretty good. Heck, last year people were waiting 18 months for a dishwasher for four months. Really quick. Yeah, it's,

[00:40:21] Harris Wattles: um, yeah, no regular, kind of regular off the sale, off the shelf stocked items. You know, you're probably looking about a week, maybe a week and a half to two week lead time.

[00:40:31] Harris Wattles: Uh, we stock everything here in Atlanta, Georgia, so if you're, you know, where you are, Eric, across the country for us, you know, maybe it's on the upper end of that. Week and a half lead time. Um, you know, if you're in the souther or something like that, it may be just a couple days. So, um, anything that's stopped is gonna be a quick turnaround time.

[00:40:46] Harris Wattles: Special orders will be.

[00:40:51] Eric Goranson: Cool. And website. What's the best way to find you there?

[00:40:54] Harris Wattles: Website is www.ambaproducts.com. And [00:41:00] amba is spelled Alpha Mary. Bravo. Alpha

[00:41:03] Eric Goranson: amba. There we go. Yep. There we go. Is there anything we didn't touch on today, guys? Yeah,

[00:41:08] Peter Manidis: I guess, I guess, you know, our, our goal really is to, very similar to those radiators in the houses in Europes and, and, and stuff like that is to, to make it sort of, uh, not, not a.

[00:41:19] Peter Manidis: A additional addon to the bathroom, but sort of one of the core appliances that you put in your bathroom because I mean, uh, as you said, the, the, uh, the Japanese and, and higher end toilets, um, you know, with all the functionality are sort of coming, coming up now and people are seeing that there's a lot of room for improvement in some of the stuff that they probably hadn't thought about.

[00:41:39] Peter Manidis: So, you know, if we are, you know, if someone walks by one of our products in the showroom and gets to touch it and say, wow, you know, This makes sense now. You know, that's what really what we hope, we hope people can see the value in it and see that, uh, you know, such a simple, uh, appliance can really make a big difference, uh, in your daily routines.

[00:41:56] Harris Wattles: Yeah. And that tactile the [00:42:00] interaction. On our where to buy, uh, showroom. Look at our website, you can filter by, uh, retailers that actually have our product on display. So if you're kind of one of those people that really likes to interact with products before you mm-hmm. Feel confident enough to, to make that purchasing decision.

[00:42:15] Harris Wattles: You can filter by, uh, displaying retailers. It'll tell you which collections they're, they have on display in that showroom as well. Right. So if you're not, or, or if you're kind of leaning towards, uh, you know, say our Quadro collection or our Jeep collection, you can see which, uh, retailers nearby, you may have that product on display so you can see exactly what you're, what you're looking to purchase.

[00:42:37] Eric Goranson: Perfect. Yeah. Perfect. Peter Harris, thanks for coming on today guys. This is great. And, uh, make sure guys you head over to the website and take, take a look at this stuff cuz uh, I'm a believer now that it's in my house, it's one of those things that, uh, is a complete game changer in the bathroom. And, uh, now, now I'm thinking about other places in the home too.

[00:42:57] Eric Goranson: So thanks guys for bringing

[00:42:58] Harris Wattles: that up. Absolutely.

[00:42:59] Peter Manidis: Thanks Greg. [00:43:00] Absolutely. Thanks so much for having us, Eric. All right. I'm

[00:43:02] Eric Goranson: Eric G and you've been listening to Around The House