As you know, the State of California has experience a massive drought problem that has only gotten worse with climate change and population growth.  State residents were forced to cut back on water usage and reduce water flow.

As a homeowner, founder Alvin Parra did his best to do his part to cut back. He removed his lawn water sprinklers, purchased water efficient washer, added low flow aerators to almost every faucet.  Every day, as he got ready to take a shower, he watched for 2 minutes clean, drinkable water go down the drain. He tried putting a bucket but it only caught some water, and just got in the way most of the time. 

One day, he had an idea, sat down and drew by hand an idea of a funnel to capture this cold water.  He showed it to friends and one friend introduced him to a plastics manufacture. This manufacturer basically laughed at him and told him that no one will want this and it would cost over $10,000 just to build a prototype mould. Alvin gave up, but still watched this cold water and money go down the drain every day.  

Almost 3 years passed and he came across a Youtube video on 3d printing.  And it hit him, he does not need to pay $10K for a metal mould, but can pay a 3d print store to print a prototype to test in his own shower. He went online and found a 3d print designer, showed him his hand drawing and got his first digital file and emailed it to a 3d print store in California.  

His excitement turned to laughter when his prototyped arrived in the mail a few weeks later.  The funnel was huge, and nothing fit.  Back to the drawing board, remeasuring, test, breaking parts, and shaking his head.  After about the 10th prototype, the shower funnel finally hung on the shower pipe, collected water and flowed to the bucket.  Wow, it is not perfect, parts were breaking off, but he was convinced he was on the right track. 

Even though Alvin knew he was on the right track, he then learned that 3d print design is not the same and not compatible with injection mold manufacturing. Dang, back to the drawing board again and again.  Meanwhile, Alvin has been happily using an earlier prototype at home and has sold a few to close friends who support his vision and volunteered to test the funnel in their home.

Now that Covid restrictions are cutting back, manufacturing and shipping is almost back to normal, the project is back on track final designs for the parts and packaging to mass produce the Shower Funnel.

PHASE 2 – The REYUZ Toilet and Tank

Part of Patent, included Phase 2 of the Shower Funnel vision.  Phase 1 is for the funnel to redirect water to a bucket.  Phase 2 designing will start after the Shower Funnel is complete, and it is a new extra capacity, special Reyuz Toilet tank that will take water directly from the funnel.  This way, the homeowner can save money by flushing recapture water and rarely use the city water. 

What is REYUZ?  

REYUZ (prounounced REE-YOUZ’D) is a play on the word “reuse.”  Alvin is committed to making REYUZ a household name with proprietary products designed to “capture, recapture and reuse” natural resources.  In this journey, Alvin has come up with 3 other household products that will add to that vision.