The Kickstarter campaign for the LooBlade, a uniquely styled toilet cleaning device which uses an eight-blade silicone head to clean instead of traditional brush bristles, has surpassed its original goal.
More than $34,000 has been gained on 666 pledges so far, meaning that the project has exceeded its $30,000 goal with 17 days remaining in the campaign. The $30,000 was needed for tooling set up and testing, and for the manufacturing of the first round of LooBlades, which will be released to Kickstarter backers in December.
The product will be brought to retail stores in January 2016, according to a press release. After the original goal was met, a new “stretch goal” of £30,000 (nearly $34,000) was put in place so that the LooBlade’s developers could create a version of the product featuring a bamboo handle and additional color choices.
“The traditional toilet brush is a fundamentally flawed design – they don’t clean efficiently, they clog-up easily, they drip everywhere, they result in excessive use of cleaning chemicals and water, and ultimately people hate the sight of them,” said Gary Stewart, the Scottish inventor of the LooBlade. “Bringing the unpleasant topic of toilet cleaning to the Kickstarter audience was a calculated risk, of course, but the speed with which we have achieved our target proves that many people share my dissatisfaction with conventional toilet cleaning options.”
The LooBlade features a microbial additive which kills 99.9 percent of germs during and after cleaning. Hydrophobic properties assimilated into the product allows the LooBlade to dry more quickly than a traditional toilet brush. The silicone head also has a “hollow-point” feature which allows the product to clear plugged-up toilets like a plunger would.
Stewart has signed a deal to deliver the LooBlade to one of the largest retailers of designer products in Germany.
“My long-term goal for LooBlade was obviously to see the product taken on by mainstream retailers, and I’ve already been amazed at the number of enquiries that have come in since the campaign begun,” Stewart said. He said that he has also been in talks with companies from various countries including the U.S., Canada, China, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, and Brazil.
LooBlade comes with a 3-year domestic guarantee. A traditional toilet brush is typically replaced at least one a year, according to the release.
