Todd, I am an engineer, with an MBA and have spend most of my life as business consultant. Having been inside of hundreds of business what always blows me away is the mark up needed to make a profit.
Generally to get a 20% pre tax profit on sales, you need to mark up direct labor and materials 300%. To the average guy that sounds real high. But that is what it takes to cover all the overhead, R & D, and marketing costs, not to mention legal. I have worked with lots of little firms that thought that they could get rich with a 2 times mark up. Never seen it work. Yes, I know that I can build one unit for myself at about a $ 1000. Maybe less. If I place no value on my time. But, I also know that I could never make a profit selling them. I also don't think I could do it in three days. Might be able to track down all the parts and build a good prototype in 3 months. Then improve and improve, and improve. Should be rock solid in 6-12 months. That is about what the Fuel M took. Now on 4th generation. So while I don't like the price it does not suprise me. Chuck ----- Original Message ----- From: Appal Energy To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 5:06 PM Subject: Fuelmeister was Re: [biofuel] Filtering biodiesel Come on Chuck, Just one look at the pricetag of the Fuelmeister is enough to learn that the hype still abounds. And all this isn't exactly honest: Complete system? Hardly. Where's the FFA recovery? The alcohol recovery? Or does the consumer just pump it all down the toilet and let the rest of the planet worry about it? Turbine pump? Fancy terminology for a down-and-dirty $39.95 water pump. Fully drained tank? Not unless it's spun weld, and even then not perfectly. 40 gallons in 24 hours? That's one heckuva rush on washing, leaving all of about 30 seconds settling time. Certainly not enough time to process, wash adequately and let dry to a sufficient level. Couple those minor discrepancies with your apparently first-hand knowledge as to what R&D went into it and using whatever that knowledge is as justification for the price and it's pretty easy to tell that hype still abounds. Would you mind elaborating on the "R & D" that was so "expensive" in "developing" the Fuelmeister? The retail cost of the mechanical apparati and assembly aren't worth even one third of the asking price of $3,000. By my breakdown that leaves $2,000 plus profit per unit. As Spartan as the device is, it shouldn't have taken anyone but about three days to build the first model from scratch, with maybe another day or two to re-configure and the cobalt blue Krylon paint to dry. So what is all this "R&D" cost that justifies $2,000 plus profit per unit? I've said it before and I'll say it again - $3,000 would net anyone with half a mind the overwhelming majority of a 500 gallon batch ability, inclusive of FFA recovery, waste water treatment and alcohol recovery. Something remains rotten in Denmark...., or in this instance at Fuelmeister. Todd Swearigen ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Cole" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <biofuel@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 4:02 PM Subject: Re: [biofuel] Filtering biodiesel > Yes, I am using it. Has been improved a lot in last 3 months. Yes it is expensive. The R & D to get it to where it is today was also expensive. The hype is gone from this site. www.doctordiesel.com > ----- Original Message ----- > From: j_schearer > To: biofuel@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2004 6:45 AM > Subject: [biofuel] Filtering biodiesel > > > Thanks all for the great info on my previous questions. I have to > say honestly that I was following Joshua Tickell's book very > closely...until I read some of the comments regarding his theories > and practices. What kind of filtering equipment is available and is > inexpensive for biodiesel? Also, has anybody seen the totally > enclosed biodiesel processor called the "Fuelmeister" marketed by > Biodiesel Solutions in California? Is anybody using this system and > if they are, is it working well? It seems kind of costly at > $2995.00US. Thanks. Jonathan. > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > ADVERTISEMENT > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: > http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html > > Biofuels list archives: > http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel > > Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. > To unsubscribe, send an email to: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biofuel/ b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] c.. Your use of Yahoo! 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