Exactly no one predicted that a dishwasher would steal the show at CES, but that’s what happened in Vegas in January of 2018.
Originally expected to be available for purchase at the end of 2018, the Tetra dishwasher from Heatworks had attendees saying “take our money” with its promise of a ten minute wash cycle, miserly water usage and a futuristic design that made many of us (including me) weirdly ok with the idea of putting a dishwasher on our already crowded countertops.
Now, however, those of us ready to plop down $299 for the Tetra can hold onto our money for another year: the countertop dishwasher now isn’t expected to ship until some time in 2020.
Why the slipping ship dates? According to company spokesperson Melissa Verzwyvelt, the issue had to do more with straightening out contract manufacturing issues with the company’s latest generation water heater, the Model 3, which took focus and resources away from the company’s newest product line.
“With Tetra, we have had to push our dates back twice now because we have had a few production issues with our MODEL 3 Water Heater that have been out of our control,” Verzwyvelt told me via email. “So instead of finalizing Tetra’s specifications and distribution channels as we had anticipated, our team’s focus and resources have gone to resolving MODEL 3 contract manufacturer problems.”
That’s a bummer for those of us eager to buy the Tetra, but an even bigger one for Heatworks. After all, the company had lots of buzz coming out of CES two years in a row for its new product line. You have to think some folks will possibly move on by the time it finally ships, or even consider another entrant (say hi, Bob).
On the other hand, the company’s core business has been water heaters (it’s where the patented water heating technology in the Tetra comes from), so it makes sense to get that ironed out first.
Some of you may be wondering about the status of the DUO, the new portable water heating carafe the company debuted at CES this year. According to Verzwyvelt, with the Model 3 manufacturing issues behind them, the company is also busy working on getting the DUO to market as well, which means hopefully they’ll meet the 2020 ship date I predicted in January of this year.
You can get a look at the Tetra in the video below.
Thanks for doing the due diligence on the Tetra. We were very interested to find it online, but on checking further, we discovered that Frozenshops.com, the only company claiming to have the Tetra available (at a 25% discount, no less) is not surprisingly an Indonesian company with no reviews in English. Just a quick visit to their site and their Facebook page show how clearly they are simply a false front getting people to send money in hopes of scoring a good deal. Without your explaining the timeline problem, we wouldn’t have known that the Tetra isn’t available anywhere yet and might have gotten scammed. Many thanks!
Here is another fraudulent website selling Tetra: https://salastores.com/tetra-connected-countertop-dishwasher?options=default-title&v=5da145f8d2e7c1000108d17c
Unfortunately I read the initial release date (2018) prior to purchasing and did not suspect fraud until after I did so. This is a very sleek website with a Connecticut mailing address (non existent), so it looks totally legit.
I also ordered the Tetra and it had the Connecticut mailing address. After further checking, my credit card company listed Thrive Canberra Macquarie as the vendor. When I checked this name, it was a chiropractor in Australia. My credit card company was able to get me a full refund. I’m still interested in this amazing device, but would like more information as to the availability of the product from the manufacturer.
I know there was some websites claiming to sell the Tetra that were fraudulent. Heatworks has yet to ship the Tetra so anyone claiming to sell the hardware outside of the Heatworks website is a scam.
When did you buy this “Tetra”?