Jason Gastman 0:00

It's basically the dishwasher without the sink that drops right into the counter. Right. We've had a lot of requests, even from some vacation cabin builders, who said to us, hey, we'd be interested in the just the dishwasher. They just need that dishwasher. So we're working on that. We're obviously working on more hood ventilation smaller sizes.

Ethan Waldman 0:24

Welcome to the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast The show where you learn how to plan, build and live the tiny lifestyle. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and this is episode 277 with Jason Gastman. Today we have a special guest joining us Jason Gastman, the new business development manager for FOTILE America, we'll be discussing Jason's role in bringing FOTILE appliances into the mainstream markets and making them a premier choice for appliances with premium retailers, architects and builders. Jason has been focusing on providing high quality appliances such as hoods, ovens, and cooktops to the tiny house community and upscale compact living spaces. One of their standout products is the in sink dishwasher, which has gained popularity in the tiny home and ADU builder markets due to its compact, ergonomic and energy efficient design. We'll be talking about the challenges of promoting these products and how FOTILE sets itself apart from other brands in terms of quality, design, and innovative features. Stay tuned for my conversation about small and tiny appliances with Jason Gassman. I love to cook in my tiny house kitchen but I don't always love to clean up. And one of my big concerns with going tiny was losing the convenience of a dishwasher. That's why I'm so excited to share today's sponsor with you the FOTILE two-in-one in sink dishwasher. It's a dishwasher built into a sink and it's perfect for tiny house living. This innovative appliance is perfect for modern living in compact spaces. With its efficient design. It saves lower cabinet space and fits perfectly into a standard 36 inch cabinet base, making it ideal for tiny homes. But it's not just about saving space. It's about saving time and water too. The FOTILE two-in-one in sink dishwasher offers a quick wash cycle of just 20 minutes, getting your dishes clean in no time. 45 minutes standard and 80 minute intensive washers are also available. Plus, it saves nearly 50% of the water a regular dishwasher would consume. With its ergonomic top loading design you don't need to bend over like you would with a traditional dishwasher, making it perfect for small kitchens. When it comes to cleanliness, the FOTILE two-in- one in sink dishwasher doesn't disappoint. With five standard washing and rinsing cycles and a 360 degree cleaning system. It eliminates 99.99% of E coli and other common bacteria from your dishes promoting a healthy kitchen environment. Are you worried about installation? Don't be FOTILE provides a comprehensive DIY installation tutorial online and they're offering Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast listeners a special extended five year limited warranty. There are over 30 million families around the world enjoying FOTILEs full range of cooktops, ovens, range hoods and in sink dishwashers and they've channeled 20 years of experience and expertise into these innovative compact dishwashers. This amazing dishwasher has a rating of 4.7 out of five on the Lowes website. Visit us.fotileglobal.com/thlp to learn more and purchase your FOTILE two-in-one in sink dishwasher today. That's us.fotileglobal.com/thlp. That link will be in the show notes to upgrade your tiny home kitchen with FOTILE and experience the convenience of modern living in a compact space.

Alright, I'm here with Jason Gastman. Jason is the new business development manager for FOTILE America. He's been with FOTILE for over four years. His main focus is taking the FOTILE brand into mainstream markets and making it become a premier choice of appliances with premium retailers as well as the architectural and builder community. Most recently, he has been focusing FOTILEs micro appliances, such as hoods, ovens, and cooktops to the tiny home community, as well as upscale compact living spaces. Most importantly, FOTILE has seen recent success with their sink dishwasher among the tiny home and ADU builder markets for its compact, ergonomic and energy efficient design. Jason, welcome to the show.

Jason Gastman 4:35

Thank you. Appreciate it. Glad to be on. Thanks for having me.

Ethan Waldman 4:39

Glad to have you on and you know, finding small quality appliances for tiny houses has historically been a real challenge. You know, I built mine in 2012. And I kind of had to choose between, like RV appliances which were usually pretty inexpensive and pretty low quality or marine appliances which were generally way overkill for what I needed and really, really expensive, really expensive tell me about FOTILEs entrance into this kind of small and tiny appliance market.

Jason Gastman 5:09

Sure, yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we build appliances, I call them micro appliances, really for small compact spaces. But they don't only have to be for compact spaces, but our appliances lend themselves to compact spaces because, for example, our built in wall ovens are 24 inch based, right, and we do different types of cooking technologies with different built in wall ovens, whether it's convection bake, whether it's steaming, or combination of convection, baking, steam, and right. We also have really small cooktop panels, 12 inch panels, whether it's induction electric, or just regular electric, they're 12 inch panels, you can have one, you can have two, and you can customize them you can put. So it really all is kind of customizable, if you'll put it depending on the size and the layout of your space. Interesting. In addition, we have that sink dishwasher that you talked about, right? So that is really not only energy efficient, but also very ergonomic and very space saving. In terms of where it can be installed in, let's say, whether it's a tiny home or an RV.

Ethan Waldman 6:21

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I feel like appliances and kitchen appliances are an area where, you know, there's such brand loyalty and such kind of long running brands. I'm curious, have you faced any challenges in in kind of promoting these products to these communities?

Jason Gastman 6:36

Yeah, I mean, absolutely. being totally transparent. You know, we're a Chinese based brand, we manufacture, design, and build all our products all by ourselves in Ningbo, China, under one roof, so we don't manufacture for other people, we don't have other people manufacture for us. So we control our own destiny in that in that sense, but we also control our own product development. So, you know, we like to think that we're kind of more of an r&d company that happens to build appliances. You know, our premise is solving pain points in the kitchen. And we happen to build appliances in doing so. And, you know, in the political environment today, right, America and China, we have faced a little bit of headwinds, just because, you know, there's a lot of iconic brands here in this country, as you put out that have been around for 60 7080 years. And some of the more newer brands such as an LG or a Samsung, that have been around for 2025 years, have really gained popularity. But you know, the Chinese brands are really more considered, you know, sometimes under the radar or a third tier brand. With FOTILE, our quality, our design, our feature sets that we put into our products are really tier one. It's just a matter of telling people and showing people, what our products, what they can do, what problems they can solve for you in the kitchen. And you know, when we sell our products and market our products, because we might not be that tier one brand, or a brand that someone may not heard of before, we'd like to say seeing is believing. So we show the product. And that in just in that process. It's like, Wow, I've never seen this before. Where have you guys been? Right? Yeah. And we're a major brand in China. We're just a startup here in here in the States. Got it. Yeah.

Ethan Waldman 8:26

I mean, those other brands that you mentioned, you know, some of them might make small appliances, but but my experience has told me that oftentimes, like the small one that they make is kind of a throwaway. And it doesn't have any of the features. It's like the most basic one. And you know, you mentioned, you know, steam and convection and induction ovens and you just don't see the technology making it to the smaller appliances in other brands, so I mean, thank you. And also, it's awesome for us Tiny House foodies.

Jason Gastman 9:03

Yeah, it's really true. A lot of the small appliances out there where there RV's or tiny homes, their basic. Yeah, you know, I don't want to say bare bones. But they're pretty basic models. It's not where these larger companies invest their r&d into, right, because they're building they're trying to get economies of scale, right. So they have large production facilities, so do we, but they're a lot bigger, right? And so they're going after shipping and moving boxes, and right building their brand in that respect. And we are more about solving problems in the kitchen. And really putting a lot of r&d behind our products and features that the typical brand or the most other brands don't incorporate into their products. Right. And so that's why, you know, and another headwind to go back to your question, have we faced any challenges? You know, normally when people think you know, a Chinese appliance or a Chinese brand They think, you know, inferior or, you know, more economical, cheaper price. But when I tell people our products, you know, in terms of the price, and they're like, oh, wow, it's not it's not the cheapest price, and certainly we're not. And that's really because we incorporate the quality, the build the design, and more importantly, the feature sets that nobody else has. And, you know, I kind of I kind of joke with people, I say, you know, we build like the Mercedes Benz or the Bentley of appliances, but yet no one knows who we are. Right, right. And then when I show them the quality, and I show them the feature sets, it's just it's, you know, it's astonishing time, it's like, wow, why didn't any other appliance company figured out? So, you know, that kind of helps sell our products, especially into that small space?

Ethan Waldman 10:45

Excellent. Yeah. So, you know, it sounds like seeing is believing? Are there any stores? Are there places where people can go and kind of interact with the appliances and kind of get their hands on them?

Jason Gastman 10:57

Sure, absolutely. So, you know, because we're a Chinese brand, we kind of sell to two different markets. I don't want to say two different markets. But we have a Chinese side of the business where there are Chinese retailers that have our products, whether it's in New York, whether it's in San Francisco, whether it's in Los Angeles, Huston all throughout the United States, where there's, you know, high populations of Chinese Americans, right, or even just Asian Americans, for that matter. But also more mainstream, and kind of where I focus, the business is, you know, trying to bring that into more classic retailers. So for example, right now, we have a lot of placement with national retailers within their online properties. So for example, Lowe's dot com, home depot.com, we're also on Amazon. And then we have a subset of smaller retailers that we actually have floor presence on. Like, for example, here on the East Coast, New Jersey, New York area, we have PC Richard and sons that are representing our products on their floor, right. And then there's other smaller retailers out on the West Coast that are also representing the product as well. And as I indicated, we have a pretty big presence online.

Ethan Waldman 12:08

We've been working together on on you know, promoting the the dishwasher that specifically the two and one and sink dishwasher on the podcast. And I know that that is is through Lowe's, which is great, because that's a brand that people are familiar with, you know, they can they can feel comfortable ordering from Lowe's.

Jason Gastman 12:27

100%. And in addition, you know, we're in Lowe's and folks are in conversations, to take that online relationship and go deeper. Yeah, potentially doing some store testing in certain geographies of the seats. Nice. So yeah,

Ethan Waldman 12:44

awesome. And so like, well, actually, I want to follow up on a question about the ranges and cooktops before we go to the dishwasher specifically, I definitely want to talk about that one. You know, I noticed that, well, I'll preface this by saying that, you know, my, my tiny house has a pretty basic RV gas range in it. It's like, I think it's actually 20 inches, not even 24 inches, but little three burner thing. There's an oven with a fixed shelf in it that basically burns anything you put in it. And you know, since building my house, I've learned a lot more about gas and indoor air quality. And you know, tiny houses are these tiny spaces. So you have to be really careful. And I noticed that in your appliance lineup there there aren't. And correct me if I'm wrong, there aren't any gas appliances. I'm I'm curious. Is that? Is that an intentional decision? On FOTILEs part?

Jason Gastman 13:41

Yeah, so actually, in terms of gas, we don't right now have a gas oven range. We're actually in development of that. Okay. And by next year, end of next year, we should have something in the marketplace. But in terms of gas, we do have gas cooktop, whether it's two burner gas cooktops, three burners, five burners that we do. In addition, we also have electric cooktops as well. Nice. Yep.

Ethan Waldman 14:10

Excellent. Excellent. So with the two-in-one dishwasher, that that's one that again, like, I wish this had existed when I built 10 years ago, because, you know, I like to make a mess in the kitchen. I like to do a lot of cooking. And I guess it's just what you grew up with. But I grew up with a dishwasher and, like, why, like, just the idea of being able to put those dishes in from the top not have to bend down and just be able to have a dishwasher in a tiny house is just

Jason Gastman 14:39

awesome. Oh, yeah. God, yes. That was it's huge. I mean, I always kind of grew up with a dishwasher for most of my life. And you know, it makes things very convenient. You know, the interesting thing here with the development of this particular product, is you know, it took over China by storm because wow, you know, In China, the dishwashing penetrated the dishwasher penetration is really small. Okay? Most most Chinese families unless it's a more modern, more affluent family in China, most families in China are still in small, hot under ventilated kitchens and definitely do not have dishwashers. Okay, so with the invention of the two-in-one, it's kind of revolutionized the dishwasher market in China, because it's been able to fit into a compact space and really impact the lives and lifestyles of families in China from taking, you know, what's always been hand washed. And now can automate in washing and all of that right and, and really make things a lot easier in the kitchen. And also do it in a very compact space. Right? Yeah. So it's this thing this was has been revolutionary in China. And once we launched it here in this country, it's it's really taken off. It's not for everyone, right? Meaning, like, for some of myself, you know, I'm a family of five, I have three kids. We run our standard dishwasher twice a day. Yeah. So this guy, or two-in-one, I'd probably run in four or five times a day, but I probably spend in less than an energy as I would as my undercounter. But yeah, it's for a larger family, like myself, it's, it might not be the most feasible but for example, it could be used as a secondary sink, dishwasher, right? In a family like myself, if I had that space in my kitchen, and still have a regular undercounter dishwasher as my main dishwasher. So it has a lot of applications in that perspective.

Ethan Waldman 16:46

Yeah, I know, I know, some people who like to entertain who instead of doing too, instead of doing one big dishwasher, they did two of those drawer style dishwashers. But then the problem is, you can't put big things in either the drawer style. So I think the idea even in a larger home of having a standard undercounter dishwasher, and then the the two-in-one, it's a really cool combo. But for a tiny house, where you know, you might not even have a single 36 Or you might not have a cabinet to give up, essentially, because to put in an under cabinet dishwasher, you are giving up cabinet space. Whereas the sink, you're going to be taking up that space anyway. So it's just a it's a great idea.

Jason Gastman 17:31

Yeah, yeah, it really is. And it like I said, it has so many different applications in different environments. So yeah, lends itself really great to the tiny home and RV market. It still has a lot of other applications and other environments as well. Yep. And so that's why I think it's such a versatile product.

Ethan Waldman 17:56

Have you heard any success stories or heard back from from tiny house builders or, or tiny house dwellers who are using the products?

Jason Gastman 18:05

So yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a great question. So we're working now with several tiny home builders that have used our product in multiple projects. Nice. We're also working with some small builders, let's say, the New York New York area, they're doing like a 30 unit apartment building. Nice, that want to go ahead and incorporate the sink dishwasher. And, you know, the interesting thing is, is so as we indicated earlier, we sell it on lowes.com. And so you know, I manage that business. And, you know, I look at, you know, where we sell it, who we sell it to, and I start to see, repeat customers with repeat purchases in either the same day, same, we all go into the same address, right. And then I tie that address back and I see that it's a construction company, right. So I'm starting to see more builders getting more awareness and interest in the product. Yeah. And they're just going ahead and placing their orders through Lowe's dot com. And it's been shipped right to the store, they pick it up for their their job site and off it goes and, and it's installed. So yeah, we're starting to see a lot more buzz awareness interest from the builder designer community for that. Absolutely.

Ethan Waldman 19:27

Very nice. Very nice. Yeah. And I think I was looking through the reviews on on the Lowe's webpage and it has really positive reviews like across the board. So you know, congratulations on that.

Jason Gastman 19:39

Yeah, we're starting to build more reviews. You know, it's we're in basically year two with sales on Lowe's dot com with that product. So, you know, the first year it did well, but it was a little slow and getting the reviews and, you know, I guess more and more sales, more satisfied customers equals more reviews and more reviews. Obviously. It's kind of a snow balls back from there. Right? Exactly. So, yeah, it's been real. It's been feedbacks been great, nice.

Ethan Waldman 20:08

Well, does FOTILE have any kind of new innovative things in the works for tiny houses that you can share with us?

Jason Gastman 20:14

A hundred percent, I mean, absolutely. We so we have other sinks, or not even sink, dishwasher, but other counter style dishwashers, they're in development, for example, we're gonna have another dishwasher. I want to it's so common for me to say sink, dishwasher, but I gotta be careful. We're gonna have another dishwasher. Available. Let's see. So we're more towards the end of this year. Okay. November, December timeframe, where it's basically the dishwasher without the sink. Okay, that drops right into the counter. Right? We've had a lot of requests, even from some vacation, cabin builders, who said to us, hey, we'd be interested in just the dishwasher. Yeah, not the sink and the dishwasher. Because, I guess, you know, they, they already deal with a sink manufacturer, and they've procured you know, X amount of units or it's, it's already replicated in their build. They just need that dishwasher. So yeah, we're working on that. Nice. We're obviously working on more hood ventilation, smaller sizes, more that can be re circulatory or direct vented, because most of our hoods now with the exception of two under cabinets are direct vent. Okay, right. So and even in I guess, in the tiny home industry, having direct vent is pretty easy. Sometimes with you know, residential homes that direct venting could be a little cumbersome, especially if walls are not already opened up. And now we need to open walls to put in ductwork which can be a little cumbersome, like I said, but with tiny home, I mean, you know if the homes already being built or is in the process of being built or just, you know, probably punch a hole through the exterior wall. And, you know, properly vented out is not as difficult as doing it in a residential home, right, where we have sheetrock and frame in and, you know, other things that are inside the walls, right? So yeah, and that and we'll have also additional cooktop, so we're going to be moving more into more electric cooktops. Just because of the new codes and regulations that are coming out certain states now where they're, you know, trying to mitigate gas. So we're going to be in corporated. And introducing more gas cooktops, new rendition of the dishwasher, as I mentioned, and also new rangehoods really more geared around the compact market, not necessarily 30-36 inch sizes, which are more of our standard main part of our range of business. Right. Okay. Yeah. So and we have this new 24 inch hood that we just launched during Kivus back in February, okay. Which is part of what I kind of dub our studio 24 products 24 inch, built in wall ovens, to 12 inch cooktop, panels, 24 inch rangehood. And then our sink dishwasher nice nicknamed Studio 24.

Ethan Waldman 23:15

With a with the 24 inch range hood, is that designed to go under a cabinet or is that more something that would come down from from a ceiling.

Jason Gastman 23:25

So this guy right now would be more wall mounted, okay, it can be put into a cabinet, but we're honest, I should say under a cabinet, but the top portion or the ducting portion does have to be built into the cabinet, and then it goes out the exterior. Okay. So taking that particular piece, and put it under cabinet can be done. Just a little bit more work, but definitely can be done. We showed it at Davis like that. But we'll also we're looking into, you know, strict under cabinet 24 inch hoods that are just regular under cabinet that don't have to be fixed inside the cabinet. Like I was just mentioning, right? We currently have 30 and 36 inch under cabinet, but we're going to be making smaller sizes for tiny home and compact homes.

Ethan Waldman 24:18

Excellent. Yeah. And with that, with that in wall oven, I just wanted to ask. So it's a 24 inch wall oven and say like I have a tiny house that has a 24 inch range currently in it. So basically, there's an oven and cooktop built in. But I kind of switch that out. But if it fit for the 24 inch built in oven and then stack two of those induction cooktops, do they are they meant to kind of stack on top of the oven?

Jason Gastman 24:47

No, no, no, definitely not. No that you couldn't do. All right. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Be creative, though.

Ethan Waldman 24:55

Any ranges?

Jason Gastman 24:58

Yeah. So we do You have a range in the work, but not until the end of next year. Okay, yeah, this, this range is going to be because of the, like I said before the changing rules and regulations in certain states mitigating the gas appliances, you know, our first arrange that we're going to be launching by the end of next year is going to be an electric, five burner cooktop, as well as electric, you know, oven. Nice, okay, so we're gonna go full electric, and then also will later come out with, yeah, a gas cooktop, and oven as well. Nice. So we wanted to do because it's going to be our first actual 30 inch oven range, we wanted to do it Electric Gas would have been quicker for us because we have capabilities in gas with our gas cooktops and wall ovens back in China, but for here in the States, we figured let's go ahead and make electric first, because since the change in rules, and then after that, then we'll move into a gas oven as well. So we have both, you know, types of ovens to offer.

Ethan Waldman 26:02

Awesome, So how, you know, how can people who are interested in you know, Tiny House dwellers, people are building tiny houses or even, you know, tiny house builders who might be listening, you know, how can they get in touch and learn more? Sure.

Jason Gastman 26:17

So there's a couple of different ways, right? Number one, I say our website is our biggest advocate, right, you can find out our product specs, videos, manuals, marketing information, or technical information, right. And that would be at us.fotileglobal.com.

Ethan Waldman 26:40

I'll put that link in the in the shownotes for today, I think there's a there's one you know us.fotileglobal.com/thlp will will tell people that you your podcast episode that you're you're checking it out.

Jason Gastman 27:01

Even better. I can, if you want I think you can, you might even have my contact information. But my email is certainly available for people to reach out to me. Phone number I can I'm more than happy to put that out there if people want to use that. And then you know, also, if they're just looking for like a national retailer where they can quickly pick one up Lowe's dot com, they can have all the product information and everything on there as well.

Ethan Waldman 27:28

Nice. Now, if a builder was listening, who is you know, interested in incorporating the products? Would they why would you want them to work with you directly?

Jason Gastman 27:37

I would only because with builders, we like to work a little more closer, depending on the project, right? If it's a straightforward project, and they've, they've used our sink dishwasher before in a project, you know, like I said, I have builders ordering with Lowe's dot com picked it up and off they go and install it. But if it's you know, kind of a new custom project, and especially for someone who has not installed our sink dishwashers before, or maybe it's a very large building, right? Yeah, or you know, RVs or something very specialty, I would love for them to reach out to me directly. Nice. And then I can put them in touch with, you know, an engineer if I needed to because there's some specialty requirements there. That's why I would ask for that kind of handheld on top.

Ethan Waldman 28:26

Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, my listeners are usually subscribed to my email list. So you know, if they want to get in touch with you, you know, shoot me an email, put a comment on this podcast episode, and we can get you in touch with Jason for sure. Perfect, perfect. And I just wanted to shout out also, because you mentioned on the website that that you have all kinds of product specs and documentation. And that was one thing that I was really pleasantly surprised by and impressed by, because I was, you know, at first I was like, Okay, I'm gonna put one of these in my tiny house. And then I was like, well, will it fit? And unfortunately, you know, I was able to use the documentation. And you know, not gonna get too technical, but essentially my, I would have to cut through the supports that hold up my cabinets it put it in, so it's a little too big for my tiny house. But still, yeah, the documentation, you know, I was able to get a schematic with with good measurements on it. And it made it really easy to kind of figure out if it would fit. And I think that for somebody who's doing a new build, the documentation is awesome. You can you can build your kitchen to these specs and know that it's gonna fit.

Jason Gastman 29:33

Well, that's great. Yeah, we really try to provide as much information upfront as possible. Yep. Just so it makes it easier for someone to learn about us and use our products. Great.

Ethan Waldman 29:45

Well, Jason, anything else that I that I didn't ask you about that you want to tell our listeners about? No, I

Jason Gastman 29:51

think we've covered a lot in terms of what FOTILE what kind of products we have and you know how we're a good fit for the tiny home community. Really, and you know, it's it's definitely a community of people that we really, we really like working with, because our products are kind of we'd like to think of our products as niche. We'd also like to think of our products as solving pain points. And we think our products really are geared for compact living spaces. Yeah, and, you know, tiny homes are really one of those spaces. And part of that, that piece of the pie that I think a lot of other manufacturers neglect. And so it's something that I recognized when, you know, I came on board with FOTILE, that it's a it's kind of an untapped market. And it's a market that needs better products and solve problems in a better way. And, you know, just make people's lives more enjoyable in doing so. So that's really, you know, what we're all about. So, yeah, that's, that's all I have to say. All right.

Ethan Waldman 30:55

Well, Jason Gastman. Thank you so much for being a guest on the show.

Jason Gastman 30:59

Thank you so much for having us. We really, really appreciate it and look forward to talking with you in the near future. Great. All righty. Thanks again.

Ethan Waldman 31:09

Thank you so much to Jason Gastman, for beinga guest on the show. And thank you so much to FOTILE for sponsoring today's show. You can find the show notes including some photos of photons appliances, the link that Jason mentioned and so much more over at thetinyhouse.net/277. Well, that's all for this week. I'm your host, Ethan Waldman, and I'll be back next week with another episode of the Tiny House Lifestyle Podcast.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai