KinoSol plans to launch Kickstarter to bring its revolutionary dehydrator to Western markets

Ames startup KinoSol is planning to launch a Kickstarter later this month to fund production of solar-powered dehydrators aimed at Western markets. KinoSol was founded in 2014 by Clayton Mooney, Elise Kendall, Mikayla Sullivan and Ella Gehrke when the quartet was attending Iowa State University. They came up with KinoSol while participating in the Thought…

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Photo courtesy of KinoSol.

Ames startup KinoSol is planning to launch a Kickstarter later this month to fund production of solar-powered dehydrators aimed at Western markets.

KinoSol was founded in 2014 by Clayton Mooney, Elise Kendall, Mikayla Sullivan and Ella Gehrke when the quartet was attending Iowa State University. They came up with KinoSol while participating in the Thought for Food Challenge, which sought to address how to feed the world as the population increases.

“We figured a lot of people would focus on production, but we wanted to address the fact that a lot of food loss comes from waste,” Mooney said. “In developing countries it doesn’t occur off the plate, it’s because the food can’t be harvested quickly enough.”

The KinoSol team began working on a solar-powered food dehydrator to help preserve mangos and bananas for consumption after harvest season is completed. The startup first sought to built it out of plywood and plexiglass, before switching to more durable and heat-retaining plastics.

In March of this year, KinoSol began testing its eighth prototype in El Salvador and began production shortly after that.

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“Over the course of testing, we were able to reduce the weight of the units, which was very important because we wanted everything to be collapsible and flat-packed and to require no tools for assembly,” said Mooney. “Early on it weighed 20 lbs and over, but now we’ve got it at just under nine pounds. It’s was quite the process, going from something so clunky to what we have now.”

Making a product for the world isn’t easy

When KinoSol was testing its products, many friends in the US were curious how they could get a one for themselves. That lead to the idea for a version for the rest of the world, which KinoSol will launch as a Kickstarter on Oct. 20.

There is one major difference between using a KinoSol in the Midwest compared to a country along the equator: proximity to the sun. During tests in Uganda, the internal temperature of a KinoSol can reach 140 degrees on a sunny day and dry food in eight hours. During testing in Iowa, the temperature was closer to 125 degrees, which means drying can take up to 10 hours.

Educating users

As often as possible, members of KinoSol have traveled the world to demonstrate how to use their product. But as production ramps up, the product needs to be fully usable by anyone opening the box. So far they’ve worked to translate KinoSol’s instructions into Spanish and Portuguese. They’ve also had to help explain that dried food you buy at the store doesn’t always look like what you dry yourself.

“In El Salvador, people weren’t used to a dehydrated banana turning brown,” Mooney said. “In stores they use sugar or lemon juice to prevent that. So we’ve been stressing that even though the color changes, it’s still packed with nutrients.”

They’ve also had to demonstrate the most efficient way of drying food, which is cutting it into thin slices. Some users simply cut fruit in half, resulting in an inefficient drying process.

Looking toward expansion

In 2017, KinoSol plans to shift its focus from development to sales. They hope to be able to set up manufacturing and distribution in other countries, to help create jobs that will have a direct impact on the communities using the dehydrators.

But Mooney also sees the work in other countries as possibly helping to direct what KinoSol might do next.

“We’re figuring out how to properly implement new tech in developing countries,” Mooney said. “While we’re there, we want to be able to notice what other opportunities and needs they have so we can start to develop more products.”

For more on the KinoSol backstory, check out SPN’s profile from earlier this year, “This simple device from KinoSol could feed millions.”

Joe Lawler is a freelance reporter based in Des Moines.

This story is part of the AIM Archive

This story is part of the AIM Institute Archive on Silicon Prairie News. AIM gifted SPN to the Nebraska Journalism Trust in January 2023. Learn more about SPN’s origin »

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