I sell Honeywell sail for a duct sail switch, part 123773A. This morning Amazon decided that this item is drug paraphernalia and sent me the notice below.
I have no idea why a bot thinks someone can use this for drugs and no idea how to fix it.
Ideas? Thanks.
If this is the same product, Amazon has it listed here.
I can see how this could happen. I am not saying that Amazon is being reasonable here, but there is a tenuous connection. So, given Amazon’s tendency for paranoia, you are guilty.
No, I am sober, and I haven’t touched a bong in over 20 years, but if I were to design one to use the highly concentrated marijuana that is available today, I would use a duct sail switch.
Modern concentrates ( AKA ‘dab’ ) can be up to 90% THC. That is stupidly powerful. So it needs to be carefully controlled and measured.
In my modern bong design, the dab would be placed on a metal heating element, and only heated when the user is inhaling. This would require a device that measures airflow, and makes an electrical connection to heat the element.
Same item, seems to be a different ASIN. A much worse ASIN.
To do… what exactly?
To do the only thing that duct sail switches do: measure airflow through a channel, and make an electrical connection when that airflow is high enough.
The electrical connection controls a heating element, which heats concentrated THC when the user inhales.
@SAS_Moderator is it okay to proceed with discussion of the design of a drug delivery device?
By that logic, everything from pvc piping to eggplants to a Bunsen burner is drug paraphernalia.
This is not a case of “spice grinders” claiming they are kitchen utensils. A line has to be drawn somewhere, and this is a really dumb place for Amazon to put that line.
I couldn’t agree more.
Sorry that this is happening to you. But there is a very tenuous connection. Amazon is only 99% idiotic on this.
Hmm…my engineer’s brain is on the other one percent. I have wasted an hour or two thinking about bong design rather than pricing books. I may have a way to circumvent this problem.
The device is used to measure airflow. It can be airflow through an AC/heater duct, or airflow through a bong.
But nobody has said how much airflow. Therein, I suspect, may be room for a hairsplitting argument that may reinstate your product.
Tell Amazon that your device measures airflow in a range that is too high for a drug delivery device. Tell them that electric bongs only measure small amounts of airflow - what the user can inhale, whereas AC/heating systems move A LOT more air.
This, FWIW, may actually be true, or close thereto.
Get them thinking of TWO classes of devices: one that moves a little air - powered by lungs, and one that moves a lot of air - powered by a fan. Then inform them that your product is only good for the device that moves a lot of air.
Actually, the deactivated ASIN I am listed on does specify the airflow tolerances.
What is the lower number? ( probably in liters per minute )
If it is high enough, its mere existence will work in your favor. FWIW, the keywords are ‘makes’ and ‘breaks’. The latter is usually several times the former.
75 FPM.
I didn’t choose the units.
I still can’t figure out what is triggering this bot.
So, 75 Feet Per Minute is 0.8 mph. That’s too low a velocity - about 3 mph (roughly 1.5 meters/second) would be a reasonable velocity for a human’s enthusiastic “inhale”. Your item would turn on TOO SOON, and would not be a good choice for a vape/dab/freebase device.
So, there’s your answer for Amazon. If they want to presume to “understand” equipment used in “dabbing”, then they can damn well stand a sternly worded letter that you have “researched the claim, and found it to be profoundly misinformed in light of well-known minimum and maximum airflow velocities that humans can easily achieve with inhalation and exhalation.”
Extra points if you can work in the “airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow”.
@rms asked for the minimum value. The max value is 225 FPM.
I have no idea what the preferred airflow speed for this hypothetical is I still believe ridiculous application.
How BIG is it, what does it weigh? What voltage does it use? Its HVAC gear, right? So tell them the application, and put that in the listing. State the obvious.
But yes, the “minimum” is where it turns “on”. The maximum is likely where the sensor fails to work any more. I’m guessing here, but I bet it also has a considerable “hysteresis curve” between on and off, which is another reason it would never work for any “dab” application.
We sell the sail switch with the sail, but this listing is for a replacement sail. I imagine it could be used with other switches as well. It weighs less than an ounce, and it’s 10" X 5".
That is way too large for a bong, IOW, way to large for something powered by human lungs.
If you can get a reasonable person to look at it, that should resolve the issue.
At Amazon? 