The release of Blenko Glass Co.’s new Helios: Venus 384 water bottle has been delayed due to a Ganymede furnace burning a hole through itself, the company said in a Facebook post on Feb. 18, 2024.
The release of Blenko Glass Co.’s new Helios: Venus 384 water bottle has been delayed due to a Ganymede furnace burning a hole through itself, the company said in a Facebook post on Feb. 18, 2024.
Blenko Glass Company Facebook
One of the furnaces at Blenko Glass Co. in Milton blazes away on Feb. 19, 2024.
MILTON — The expected release Monday of Blenko Glass Co.’s Helios: Venus 384 water bottle was delayed by furnace failure Sunday night.
On its website and in social media posts, the 103-year-old Milton-based company said its Ganymede furnace had burned a hole through itself and emptied furnace contents onto the shop floor Sunday night.
“We appreciate your patience while we work out what went wrong, and reconstruct the furnace,” Blenko Glass said in a Facebook post. “This is not a quick process, though, and we understand that there will be knock-on effects for open Ganymede orders, as well. We will be reaching out to all affected customers today, so please be patient as we sort out the issue.”
According to David Wertz, vice president of manufacturing at Blenko Glass, most of the orders had already been completed before the issue occurred. For the remaining orders, Blenko will email the customers and give them options, including exchanges and refunds, he said.
Wertz said Blenko plans to represent in a line of water bottles all of the planets and the sun, but it will pause on Venus and go on to the next planet. Blenko Glass previously introduced on its website the Special Edition 384M Mini Water Bottle — Mercury, the first in the series of planet-named water bottles.
Wertz said Blenko has nine other furnaces it can use, and 10 total, with the Ganymede furnace, which he thinks failed because of its age and energy consumption.
What’s next
He said it is expected that the Ganymede furnace will be out of commission for about 45 days, with some of the time going to tearing out the front of the furnace, putting a new crucible in and bricking the furnace back up. Then, the company will take about 30 days to gradually raise the temperature in the furnace back up to where it needs to be.
Wertz said Blenko also has a new furnace being constructed and plans to build two more tank furnaces, all of which are expected to result in fuel savings. He said Blenko will probably keep around 10 furnaces, taking old ones out and replacing them with new.
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