Local man realizes a dream, brings candle diffuser invention to market | Commerce | valleybreeze.com

2023-01-13 12:56:13 By : Ms. carlen shu

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Local man realizes a dream, brings candle diffuser invention to market | Commerce | valleybreeze.com

Victor Avelar, inventor of the VelaRosa candle diffuser.

Victor Avelar, inventor of the VelaRosa candle diffuser.

LINCOLN – For those who have ever had the nagging feeling that they left a candle lit after leaving home, the VelaRosa candle fragrance diffuser, created by Lincoln resident and Pawtucket native Victor Avelar through extensive trial and error, might be the answer.

Avelar, with support from his wife Christine, has invested his heart, soul and a whole lot of money into a venture he’s very proud of: development of his e-commerce retailer and manufacturer VelaRosa’s new candle fragrance diffuser. This is a new way to make one’s home fragrant and to do it safely, he said.

Having experienced the anxiety of leaving home and wondering if they had left a candle burning, the Avelars thought there had to be a better way to burn candles.

After years of development, VelaRosa in September launched what Avelar says is the world’s first candle fragrance diffuser that boosts the fragrance of any tea light candle and automatically extinguishes the flame after a set time.

The diffuser covers the candle with a glass dome, but instead of snuffing out the candle, a fan blows air inside of it to keep the candle lit.

“Best of all, the fan diffuses the candle’s fragrance into the room,” states a release.

In an independent fragrance study of 22 professional examiners using sensory booths, the diffuser provided significant fragrance strength compared to the same stand-alone candle and filled the room with fragrance in 10 minutes.

VelaRosa manufactures the plastic parts in Leominster, Mass., and assembles and packages the diffuser at the Avelars’ home in Lincoln. The diffusers are available for sale at $69.95 online at www.velarosa.com.

Avelar, who used Fuzion Design in Pawtucket to design his logo, sells at the wintertime farmers market in Hope Artiste Village.

Avelar was born and raised in the Fairlawn section of Pawtucket, attending Nathanael Greene Elementary School, Slater Junior High School, and Shea High School. An Evening Times paperboy as a youth, he moved to Lincoln in 2008, but he still owns a three-family home on Smithfield Avenue in Pawtucket. His parents still live in Pawtucket.

The issue of forgetting to blow out the candle happened enough times with them where he began to wonder about creating a device that would automatically blow out the flame after a certain period of time.

There are other vaguely similar items out there, said Avelar, but none with a completely covered flame, which is why he was able to get through the rigorous patent process with an attorney. Once he knew he could get a patent, he brought the concept to Dial. But the company felt like they wouldn’t be able to sell of them on the shelf at $9.99, he said, prompting him to launch out on his own to bring it to market, a process full of emotional rollercoasters and trial and error.

Vela is Portuguese for candle, and Rosa is his grandmother’s name. The Avelars’ garage is full of 4,000 of each part and packaging for the diffusers.

To give an example of how costly this process has been, one of the three molds he needed to make five different parts cost $12,000.

He’s sold about $2,000 worth of product so far, but only one diffuser at full price, including shipping.

The cost to him of creating one diffuser is $22.50, including for a laser-cut and hand-bent metal cover. The extensive testing process for all parts went through many phases, including running the motor for a week to make sure the noise doesn’t get any louder.

Avelar said he’s been told he picked a doozy for his first invention.

“I should have picked a pet rock,” he said, laughing. “It’s really a journey though. That’s what they say, but it’s true, lots of ups and downs.”

Turning 50 years old in February, he has worked for Schneider Electric, formerly American Power Conversion, since just after college.

“That’s what’s paying the bills,” he said, adding that his wife, “a true saint and angel,” has been very supportive of the investments they’ve had to make during the process. They have two children, Marcus and Celia.

The patent process itself is very expensive, said Avelar, with the patent attorney paid to try to get him a patent as an independent inventor and a patent examiner just there to shoot down claims as they come in. There was one instance where there was a suggestion that his product was similar to another one with a fan and a flame, but that product was a furnace, said Avelar.

“It’s really an amazing journey I’ve been on,” he said.

One selling point for the diffusers, which run on a long-life lithium-ion battery charged through a USB port, is that they’re proven to lengthen the life of candles. A candle tested on its own lasted for five and a half hours, while the same one with the fan and diffuser lasted an hour and four minutes longer.

They’ve also been tested and found to dispense 10 times the fragrance of a candle on its own.

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Local man realizes a dream, brings candle diffuser invention to market | Commerce | valleybreeze.com

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