80HE White Zinc Update

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80HE White Zinc Update

(originally posted on Discord on the 17th of October)

For Discord notifications: Go to My Account on the Wooting Hub and click "Refresh rewards"

If you have an unshipped preorder for a white zinc case, and selected via the Wooting Hub to "Wait for additional options" (or did not make a choice at all), we have sent you a follow up email with additional options.

You can now:

  • Choose to receive your order as-is. Receive 40$/40€ in store credit 30 days after delivery. (0-1 month)
  • Choose to swap to Black Zinc (1 month)
  • Choose to swap to White Zinc v2 (2-3 month)

note: the swaps will be completed in bulk next week

In the email we included a private video that explains the situation in depth, and both the email and the video subtitles were translated into Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, and Japanese for your convenience.

We've also posted a public video that talks about the current status and what to expect moving forward:

‍https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESvC7mahbB8

‍Small Recap

We discovered 2 concerns regarding the white zinc case:

  • A few white zinc cases were delivered with a small chip in the paint.
  • When grazing over the surface with a metal object, it leaves an erasable gray mark.

We immediately decided to investigate the feedback, and just in case paused both the production and sales of the white zinc case. We concluded:

  • Small chips in the paint when the keyboard is received. This is covered by warranty. At some point during use you might bump it into a hard object and chip the paint. Past 30 days, this is considered regular wear and tear and not covered by warranty.
  • The gray marks can be removed with an eraser or a rough cloth. This is a normal occurrence for spray-painted cases. We tested other white metal keyboards on the market, they experienced the same issue.

The white zinc v1 meets the expectations we had for the product. We could have continued production, but we know that we can do better, so we will. We decided to immediately start on a v2 of the white zinc case that can prevent these 2 occurrences entirely.

White Zinc v2 - Status Report

We decided to explore 2 routes:

  • E-coating + spray paint
  • Spray paint + UV-coating

The first route (E-coating) didn’t work out. The UV-coating however worked excellent in 2 ways:

  • A protective cohesive layer that wouldn’t chip.
  • A hardened smooth layer that prevented any object from leaving a mark behind.

There are 2 disadvantages to the UV coating:

  • The surface is smoother and has a slight shine.
  • The UV alters the white color to look darker and greener.

The color alteration is not acceptable to us. That’s why we’ll need another 2 weeks to test different UV coat mixtures to prevent or minimize the color alteration. (You can see the results in the video)Stay tuned for updates.

Freight Shipments Timings

We have resumed production of enough v1 white zinc cases to fulfill all outstanding orders.

  • Pausing production means that the v1 cases were not done in time for the rest of the freight shipments.
  • Current estimations are that these units are 2-3 weeks behind the regular batch.

Once production completes, we'll do our quality control tests, and then ship them to our fulfillment centers as quickly as possible. We'll share updated dates once this happens!

A final note....We pride ourselves in our transparency and openness. Situations like this put that to the test.

It has been tough to get all our customers the most accurate and up-to-date information possible, as fast as possible, every step of the way. I think we've done an okay job at that, but there's room to improve. I know there are people who are frustrated and angry, and to those folks I hope you can accept our heartfelt apology for your experience. Hopefully once you receive your new keyboard, it'll all be water under the NA-Bridge/EU-Brug.

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