Sheridan native Buzz Wiggins always knew he wanted to invent something big but wasn’t sure what it would be.
Wiggins said he had always tinkered with creating items his whole life, working in his dad’s shop on projects like building skis or fixing his Nintendo, but he had never really invented anything.
One day in 2019, he found himself fiddling around with a bike pump valve. After injecting it inside a filled water bottle, he was shocked to discover it carbonated the water. Voila, his invention was born.
“Pretty shocking that it worked,” he said. “That was really proof of invention. I think actually it gave us too much confidence.”
Idea To Reality
Although the discovery only took about a day, it took Wiggins and his engineers about a year to develop an actual prototype for their Aerflo company.
Three years and countless dealings with the federal government later, Wiggins and his Aerflo-founder John Thorp now have multiple patents to their names and are finally selling their self-carbonating water bottles to the public.
“We did all of the groundwork ourselves so our users don’t have to think of it,” Wiggins said. “Yeah, we did this 3 ½ years of work, but that’s so it takes you 20 seconds.”
For $99, one can buy an “Aer System Bundle” that includes an Aerflo water bottle and 15 CO2 capsules, which are inserted into the bottle and then punctured to release the air inside. Each capsule carbonates four bottles of water, which gets you 60 total fills from the get-go.
“It’s a no-brainer from a cost perspective,” Wiggins said.
The best part is, the capsules can be shipped back to Aerflo and refilled with their two-way valve, getting you 12 more capsules for free on the first refill. Every first order also comes with a prepaid shipping label and box to help facilitate reusing it.
“I really don’t like to produce waste,” Wiggins said. “There’s no single-use waste at all.”
By putting a small-scale CO2 cartridge into the cap of an Aerflo water bottle, the water carbonates at varying levels ranging from “mild fizz” to “wild and crisp” sparking bubbles.
Although DIY water carbonizers already exist, Wiggins believes his product is one-of-a-kind thanks to its ease of portability when compared to the stationary, at-home nature of other carbonizing products on the market. If someone decides to carbonize their water 10 miles into the backcountry they can do that. If they decide they want to carbonate their water while sitting at the office they can do that too.
“Otherwise, it’s not really convenient to carry around a six-pack of sparkling water,” Wiggins said. “It’s so convenient to have something that sits in your hand. All you need to have is water.”
Sheridan native Buzz Wiggins invented the Aeflo system, which allows people to carbonate their water on the go. (Courtesy Aerflo) 
A view of the many prototypes Aerflo tested out before settling on its final product, including the most rudimentary version seen on the far left. (Courtesy Aerflo) 
Sheridan native Buzz Wiggins invented the Aeflo system, which allows people to carbonate their water on the go. (Buzz Wiggins via LinkedIn)
Overcoming Bureaucracy
One of the biggest hurdles in bringing his product to the public, Wiggins said, was getting the U.S. Department of Transportation to approve the shipping of his gas canisters through the mail.
“We were told no or ignored 90% of the time,” Wiggins said.
But the company remained diligent and jumped through all of the DOT’s hurdles, a six-step process Wiggins said took “a lot of work and patience,” including shrinking their large-scale canisters to gain approval.
This also involved inventing a valve to make the canisters refillable, a valve that is also a safety feature in case the canisters over-pressurize. They also had to establish their refill facility before the government would give them the thumbs up to sell
Just getting to meet with DOT officials, Wiggins said, was about a year-long process alone.
“By the time we had the actual signoff it was about three years of work and a lot of money,” Wiggins said with a laugh.
By taking a tenacious approach and never missing a deadline, Aerflo started to make headway with the government.
“We’re just selling gas, it’s a much better way to shipping the canisters,” Wiggins explained.
Wyoming Dreams
Wiggins is based out of New York City, with the air canisters filled up in New Jersey. Bringing the company to Wyoming, he said, is a dream he hopes to make a reality someday.
Once the company becomes a little more established, Wiggins said he'll at least try to bring a field office for his company to Wyoming to take advantage of the Cowboy State’s low tax rates and high quality of life.
“We’ll call it an ‘inkling of an idea,’ but I think Wyoming is going to play a pretty important part,” Wiggins said.
Contact Leo Wolfson at leo@cowboystatedaily.com
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
