By Tammy Murga
Signal Staff Writer
One of the highlights every holiday season is choosing the right tree, but too many have seen their selections dry up and crumble just a week before Christmas.
Valencia resident and father of four Ryan Wach could relate, prompting him to create Eazy Treezy, a solution to what he calls “the season’s most dreaded chore.”
“My wife and I have had a not uncommon, terrible experience with putting up a Christmas tree,” he said. “After about an hour, the tree would never stay straight no matter how we screwed it on a stand.”
In true infomercial fashion, Wach could replay all the moments in his mind when things went downhill: endless adjustments, water spilling at every attempt to refill reservoirs and covering up stinky tree odors.
Several stands and frustrations later, Wach decided to formulate a tree stand that would check off every problem he faced with other products.
“I’m a mechanical engineer and am always looking for problems to solve,” he said. “I knew there had to be something better out there.”
About six years ago, Wach started his market research, finding a German tree stand that looked promising but valued at more than $100. If he wouldn’t invest in one at that price, he thought, many others wouldn’t either.
The cost was just one of the important components.
“If I can make a tree stand that you can install with one person, water easily and make it at mid-price, this will solve a lot of problems,” Wach said.
It took some trial-and-error, creating multiple 3D-printed prototypes before choosing the model he would finalize and officially launch on the market as Eazy Treezy— The Drop-in Christmas Tree Stand.
The patent-pending product, which he first created about three years ago, was designed to help set up a tree within seconds.
“One of the biggest complaints I would hear is that you needed more than one person to install a tree and it would take forever,” said Wach. “This design requires one person and can be done instantly.”
Several stands out on the market require at least four hands to set up a tree firmly down, particularly those that need one person to tighten screws while the other holds the tree.
Eazy Treezy has five plastic jaws located within the stand that open as the tree is pushed in and secured in an upright position and is only let out by manually releasing the jaws and lifting the tree. The stand can hold a tree as tall as 10 feet, with a trunk diameter anywhere between 2.5 and 5.5 inches.
Three galvanized steel spikes hold the base of the tree in place, allowing the tree to absorb water a lot easier.
Its “check-and-fill” spout sticks out of the stand to make the watering process less messy.
“With other stands, not only can you not tell but it’s a pain to add water,” said Wach. “The spout was made to help you see if there’s still water and if you need to refill it you can with a pitcher and it won’t spill.”
Though he had finally produced a model he was content with, he said testing was perhaps the most challenging part.
“Christmas trees aren’t readily available in the state,” said the Valencia entrepreneur. “There are places that grow locally, but they aren’t very big here and don’t make for a good test. Developing a Christmas tree stand in California is a lot harder than it would in Oregon or Wisconsin.”
Still, real trees aren’t as scarce during the holiday season, and Wach said his product solves the problem of why most people choose fake trees over authentic ones.
He said, “Most people that I talk to say it’s normally convenience and for reasons specifically related to the stand. Trees get dry and die soon because of a bad water reservoir, or they live alone and can’t ask for help to install a real tree.”
Simply put: “An easy Christmas is a happy Christmas.”
Eazy Treezy stands are manufactured in Southern California and are sold at a retail price of $39.99 each, falling right in line with the mid-range tree stands.
Wach said he is working on getting the product out in stories, but its current location is Frosty’s Forest Christmas Tree Farm at 25235 Orchard Village Road in Valencia. One can now place an online order by visiting eazytreezy.com or the Eazy Treezy Facebook page.
