What the deposit pays for
Reservation deposits stay in a separate account and will fund only the first production run's parts order.
We want the reservation terms to be clear before anyone pays. The price shown for a reservation is the deposit charged now. It is not the full cost of Stake. The balance is charged when the order ships, and the deposit is refundable in full at any time before shipping.
Deposits are kept in a separate account and used only for the first production run’s parts order. We are not using them to pay for our tooling, everyday studio costs or earlier prototypes. The enclosure tooling ordered in July is a development expense we have taken on separately.
Where the money will go
The parts order for the first production run includes the components that become shipping units: boards, sensors, solar caps, rechargeable cells and enclosure parts. We plan that run for February 2027, after the validation work and the radio certification planned for December 2026.
Until that parts order, the deposits stay in their separate account. Once we use deposits for parts, the right to a full refund before shipping still applies. Paying a supplier does not change the promise we make to someone who reserved. We have to plan for refunds alongside the parts order, rather than treating every reservation as a final sale.
We are a two-person studio. A first batch requires us to order parts before we can assemble and send finished units. Reservations help us plan that order, but a reservation cannot make an unfinished design ready. The 200-unit engineering validation build remains a separate checkpoint before production.
We will report changes to the schedule and the reasons for them. We are aiming to ship reservations in April 2027. Failed water tests, radio certification work or a supplier delay could change that month. We will not quietly turn a shipping estimate into a certainty.
Asking for a refund
Email us at hello@stake.example.com using the address on your reservation, and include the reservation reference if you have it. You do not need to explain why you changed your mind. We will arrange a full deposit refund before the order ships and confirm it by email.
If we have already ordered your batch’s parts, you can still ask. If the shipping date slips, you can still ask. We do not deduct a development fee or keep a portion of the deposit to cover our work.
Joining the waitlist does not charge anything. It gives you first access to reservations when they open, and you can decide then whether to pay a deposit. We would rather make those two choices clear now than answer a payment surprise later.