Manufacturing · Shunde, Foshan
Gulfstone builds off-grid outdoor water heaters for importers, RV builders and outdoor brands. What the line builds to is a spec you have already held in your hands — quoted, tooled, tested and documented as one run, not four handoffs between vendors.
Change control
A specification is not a document you send once. It is a value that has to survive tooling, the first article, the run and the container. This is where each one is held, and what has to happen before it is allowed to move.
| What is fixed | Design | Tooling | Approval sampleFreeze | Production run |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas setting | Gas family and pressure | Orifice and burner datum | Combustion bench report | Per-unit gas result |
| Cut-out and interface | Recess drawing and tolerance stack | Fixture and jig drawing | Fit-check record | Jig verification sheet |
| Outlet temperature | Setpoint and ramp spec | Controller configuration | Thermal test report | Incoming controller check |
| Finish and colour target | Reference plate and gloss level | Colour and powder release | Approved colour panel | Batch colour panel |
| Pack configuration | Carton and bracing spec | Carton artwork proof | Drop-test report | Label and packing record |
The program
Four operations from a brief to a certified lot. Each one hands you a document you can hold, and each one has a hold point where your approval is required before the work advances.
The line
Four desks sit on your program. Each one owns a decision and signs for it, so the answer you get is the answer the line will build to — not a sales reply relayed from a workshop.
| Role | What they own | What they sign |
|---|---|---|
| Development engineer | The fit of your drawing to the line — cut-out, gas path, tolerances and the feasibility ruling. | The feasibility note and the fit record. |
| DFM and tooling engineer | The tolerance stack, the bill of material, jigs and moulds, and the costed direction. | The tooling drawing set and the first-article report. |
| Line lead | The scheduled run — configuration, workmanship and the pace the packing schedule is built around. | The batch record and the pre-shipment release. |
| Quality lead | The four gates, the per-unit records and the reference samples that trace a container back to a shift. | The test reports and the certificate declaration. |
Owned and audited
Heaters are engineered, assembled and tested on Gulfstone lines; other components come from a partner network held to the same document discipline — so a program covers a whole outdoor system, not just the heater.
In-house · Shunde
Audited network · 60+ partner factories
Evidence
Certification attaches to the tested configuration, not to the model name — which is why the certificate sample and the production sample are the same build. Everything the compliance file needs is produced during the run, not reconstructed afterwards.
Certified by market
A certificate belongs to the configuration that was tested and approved, not to a model family. The document that clears a market therefore describes your build, and it is issued before the run is released.
Quality gates
Each gate is a hold point, not a tally. A lot does not advance until the check is signed and the record filed, so what shipped can always be shown to have passed — not asserted after the fact.
Batch records
Per-lot records are retained, so a unit in the field can be traced back to the batch, the shift and the tests it passed. Your own inspector — or a third party — can attend any gate.
Packing and loading
The carton and the load plan are agreed before the run opens, so what fits is settled on paper rather than at the dock. Products are mixed into one container where the order allows, and the load plan you sign is the one the warehouse builds to.
Brand and tooling
There are two ways to put your brand on a Gulfstone heater, and they differ in what you own. Neither one puts your drawing in front of another buyer.
Path A
You hold the tooling and the drawing. The enclosure, interface and layout are yours alone, and no other program can be built from them.
Path B
The heater runs on a proven platform; your identity carries the case, the controller, the literature and the carton. The fastest route to a launch.
Getting started
You do not have to commit to a container to start. Each rung is a stop point you can take a decision on, and the program only widens when the unit in your hand is the one you want.
A physical unit built to your spec, in your hand.
Stop here and take the sample to your own market test.
A small release off the same line, on the same released drawing.
Stop here and trial it with your buyers.
The scheduled run, released against the same frozen reference.
Scale as the orders come in.
A rung that does not pass does not roll forward. The sample is revised or the brief is reopened, and the pilot does not start until the reference is signed.
The platforms that carry the most programs are the ones buyers came back to. Repeat orders run at 98%.
Program evidence
From buyers who froze a reference and are still ordering on it.
“The unit that arrived was the unit we approved.”
A previous supplier moved the build quietly — new controller, different colour. Here the sample we signed was pulled at pre-shipment and checked against the container. Three runs, one frozen reference.
“One sample and a pilot lot turned into an annual program.”
Our volumes did not justify a container at the start, so we ran the sample in our own channels first. The pilot lot came off the same line and the same drawing, and nothing was re-tooled for season two.
Before you order
Ownership, change control and who signs — the things a specification sheet does not settle on its own.
Start a program
Market, annual volume and the certification it must carry — three lines, and we have what we need. Your reply comes from the engineer who would run the line, scoped to your program rather than matched off a shelf.
