From those amped-up TV ads, you have to wonder how humanity survived before collapsible garden hoses and earwax vacuums.
This week, consumer reporter Betty Lin-Fisher, food writer Lisa Abraham and I have been reporting on our testing of some often-touted products, many of which are pitched on TV. Today we concentrate on five products you might use around the house.
None of them wowed us. Read on to see why.
Wraptastic
I’ve always thought rolls of plastic wrap were a bit of a pain — sometimes literally. I’ve cut my fingers on the serrated cutting blade more times than I’d like to admit.
Wraptastic is designed to make it easier and safer to dispense plastic wrap, as well as foil, waxed paper and other wrappings. It’s a rigid plastic dispenser with a hinged lid that contains a shielded blade. By pressing on the lid, you cut the wrapping in one motion, quickly and neatly.
We liked that aspect when we tested the Wraptastic with plastic wrap and foil, although we discovered that pressing the lid took more force than we expected. Because the blade is less exposed than it is on a box of plastic wrap, Betty noted that the dispenser would be safer for a child to use.
We also liked that the dispenser’s design keeps the plastic wrap’s cut end from clinging to the roll.
Unfortunately, we had some trouble getting a roll to seat correctly in the dispenser. Often a plastic guide would rub against one of the wheels, hindering how easily the roll turned. Betty needed two hands to pull the foil out.
We also thought the Wraptastic would work better if it were heavier. Although it has nonslip feet, the dispenser was still too lightweight to stay in place when we pulled on the wrapping.
The Wraptastic is for use only with wrapping rolls no bigger than 200 feet. Forget buying jumbo rolls.
Like many of the products we test, the Wraptastic is a good idea that suffers from mediocre execution. We paid $10.88 for the product, and we all agreed we might use it for dispensing plastic wrap. But we wouldn’t bother with it for foil or other types of wrapping.
Verdict:
Betty: It Depends
Lisa: It Depends
Mary Beth: It Depends
Pocket Hose
Collapsible hoses are big this season. Several brands are on the market, but we tested the Pocket Hose because it’s the one we saw most often on store shelves.
We tried the 50-foot version, which cost us $19.88. The hose also comes in 25-, 75- and 100-foot lengths.
The Pocket Hose has a fabric covering and a plastic liner, so it’s lightweight and doesn’t kink. It expands and uncoils like a snake when the water is turned on, then collapses when the water is off.
Compared with a regular garden hose, we found the Pocket Hose much easier to move around while we worked. As Lisa pointed out, it’s a good option for someone who doesn’t have the strength to lug a heavy hose around.
But I have concerns about the plastic couplings. In my experience, plastic just doesn’t hold up. If I were buying a collapsible hose, I’d spend a little extra and buy one with metal couplings, such as the XHose Pro.
The instructions specify storing the Pocket Hose in a shaded area, presumably because sunlight will break down the components. If your spigot is in the sun, you’d have to disconnect the hose after each use for storage.
Another drawback is that the hose can’t be repaired, as a regular garden hose can.
Our Pocket Hose didn’t leak or break, but then again, our testing period was limited. While we try not to base our judgments on other people’s experiences, we couldn’t help noticing that several readers who wrote to us about the hose complained about leaks or the on-off lever breaking.
In our opinion, the Pocket Hose might be suitable for people who can’t handle a heavier garden hose, but it’s not a good substitute for a more substantial hose.
“If you are looking for a lightweight hose, this would be a good thing,” Betty said. “Just know that it may not last as long as a regular hose.”
Verdict:
Betty: It Depends
Lisa: It Depends
Mary Beth: It Depends
Smart Twist Cleaning System
This trigger sprayer from S.C. Johnson holds three cleaning products, so you don’t have to carry three bottles around.
The sprayer contains a water reservoir and space for three small bottles of cleaner in concentrated form. The cleaner and water are mixed automatically when you spray, and you can change cleaning products just by twisting the gadget. Each cleaner has its own spray nozzle, so the products don’t get mixed.
You have to refill the water reservoir periodically, but one fill-up is more than enough for a session of housecleaning.
The Smart Twist can be used with any of five products — Scrubbing Bubbles bathroom cleaner, Windex glass cleaner, Fantastik kitchen cleaner, Pledge furniture cleaner and Shout carpet cleaner. Each 3.3-ounce bottle of concentrate makes about the same amount of cleaner as a standard spray bottle.
When we tried the Smart Twist, we thought it felt a little awkward to hold. The sprayer weighed a few ounces less than a 32-fluid-ounce bottle of Windex, yet it felt heavier because the bulk of the weight wasn’t directly in our grip, as it would be with the Windex bottle. It’s a little like the difference between holding a mug by its handle and gripping a water bottle. Even if the two weigh the same, the mug will feel heavier in your hand.
Lisa wasn’t convinced the sprayer mixed the concentrate and water adequately, although I didn’t share her concern. I thought it worked fine when I tried it at home.
Our biggest complaint was with the price: $24.99 for the sprayer plus three bottles of concentrate. That’s the price we based our evaluation on, but it’s worth noting that the company’s website, www.smarttwist.com, has the product on sale until Sunday. You can buy a sprayer and five bottles of concentrate for $9.95, with free shipping. A second system costs $19.95.
The regular price of the refills is a little high, too. They sell for $7.99 for two, which works out to about $4 apiece. By comparison, S.C. Johnson sells concentrated forms of all five cleaners, designed for refilling a 26-ounce spray bottle, for $2.50 each.
Verdict:
Betty: It Depends
Lisa: Skip It
Mary Beth: It Depends
Flower Rocket
The Flower Rocket is a rolled-up seed tape that promises to turn into “thousands of flowers.”
But after a month, all we had were a few dozen sprouts.
The Flower Rocket package contains two “rockets” embedded with the seeds of 15 types of annual flowers. Following the instructions, we planted one in a container filled with soil, which we had to provide.
It was still too cold then to put tender annuals outdoors, so we let the Flower Rocket germinate and grow in a sunny window. We had to keep it well-watered, a task that involved twice-daily watering for the first few days and daily watering after that.
The first sprouts appeared after just three days, with more following. But 32 days after planting, the plants were still small, probably weeks away from producing blooms.
Betty thought the name and packaging implied that “you are going to get huge flower blooms within days, which rocket out of the pot.” While that’s never expressly promised, it’s fair to say the speed of growth is more like a dirigible than a rocket.
Maybe in a month or more, the thing will be gorgeous. I’m not sure we’ll have the patience to keep caring for the Flower Rocket long enough to find out.
It was also hard to see how the Flower Rocket gave us any advantage over just sprinkling some seeds in a pot of soil. Considering that some types of seeds cost less than a buck a packet, that approach would have been a lot cheaper than the $9.99 Flower Rocket.
Verdict:
Betty: Skip It
Lisa: It Depends
Mary Beth: Skip It
WaxVac
We tried the WaxVac ear cleaner at the urging of a colleague with two children, one who swims competitively and the other who has, in her words, “really waxy ears.”
Sounds like the perfect solution, right?
Wrong.
The seeds of our doubt were planted right away when we noticed that the product’s packaging and website mentioned nothing about earwax. Despite the name, those sources say the device removes “dirt particles and moisture.” Moisture we can see, but dirt particles? Whose ears have dirt particles?
Still, we were eager to see just what the $9.88 WaxVac would remove.
We enlisted the help of Dr. Sidney Steinberger, an ear, nose and throat specialist who gamely agreed to perform a before-and-after exam to help us quantify the WaxVac’s performance.
We had intended to test the device just on Betty’s son, Sam, but Steinberger’s examination revealed two pretty clean ears. So we also tested it on me, because — well, let’s just say I was the most promising candidate.
Steinberger looked inside our ears and used a slender scope with a camera to take before pictures — which, I might point out, I won’t be framing and putting on my mantel.
Then we put the WaxVac to work.
The device is essentially a low-powered, battery-operated vacuum cleaner that’s supposed to gently suck stuff out of your ears. We tried it on both Sam and me for 45 seconds each, and then Steinberger went back in with his camera to take after pictures.
The WaxVac pulled an inconsequential speck of what we assumed to be earwax out of Sam’s ear, and we could see from the photo that a bit of wax had moved within the ear but hadn’t been dislodged. There was no way to tell whether the earwax had been moved by the suction or just by physical contact with the WaxVac’s tip.
In my case, the WaxVac made no difference at all.
Later, I poured water into one of my ears to test whether the WaxVac would draw it out. I used the device for five minutes — the maximum specified in the instructions — but the water didn’t budge.
I think Lisa summed up our opinion of the WaxVac best. “It’s all hype,” she said.
Verdict:
Betty: Skip It
Lisa: Skip It
Mary Beth: Skip It
Have you seen an advertised product and wondered if it really lives up to its claims? You can suggest items to be reviewed by Lisa Abraham, Mary Beth Breckenridge and Betty Lin-Fisher by sending email to labraham@thebeaconjournal.com or calling 330-996-3737, mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3756 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3724.