Entries Tagged as 'Appliances'

Ivy Reviews: The Little Green Clean Machine

July 7th, 2009 5 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Remember this disaster? Well, I decided to just let my uncle have my carpet cleaner (since we’re pretty short on carpeting at Chez Ivy) and I bought myself a Little Green Clean Machine instead. Obligatory transparency statement: I was not paid to or asked to review this item. This is all me, kids.

So, let’s talk about the Little Green Clean Machine. (Henceforth to be called the LGCM since typing the whole thing out takes some effort.) As you all know, I had a heinous mess to clean up, so instead of what I’d usually do, clean up the mess with rags and then use some Spot Shot on it, I wanted something to be able to suck up the mess as well as clean it.

What I liked about it:

The LGCM does, in fact, suck. In the way you want it to. I wondered how well the suction action would work on such a small machine, and I’m pleased to report that it works very well. I’d say it sucks up about 80% of the water that I used on it- not bad at all. Now, in order to get all that water sucked up, you need to be sure to push down hard on the cleaning head. Because of that, I’m not sure how well it would work on a carpet you can’t do that to, like Berber.

It was easy to use: setup required attaching two hose clips, only one of which needed to be screwed in with a screwdriver. Within about 5 minutes, I was ready to clean. The instructions were written fairly well and were not confusing.

The sprayer works well. In fact, a bit too well. (See “what I didn’t like” for more) It covered the area I was cleaning and then some. I also really liked being able to see the dirty water that was being sucked into the machine through the clear head in the cleaning head. Though, I was a bit grossed out to see what I had been sitting on lately, ha. But by being able to see what was coming in, I could clean an area until I was satisfied that it was really clean- an option that my full sized carpet cleaner did not have.

I was able to clean the mess up quite well and very quickly, which is really important to me. I don’t want to be there all day setting up and taking things down, and setup and clean-up was very quick. Awesome.

Now, let’s talk about the things I didn’t like.

What I didn’t like:

Like I said, the sprayer worked too well. Like, it sprayed about twice the size of the cleaning head, which would be fine except that it went everywhere when cleaning the arms of my couch. I’d like to be able to control the amount of spray coming out of the sprayer.

Also, the hose was awfully short. I don’t have any stairs, but if I did have them, I’d like to use something like this to clean them, but I could imagine that this would be a pain when cleaning stairs, as I had to keep the machine close at hand while cleaning my couch.

The other thing I don’t like about it is that it seems that the only product you can really use on it is the stuff designed especially for the LGCM. I’d like to have an option of one to remove pet stains, since I doubt it’s specifically designed to remove the enzymes that need to be removed when cleaning up pet messes.

Overall, I really liked the LGCM and am glad I bought it. The pluses way outweigh the minuses. Next, I’m going to use it to clean my car. I can only imagine the nasty water that’ll come out of THAT! I can hardly wait, haha.

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Bagless Vacuums, the Dirty Secret

July 9th, 2008 16 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,
I admit, I was one of those – a bagless vacuum cleaner! What an amazing idea! No thought was given to what I was going to do with the container full of dust and debris. I’ve figured out that one – dumping out the junk is fairly easy although many people including myself dislike the cloud of who-knows-what that comes from dumping days’ worth of stuff sitting in the canister.  What I can’t figure out, nor find online, is how the heck to clean the filter.  Everything says, “clean the filter,” but then i see, “don’t touch the filter.” How does one clean the filter of a bagless vac? I’m pretty confident I’m getting lower performance because the filter is, um, gross. (The same can be said for my handvac but I’ll be satisfied today with knowing how to clean the filter on my less-than-a-year-old hoover.)
So i turn to the experts – how do I clean the filter on a bagless vac?
Signed,
Could Be Cleaner
Heather says:
After emptying the canister, pull the cartridge filter out.   Bang it carefully on the inside of your trashbin.  (This will help contain some of the dust that is going to fly out).  Be sure to only tap the rubber gasket portion of your filter. If you hit the paper portion it may be damaged by the impact.  This should loosen most of the debris.  If you have access to an air compressor, once the loose debris has been removed, blow any stubborn dust away. Using a rag or paper towel wipe out any lingering dirt and debris from your dust cup before replacing the filter.
With care these filters can last for quite a while, but they must be replaced on occasion.  Before ordering a new filter inspect your vacuum carefully, occasionally small toys, change, or string can lodge in a tube or hose and reduce the suction.   Don’t forget to examine the agitator and belt while you are down there.  A beater bar full of hair will certainly reduce your machine’s capability.  Use a box cutter or scissors to carefully cut away tangled hair and string.  Hopefully you’ll be back to Hoovering the floor in no time.
On a side noteI suckered talked Mr. Heather into a refurbished Dyson four* years ago.   It’s still going strong, and I still love it.  There, yet another shameless plug for a company not currently sponsoring us.
*Hey refurbished was half the price of new.
Submit your household questions to helpme@home-ec101.com

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Humidifier Cleaning 101

February 21st, 2008 2 Comments

Dear Home-Ec 101,

I would like to know the best way to clean a humidifier. I live in
Colorado and it is for my son who is 1 years old. He has croup, RSV,
and bronchiolitis at different times so we are always running his
humidifier. Thus far I have run vinegar and water to clean it. Any
other suggestions?
Dry in Colorado

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Humidifiers can quickly become bacteria factories if they are not cleaned thoroughly. The problem is, minerals can quickly build up on your humidifier which becomes breeding grounds for bacteria. Ewww!

To prevent mineral deposits, comsider using distilled water. This will help keep mineral deposits at bay.  But it is also important to change your water each day, so using distilled water could get expensive. If you use regular tap water in your humidifier, you will have to clean it more often.

If you are using distilled water, you can get away with cleaning your humidifier once a week or so. If you’re using tap water, clean it every three days. You can either use hydrogen peroxide or bleach to clean your humidifier, I personally prefer bleach- you can rinse it until the bleach smell goes away.

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Razor Blades: Not Just For Shaving, Great for Melted Plastic Removal

February 18th, 2008 9 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,
My husband nearly burnt our house down recently because he turned the stove on and forgot to take our plastic strainer out of it. The plastic is everywhere, now hard and stuck. I’m not exactly kitchen-smart, especially when it comes to the stove. (I’ve been known to mess up cup-a-soups by forgetting water.) The kitchen is mostly my husband’s domain, but he’s not even sure about what to do. We’ve thought about over cleaners, but aren’t sure how it would affect the chemicals in the plastic. We cannot use our oven at all until we figure out what to do, and I’m not sure how much fried food, microwaved food, and take-out we can have before we completely go insane. Please help!

Sincerely,
Messy Meltdown

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Oh, man.  That’s seriously terrible. The good news is, we can most likely help you clean it up.

You need to get a bag of ice and a window scraper with a razor blade in it, like this:

window-scraper.jpg

Put the ice on the plastic area for several minutes. Ice makes the plastic brittle and easier to scrape off. Then get your window scraper and gently scrape the plastic off. If you have an outdoor fire pit, you can take the racks out there and burn the plastic off. I’m not going to lie and say this is going to be an easy process, because it’s not. The problem is being gentle enough not to damage the bottom plate of your oven, but scraping hard enough to get the plastic off. It’s going to take patience, but I have faith in you, you can do it!

Just be careful, you don’t want to hurt yourself or put scrapes on the bottom plate of your oven. There’s a chance you still may end up having to buy a new bottom plate, but that’s certainly better than having to buy a whole new oven, huh?

Good luck!

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Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble

January 13th, 2008 2 Comments

Dear Home Ec 101,

The other day I started my dishwasher and walked away, a few minuets later I realized it didn’t sound right, so I opened it up to make sure that the arms were spinning, and that water was going where it is supposed to. (if water is dripping from everything it’s all good on my little portable dishwasher). Everything looked fine, water dripping from the top, everything coved in soap. I closed the dishwasher, and then it hit me —– everything covered in SOAP!! Oh no! Some how dish liquid had gotten in the dish washer, there were 6 inches high of soap bubbles at the bottom of the dishwasher, not really knowing what to do I drained it, added some vinegar to try to kill the bubbles, it seemed to work, but I did notice bubbles in the next load as well, so much for rinsing the soap off.

Any ideas of what to do in case this happens again?

Signed,

~Joy 

girlHeather says:

Vinegar and generous amounts of  salt are both great at reducing the foam caused by detergents for hand washing.  Salt reduces the surface tension of the water which inhibits the production of suds.  The dishwasher should then be forced through a rinse cycle.

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