One of the best cordless vacuums I've used

Eureka Quick Up Cordless 96H

Great little machine I have to say. I was skeptical.. no.. skeptical wasnt the word.. I was downright not a believer that this vacuum could handle my retardedly difficult dorm carpet. Its so low pile that its almost linoleum but I also have an area rug...I was so tired of sweeping this carpet to the nth degree but was faced with a difficult situation.. dun dun dun.. the broke college student budget...so because of that I literally researched about 25 different vacuums lol... and I also could never find the answers to my specific questions so here goes..this one handles well ive had it for about 2 months and I havent noticed any issues with the battery not holding a charge.. but it hasnt been that long either. The way I see it even if the battery DOES die.. I got my monies worth. It does fine on carpet.. some people said they had issues but I didnt. I will say this though, people who complained about it not picking up certain items..

I had a moment of alarm when it started acting up on me but I noticed that the plug was not in all the way so I thought it was fully charged.. It definitely wasnt.. the lower a charge it has the less you pick up.. simple math but just keep that in mind when purchasing. Picks up hair just fine.. and yes.. it can pick up objects the size of a cheerio. Although Ive noticed the brush can get clogged up (im a female so there does tend to be hair here and there) and needs to be cleaned out but it doesnt take much. Other than that, I would definitely purchase this again =)

Get your Eureka Quick Up Cordless 96H Now!

what did this thing just pick up???

LG Kompressor Canister PetCare LcV900B

Purchased this vacuum to replace two aging Hoover Wind Tunnel uprights. This is my first LG purchase of any kind, so I'm cautiously optimistic regarding dependability with the LG brand. However, this vacuum is an excellent little cleaner on carpet, wood and tile floors, truly superb suction power. A little hard to push on the Berber carpet with the vacuum set on medium high setting, but did an initial cleaning on that level and will do future cleanings on the high level setting which is not hard to push on Berber. The LG literally pulled up stuff from our carpet that our Hoover Wind Tunnels have missed for years. Our house just feels noticeably cleaner after one go over with the LG. Note; there is no pet turbine tool included as described in the product's description, the tools you see in the picture are the tools you receive....hardwood floor tool is included which to me was better than a pet turbine tool, and it works quite well on hardwood and tile. All of my Hoover Wind Tunnel attachments work with this vacuum to include my Hoover pet turbine tool, so that's a big plus. The wheels of the vacuum do not mark up my high gloss wood floors, and the controls on the handle are great...power-head roller brush on/off, min/max suction, and a light telling you when the dust bin is full. The handle does stand up on it's own as shown in the picture with the carpet power-head accessory attached (the power-head also has a light), and the handle does have a little storage clip attached that you slide into a slot on the canister base to stand up during storage. I told my wife I bought us a little present and she immediately said "it better not be a vacuum cleaner", because we have two Hoover Wind Tunnel uprights. I told her it was a vacuum and we could send it back if she didn't like it. There's no way she'll let me send the LG back, she loves it. The 21 foot cord is adequate for our needs, yes a longer cord would have been better. The LG is very quite when compared to the noise of our 5 year old Hoover Wind Tunnel uprights which you can literally hear running 3 houses away. Besides floors, the LG vacuums rugs and dusts furniture, speakers, TV, electronics and artificial plants quite well on the minimum setting, but we do prefer to use the round dust brush that came with our Hoover Wind Tunnels, as opposed to the included LG rectangular dust brush. The Kompressor function is pretty cool, and the two filters are both washable with water. Far easier to empty than our Hoover Wind Tunnels. Bottom line, we're both "very" happy with our purchase of the LG Kompressor Petcare Plus Vacuum.

Get your LG Kompressor Canister PetCare LcV900B Now!

Signature Plus II Upright Vacuum With Handheld

Signature Plus II Upright Vacuum

I purchased this Oreck signature plus vacuum a couple of months ago, And I can honestly say I couldn't be happier. This vacuum picks up everything and it's soooo lightweight, Which is great if you have to carry it up and down the stairs. The vacuum bag itself is extra-large which is wonderful, Because it can hold a lot. I still haven't had to change the bag! Less bag changes, less money. But the great part about this combo purchase is that it comes with a six-month supply of bags For the vacuum itself and a seven month supply for the hand held. The handheld is also super-powerful and wonderful for hardwood staircases, curtains, and even the car! I also have a Rainbow Vacum, Which really is a wonderful vacuum, (and it should be for $2000) But it can be a little heavy and a bit cumbersome to lug around, Which is why I wanted a lighter weight vacuum to just use every now and again, But honestly, I haven't even used the rainbow since I got the Oreck. I do need to mention however, that different floor surfaces affect the pushing power differently of the Vacuum. We have hardwood floors downstairs and carpet Upstairs in the bedrooms. Its extremely easy to push and maneuver around on Hardwood Floor surfaces. The carpet in the bedrooms is also very easy to vacuum without any problems, as it's low pile carpet. However, for people such as myself with hardwood floors who also have thick area rugs throughout, such as in the living and dining rooms, It can be a little difficult to push over those carpet surfaces, as that particular carpet pile is much thicker and more dense and the vacuum roller is very close to the floor. I happen to like that because I know it's going to pick up everything, and it does! But just keep that in mind for those who have thick area rugs or very dense, high pile carpet. I personally a'm okay with it, as i have no major back problems and being that I'm so happy with the performance of the vacuum itself. So if you don't have a lot of Dense, high pile carpet throughout your home, I'm sure you'll be very happy with the ease and performance of this vacuum. It far exceeded my expectations, and has now become my number one, go-to vacuum. Great product, great price, Love it!

Get your Signature Plus II Upright Vacuum Now!

my little buddy

Neato Robotics Automatic Vacuum Cleaner

This is the only vacuum cleaner you will ever watch for entertainment. It is the only vacuum cleaner you will name. It is not perfect, but it is wonderful.

Let's get the criticism out of the way. It isn't great at edges, it leaves some debris along walls, thresholds and the like. We have a few thresholds it gets caught on. We have some chrome base barstools that cause it to get hung up. We have an antique prayer rug with intensely frayed edges we had to pick up because the loose strings got caught. If full sunshine is streaming on glossy hardwood floors it is sometimes confused and sees it as a wall.

Neato can be scheduled to clean when it is convenient for you. It is hard to describe the joy of arriving home to find Neato hard at work. The controls are very easy to understand and to use.

Neato does an excellent job of vacuumming. It maneuvers around obstacles, finds it way around with aplomb. Some have complained about the noise. Actually Neato makes much less noise than the Panasonic canister vacuum we bought because Consumer Reports said it was quiet.

Emptying the dustbin is easy. It has never gotten hair tangled around its beater bar. The difference in cleanliness at our house since this purchase is really astounding(maybe even embarrassing).

The first day of ownership I contacted Neato customer service beause my little buddy wouldn't go into the kitchen. The response read like an email from a concerned best friend trying to help you solve a problem. (The problem was sunshine on a glossy floor) It was the best customer service for an electronic gadget ever. It is customer service on the level of LLBean, excellence.

Buy a Neato, do yourself a favor. You will smile more than once.

Get your Neato Robotics Automatic Vacuum Cleaner Now!

Good upscale outlet

Leviton 5014 WSP Receptacle Duplex Commercial

I bought the West Bend Hi Rise bread maker about three weeks ago (November 2010). I originally was going to get a Breadman machine but read reviews that parts and service are difficult to obtain. Then I was looking at a Cuisanart but there seem to be issues about performance. Finally I settled on the West Bend based on overall good reviews. Later I found a local discount store has these on sale for fifty bucks. But I think it is a good value for anything under a hundred.

I have made about a dozen loaves so far and they have all turned out great. I have made plain white, whole wheat, Honey Oat, Cranberry quick bread, Banana Nut quick bread, and Buttermilk whole wheat. I used Red Star Active Dry Yeast for all loaves, although recipes sometimes call for bread machine yeast or instant yeast.

The recipes from the West bend manual are perfect, contrary to some comments about the poor manual. Perhaps they made corrects based on the feedback. The white, whole wheat and quick breads I made all came from the manual's recipes. I also used Beth Hensperger's Bread Machine Cookbook (highly recommended), and Sheasby's Bread Machine Bible.

The machine is well built. Solid, simple controls. The bread pan is very sturdy. I really like the two paddles and it mixes the ingredients into a consistent dough very well. I have not had the paddles stick in the loaf at all. One tip for easier removal of paddles. They often get baked dough stuck around their bases making removal difficult. Soak in warm water as stated in the manual. When you go to remove them, first push down on the paddle to break the binding dough, then pull up. You don't really feel it move down, but it does just enough to break the gummed up stuff. Works every time.

It has cycles for everything, plus a manual mode in which you can program your own cycles, and a dough cycle. It has settings for Light/Medium/Dark crust; and for 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 pound loaves. I have baked 1.5 and 2.0 lbs loaves of the various bread types I have tried so far and they all turned out perfectly baked with beautiful brown crusts. I warm the water or milk in the microwave before pouring into the bread pan; this helps the yeast start working sooner. No significant collapse of the loaf.

Read the books carefully about interplay of yeast, liquids, temperature, salt, and sugar. There are many types of yeast so be sure you understand which type you have and how much to use. I use very basic Red Star Active Dry Yeast. It takes about 2.25 teaspoons of yeast for a 2# loaf (about 4 cups of flour). Faster acting yeasts can be in the 1.25 - 2 tsp range. If you use honey or molasses in place of some of the sugar then reduce the water/milk by the same amount (about 2-4 tablespoons).

I am not a baker by any means. I got a bread machine because I wanted a simple way to make my own bread. It takes about 10-15 minutes to assemble the ingredients, and then it does everything else in about 3.5 hours for a 2 lb loaf. For one loaf at a time this is VERY easy. If I needed to make multiple loaves at a time for a larger family I might just opt for using the Kitchen Aid mixer and convection oven for multiple bread pans all at once. A bread machine like the West Bend can make a couple of loaves per day easily. I make about 3-4 loaves per week and that feeds my wife and I plus we can give some away to other family and take some to potlucks. My first ever cranberry bread loaf was a big hit at our last breakfast potluck.

I am spending more time learning about bread, ingredients, and recipes and less time making the bread. I would never have the inclinations to get into bread this much if I had to do it all by hand. If I was a real baker I might want to get my hands on the dough, but for convenience of home made bread the West Bend is perfect.

Overall: sturdy, makes great bread of a variety of types, simple to use, mixes dough well, and works with recipes from the manual and other books.

No complaints at all. I like it so much I am getting each of my daughters the exact same machine!

Get your Leviton 5014 WSP Receptacle Duplex Commercial Now!

What I wanted, great bread

West Bend 41300 Electronic Dual Blade

I bought the West Bend Hi Rise bread maker about three weeks ago (November 2010). I originally was going to get a Breadman machine but read reviews that parts and service are difficult to obtain. Then I was looking at a Cuisanart but there seem to be issues about performance. Finally I settled on the West Bend based on overall good reviews. Later I found a local discount store has these on sale for fifty bucks. But I think it is a good value for anything under a hundred.

I have made about a dozen loaves so far and they have all turned out great. I have made plain white, whole wheat, Honey Oat, Cranberry quick bread, Banana Nut quick bread, and Buttermilk whole wheat. I used Red Star Active Dry Yeast for all loaves, although recipes sometimes call for bread machine yeast or instant yeast.

The recipes from the West bend manual are perfect, contrary to some comments about the poor manual. Perhaps they made corrects based on the feedback. The white, whole wheat and quick breads I made all came from the manual's recipes. I also used Beth Hensperger's Bread Machine Cookbook (highly recommended), and Sheasby's Bread Machine Bible.

The machine is well built. Solid, simple controls. The bread pan is very sturdy. I really like the two paddles and it mixes the ingredients into a consistent dough very well. I have not had the paddles stick in the loaf at all. One tip for easier removal of paddles. They often get baked dough stuck around their bases making removal difficult. Soak in warm water as stated in the manual. When you go to remove them, first push down on the paddle to break the binding dough, then pull up. You don't really feel it move down, but it does just enough to break the gummed up stuff. Works every time.

It has cycles for everything, plus a manual mode in which you can program your own cycles, and a dough cycle. It has settings for Light/Medium/Dark crust; and for 1.5, 2.0 and 2.5 pound loaves. I have baked 1.5 and 2.0 lbs loaves of the various bread types I have tried so far and they all turned out perfectly baked with beautiful brown crusts. I warm the water or milk in the microwave before pouring into the bread pan; this helps the yeast start working sooner. No significant collapse of the loaf.

Read the books carefully about interplay of yeast, liquids, temperature, salt, and sugar. There are many types of yeast so be sure you understand which type you have and how much to use. I use very basic Red Star Active Dry Yeast. It takes about 2.25 teaspoons of yeast for a 2# loaf (about 4 cups of flour). Faster acting yeasts can be in the 1.25 - 2 tsp range. If you use honey or molasses in place of some of the sugar then reduce the water/milk by the same amount (about 2-4 tablespoons).

I am not a baker by any means. I got a bread machine because I wanted a simple way to make my own bread. It takes about 10-15 minutes to assemble the ingredients, and then it does everything else in about 3.5 hours for a 2 lb loaf. For one loaf at a time this is VERY easy. If I needed to make multiple loaves at a time for a larger family I might just opt for using the Kitchen Aid mixer and convection oven for multiple bread pans all at once. A bread machine like the West Bend can make a couple of loaves per day easily. I make about 3-4 loaves per week and that feeds my wife and I plus we can give some away to other family and take some to potlucks. My first ever cranberry bread loaf was a big hit at our last breakfast potluck.

I am spending more time learning about bread, ingredients, and recipes and less time making the bread. I would never have the inclinations to get into bread this much if I had to do it all by hand. If I was a real baker I might want to get my hands on the dough, but for convenience of home made bread the West Bend is perfect.

Overall: sturdy, makes great bread of a variety of types, simple to use, mixes dough well, and works with recipes from the manual and other books.

No complaints at all. I like it so much I am getting each of my daughters the exact same machine!

Get your West Bend 41300 Electronic Dual Blade Now!

Tying cables and cords

Luster Leaf Rapiclip Light 839

While this works in the garden, I generally prefer the thicker 'heavy duty' type for tying heavy laden tomato branches, outdoor type extension cords, etc. There are other uses that make this a favorite though. It does come in handy for tying up tall flower stems to stakes and such lighter uses and also works well to keep my birdfeeder doors closed. I have two suet feeders that can be plundered by squirrels when closed the way they are designed to be closed. For some reason, using some of this twist tie to secure the doors works perfectly. After I've reused a piece multiple times, the wire will break so then I cut a new piece. A pack lasts a long time, though, and is a good value for such outside uses.

But my favorite use for this stuff is inside, where I keep another pack. I use it to contain appliance cords. With wire snippers I cut whatever length I want and tie up the offending volume of cord. The cords can be liberated and retied as needed many times before the wire gives out. It is a really inexpensive solution to this problem. There's an even thinner version that I use for the little cables for my phone, camera and iPod and other USB type cables.

While there are products specifically designed for various cable uses, they are more expensive and tend to get lost, while this generous pack lasts and is always easy to find. This is great stuff for many things and I find having it on hand in the utility room, the garage and the potting shed is very useful. Highly recommended for multiple uses.

Get your Luster Leaf Rapiclip Light 839 Now!

Great product

Luster Leaf STT100 Twist Black

I'd never used a food processor...the very idea intimidated me. And I thought that you had to be making large quantities to use one. Then I saw this 7 cup Cuisinart...small enough for small families. I started reading reviews...everyone else seem to love it too, so I decided to buy it. Someone would complain that that they liked it but it didn't cut french fries...someone else replied, "buy the french fry cutter disc"...so I added that one. Read that it didn't do something else, and a reply "buy that disc"...so I added that one too. By the time I'd read all the reviews, I'd added every disc made for it! So naturally I had to have the plastic disc storage boxes too. Now I was ready to learn how to use it.

I watched the DVD that came with it...something I've never done with any other product, but glad I did and something I highly recommend doing if you're not an experienced user, because a major portion of it is a chef demonstrating how to make half a dozen of the recipes in the instruction book, so you get to see how to do various tasks.

Cutting to chase here, at the tender young age of 70 I'm learning to use a food processor and loving it! This Cuisinart is well made and easy to learn how to use, and produces reasonable size amounts. And I MIGHT actually find a use for ALL those extra discs if I live long enough!

Get your Luster Leaf STT100 Twist Black Now!

Wonderful processor, even though I don't have all the parts

Cuisinart DLC 2007N 7 Cup Processor White

I'd never used a food processor...the very idea intimidated me. And I thought that you had to be making large quantities to use one. Then I saw this 7 cup Cuisinart...small enough for small families. I started reading reviews...everyone else seem to love it too, so I decided to buy it. Someone would complain that that they liked it but it didn't cut french fries...someone else replied, "buy the french fry cutter disc"...so I added that one. Read that it didn't do something else, and a reply "buy that disc"...so I added that one too. By the time I'd read all the reviews, I'd added every disc made for it! So naturally I had to have the plastic disc storage boxes too. Now I was ready to learn how to use it.

I watched the DVD that came with it...something I've never done with any other product, but glad I did and something I highly recommend doing if you're not an experienced user, because a major portion of it is a chef demonstrating how to make half a dozen of the recipes in the instruction book, so you get to see how to do various tasks.

Cutting to chase here, at the tender young age of 70 I'm learning to use a food processor and loving it! This Cuisinart is well made and easy to learn how to use, and produces reasonable size amounts. And I MIGHT actually find a use for ALL those extra discs if I live long enough!

Get your Cuisinart DLC 2007N 7 Cup Processor White Now!

Love this vacuum

Neato XV 21 Allergy Automatic Cleaner

We are in our 70's and age and arthritis have made a few household chores less than enjoyable. Especially wrestling an upright sweeper around. I had been looking at these things for some time and wondering just what kind of job they would do. Finally, I decided to give one a try. I had only heard of the Roomba but just gave Amazon the general search parameters of "Robot Vacuum" I chose the Neato because of the generally good reviews it had. My only concern was our little dog. He, like a lot of dogs, is scared to death of the vacuum. We need not have worried. He keeps trying to get it to play with him. I think he thinks we got him a pet. The vacuum, itself does an excellent job and it only took us a couple of days to learn what areas it had trouble negotiating and change the setup so the vacuum could find it's way through. Now it's completely supervision free and the only thing we have to do is keep it's bin empty. It's even considerate enough to thank you when clean out the bin. During all our 50 years of marriage we often joked about "Bridget," the maid who didn't get her work done. As in, I guess that girl forgot the dishes again, I'll have to do them myself, etc. Now we have a Bridget and while she won't do dishes or windows, she does a remarkable job with the carpet.

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