You know the ones I’m talking about. They’re advertised by festering boils like Ron Popeil and Billy Mays. Some seem like they’d be pretty damn useful. Others look ridiculous (here I’m thinking of the clothes-folding board with the patented holes).
The only thing I’ve ever ordered (my wife kept hinting that she wanted it) was the QuickChop. Boy, did I get burned.
I paid extra for 7-10 day shipping, but received it in four weeks anyway. By the time it arrived, Rite Aid had already been selling them for two weeks. No matter. As long as it worked, right?
Wrong. It could only chop the softest things, and even then only with a good bit of effort on the presser’s part, and with a very loud squeaking sound that I somehow don’t remember from the commercial. I also remember the frauds in the commercial chopping onions with this thing. Not…even…close. The blades are about as sharp as those round-tipped scissors they give kids to cut up construction paper.
We used it a couple of times, got pissed off, and forever relegated it to The Drawer of Kitchen Stuff That Never, Ever Gets Used, alongside two electric knives and other bad wedding presents.
Haven’t bought it, but if you’ve ever seen advertisements for the Topsy Tail, don’t bother. You don’t NEED the stupid wand to do the topsy ponytail. My mother had been doing that with my hair since I was eight.
I bought OxyClean and it works well for organic messes and stains. I use it to clean the toilet, and it sort of dissolves the ick…whatever doesn’t dissolve is easily removed with a toilet brush. It also works for carpet stains from…well, I have used it for orange juice and red wine stains for sure, and others. The foam cleaner came with it, and it works better than Lysol Basin Tub and Tile foam stuff…plus, it smells better. It is also supposed to be pretty much environmentally friendly, which Lysol isn’t.
I bought a Pampered Chef chopper, and I love it…even after two years, it still works like new. I don’t know what I ever did without it. You can only get it from a PC dealer, but since choppers came up in this thread, just thought I’d share.
My aunt also recommended OxyClean to me to get stains out of baby clothes. She says she uses it on her (almost) 2 year old’s clothes and everything comes out. 2 votes for OxyClean.
I’m interested in the Igia Stop Snoring spray. I saw it on clearance at Target the other day (which peobably means that it doesn’t work.) and I’m willing to try anything to get my husband to either quit snoring, or to stop snoring SO LOUDLY.
Ditto on the Orange Glo…you can buy that now in the grocery stores. I told my sis about the Quick Chop, and as a former Pampered Chef hostess she had two, and gave me one. It works great.
My MIL has the Popeil Rotisserie…set it and forget it! (but you’re not really supposed to do that.) It works fine.
Ivylad was looking at that handheld sewing machine for sewing the son’s Boy Scout patches on his sash. Anyone had any experience with that one?
The only thing I have personally is a food dehydrator (not the Ronco one; mine’s a Magic Chef, I think). I like it a lot, but would use it more if I had a garden for a larger supply of veggies. It’s great when mushrooms go on sale, though.
A coworker has a Showtime Rotisserie, and loves it. I saw them recently in a store, and am still laughing at the sticker on the front. You know how “Set It And Forget It!” is their big selling point, and they repeat the mantra about a thousand times during the infomercial? On the sticker was the mantra in question in large letters, then below it something to the effect of “Not to be taken literally. Never leave the unit unattended.” As ivylass said, you’re REALLY not supposed to do that. Makes me wonder what else isn’t really like they say it is.
techchick has a Popeil Pasta maker and raves about it (in a good way), as I recall.
I’m thinking of a juicer, maybe the model Jack Lalane is hawking. Anybody have any experience with those?
There is an “As Seen on TV” shop at my local mall. I’ve purchased two items from them:
A “noise box” that plays soothing sounds such as rain, waves crashing on the shore, babbling brooks, etc. It works pretty well and I use it a lot to drown out street noises when I’m trying to sleep.
A vinyl/leather repair kit, which I haven’t used yet. I will report back on whether or not it works after I finally get around to fixing the rip in my desk chair.
Another thumbs up for OxyClean and the various Orange Clean/Glo/Foam products. Also for Kaboom. I didn’t buy them from TV, though, because there was a great deal on a package with the whole schpiel in a bucket with some sponges/scrubbers at Sam’s Club.
I did buy one of those FoodSaver vacuum sealing devices. It works just as it says, and stuff frozen in the bags doesn’t get freezer burned the way it would if it were wrapped in saran/aluminum foil or freezer bags.
My sister has a number of handmade quilts that she and her family actually use in the winter, but that she wants to keep safely during the warm months, so she got Spacebags, the things that you suck the air out of with your vacuum cleaner. She says that they do work nicely in terms of making it easier to store bulky things in a smaller, neater space and they have kept her quilts safe from moth invasion. She’s pretty happy with them.
Oh yeah…I have a FoodSaver and so do a brother and sister of mine. The bags are kind of expensive but cheaper than throwing stuff out. I’ve learned that making the bags MUCH larger than necessary is more economical than making them just somewhat larger. I also had a piece on mine break and they sent me a new part free of charge. I don’t use the thing to seal canning type jars but my sister swears by it.
