A Pretty Wonderful Electric Kettle: The Farberware Electric Glass Kettle!

The Good: Boils water fast, Easy to clean, Affordable
The Bad: Comparatively loud, Stiff electric cord.
The Basics: The Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle is a decent electric kettle that does exactly what it promises in terms of boiling water fast!


Not long ago, after a decent five years of fairly heavy use, my electric kettle finally gave out. The Ovente 1.5 Liter Glass Electric Kettle (reviewed here!) did an amazing job of holding up over the years, at least for my family and I. Needing a replacement fast, I had to find a new (to me) electric kettle and we decided to go with the affordable, easy-to-find locally Farberware Electric Glass Kettle.

The Farberware Electric Glass Kettle is, as its name suggests, a clear glass kettle used to boil water. The Farberware Electric Glass Kettle has a bright blue light at the bottom where the heating coils are for no practical reason. In fact, the only reason I can tell to have the light in the electric kettle is to determine when the unit is actively heating the water. The Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle is a two-piece electric device that is designed solely to boil water . . . fast. The Electric Glass Kettle is comprised of a stainless steel and black plastic base and the actual glass kettle, with a black plastic handle and lid.

The base is a simple six inch in diameter plastic disc with a cord that plugs into a two-prong wall socket. The cord is twenty-eight and one-half inches long, but for those who do not need a cord that has to stretch even that far, below the disc are tabs that allow the user to wind the cord up and contain it under the unit. Unfortunately, the cord is unusually stiff and, as a result, it truly only winds once around the base, lest the stiffness prevent the heating disc from laying flat on the counter upon which the unit is placed. There are soft-rubber feet on the underside which both protect finer surfaces from any sort of scratching from the plastic bass. Moreover, the rubber feet provide friction so the unit is remarkably stable and does not move from any flat surface I've set it upon. Considering the whole point of this gadget is to boil water, stability of the unit is essential.

Atop the disc is a knob that comes from a slightly raised, contoured inner disc. This is where the kettle itself attaches to the base. The base simply plugs into the wall and sits where one leaves it.

The actual electric kettle portion is an eight and three-quarter inch tall glass pot that is accented with matte black plastic for the handle, activation lever and flip top and stainless steel for the base ring. The kettle sets on the base and when together, they are very stable and hard to tip over. The kettle has a 1.7 Liter capacity (in practical terms, this is more than two full steeping pots worth of tea!) and it takes seven minutes, fifteen seconds to come to a very full boil.

Operating the Farberware Electric Glass Kettle is exceptionally easy: fill with water, place the kettle on the base (assuming it's plugged in), depress the lever on the bottom base of the kettle (the bottom of the base of the glass kettle up neon blue when active) and wait. The unit turns itself off when it is done. Because it has an automatic shut-off, one cannot burn down their house with the Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle!

And then all you need to do is pour your boiling water out and is it that simple. Refilling the unit is a snap because of the spring-loaded top which opens by pressing a button on the handle. Moreover, the button is positioned in such a way that makes accidentally opening the top and spilling boiling water on oneself virtually impossible.

More than any other electric kettle I have used, the Farberware Electric Glass Kettle is loud when the water in it is boiling. As it nears a boil, this kettle makes a lot of noise, which was an unfortunate surprise with the unit.

Cleanup of the Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle is impressively easy. First, I recommend only using filtered water in the unit. Whenever I fill the Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle, I use water from my Brita Oceania Pitcher Filtration System (reviewed here!) and even with very hard water in my apartment, the Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle has only required minimal cleaning. The glass sides of the pitcher make it virtually impossible for any build-up to build up on the surface of the electric kettle. A damp cloth may be used to clean the base after it is unplugged.

The Farberware 1.7 L Electric Glass Kettle is all right, but it is a bit louder and has a bigger footprint than I find ideal.

For other electric kettles, please check out my reviews of:
Hamilton Beach K1050 Electric Kettle
Chef's Choice 675 Electric Kettle
Hamilton Beach 45802B Electric Kettle

7.5/10

For other kitchen appliances, please visit my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2018 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Efficient And Easy To Use, The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner Is An Affordable Home Vacuum Cleaner!

The Good: Inexpensive, Good sucking power, Easy to assemble, Easy to clean, Veryy quiet
The Bad: Not the most powerful home vacuum, Cord is not retractable
The Basics: The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a good replacement vacuum that will serve most households quite well.


A few years ago, I found an amazing vacuum cleaner in the form of the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum (reviewed here!). That vacuum has served my household exceptionally well for the past three years and while the latch that locked to keep the vacuum's handle upright has stopped working, I did not see that as a reason to replace it. My wife, on the other hand, wanted a new vacuum and given that the key selling point of the Rewind Pet for us was its amazing ability to vacuum up all of the Siberian Husky hair in the house, following Myah's death, I could see that getting a brand new, shiny vacuum cleaner was a good idea. Given how successful the Rewind Pet was at keeping our apartment clean for the past few years, Bissell easily earned our repeat business. While I was out of town, my wife picked up a Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner for our home and I arrived home to discover the simple joy of a new, highly-functional vacuum cleaner.

The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a very simple canister-style vacuum and the 1834 is noticeably less-powerful than the Rewind Pet we had before. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is surprisingly light, though; already, I have found that using it to vacuum our stairs is much easier than with any other upright vacuum I have previously used. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner continued the experience we had which found that Bissell vacuums had great durability, despite its light weight.

The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner came unassembled, so our first task was to get it out of the box and put it all together. Anyone with a Phillips head screwdriver can put this together, probably without even looking at the directions; the assembly is pretty intuitive for both attaching the handle and affixing the tube. One simply needs to attach the base to the handle assembly and connect the hose and they all come together in one way. The handle has two pieces which snap into the base and screw together to form the solid drive shaft of the vacuum. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner my wife purchased is predominantly red for all of the front pieces (that are not made out of clear plastic) and black for all of the components along the drive shaft of the vacuum.

Properly assembled, the Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is 44" tall by 14” wide by 12" deep at the base. This is an efficient-looking canister vacuum cleaner with a handle with a guard that actually makes it very easy to maneuver the vacuum. The drive shaft holds the tube, so the handle is not encumbered by the tube which is transporting the sucked up matter from the ground to the canister. The 1834 has the belt and motor assembly in the base of the vacuum, which rotates the brushes. There seems to be suction from the canister area, though, even without the brushes rotating and sucking (which makes sense because the hose on the back of the vacuum detaches in order to get into tough areas). The canister is attached to the front of the handle assembly and snaps in easily. The tube winds around the back of the handle assembly.

With the Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner vacuum properly assembled, it simply needs to be plugged in to power the unit. The cord is attached to the back of the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner, which is a step back from the Rewind Pet vacuum we had before. Instead of having a cord that is internally-wound, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has a fully-extended cord that attaches to the back of the vacuum's base and has to be wound on the back of the handle. The cord does not stay wound well on the back of the vacuum, which lowers the ease-of-use of this vacuum.

When activated, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner makes very little noise. My cat Elim does not leave the room when I vacuum with the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner and our other two cats only seem to leave the room or room immediately adjacent to the vacuum when I start moving it. When they are a room away, they do not seem to be bothered at all by the vacuum actually being on.

As for the vacuum's power, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner works quite well. Even without Myah around, there is still Siberian Husky hair around our apartment and the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has been steadily finding it all. After a month of solid use, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has continued to clean our apartment exceptionally well; with each pass, the vacuum seems to find even less lingering hair from our dear, departed Myah. Elim, however, has been shedding a bit more and the vacuum always gets his hair up exceptionally well.

Because the transport tube comes in the right side of the base, the right side of the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner has stronger suction than the left side on this vacuum cleaner. Suction on the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is quite good, but there is a noticeable difference between the quality of the suction on the right and on the left.

The vacuum easily removes dirt and hair and every other form of solid matter I’ve been able to find so far from carpets and walls. Because the hose may be detached from the base, this vacuum has quite a bit more versatility than most uprights and it may be used to get cobwebs as well . . . assuming the cobwebs are within five feet of the base of the vacuum, as that is about the length of the vacuum’s hose. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is easy to move over any level of carpet or hardwood, which makes it easy to clean with.

Use of the assembled Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is exceptionally easy. There is the standard release lever on the base of the unit which allows the handle to be unlocked. This allows one to push or pull the vacuum at an angle, as opposed to perpendicular with the floor. The Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is activated by a power pedal near the bottom of the back of the vacuum cleaner. The pedal is not as convenient to use as a power button on the handle, but it is functional. The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner vacuum may be used on low carpets (or bare floors), medium pile carpets or even longer carpets, with the height of the base being adjusted by a simple knob on the front of the base.

As the canister gets filled up – easily visible as the canister is attached to the front and transparent – the vacuum continues to vacuum with decent force. When the canister is filled, simply unlatch the canister from the handle assembly and empty the canister. The press of a button allows all the crap in the canister to drop out, like the canister has a trap door! The top of the filter twists off and the filter itself may then be dumped into a garbage bag. You can even wash the filter and canister out, but that just puts dirt and dust down the sink. Either way, it is exceptionally easy to get the hair, dirt and dust one vacuums up out of the canister without putting it back in the air, simply by operating the release right in the container one is dropping the matter into!

The Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner comes with a pair of attachments: an adjustable rotating brush and a little brush which attaches to that or to the hose itself. I’m not wild about attachments, but both my wife and I used the attachments and found them easy to use, though the sucking power was diminished. The vacuum worked great on the floors and for sucking up matter through the hose directly when we detached it from the base.

Ultimately, the Bissell Cleanview Bagless Vacuum Cleaner is a good home vacuum cleaner from Bissell, even if it is not the most powerful model the manufacturer makes . . . even in a similar price point.

For other vacuum reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cheetah Ash Vac II vacuum cleaner
Kenmore 31079 vacuum
Dirt Devil KWIK vacuum

8/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my Home And Garden Products Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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A "Bells And Whistles" Toaster Oven: The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven!

The Good: Cooks evenly and well, Very stylish, Easy-to-clean, Decent capacity
The Bad: Controls are not intuitive, Large footprint, Comparatively expensive, No "off" button!
The Basics: The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is more toaster oven than most anyone will need . . . and users have to pay for that overkill!


For the past week, I have been in one of my favorite places on Earth. The return to a place I have always loved has been a real divided experience for me. On the big plus side, I'm somewhere I love to be; on the minor negative side, it has changed. The kitchen, especially, where I am is virtually unrecognizable to the room I spent many happy hours in in the past. That said, the new kitchen is legitimately awesome and it is stocked with brand new products that I have had a chance to truly play with and now review. The first one I decided to focus on is the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven for the very simple reason that out of all the new appliances, it is the one I am most comfortable using! There is something intimidating about working in a kitchen where one is acutely aware that they are unable to afford to replace or repair anything they damage. Even I could (eventually) afford a Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven!

The Breville BOV450XL model is fairly new to the market and it looks very modern. Built with a stainless steel finish and a slew of buttons and a dial, the front of the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven prominently features a digital display that very clearly states times and temperature. The display face is excellent for anyone who goes into the kitchen bleary-eyed in the morning and forgot their glasses elsewhere!

The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is a toaster oven which has both multiple toasting settings and oven-heating settings. That means the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is designed for toasting bread and baking small dishes. The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is 15 1/5" wide by 8 1/2" tall by 13" deep and because of the heating elements inside has an internal, usable space of 11" by 11" by 4". The internal space makes it just big enough to cook a small casserole, a small tray of muffins, three full slices of pizza or three whole bagels. This is a decent alternative on small cooking projects from a standard oven as the BOV450XL is generally more energy efficient than older models. The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is the first toaster oven I can remember using where the electric cord is so big and thick that I did not have any concern that it could be melted by the heat of the toaster over. However, for those who are concerned with footprint, the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven features a cord that ends in a very solid and substantial plug; trying to place the toaster directly in front of an electric outlet does not work as the plug pushes the unit away from the wall by at least three inches!

The BOV450XL is very stylish as it is a toaster oven that will thrill anyone who likes the look of brushed steel. The unit has well-obscured black feet and an obvious ceramic glass door.

Loading the toaster oven is quite simple. This is essentially a ceramic and metal breadbox-shaped toaster oven with a large ceramic glass door in the front. The top of the door in adorned with a very solid steel handle that projects away from the door. No matter how long the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven was in use, the handle never seemed to get too hot to touch! Opening the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is as simple as pulling the handle down, which rotates the front door open. Inside the BOV450XL is a wire rack shelf which will support a couple pounds of food. The strong steel rack does not show any signs of buckling! After the dish or bread products one wants to toast are placed in the toaster oven, one needs only to set the controls.

Unfortunately, the conrtols on the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven are not intuitive to use and are often over-complicated. First, one must adjust a dial at the top. The dial sets the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven to various cooking tasks from "toast" and "bagel" to "pizza" and "Bake." How are cookies cooked different than simply baking them in the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven? I have no clue, but they are! After the type of heat is set, the rest of the unit operates on buttons. Adjustments can be made using arrow buttons under the display to increase or decrease time or temperature. When I started cooking pizza one night, I noticed the unit was default-set to think it was frozen and had adjusted somehow; given that it was not frozen, I had to find the accompanying button (which I did by graphic alone) to change the setting. After all of those buttons are figured out, one has to actually press the "start" button. If your food is done cooking early, one must hit the Start/Cancel button and it cancels (not pauses) it.

The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven irked me because it did not have an "off" button. The unit shuts itself off after a minute, but there is something unsettling about toasting something and when it is done and the toast is pulled out, the toaster oven is primed and ready for the next slices. Perhaps this would be a big selling point to a restaurant, but for home use, it seems like the recipe for a safety issue!

On the cleaning front, the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven is very easy to use. Below the heating element, the bottom of the toaster oven is guarded by a tray that catches anything that falls off the cooking surface. As a result, keeping the Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven clean is usually just a matter of sliding the bottom tray out, wiping it off and sliding it back in! The ceramic door and the stainless steel also wipes clean with exceptional ease.

For the price, though, I would want a toaster oven that was more simple and direct to use. I like bells and whistles, but I like them to be easy to use; intuitive functionality based on a direct form. The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven does not have that. The Breville BOV450XL Toaster Oven does, however, do all the cooking and toasting it promises while looking incredible doing it!

For other kitchen appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Black And Decker CTO6120B Toaster Oven
Samsung Stainless Steel Microwave
GE GSD2100NOOWW Dishwasher

6.5/10

For other kitchen appliance reviews, please be sure to visit my Home And Garden Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Shower Together With The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 In 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo!

The Good: Easy to install, Easy to use, Surprisingly good flow, Affordable
The Bad: No "full stop" option, Base is not wide enough to allow the hose to go much to the side.
The Basics: The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo works surprisingly well and is a great showerhead!


When it comes to things like showerheads, I tend to leave the shopping to my wife. Indeed, I am very complacent when it comes to leaping in the shower, getting clean, and then getting out and getting on with my day. But, as one who is always looking for ways to spend time together (and, frankly, methinks, someone to wash her back!) my wife has been retrofitting our apartment's bathroom so we can share showers easier. Given that, like with many people, there is a bit of a height difference between us and that our shower area is not huge, showering together has been more of a chore than an act of love. That changed, however, when my wife bought us a Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo!

The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a showerhead that is actually two heads; one rooted to the wall and a second that is hand-held, connected to the base of the first by a long, flexible, tube. This allows two people to comfortably shower with one another without forcing one person to be constantly standing somewhere other than right under the flow of the water!

The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a stainless steel showerhead assembly that easily screws into a pipe in one's shower. The primary showerhead sticks out 6" from the shower pipe. At its base is a 3 1/2" wide piece that is perpendicular to the showerhead and features the control dial and the cradle for the handheld showerhead. The handheld showerhead is connected to the primary wall-based unit by a 4 3/4' flexible hose. Both showerheads are 4" in diameter; the handheld showerhead is on a 5" handle, which allows one to grip it firmly when it is out of its cradle.

Installation of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is shockingly easy. When my wife purchased the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo, she announced that it had arrived and before I could leap up from my writing to muck up her efforts, she had already unscrewed the old showerhead and properly installed the new one! The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is so easy to install that it took her less than four minutes to assemble and attach the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo to the pipe. The screw-on ring that attaches the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo to the wall's pipe is tight and secure enough that we did not even need to use any pipe tape; in fact, we've switched up which shower in our apartment has the new showerhead and neither shower has shown any leaks where the pipes connect to the showerhead. The same cannot be said of the old, cheap, plastic shower heads out landlords originally had installed in our showers, so this is a clear benefit of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo!

Using the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is fairly simple after it has been installed. On the left side of the base of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a dial. Turning the dial controls whether the water goes exclusively to the main showerhead, the handheld showerhead or both. On the right side of that same base is the cradle for the handheld showerhead, which allows one to have two showerheads shooting water from the wall, as opposed to forcing one to actually hold the handheld showerhead. One of the few strikes against the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo comes in its basic functioning; the dial has the three options, but for those who are conscientious about water conservation, there is no option to shut off flow entirely. Instead, one must turn off the water source completely, which then forces one to take a blast of cold water when turning it back on.

The Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo has multiple flow settings on each head. The showerheads are adjusted through a dial lever on each of the two heads and it changes the water flow from a powerful blast coming through the center-most holes in the showerhead to the misting function that comes from water flowing out all of the holes in the showerhead. The result is a wide variety of pressures and water coverage options and the fact that each head has adjustable dials allows each person in a shower to adjust their showerhead to their own preferences. This is pretty wonderful function and it works exceptionally well. In fact, one of the true pleasant surprises of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is that the water flow/pressure remains extraordinary across all permutations of the settings. We noticed no perceptible change in water pressure between our prior small-head showerhead and installing the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo. While there is a minor, predictable, fall-off in water pressure from opening both showerheads up fully, there is minimal water pressure falloff before that! In other words, it is very easy for two people to use the shower with the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo at the same time and both people get clean and feel clean!

The only other real detraction to the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is in the flexible hose, or more accurately, the way the hose connects to the base. Part of the reason the water pressure is so good is that the hose that attaches the base to the handheld showerhead of the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo is a straight shot, which conserves the water pressure by maintaining the water's direction from the pipe through the shower head. Unfortunately, it also means that to use the handheld showerhead, one must basically bisect the shower space with the hose; the person using the handheld showerhead has to lift the hose above the other person in the shower or the hose will brush against the other person, who is getting cleaned from the primary nozzle. This is a design issue that would have been prevented by a wider base which would offset the hose, but it is understandable that Hydroluxe might not have done that because the water pressure would have suffered.

That said, the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo does what it promises. It is easy to install, easy to use, easy to clean and it allows two people to shower together comfortably; it is hard to ask more from a showerhead than the Hydroluxe Full-Chrome 24 Function Ultra-Luxury 3-way 2 in 1 Showerhead/Handheld-Shower Combo delivers!

8.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Arguably The Best Fan I Have Yet Found: The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan!

The Good: Good air flow, Very small footprint, Durable, Directional change is a cool idea.
The Bad: Not very easy to clean, Not very quiet
The Basics: The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is a worthwhile window fan for those who want to avoid using an air conditioner.


I have a had a string of bad luck when it comes to fans over the last few years. The fans I have tried are either wobbly, prohibitively expensive or have features that jack up the price without truly altering the product's effectiveness. As one who is basically a cheapskate, I try to mitigate the inevitable hike in my electric bill that comes with using an air conditioner during the summer months by using fans. So, my ideal fan is durable, energy efficient and easy to clean with good air flow that effectively cools both my wife and I in our apartment. To date, the best fan I have yet found is the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan.

The Pelonis Window Fan model FW23-8HS is a window fan with wings that fill out the space in a window and removable feet that allow the unit to stand firmly on its own when outside of a window perch. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan requires no real assembly when it comes out of the box, just clipping on the metal feet to the grooves in the base of the window fan. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is a blockish unit that is made primarily of heavy white plastic and has two fans in the unit. Measuring 24" wide, the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan has extendable "wings" which allow the window fan to fill the full width of the window in which it is placed. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is 12 1/2" tall and 4" deep. The cord on the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is 63" long and ends in a standard two-prong plug.

The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan has a white finish which is very simple. The unit has two fans and on the front of the window fan there are two sliding buttons that control the direction the fan is blowing - in and out. At the top of the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan are two buttons, the left one for speed and the right one for temperature. There are eight LED lights above the buttons on two rows, five green ones to indicate the desired temperature if one presses the right "Temp" button, and three red LEDs below the temperature LEDs for desired speed.

Usage of the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is fairly easy. The lower portion of the unit is thinner, which allows the window fan to fit in the bottom channel of pretty much any window. As a rather clever design aspect, near where the cord enters the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan on the bottom of the unit, there is a little recess, which allows the cord to be threaded along the base of the window fan and the base of the windowframe. As a result, the window fan remains very stable when properly placed in a window. The top of the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan has a channel of its own, so when the window is closed down to the top of the window fan, it is kept firmly in place. Once so situated and plugged in, the unit is activated with a touch of a button.

Years of experience have proven to me that the "Temperature" button is basically a theoretical concept that is not executed with practical application. The "Temp" button creates a speed that theoretically creates the desired temperature. It's like the theory of wind chill - "30 degrees that feels like 10 because of how fast the wind is blowing." But in practical application, this is an overselling of the concept and unfortunately does not work in a real way. Pressing the "Temp" button causes the fan to blow at a consistent speed - there is no temperature gauge within the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan that monitors or adjusts to the desired temperature. As a result, trying to get the window fan to actually cool a room or make one feel like they are in a room that is 60 degrees on a one hundred degree day does not work at all. Similarly, there were nights where we put the unit in the window and set it to 70 degrees and at some point in the night, the temperature outside plummeted into the 50s, but the fan's speed did not change at all.

As a result, I tend to use the simple low, medium and high speed settings when I use the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan works incredibly well. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan moves air with noticeable force; even at the lowest of the settings.

I discovered very early on that one of the most useful functions of the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan was the ability to change the direction the fan blades are moving. Throughout the summer, our local grocery store offered bacon on clearance - sometimes for more than 60% off! - and we would stock up on it. Rather than sweltering in the heat from having the oven on in the summer, we would blow the hot air from the apartment out instead of trying to suck (theoretically) colder air into the apartment. That worked far better than I would have thought before I got the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan (and it also vacated any smoke that came from the over under such circumstances!).

The Pelonis Window Fan is not particularly quiet, though I have had much louder fans. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is noticeable when it is on, for much more than just air flow.

Cleaning the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is very difficult. The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is a sealed unit. As a result, the outside of the window fan may be wiped down very easily, but cleaning the actual blades inside is a virtual impossibility. Given that I live on the edge of a forest where there is pollen and dirt, the inability to easily clean the blades is problematic.

The Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is not incredibly energy efficient, but it is still vastly less expensive than running an air conditioner.

In the final analysis, the Pelonis FW23-8HS 9" Window Fan is an affordable way to cool most rooms, at least in an apartment setting!

For other fans, please check out my reviews of:
Dyson Air Multiplier Fan
Feature Comforts FTT-4 3-Speed Oscillating Tower Fan
Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote

8/10

For other appliances, please check out my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Average And Overpriced: The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote!

The Good: Good air flow, Remote can be helpful
The Bad: Expensive, Not at all energy efficient, Very large footprint
The Basics: In a pinch, we picked up a Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote and while it was helpful, it was very overpriced for the results it delivered.


This year has been the hottest one in my conscious memory, which has been supported by record high temperatures in my area even now in September. In August, our air conditioning broke down, and it was then that we realized that our prior Lasko fan had broken down (the motor burned out) and the only other fans we had in our home were window fans. Given that out apartment is on the sunny side, with windows that are right off the first floor roof, window fans were not a good option for us to try to beat the August heat. The middle of one hot night was not the night to debate with my wife the merits of trying to repair a fan or come up with another solution, so we ended up running out to buy a fan. We ended up picking up a Lasko Stand Fan (S18601) for $60 and we continued using the fan for the past month and a half, even though our air conditioning got fixed.

And, having had an inexpensive Lasko Stand Fan that was under $30, which lasted for a few years, the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote seemed vastly overpriced for what it offers.

The Lasko Stand Fan model S18601 is a floor fan with an adjustable height function. The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote requires assembly when it comes out of the box. The base is a very heavy circular stand that is 21" in diameter. While this has a very large footprint on the floor, the base is sufficiently heavy to keep the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan completely stable on the floor, regardless of how high one turns up the speed on the fan head (which is more of a problem with stand fans than one might initially think!). The large size of the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote continues into the fan head, which is also 21" in diameter and 10" deep. The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote has an adjustable height that allows the unit to go from being 41 1/2" to 53" tall. The footprint of the SL18601 is increased by the cord for the unit. While that would not usually be a factor, with the Lasko S18601, it becomes one because of the oscillating factor; if the fan is near anything that protrudes, or too close to a wall, the fan knocks against anything nearby.

The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote has a black finish which is fairly stylish, broken up by the brand name in stainless steel in the center of the fan head. To the credit of the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote, it does exactly what it promises. This stand fan moves air with considerable force; even at the lowest of the four settings, we can easily feel the air flow from over ten feet away. On the highest setting, the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan keeps the whole room cool, even when it's blowing air from our kitchen when the oven is on! I'm not certain how it does that, but the Lasko S18601 manages to work, even on the hottest day.

Use of the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is decidedly variable. While it took us less than fifteen minutes to assemble the fan out of the box - it was thoroughly intuitive, which is a real plus - there are a number of adjustments that can be made to change the experience one has with the S18601. The height may be adjusted by unscrewing a cuff at the bottom of the stand, pulling the fan head up and then retightening the cuff. There are no gradations to force any specific height upon the user; the cuff is enough to hold the head at any height along the foot of potential heights. The oscillating function is controlled by a similar physical manipulation, by adjusting a peg at the back of the fan head.

As the name suggests, the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote features a remote control, which seems like an initially cool feature. The remote is a 3 1/2" long, 2 1/8" wide by 3/4" thick remote control that runs on two AAA batteries. It has two buttons: one that activates the fan, another that adjusts the speed of the fan blades upward. The issues with the remote are two-fold. First, the stand's control panel has to be facing the user. My wife and I sit on a couch and a chair separated by a small endtable; we are usually separated by about two feet while we are working. When the unit's control panel is facing her, I cannot use the remote to turn on the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan. If the S18601 is facing me, both of us can activate it, so it is somewhat finicky. Ostensibly, the purpose of the remote control for the S18601 Stand Fan is to be convenient for people who do not want to get up to turn the fan on and adjust the speed. What one cannot do using the remote is turn the oscillating feature on or off. In other words, the remote is not "full function" for the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan.

The Lasko Stand Fan is not at all quiet. The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is very obvious when it is on, for much more than just its air flow. When it is on one of its lower settings, from my vantage, sometimes I cannot feel the flow from fifteen feet away, but even then I have to adjust the volume on our television because of the noise from the S18601. The only other big detraction I have found for the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is the maintenance factor. No other variables have changed in our apartment between our first Lasko Stand Fan and getting the Lasko S18601 Stand Fan, but this stand fan attracts dust and hair at a ridiculously accelerated rate. While we had to clean our first Lasko Stand Fan about once a month, the fan blades and the metal basket that houses them attracts such significant amounts of dust that we must clean the full fan head once every two weeks.

Cleaning the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is fairly easy, though. The front of the fan head pops off and can be washed off easily enough. The fan blades may be wiped off easily, as well. The only part of the fan that is tough to clean is the back portion of the fan head; the plastic latticework behind the fan blades is nowhere near as easy to clean as the front of the fan head. The Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is not a particularly energy efficient fan and I did notice a slight uptick in our electric bill the first month we started using the S18601 (which was saying something given that we had a whole week without using the air conditioner in that month!).

Ultimately, the Lasko S18601 18" Stand Fan With Remote is a mixed product with higher initial cost and cost of usage than comparable fans that provide similar amounts of air flow (some with less of a footprint).

For other electronic devices and appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Dyson Air Multiplier Fan
Feature Comforts FTT-4 3-Speed Oscillating Tower Fan
Meco Digital Kitchen Scale

4/10

For other appliances, please check out my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Specialized Perfection: The Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe Delivers!

The Good: Froths milk fast, Easy to clean, Carafe is virtually indestructible, Safe, Inexpensive
The Bad: None that I can find
The Basics: An impressive and efficient product, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is the ideal home appliance for frothing milk!


A few months ago, my wife bought me a very thoughtful gift, a home espresso maker. The key selling point for her, in giving me the gift of the Mr. Coffee Café Espresso Coffee Maker (reviewed here!), was that – in addition to brewing thick, espresso coffee, it had its own frothing want for steaming and frothing milk. Unfortunately for us, within two months of starting to use that Mr. Coffee device (I really should go back and downrate it . . .), the component that broke first was the frothing side of the unit! And, while the good people at Mr. Coffee replaced it, we were pretty soured on the product and my wife wanted to insure that we always had ability to make delicious coffee beverages. So, she (for my birthday) picked us up an Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe.

And it is perfect.

Seriously, this has rapidly become the kitchen device we use most, outside our Hamilton Beach Coffee Maker (reviewed here!). The Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is one of those perfectly-designed, specific kitchen appliances that is utterly extravagant, surprisingly affordable, and quickly improves one’s quality of life (for those looking to give up the fast-food coffee expense by brewing at home, this may easily help one stick to one’s resolution/goal!).

Living in the middle of nowhere as I do, my love of fancy coffee came into conflict with my desire to be a hermit. My wife figured out that for my tastes in fancy coffee, all I truly needed was a good coffee maker (I came to the relationship with that!) and a good milk frother. Fortunately, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe has managed to meet all our needs. For the initial cost of $39.99 on sale, we have had almost daily coffee delight. Within a month of daily coffee with frothed creamer, our Epica frother had paid for itself (vs. buying coffee out of the house!).

The Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe from Epica is a two-piece electric appliance that is specialized for taking ordinary cream or milk and both heating it and giving it more volume (frothing) it by agitating it. The Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is comprised of a stainless steel and plastic base and the actual stainless steel carafe.

The base is a simple four inch in diameter plastic disc with a cord that plugs into a three-prong wall socket. The cord is only twenty-five inches long, so there is very little room to stretch this out from the wall socket. This is handy and there are no issues with keeping the base level, despite the cord being fairly stiff. There are three soft-rubber feet on the underside which both protect finer surfaces from any sort of scratching from the plastic bass. Moreover, the rubber feet provide friction so the unit is remarkably stable and does not move from any flat surface I've set it upon. Considering the whole point of this gadget is to froth milk, this is probably a great idea and I have found that it works quite well.

Atop the disc is a raised, contoured disc, which is where the carafe itself attaches to the base. The base simply plugs into the wall and sits where one leaves it.

The actual Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe portion is a six and a quarter-inch tall stainless steel pot that is accented with dull black plastic for the handle and has a removable clear-plastic lid. The carafe sets on the base and when together, they are very stable and hard to tip over. The carafe has a capacity that is significantly greater than the 8.5 oz. that the max fill line indicates (there has to be room for the milk after it has been frothed) and when filled to the max fill line, it takes 1 minute, thirty seconds to heat and froth!

Operating this is so simple it almost defies explanation: fill with milk or creamer to the minimum or maximum fill lines (the difference is essentially one or two cups at a time), place the carafe on the base (assuming it's plugged in), depress the upper “heat and froth” button on the side of the carafe (it lights up red when active) and wait. The unit shuts off automatically and starts blinking a neon blue light when frothing is complete.

For those who want a cold coffee drink, the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe has a cold-frothing option. Able to handle more milk, the Epica can be refilled, then press the lower button and in less than two months, the frother froths up the cold milk/cream!

And then all you need to do is pour your frothing milk out, though what the Epica does not mention is that one needs to have a rubber scraper of some sort. Otherwise, one gets only the unfrothed milk out of the Carafe. I recommend a soft, silicone scraper to prevent scratching the Teflon inside the Carafe. The 1” wire whisk inside the Carafe does what it promises exceptionally well.

This is as close to idiot-proof milk frothing that one can possibly get.

Cleanup is also incredibly easy. First, pull out the wire whisk from inside the Carafe. It pops out easily enough and rinse it. I’ve never had it once end up with any sort of curd or butter from agitating, no matter what type of cream I have used in it. After that, rinse out the unit. The carafe rinses out easily, so long as one washes it out right away. With nothing sticking to the Teflon inside the Carafe, it is simple to clean.

As for the base, a damp cloth cleans that up (unplug it first).

This is one of those devices that does exactly what it promises and I have to say, I like that it is made of stainless steel, so it fits my décor perfectly. The Epica frother does not even get hot on the outside, which is pretty impressive.

Easy to clean, affordable, and durable (we’ve used it daily for almost four months now, usually two or three times in a day!), the Epica Electric Milk Frother & Heater Carafe is perfect!

For other fun kitchen gadgets reviewed by me, please check out my takes on the:
Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle
RSVP 60 & 50 mm Espresso Tamper
Norpro 3919 Mini Cheesecake Pan

10/10

For other kitchen appliances, please visit my Appliance Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Right On The Verge Of Perfection: Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet Vacuum (Model 7636) Works Wonders!

The Good: Reasonable price for the quality, Incredible sucking power for an upright, Easy to assemble, Easy to clean, Surprisingly quiet
The Bad: Still very right-biased on the suction
The Basics: The best vacuum cleaner I have yet found, the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is quiet and powerful enough to keep my pet-filled home hair-free!


Last summer, when I had the chance to revamp some things around the house thanks to a sudden largess and some great sales, I asked my wife what she actually wanted new for our apartment. I was somewhat surprised when she said she wanted a new vacuum cleaner. After all, our Eureka 4700 vacuum (reviewed here!) had not died and that (usually) was our standard for replacing appliances. My wife, though, had apparently been researching the topic for some time (our Eureka 4700 had been making more noise of late . . .) and she started to talk with me, at length, about Bissell. Bissell is a Michigan-based company that is, apparently, committed to offering quality products at under $100. So, as part of a larger stock-up on housing supplies, I “splurged” the $89.99 (it was on sale that day, rather conveniently) for the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum.

The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet is a very simple canister-style vacuum and the 7636 is only the second canister-style vacuum cleaner I’ve owned and I’m pleasantly surprised by some of the technological advances between my first and my new canister vacuum. The Cleanview Rewind Pet came in a pretty big box and it is a little heavier than some of the other canister-style vacuums I’ve tried. Fortunately, that seems to be because the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is most sturdy, durable and stable than lighter models. The Cleanview Rewind Pet came unassembled, so our first task was to get it out of the box and put it all together. Anyone with a Phillips head screwdriver can put this together, probably without even looking at the directions; the assembly is pretty intuitive for both attaching the handle and affixing the tube. One simply needs to attach the base to the handle assembly and connect the hose and they all come together in one way. The handle has two pieces which snap into the base and screw together to form the solid drive shaft of the vacuum. The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is predominantly purple-gray for all of the front pieces (at least the ones that are not made out of clear plastic) and black for all of the components along the drive shaft of the vacuum.

Properly assembled, the Cleanview Rewind Pet is 45" tall by 13 1/4” wide by 12 1/4" deep at the base. This is a sleek-looking canister vacuum cleaner with a handle with a guard that actually makes it very easy to maneuver the vacuum. The drive shaft holds the tube, so the handle is not encumbered by the tube which is transporting the sucked up matter from the ground to the canister. The 7636 has the belt and motor assembly in the base of the vacuum, which rotates the brushes. There seems to be suction from the canister area, though, even without the brushes rotating and sucking (which makes sense because the hose on the back of the vacuum detaches in order to get into tough areas). The canister is attached to the front of the handle assembly and snaps in easily. The tube winds around the back of the handle assembly.

Once the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum was assembled, we plugged it in – the cord is attached to the base, but winds up into the unit at the press of a lever on the side. After five months of use, the recoil function for the power cord still works amazingly well and I’ve not had any problems.

The moment the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum impressed me with how little noise it made. I’m not a fan of loud noises and the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum impressed me because it was so quiet my vacuum-skittish dog and two cats were amazingly unperturbed. The fact that Myah, our Siberian Husky, remains in the room when the unit is on is amazing!

What is more amazing is that the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum works. We bought ours at a time when Myah was shedding daily and our old vacuum labored to pick up the hair. While the volume of Myah’s hair did not change, the results did. Our rug is tan; with our old vacuum, when Myah was shedding, we would vacuum and get up what we thought was all her hair, but the rug still looked fairly gray. With the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum, the instant reaction my wife and I had after using it from the very first times was “oh yeah, our rug is tan!” The difference in the amount of hair and dirt vacuumed up was that different. For sure, there were still areas that would be so concentrated with dog hair and dust that we would fill the canister within four passes of the vacuum (about four square feet of carpet!) because of how much Myah sheds, but once the canister was emptied, we could move onto the next high-soil area. The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is so efficient that one need not continue to go over the same spots so many times!

The Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is not a flawless appliance, though. Because the transport tube comes in the right side of the base, the right side has stronger suction than the left side on this vacuum cleaner. Suction on the Bissell Cleanview Rewind Pet is the best I’ve ever seen out of an upright vacuum, but there is a noticeable difference between the quality of the suction on the right and on the left.

The vacuum easily removes dirt and hair and every other form of solid matter I’ve been able to find so far from carpets and walls. Because the hose may be detached from the base, this vacuum has quite a bit more versatility than most uprights and it may be used to get cobwebs as well . . . assuming the cobwebs are within five feet of the base of the vacuum, as that is about the length of the vacuum’s hose. In addition to all of the dog hair we never realized had built up this vacuum was powerful enough to suck up was the dust that was caked onto the fan in my tower computer! The Cleanview Rewind Pet is easy to move over any level of carpet or hardwood, which makes it a pleasure to clean with.

Use of the assembled Cleanview Rewind Pet is exceptionally easy. There is the standard release lever on the base of the unit which allows the handle to be unlocked. This allows one to push or pull the vacuum at an angle, as opposed to perpendicular with the floor. Near the top of the handle for the vacuum is a simple button which activates the vacuum. From there, the vacuum does almost all the work. It sucks up anything on the floor and it is powerful with great cleaning power. The Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum may be used on low carpets (or bare floors), medium pile carpets or even longer carpets, with the height of the base being adjusted by a simple knob on the front of the base.

As the canister gets filled up – easily visible as it is at the front and transparent – the vacuum continues to vacuum with astonishing force, making this an impressive vacuum option, while still being affordable. When the canister is filled, simply unlatch the canister from the handle assembly and empty the canister. The press of a button allows all the crap in the canister to drop out, like the canister has a trap door! The top of the filter twists off and the filter itself may then be dumped into a garbage bag. You can even wash the filter and canister out, but that just puts dirt and dust down the sink. Either way, it is exceptionally easy to get the hair, dirt and dust one vacuums up out of the canister without putting it back in the air, simply by operating the release right in the container one is disposing of the stuff into!

Even so, the cleaning power of the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum should not be underestimated and my wife, who has allergic reactions to dust, animal hair and about a dozen other things, has shown a noticeable improvement in health since we started using the vacuum. It gets up so much deep-down crap in rugs and from the air that her allergies are acting up less than they were before, which is pretty extraordinary results that have been maintained for six months of use (so far!). Perhaps most impressive about the suction is that my wife can be in the room when I am vacuuming and not suffer from all of the side effects and hair and dust getting vacuumed up; the filters on the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum are THAT good!

The Cleanview Rewind Pet comes with a pair of attachments: a solid tube which extends the hose an additional two feet and a little brush which attaches to that or to the hose itself. I’m not wild about attachments, but both my wife and I used the attachments and found them easy to use, though the sucking power was diminished some using the extension. Far more often, we found the vacuum worked great on the floors and for sucking up matter through the hose directly when we detached it from the base.

As a result, the Cleanview Rewind Pet vacuum is ideal for cleaning a home for those with pets and/or allergies. The original cost might be a little more than some (who aren’t able to splurge at the time) might think is reasonable to spend, but the results make this vacuum a real value and a powerful home appliance worth picking up!

For other vacuum reviews, please check out my reviews of:
Cheetah Ash Vac II vacuum cleaner
Kenmore 31079 vacuum
Dirt Devil KWIK vacuum

9/10

For other home and garden product reviews, please visit my Home And Garden Products Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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An Ideal Electric Kettle: The Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle Delivers!

The Good: Boils water fast, Exceptionally easy to clean, Affordable, Fairly quiet
The Bad: None, really!
The Basics: The Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is a distinct improvement on prior electric kettles I’ve used and reviewed!


A few years back, by which I mean almost a decade now!, I moved into a living situation where I was not able to have easy access to the stove to boil water. So, I was forced to buy an electric kettle. Where I live now, the water is fairly hard and the first electric kettle I owned started to get a build-up in it that could not be cleaned out, thanks to some of the angles for the heating elements and the like. So, when the calcification started chipping off into my boiled water, I figured it was time to finally replace the old electric kettle. Three months ago, my wife bought me an Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle . . . and it has been wonderful!

The Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is, as its name suggests, a clear glass kettle used to boil water. With its bright blue light at the bottom where the heating coils are, I’ve discovered that the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is not only an efficient household tool, but it is entertaining as well. I am embarrassed to say that I have sat and watched water boil since my wife picked me up the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle. The bright blue light and the eager formation of bubbles as the water boils is surprisingly entertaining!

The Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is a two-piece electric device that is designed solely to boil water . . . fast. The Glass Electric Kettle is comprised of a black plastic base and the actual glass kettle.

The base is a simple five and seven-eighths inch in diameter plastic disc with a cord that plugs into a three-prong wall socket. The cord is only eighteen inches long, but for those who do not need a cord that has to stretch even that far, below the disc are tabs that allow the user to wind the cord up and contain it under the unit. This is handy and there are no issues (I've had) with keeping the base level after winding the cord under it. There are soft-rubber feet on the underside which both protect finer surfaces from any sort of scratching from the plastic bass. Moreover, the rubber feet provide friction so the unit is remarkably stable and does not move from any flat surface I've set it upon. Considering the whole point of this gadget is to boil water, stability of the unit is essential.

Atop the disc is a knob that comes from a slightly raised, contoured inner disc. This is where the kettle itself attaches to the base. The base simply plugs into the wall and sits where one leaves it.

The actual electric kettle portion is a seven and three-quarter inch tall glass pot that is accented with matte black plastic for the handle and flip top. The kettle sets on the base and when together, they are very stable and hard to tip over. The kettle has a 1.5 Liter capacity (in practical terms, this is two full steeping pots worth of tea!) and it takes eight minutes, twenty-six seconds to come to a very full boil.

Operating this is so simple it almost defies explanation: fill with water, place the kettle on the base (assuming it's plugged in), depress the "on" button on the back of the kettle (the bottom of the base of the glass kettle up neon blue when active) and wait. The unit turns itself off when it is done. Because it has an automatic shut-off, one cannot burn down their house with the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle!

And then all you need to do is pour your boiling water out and is it that simple. Refilling the unit is a snap because of the spring-loaded top which opens by pressing a button on the handle. Moreover, the button is positioned in such a way that makes accidentally opening the top and spilling boiling water on oneself virtually impossible.

Cleanup of the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is impressively easy. First, I recommend only using filtered water in the unit. Whenever I fill the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle, I use water from my Brita Oceania Pitcher Filtration System (reviewed here!) and even with very hard water in my apartment, the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle has only required minimal cleaning. The glass sides of the pitcher make it virtually impossible for any build-up to build up on the surface of the electric kettle and the spout has a tiny, fine, filter to keep water coming out of the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle clean and pure!

A damp cloth may be used to clean the base after it is unplugged!

The Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle is arguably the best electric kettle I have used. Since starting to use it, there has been no demonstrable raise in my electric bill. So, shifting from one electric kettle to another does not seem to have resulted in increased energy usage. That makes it a bargain to buy and a low cost of usage for those who do pick up the Ovente 1.5 L Glass Electric Kettle!

For other electric kettles, please check out my reviews of:
Hamilton Beach K1050 Electric Kettle
Chef's Choice 675 Electric Kettle
Hamilton Beach 45802B Electric Kettle

10/10

For other kitchen appliances, please visit my Home And Garden Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Living The Good Life, Living In Fear: The Mr. Coffee Café Espresso Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker!

The Good: Comparatively inexpensive, Produces wonderful espresso, Easy to clean, Exceptionally easy to use
The Bad: Does not include all of the necessary components, Low durability with daily use!
The Basics: Inexpensive, the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker makes pretty wonderful espresso and cappuccino drinks . . . until the thing gave out!


[For a little while, I have been building a cache of reviews for my blog, which has allowed me better turnaround for some things, like food and appliances. As such, I received and reviewed the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker months ago and when I did that, I originally rated it an 8/10. However, after two months of consistent use, the steaming wand on the unit stopped working (I spent a whole day re-priming it to no avail!). Thus, while I am initially quite flattering and positive about this product, all my fears in its lack of dependence were realized, albeit in a different way than I anticipated!]

Recently, my wife and I celebrated our five year anniversary. To celebrate the occasion, my wife gave me a whole system for making espressos and cappuccinos. The gift came after a pretty long discussion the two of us had on one of the prior gifts she presented me. A few months prior, she gave me a Mr. Coffee BVMC-SJX33GT Coffee Maker (reviewed here!) and my disappointment with that spawned a long conversation between us. The conversation boiled down to me being more honest with her about gifts that I actually like versus my being polite with her. When we started brewing coffee with the Mr. Coffee coffee maker she gave me, I raved about it . . . mostly to be polite and appreciative. She then read my analysis of the coffee maker when I reviewed it and she was upset with me and disappointed because, in her words, she could have returned the coffee maker when I first realized how little I liked it instead of holding onto it.

Both to make up for that gift and to give me something truly wonderful, she bought me the Mr. Coffee Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker for our anniversary. One of the key defects in the prior coffee maker she bought me was that the coffee it produced was far too weak for my tastes. To rectify that, my wife knew that my love of espressos and cappuccinos would be better served by an espresso maker as opposed to just trying to make darker coffee.

By contrast, the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker lives up to all my hopes and expectations. For home brewing, the ECM160 might be the best value for the espresso connoisseur. And, in fact, all that robs this espresso maker of perfection is what it lacks, not what it is. In fact, to date (I’ve been using the espresso maker for two months now), the only problems with the espresso maker for what it is are the implied ones . . . production issues that have not yet been realized. In simpler terms, there are issues with the way the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Café Espresso Coffee Maker is made that imply that the espresso maker might break. Until that happens, though, it is easy to rave about the ECM160! Unfortunately, at the two month, three day mark, this unit DID break down and the steaming wand stopped working entirely, severely diminishing the value of the unit.

The Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is a beautiful-looking 4-cup Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker. That makes some wonderful, discreet batches of espresso and the results are consistently wonderful.

The black plastic and chrome base of the Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is an rectilinear cube shape that is 10 1/2" tall, 8 1/2” wide (from knob to steamer wand) and 8" deep (without the accessories), so this is an ideal Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker for those who do not have much in the way of counter space. The Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is great for families or individuals who want potent espresso or cappuccino drinks, but do not want to spend huge amounts of money on store-bought espressos.

One of the key selling points for the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is the unit’s ease of use. The unit has one control knob and that makes making espressos (and steaming milk) virtually idiot proof. Turned all the way down, the unit boils water within the brewing chamber and turned the other way, the unit’s steaming wand is activated. The actual brewing process/steaming element is all controlled through opposite twists of the knob!

The Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is filled easily through a chamber knob on the top of the unit. This is the first potential place of breakage that I have become concerned about the more I have used it. The Mr. Coffee ECM160 has metal components within the fill chamber and the black plastic knob atop the unit that must be unscrewed to add water to the unit. The top has plastic threads and a rubber seal; the plastic to metal connection seems especially vulnerable to the heat and pressure generated when one turns the control knob. After the water chamber is filled and the top knob is screwed on entirely (also problematic as there is no definitive stop point for the plastic threads), fill the espresso filter chamber. There, one need only add espresso grounds to the metal chamber and press them down with a tamper. One of the actual issues with the ECD160 is that it does not include a metal tamper to adequately compress the grounds. Filling the filter chamber yields the other big potential problem with the unit: the filter basket goes into the chamber and the chamber is a metal and plastic combination (the handle is plastic, connected to the metal chamber). Tamping down the espresso grounds can put stress upon the filter basket. While this has not broken yet, it has real potential to break from being a natural stress point. Once the basket is filled and tamped down, simply insert the filter chamber into the bottom of the ECM160’s top portion and slide the carafe beneath it.

Twisting the knob on the Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker all the way up starts the brewing process. The water takes approximately three minutes to get up to temperature and a four-cup espresso is brewed in seven minutes. When the coffee is done brewing, twist the knob the in the entirely opposite direction and the steaming wand activates. The steaming wand is used to steam milk for espressos or cappuccinos, which heats milk or creamer up so that it does not simply chill out the espresso one makes. Unfortunately, the ECM160 does not come with a pitcher for frothing milk in! Also unfortunately is that when the steaming wand fails, there is no coming back from that, apparently. When it's done shooting steam out and gives out, nothing seems to fix it!

The Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is extraordinarily easy to clean. Both the carafe and the brewing basket (where the espresso goes) are dishwasher safe and the overflow vent below the carafe is both removable and dishwasher safe. The cup marks on the carafe are easy to read when filling the reservoir for making espresso.

The Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is fairly energy efficient; the knob turns to three settings - Brew on, Steam on and off. There are no extraneous functions to waste electricity with (no clock, etc.). When the ECM160 is off, it can (and should be) unplugged and it will not drain electricity at all.

The Mr. Coffee ECM160 Cafe Espresso Coffee Maker is easy-to-use, inexpensive and has a low cost of use. That makes it a wonderful home espresso maker, even if one needs to get a frothing pitcher and a tamper, for anyone who likes exceptional and strong coffee; if only it lasted it would be worth buying!

For other coffee-related kitchen appliances, please check out my reviews of:
Hamilton Beach 42434 Coffeemaker
Cuisinart Grind Central Coffee Grinder
Hamilton Beach E160B Coffee Grinder

4.5/10

For other appliance and tool reviews, visit my Home And Garden Product Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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