Category: Appliances

More and more of us are looking to cordless alternatives to usual household items as they often are easier to use, store and you no longer need to worry about cables trailing all over your home. There are some cordless items that work just as effectively as cored ones but for others you may need to compromise on the standards you can expect. This is often true for the cordless vacuum. Cordless vacuums have been around for a little while now but up until recently they were seen as a quick way to clean up lightly soiled areas and not an alternative to your everyday upright vacuum.  

Dyson and Shark have recently released a range of cordless upright vacuums that they say are as good if not better than your standard vacuum. They are powered by a battery which can be easily recharged if placed back on the charging unit and usually you can get up to an hour vacuuming time from each full charge. This is usually plenty of time to clean every room in your house.

A recent review of these types of products however show that the majority of customers still feel they are lacking in power and simply do not pick up bits off the carpet and hard floors as effectively as their usual corded vacuum.

There is so many new techno gadgets hitting the market that it can be hard to keep up with them and to understand what they really do. Amazon have bought out a range of products which seem to be going down a storm with the public. There range includes the Amazon Echo Dot which is a smaller more compact version of the Echo. The Dot is a small round device that has a built in speaker. This device can be used for a number of things that are practical but also very fun. Firstly the device can connect to your Wi-Fi and phone using an Amazon account. The device can be used as a way to stream music from multiple platforms such as Amazon Music, Apple Music and Spotify. You can ask the assistant – Alexa a number of questions such as what will the weather be like tomorrow or set a reminder for my meeting. On top of this you can enable certain skills. These skills can range from kids games to movie quizzes to online shopping.

The Amazon Dot can also link to smart compatible devices in your home or smart plugs. This allows you to control devices through speech. If you have a light plugged into a smart plug you can tell Alexa to turn it on or off and also set up a schedule to do it automatically.

If you are in the market for a new washing machine, fridge or freeze then you may struggle to fork out the high costs of a brand new one. Second hand appliances can often be picked up at a fraction of the cost of a new one and often have a good few many years left in them.

There are a number of places in which you can buy second hand appliances but you need to think carefully before parting with your cash. If you are buying a reconditioned appliance from a shop they should be able to give you some sort of warranty, if not then I would be a little dubious and go elsewhere.

If you are buying from a private buyer then ideally you want it to be someone you know or at least make sure that you see the item fully working before committing to the sale. It may be that it has an intermittent fault on it and unfortunately not everyone is honest and you may not find out until you have gone through the hassle and expense of transporting it and installing it.

Try to establish why the buyer is selling this one and find out how long they have owned it for. If they will not let you see it working, then it’s time to look elsewhere.

When choosing a new appliance such as a fridge freezer it is important to think carefully about where it will go. It is easy to get carried away when you go to the shops and find yourself walking out having bought a huge American style one that you have no room for.

Before you place an order in person or online, be sure to measure the exact dimensions of the room you have available for it. You may be surprised at the differences in sizes that are available to you. You also need to think about how you will get it in to its chosen location. For example, it may be that the door ways in your home are very narrow, to although it will fit in the room you will have to take doors off etc. to get in to your home in the first place.

If you only have a small kitchen then choosing a massive fridge-freezer will make the room look even smaller. Obviously you need to ensure that you have one that’s big enough to store all the food you need to but no too big to dominate the whole room and leave little space for anything else.

A microwave is a common appliance in many households. It can be handy to quickly warm up a dinner later in the evening, cook beans or to make more complicated meals. The best microwaves make light work of heating and defrosting, and you can rely on them to cook and thaw food properly. Some Microwaves double up as mini ovens which can be handy if you are trying to cook a lot with only a small oven space.

You may assume that the best microwaves will be the most expensive but this is not always the case. Each microwave had a power rating in KW’s. The higher this rating is the quicker it will be to cook, or warm food. To truly find out which microwave is best for you, you need to do your research and read plenty of reviews. For simply tasks such as cooking a jacket potatoes, reheating food and defrosting, a standalone microwave is probably the best option. If you want to be able to do a bit more such as roast or brown food, then you will probably find a combi microwave (which combines a conventional microwave, grill and oven in one), the best. These are usually more expensive but has a vast amount of functions available. They are often a little hard to use to start with, but once you learn how to do each of the cooking styles, it can make life a lot easier.