Household Electrical Appliances

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  • Stocking up on batteries for Christmas

    With Christmas less than 4 weeks away, now is the time to stock up on batteries. There is nothing more frustrating than your child or grandkids opening their presents on Christmas day and not being able to play with it as you have not got the right batteries for it.

    Before wrapping the presents, double check what batteries it takes as many toys take different sizes. If possible, it may be worth putting the batteries into the toy first, if you can get into it without damaging the packaging. This will mean you don’t have to mess around with screwdrivers and the child can play with the toy immediately.

    Once you have your list of how many batteries you need, shop around to find the best price. Be very wary about buying batteries that are too cheap, especially online as there are a number of counterfeit batteries for sale that have been known to be dangerous if the toy short circuits or malfunctions. Often you will get a better deal by buying in bulk, so ask friends and family members if they want to club together with you to get a bigger discount.

  • Lighting for your garage

    Many homes have a garage and often they are used for different things. To some people, their garage is where they park their car, it may be used for little else other than this. Other people use their garage as another room such as a utility room to store the fridge/freezer and washing machine etc and others the garage is often just a dumping ground, a place to hide stuff away that you may need one day. Whatever your garage is used for, it is important to have the correct sort of lighting. If you are only parking your car in there, then you may just want a basic light that you can turn on and off at the switch, or you may want an automatic light that comes on when you drive in to allow you to see on the dark nights.

    If your garage is a room that you go in quite often then you may need more lights and ones that you can control independently. You may also want to look at installing energy saving or LED bulbs to cut down on the cost of running them.

  • Electrical toy safety warnings

    Sadly there are many bogus toys out on the market and spotting which ones are genuine and which ones are fake is getting harder and harder. With electrical items, you need to be particularly vigilant as if they go wrong, they can easily start a fire. No longer can you just check the toy for the CE mark, as these are also being faked, but you may need to spend a little time investigating the toy to check that it appears to be safe? If the toy takes batteries and is suitable for children of a young age then the battery compartment should not be accessible. If a child swallows a battery either watch sized or AA/AAA, for example, this can cause serious health issues and can even be fatal. If you inspect a toy which is supposed to be suitable for a three year old for example, and the batteries are easily accessible, then the chances are it is a fake and is not suitable.

    It is not only toys that are being faked but every sort of electrical item from phones through to vacuum cleaners. If you have any doubt in the authenticity of an electrical item, you should contact the manufacturer who will be able to check the serial numbers etc or failing this contact trading standards.

  • Buying a new kettle

    Almost all of us use a kettle at least a few times a day to either make a cup of tea or coffee or to boil water for a pan of potatoes or veg. With our kettles being used so many times a day, we often expect quite a lot from it and yet don’t like to invest a fortune in one. Kettle prices vary from around ten pounds upwards of a hundred but often the more expensive ones don’t come with a longer warranty.

    When choosing your kettle, many people go purely for looks and cost but you may want to check how quickly it boils and if it has a keep warm setting. If you tend to use your kettle a few times in quick succession or boil it and then don’t make a drink for a while then the keep warm setting can be ideal. This can also save money on your electricity bills by reducing the number of times you have to boil the water.

    You can now get rid of your kettle all together and opt for a constant boiling water tap to be installed giving you instant access to boiling water literally at the turn of a tap. Although more expensive these can save time and even money on your electricity bills.

     

     

     

  • What to look out for when buying catering electrical appliances

    When buying electrical appliances that have been designed for commercial use, there are a certain number of things that you need to be aware of. If you are looking at installing a pizza oven for example, in your home or in a small industrial/commercial building then you will first need to check it will work.

    Every property that has electricity coming into it will either be provided with phase one or phase three.  Phase three offers more power so is often only found in larger commercial units that require more power on a daily basis. Many commercial appliances are designed to work with phase 3 supply for this reason and therefore cannot be used in a supply that is only phase one. You also need to check that you have sufficient space on your current circuit to add the appliance and that you will not be overloading the circuit as this will cause it to trip out every time. It is worth checking all the requirements of the appliance you are looking to buy first and consulting an electrician if you are unsure as to whether it will be able to be added to the fuse board.