Household Electrical Appliances

Blog

  • Home improvements – the best way to remove old wallpaper

    When you want to make improvements to your home often the easiest and cheapest option is to do some basic re-decorating and often this involves stripping old wallpaper. This can be a bit of a nightmare as if the plaster under the wallpaper is old then you may end up pulling off large chunks of plaster along with the old paper.

    The key is to remove the paper as carefully as possible and this can be done in a couple of ways:

    You could use an electric steamer, these are specifically designed for removing wallpaper however they can be costly to buy or rent and can exacerbate any damp issues in the room as there will be lots of condensation as a result of all the steam.

    Another option would be the slightly more old-fashioned method of using a bucket of warm water and a large sponge to saturate the walls allow the paper to be scrapped off easily. The key to this is to soak each wall that you will be working on a couple of times and give it 10 mins to soak through the layers of the paper then use a flat metal scrapper and starting from a bottom edge work the scrapper up through the paper.

  • Safety with corded electrical appliances

    If you have corded appliances such as hairdryers, straighteners, an iron or any types of electrical charging devices there are certain things that you need to be aware of.

    Many electrical fires are due to poor cord care rather than an item merely overheating or causing something else to catch fire.

    When using your corded item you should first, before plugging the item into the power outlet, check that there are no twists, knots or damage to the cord. Any exposed wires or cracked casing could be extremely dangerous and could result in a fire or an electric shock when the item is being used.

    You should also check the point that the cord goes into the appliance and into the plug and again no wire should be exposed and there should be no signs of stress on the cord casing at these points.

    Most damage is done to appliance cords from either overstretching the appliance causing too much tension on the cord or from incorrect storage of the appliance wrapping the cord tightly around the appliance weakening the inside structures and again causing unnecessary strain on the material.

    If you notice any signs of damage do not use the item and take it to a qualified appliance electrician to repair before attempting to use the appliance again.

  • Fitting LED bulbs throughout your home

    LED bulbs have been about for some time now, but only recently has there been a huge drop in the cost of them. With so many retailers selling LED bulbs, the competition has seen the cost of these decrease in order to allow them to compete with each other.

    LED bulbs are more expensive to buy that your normal bulbs but can last a lot longer and many manufacturers offer a two to five-year guarantee on them although they often last a lot longer than this.  LED bulbs are more efficient as they can produce the same sort of light but by using less power than a normal bulb.

    IF you are going to fit LED bulbs then I would strongly recommend fitting them throughout your home as you can save a huge amount of money by buying in bulk. When changing the bulbs do not forget to consider the outdoor lighting and garages or porches etc as these are lights that are often accidently left on for a period of time and could save you more money.

     

  • Deep Fat Fryers

    Deep fat fryers were incredibly popular in the eighties and nineties but over the last decade or so, less people are using them. Deep fat fryers were predominantly used to cook chips and battered foods such as chicken nuggets and fish fingers. With recent public health concerns coming to light, many people r now looking for healthy options to frying.

    Many families made the switch from a deep fat fryer to the oven to cut right down on their calorie intake and to help them become healthier.

    Appliances such as the ACTi fry came on to the market within the last decade and offer a healthy way to fry. Rather than cooking chips etc. in a mountain of fat, they often only need one or two teaspoons and sometimes not even that to cook a beautifully crispy chip.

    With these new products on the market, it is no wonder that the deep fat fryer seems to be slowly being phased out.

     

  • In car phone holders

    The market is inundated with car phone holders. There is such a wide choice available it can be very hard to know which sort to get. Some car phone holders have suction pads on the back which you can attach to the window screen, others have clips that clip on to your air vents and some plug into your power socket point. You can even get special mats or sticky pads which you can attach to your dashboard and place the phone on. Although the phone will stick to the pad, they claim not to leave any sticky residue on the phone.

    Some of these products work better than others and while some may work brilliantly to start with, often after a while they don’t grip as well.

    You may have to buy a product and try it before you can decide if it works as it should, but if it doesn’t stay in position or doesn’t hold your phone then you should be entitled to return it for a refund or exchange.