Home and Kitchen Reviews

I love this banana/fruit holder :) It looks tiny on the picture but it is really good size. It is chrome finish and very elegant. Good price too!

It does get points for ease of use, *if* you can get it to work. I bought 4 of these. One of them wouldn't set from the beginning; it seemed to be missing a crucial piece that keeps the lever down. Another one set, but then snapped back 5 minutes later without anything going into it as far as I could tell; then I couldn't set it again. The third trap did catch a mouse, but somehow the mouse got caught in the wrong direction (head facing outward) and got trapped but not killed! Perhaps this was just a very skilled mouse. The fourth trap is still sitting on my counter waiting for a mouse...

I realized I had a mouse problem 3 days ago and set the trap on the 3rd night. When morning came, the varmint was dead. Very effective and easy to dispose. Best of all I can use it again.

I found these in a supermarket and have been using the four I bought 7 years ago, until they finally broke (hence my order here.) After a couple of nasty experiences with mice caught in glue traps (which are remarkably cruel!), I started looking for a better mousetrap and this is it. Once you set the latch, you know you've caught a mouse by the lever in the air and the tail trailing out the back of the trap. To get rid of the dead mouse, you pop the back, lift the lever up a little to release the snap and shake it out. You don't even have to look when you're doing this. Then you just have to reset them. We had a big problem a few years ago, and these traps were life (and sanity)-savers. We're down to the occasional rodent now (thank the heavens!), but I still couldn't live without these.

It's NOT a 12 inch fan, it's a 10 inch fan--says so right on the box. And it not the cute little blue and white fan in the picture, either. It's gray. It's just a fan, so no big deal, I guess. But it will make me think twice about Target's online product descriptions.

The Soleus FTY-25 is a quiet fan with a noisy timer.

We use fans at night to create a soft breath of air as we go to sleep. For this purpose, "quiet" is good. We live in the country and the natural sounds are pleasant and actually reassuring. "White noise" is unneeded.

Except for the timer, the Soleus is a good, quiet solution. The timer makes a fast ticking noise like some older kitchen timers.

A complete explanation of the Soleus controls and operation is surprisingly wordy. I'll try to cut it short...

The timer is mechanical. Once the timer dial is turned, the mechanism will tick for the maximum period that it was turned to, even if turned off in the meantime. In other words, if the dial is moved to the 2 hours position and then immediately moved back to "off" (even unplugged), then when the fan is turned back on the next day (even to just the untimed "on" position), it is going to tick for 2 hours.

The Soleus can be made to operate quietly. Just never move the timer dial to a timed-setting position.

Since we don't care about a timer when we are awake and can't use it to go to sleep, we taped the timer to the "on" position. With the timer dial in the "on" position, the fan can be turned off and on with the Fan Speed Switch, which has an "off" position, or with a quiet external electronic timer.

For those who want a smallish fan that moves a lot of air, the Vornado 550B moves more air. Unfortunately, the 550B has a variable speed controller that hums like an old fluorescent light, which makes it unacceptable to those who want a truly quiet low-speed fan.

I have three of these fans. I like the features, the ease of use, how quiet they are. I mounted two on the wall and they do a great job supplementing my house centeral air conditioning, moving air more to where I set and work in these two rooms. The fan head turns more than enough to point it and still mount it vertical on the wall. Looks good. I like the rotating grill much better than those fans that turn their whole 'body'. I used an extension cord and plugged it into the wall outlet that I can turn on both the room light and fan with a single click. Nice quiet unit.

Just purchased my Airwasher/ Humidifier and so far am pleased with the ease of maintenance. I felt compelled to write a review and let other consumers know that the required water treatment additive is available from the manufacturer website with no shipping and handling charges, www.venta-airwasher.com

This additive is an absolute necessity when operating the Venta Airwashwer. Whenever you replace the water of the Airwasher completely (every 10-14 days according to the manual) and rinse it out, you will need to add a portion of this additive. The bottle lasts for about 12 such cycles.

I have actually found that I need to replace the water every 10 days to avoid the buildup of "gunk" in the water. I have lived in an area where the water had a much higher mineral content compared to where I live now and found myself doing a complete rinse-out of the Airwasher and replacement of the water and the treastment additive every week, just because the build-up of mineral deposits was so high.

I have a 50 year old house with not very good central air. By using these fans horizontally over floor registers, I'm able to get the cool air off the floor and up to head height, considerably improving my cooling. In the spring I put them in windows. That way, if I draw the blinds down to the top of the fan, I'm able to walk around the house in complete privacy (you can't do that with other window fans) and get some fresh air in.
They are quiet and unobtrusive. In my living room they're virtually unnoticable. I keep fans running 24 hrs a day for about 5 months a year, no problems.
The only reason they don't get a 5 star rating is that the breeze they produce is not very strong. If you want something that is strong, you'll have to get a traditional fan. None of the column fans are as efficient as the big bladed circular fans.