What's your plan for those cans of partially used paint sitting in the garage or on your work bench? You know, the ones with the lids stuck shut and colors that were popular when your college-age daughter was in kindergarten. You can't put them in the trash but many municipalities host hazardous waste disposal days this time of year so that's a good place to start.
Siemens has recalled 2.2 million circuit breakers, load centers, and meter combos after an installer reported a spring clip that broke during installation creating a fire hazard, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced today.
While no incidents have been reported, the CPSC warns that the broken spring clips can lead to a loss of force to maintain a proper electrical connection in the panel board. This can, in turn, lead to excessive temperature, arcing or thermal damage at the connection point, and damage to the panel boards electrical insulation posing the threat of fire, property damage or personal injury.
Folks, if you’re looking for some bargains this weekend on boutique clothes, you might want to check out the Junior League Boutique Warehouse sale on Saturday, September 25 and Sunday, September 26.
Consumer Reports hasnt tested the Pop Art Toaster. But if we did, the fifties inspired appliance wouldnt score points for evennessnot that it pretends to. Rather, the two-slot toaster, $30 to $35, is all about creating custom slices with images of smiley faces, birthday cakes, and more, as well as terms of endearment ranging from Luv U to Bite Me. The art is rendered on one side of the bread by metal stencil plates that slip into the toaster; the other side of the bread is evenly browned, claims the manufacturer.
Pop Art Toaster is nothing if not novel, and its promotional material includes moms saying the more kid-friendly images helped bring their picky eaters around to breakfast. But if youre looking for a toaster that can brown evenly from light to dark on both sides of your bread with almost every batch, check our latest review of more than 30 models and watch this video on choosing a toaster.
Daniel DiClerico
That morning eye-opener or afternoon pick-me-up could start costing you more, Starbucks officials have announced.
Okay, here's a study you might want to hide from your teenager. You know, the kid who leaves all the lights on. Turns out, that turning off the lights saves a lot less energy than you may think. Oh, it saves some for sure so keep on nagging. But a new study says that there are far better ways to save energy with technologies available to us today.
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CiCi’s Pizza is opening a new location at the Golden Ring Mall Shopping Center in Rosedale, and it sounds like they’re celebrating Chick-Fil-A style.
Augusts surprise 10.5-percent surge in housing starts isn't the only glimmer of hope for homeowners these days. Practically anyone can remodel the home theyre in with a new coat of interior paint, even if its just one room at a time. Thats helped make paint sales a bright spot for big-box stores, and theyre running sales on top paints from Consumer Reports latest tests.
Some time-saving tips from the Paint Quality Institute, an industry trade group, can help get you through the prepping, taping, paint-rolling, and cleaning much faster. Some of the biggest work-savers:
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This is the right way to start the day: Eileen’s Tuesday afternoon tip that some airlines offer refunds on ticket purchases when fares drop just saved me $134!
When Consumer Reports talks about vacuum-cleaner airflow, were referring to how much suction power is available to the tools you attach. But when it comes to advertising vacuums, the concept of airflow apparently refers to how loudly manufacturers trumpet their claims.
The Aerus FreshEra, $500, is one of three upright vacuums weve recently tested and added to our Ratings (available to subscribers). The manufacturer, the original Electrolux, calls its products best-in-class vacuum cleaners that remove and retain more dirt and debris than conventional vacuum cleaners. In our testing, however, carpet cleaning wasnt impressive. The FreshEra does not accept tools and also lacks a brush on/off switch that would keep it from scratching the finish on bare floors. The other uprights we tested were the Dyson DC25 Ball All Floors, $500, and the Oreck XL Platinum Pilot, $600.
Among the four canisters weve tested is the bagless Dirt Devil Vision M082750, $170, which claims to have power you can see. But we saw little pickup from our test carpet. This model also lost suction quickly in our tool-airflow test. Other canisters we added to the Ratings are the Dyson DC22 Turbinehead, $700; the Eureka Surfacemax 6833D, $200; and the highest-scoring vacuum of the bunch, the Panasonic MC-CG902, $210.
Ed Perratore
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