Consumerist

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Paint

lowes

Dear Lowes: A Gallon Has 128 Fluid Ounces, Not 116

A reader wants to know why Lowes advertises and sells gallons of house paint that aren't full gallons. Their website says the cans are "1-Gallon." Their receipts describe them as 1 gallon cans of paint. Even the stickers they print out and place on the lids say "One Gallon." But Brian notes that when he brought the paint home and really looked at the cans, "One of the labels read '116 Fluid Ounces; 3.43 liters', the second label read '126 Fluid Ounces; 3.725 Liters.'" More »

fedex

FedEx Turns Shipment Of DVDs Into Can Of Old House Paint

John at Needcoffee.com writes that he's come to expect the occasional "damaged in transit" theft of items from packages he ships or receives, at least through the U.S Postal Service. With private carriers, however, he notes that he's always had better luck. But last week he opened a box of DVDs shipped to him via FedEx to discover a rusty can of $5 house paint. More »

Insurance

State Farm: This 1963 Chrysler Newport Is Not An Antique, Unless You Give It A Fresh Coat Of Paint. What?

Humphrmi's 1963 Chrysler Newport has antique license plates, meaning he can't drive to or from anywhere other than car shows, shops and parades; but State Farm won't insure the car as an antique unless it gets a new coat of paint. "You have to paint the car," they said, to avoid a 33% higher premium. Does this strike anyone else as insane? More »

3m

Confusing: Paint Mask Should Not Be Used With Paint?

Reader Mike is confused by this 3M Latex Paint and Odor Respirator with Valve. The front of the package lists "disposable aerosol spray paint cans" as something the mask "helps provide relief" from. However, the instructions seem to say that you shouldn't use it with paint spray. What should he do? More »

home improvement

Consumer Reports Says It Doesn't Pay To Buy Cheap Paint


Our friends at Consumer Reports tell us that even though the price of exterior paints and stains has gone up a few dollars per gallon on average from last year (due to price hikes for many of the petrochemicals that go into paint), big box stores are keeping consumers isolated from manufacturers who would love to be passing on those added costs. It may be tempting to cut costs by buying a lower quality product, but CR warns against using crappy paint. Specifically, CR suggested Behr (sold at Home Depot), Valspar (Lowe’s), and Kilz (Wal-Mart) as competitively priced paints that "ranked among the top performers." More »

recalls

RC2: Kids Falling Out Of Feeding Chair, Potty-Training Chair Contaminated With Lead

It's been one hell of a morning for RC2. The manufacturer of the infamous lead-tainted Thomas & Friends toys is recalling a feeding chair that 12 kids have managed to use as a launch platform and a "Winnie-the-Pooh" potty-training chair that's tainted with lead. Funnily enough, only the orange paint used on the "Winne-the-Pooh" plaque is tainted. More »

safety

Buy All The Toys You Need Now, Because Prices Are Going Up

Just buy 'em and scrape off the lead paint. Why? Because toy makers will be passing the cost of higher-quality and better-made toys on to you next year. Says one analyst, "Anything that's a new introduction, you can make that price point $19.99 rather than $14.99." More »

futility

Should You Test Your Children's Toys For Lead? No.

The Times is reporting that some overzealous parents are manually testing their children's toys for lead. Take Andrew Jones, a well meaning but admittedly paranoid father to a 3-year-old:

Like many parents, Mr. Jones said he was suspicious of all of his daughter's toys now that millions of items for children have been recalled for high levels of lead.

To put his mind at ease, Mr. Jones bought several LeadCheck swab kits from his local hardware store to test dozens of his daughter's toys. So far, he has not found any lead.

After the jump, we explain why this is an utter waste of time. More »

news from the swamp

Liveblogging The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Hearing On Toy Safety

Today is a big day for Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). Starting at 11am, the Chairman of the powerful Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government will kick off a series of hearings examining the toy industry's seemingly magnetic attraction to lead paint. Durbin, whose Subcommittee has jurisdiction over the Consumer Product Safety Commission's budget, will grill toy industry representatives, consumer advocates, and members of the government over plans to protect America's children from the dangers silently lurking on toy shelves by establishing an independent testing regime.

The Subcommittee will haul not one, but two Consumer Product Safety Commissioners to testify, along with the heads of Toys R Us and Mattel, who recently agreed to start testing their products for lead paint contamination. Representatives from Consumers Union and the official-sounding American National Standards Institute will round out the motley crew of pedoprotectionists.

Keep hitting refresh for hot, steamy, liveblogging action!
(AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

10:35: Video Link - Today's hearing will be carried live on C-SPAN. If you can't wait until 11, hit the link now for coverage of the U.S.-China Consumer Product Safety Summit.
11:00: Right on time! Looks like this will be a family affair; members from the Senate Commerce Committee will be stopping in. Expect to see Senators Pryor (D-AR), Nelson (D-FL), and Klobuchar (D-MN) soon.

More »

chinese poison train

The Softer Side Of Lead Paint

Foreign manufacturers use lead paint not because they want to poison American children, but because lead paint is, "bright, durable, flexible, fast-drying, and cheap." The domestic use of lead paint in residences, hospitals, and children's products was banned in 1978, though lead paint is still widely used. Slate explains: More »

cars

Happy Ending Nears For Customer With Crazily Painted Car?

We've been hounding a paint store in Colorado to fix a customer's car like they said they would. After numerous delays, Fred's crazy-painted car may be looking normal soon. More »

paint

Save Big Money On Paint: If You Don't Care About The Color

Need some paint for your garage, basement or perhaps the bedroom of an unfavored child? Don't care about the color? Great! Curbly suggests you try buying paint leftover from mistakes in the mixing process at your local hardware store or:
The other great place to look is your local sanitation department. Most cities have specific divisions that deal with paints, since you can't just toss them in a landfill. In Alameda, CA, it's a garage full of five-gallon buckets of paint, wall to wall. They'll just let you take what you want in most cases. They have to dispose of it somehow anyway!
Little whats-his-name will be so happy you saved money, he won't even notice that his room is tow-zone yellow. —MEGHANN MARCO More »

car

Update: Sherwin-Williams Customer Service Is Color Blind, Now My Car Looks Crazy

Superstar intern Dyan got hold of the manager of Dale's Paints and asked when they planned on getting Fred's car repainted. More »

diy

Awesome Paint Preview Tool

Thinking about painting a room in your house, but aren't sure what it will look like? Curbly points the way to Benjamin Moore's website, where there is a truly nifty tool for previewing paint colors. You can choose sample rooms that are similar to yours, or for 10 bucks, upload pictures of your actual room. More »

complaints

Sherwin-Williams Customer Service Is Color Blind, Now My Car Looks Crazy

A Sherwin-Willams' store incompetence totally messed up Fred's car. Look at that hood front quarter and nose fascia.. More »

toys

Target Recalls 190,000 Really Gender-Specific Toys

Target is recalling a whopping 190,000 play-set type toys. "Some of these toys contain lead paint, which is toxic if ingested by young children and can cause adverse health effects. Also, some of the toys have sharp points, posing laceration or puncture wound hazards. The recall involves "Kool Toyz" brand toys, including sets containing die-cast cars, playground set, doll house set, dinosaurs, trucks, boats and planes. The packaging is primary blue and has the "Kool Toyz" logo is on the upper left corner of the packaging." If you have these toys, take them away from children and bring them to Target for a full refund. More »

paint

Ghetto Paint Your Car

Unbelievably, this Camaro was painted not by Maaco, but by $50 worth of house paint, a coat of Rustoleum and a cheap roller. We hesitate actually recommending taking a bucket of red house paint to your new Porsche, but then again, if you can afford a Porsche, you probably wouldn't be tempted to. More »

complaint

Lowes Blows

Dear Consumerist: More »