cleaning

Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen

Complaining Via Twitter Works When Comfort Inn Won't Listen

Kristy and her husband were dissatisfied with their recent Comfort Inn stay while on vacation in southern Utah. The hotel manager resolved their cleanliness concerns, but then threatened to revoke their discount if they complained to corporate. Kristy tried to get her message across to the people in charge through the usual channels, and it seemed that nobody wanted to listen, Finally, she posted about the situation on Twitter and got the resolution she was looking for.

Eco-Friendly Dish Detergents: Do They Clean The Earth And Your Plates?

Eco-Friendly Dish Detergents: Do They Clean The Earth And Your Plates?

What’s with these purported “green” cleaning chemicals? I’ve been known to mutter “it’s all a bunch of tree-hugging hippie crap” while I coat every surface in my house with the strongest, cheapest chemicals I can find. I’m fond of bleach. But other people have consciences or something, and it’s for them that Consumer Reports evaluated eco-friendly dishwasher detergents.

Don't Clean Your HDTV With Windex

Don't Clean Your HDTV With Windex

Windex works great on your windows, but will it clean your TV? How about those expensive cleaning kits they sell at Best Buy? Our sister publication, Consumer Reports, says that both of them are bad ideas, but for different reasons.

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Swine Flu Household Cleaning Tips From The CDC If someone at your home has contracted swine flu, prevent its further spread by following the advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. [Consumer Reports Health]

Help, My KitchenAid Dishwasher Hasn't Worked Since July!

Help, My KitchenAid Dishwasher Hasn't Worked Since July!

Katy’s KitchenAid dishwasher hasn’t dissolved soap or cleaned dishes since July, despite receiving four new parts over seven service visits. KitchenAid’s service plan promises a replacement unit if the same part breaks three times, but KitchenAid still isn’t sure which part of Katy’s dishwasher is broken, and so they’re refusing to give her a new one. Does that seem fair?

Six D.I.Y. Tips For Cleaning Greenly And Cheaply

Six D.I.Y. Tips For Cleaning Greenly And Cheaply

Harsh chemicals aren’t just bad for you and the environment, they’re bad for your wallet too. Cleaning most things, from clothes to your kitchen, can be done greenly and cheaply with these six nifty do-it-yourself cleaning recipes from Consumer Reports…

Please Enjoy This Complimentary Billy Mays Remix Video, Our Gift To You With Each Order

Please Enjoy This Complimentary Billy Mays Remix Video, Our Gift To You With Each Order

What’s better than Billy Mays? Remixes of Billy Mays? We agree. And guess what? We’re tripling the offer inside. Yes. That’s right.* *These are all probably NSFW.

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In which Consumer Reports employees harm themselves or their real estate with consumer products, part 2. In this episode, a CR staffer’s son uses the stove’s self-cleaning feature without removing a plastic cutting board from inside the oven. Yes, the fire department was involved. They had to pull the range out of the kitchen and leave it to cool in the driveway. Awkward. [Consumer Reports]

California Tortilla Cashier Screams At Disabled Customer Who Accidentally Spilled Tray

California Tortilla Cashier Screams At Disabled Customer Who Accidentally Spilled Tray

Update: The owner of the California Tortilla left an excellent response, republished inside in full.

Help, Kay Jewelers Destroyed My Wedding Ring During A Routine Cleaning!

Help, Kay Jewelers Destroyed My Wedding Ring During A Routine Cleaning!

Kay Jewelers deformed Lisa’s wedding ring during a routine cleaning and refuses to provide a replacement ring. Lisa first noticed that a tiny diamond was missing, which Kay Jewelers found stuck in their cleaning equipment. In the process of reseating the diamond, Kay again deformed the ring, scratching out the ring’s beaded edges. Kay decided they couldn’t repair the destroyed ring, but rather than ordering a new one from the manufacturer, Kay decided to remake the ring using a low-resolution picture of the original as their guide. Shockingly, that ring didn’t work out either. It’s now been three months and Lisa wants her wedding ring back.

Consumer Reports: Kenmore Vacuum Sucks In A Good Way, Dirt Devil Just Sucks

Consumer Reports: Kenmore Vacuum Sucks In A Good Way, Dirt Devil Just Sucks

Consumer Reports’ vacuum cleaner test results are in and there’s bad news for Dirt Devil. Their pretty “Kone” vacuum poses a safety risk.

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Now Deodorizes For 30 Days Instead Of 3 Months

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda Now Deodorizes For 30 Days Instead Of 3 Months

Reader Kirin says he’s suspicious of Arm & Hammer’s assertion that the same 1lb of baking soda will only deodorize for 30 days when it used to work for 3 months.

New Jersey Man Blows Up Apartment While Spraying For Bugs

New Jersey Man Blows Up Apartment While Spraying For Bugs

Don’t call Isias Vidal Maceda for advice if you see a creepy critter crawling across your apartment. While spraying for bugs, the New Jersey resident blew out his kitchen windows and started a fire that destroyed 80% of his apartment. Sound outlandish? According to TV, it’s entirely plausible…

House Stuck On The Market? Try Cleaning The Windows

House Stuck On The Market? Try Cleaning The Windows

No amount of interior decorating wizardry will help sell your house if the windows are dirty. “When you’re marketing a house, clean windows are like clean teeth: they’re the first thing people see on the outside and the first thing they see through on the inside,” according to broker Phyllis Jane Young. So how do you make your windows sparkle? You need two things: sudsy water and a squeegee. That’s it!

Why Super-Cleaning Microfiber Has Never Caught On In The U.S.

Why Super-Cleaning Microfiber Has Never Caught On In The U.S.

Barbara Flanagan of I.D. Magazine has a fascinating article about microfiber, a cleaning cloth introduced in Europe a decade ago that’s never caught on in the U.S., despite its ability to clean all sorts of things without the use of cleaning chemicals—”the product cleans surfaces mechanically, not chemically, by scraping them with microscopic precision.”

Consumer Reports Tests Stainless Steel Cleaners

Consumer Reports Tests Stainless Steel Cleaners

Consumer Reports noticed, as so many of us have, that stainless steel is awesome until you have to clean it. With that in mind, they’ve tested a bunch of stainless steel cleaners and found that they all work just about the same.

Vacuum Kills Fleas As Effectively As Poison, Say Researchers

Vacuum Kills Fleas As Effectively As Poison, Say Researchers

If you end up with a bad case of Christmas Fleas next week—hey, we’re not judging—save yourself the expense of buying flea poison. “Vacuum cleaners kill fleas just as well as any poison, surprised U.S. researchers said,” noting that a “standard vacuum cleaner abuses the fleas so much it kills 96 percent of adult fleas and 100 percent of younger fleas.” Of course, you won’t be able to train them after that, but it’s your decision.

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Zout wins Slate’s test of the best stain removers.