All About Cleaners » Cleaning Equipment

Window and Floor Squeegee

Admin — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:12:49 +0000

What is a squeegee?
Squeegee (squimjim) is a tool used for removing and controlling the flow of liquid on a flat surface. It is characterized by a flat and smooth rubber blade. Squeegee is commonly used for cleaning windows (window squeegee) and floors (floor squeegee). Window squeegee and floor squeegee

There is no big difference between window squeegee and floor squeegee except that floor squeegee usually has a long handle.

OXO All Purpose Squeegee
The OXO GOOD GRIPS All-Purpose Squeegee can be used on tiled surfaces, fogged mirrors, soapy shower doors, and of course, windows. The durable and flexible blade on our can be used on curved surfaces. The squeegee comes with a soft, comfortable and non-slipping handle. The slim profile and suction cup hanger allows the squeegee to be stored neatly.

OXO Scrub and Squeegee
This squeegee comes along with a microfiber side for tackling dirty windows, mirrors and glass surface. As the washable microfiber side cleans without chemicals, it is very environmentally friendly. The robust handle allows for a comfortable grip and maximum control when cleaning.

OXO Stainless Steel Squeegee
Like other squeegee from OXO GOOD GRIPS, this stainless steel squeegee is suitable for cleaning tiled surfaces, fogged mirrors, soapy shower doors, and of course, windows. It is designed with a flexible blade for using on curved surfaces. The handle is soft and comfortable. The slim profile and suction cup hanger allow it for easy storage.

Unger Ninja Window Squeegee Complete
This Unger squeegee is designed with ergonomic technology. The Ergonomic swivel handle provides a Trilock safety function. The channel is made of Aircraft Aluminum making it lightweight yet strong. It works well with all types of windows.

Ettore Squeegee
This is a 4 tools in one back flip squeegee. It gives perfect balance of speed and performance. It combines quick release squeegee and golden glove washer from Ettore. It is available in 12 and 20 inch sizes and Stainless finish.

How to Use a Window Squeegee
Step 1: Spray some soapy water or window cleaner onto window glass in order to break up the dirt.
Step 2: Then draw the water-borne dirt off by pulling down the squeegee from the top of glass.
Step 3: Wipe the squeegee to remove the dirty water.
Step 4: Repeat Step 1 and 2 again overlapping slightly where you just used the squeegee.

Tips
Other than pulling down the squeegee vertically and horizontally from the top of glass, you may also do it in “swivel method” or “fan method”.

Tub Scrubber and Shower Scrubber

Admin — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:11:18 +0000

Product Recommendations! Cleaning the bathtub and shower can be a time and effort consuming task because of the stains, soap scum and the hard-to-reach areas. If you have well decided to clean the tub and shower thoroughly, you may scrub heavily or brush with a toothbrush carefully. But, these are definitely painful! Now, you may choose to have more effective cleaning tools from Scotch-Brite!

Shower & Bath Scrubber
This scrubber is composed with a heavy duty extendable handle and a non-scratch scrubber. The extendable handle allows you to clean all the way up to the ceiling as well as all the way down to the floor without bending over to far or trying to stand on tip-toe. The non-scratch scrubber is replaceable. It cleans perfectly and leaves no scratch on almost every kind of surfaces. With the handle it makes it easier to scrub some areas without having to bend over to far or trying to stand on tip-toe to reach them. Users commented that it takes soap sum off easily with little elbow grease required, but, the head is not flexible enough to reach the curved areas.

Non-Scratch Tub Scrubber
This tub scrubber is designed with a foam handle which is soft and conformable. As it is made of foam, it is very light in weight. Its unique cut-out on the back allows it to conform to the curves and fixture of the tub easily. You just need to move it up and down the tub. The non-scratch scrubber removes build-up without scratching. Users like the product because it is very easy to use and hold and yet it gets rid of dirt and soap scum easily without a lot of scrubbing. In addition, it is mild enough for your hands that you need not to wear gloves.

Nook & Cranny Scrubber
This Nook & Cranny Scrubber is specially designed to clean the small spots in your showers and tubs. The three hook shaped tip design allows you to clean every small spots and various fixtures, faucets and other hand-to-reach areas. Most importantly, it is no-scratch and yet removes build up effectively. With this tools, there is no more time consuming brushing with the tooth brushes.

Grout Scrubber
This grout scrubber is specially designed to fit into the grout perfectly for removing dirt and grime from the grout line. You just need to move it up and down the grout in your shower, bath and even floor. Users like the effectiveness of this product on their deep grout lines which are impossible to be cleaned by other tools. This grout scrubber gets to the bottom of the grout lines and just cleans the dirt.

Cleaning Brush

Admin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 11:48:20 +0000

When you do a search on brush, you can find many different type of cleaning brushes. Some of them are made from similar materials and some of them have similar shapes and structures, they can serve very different purposes. To do all your cleaning effectively and efficiently, you should learn to choose different types of cleaning brushes for different cleaning purposes.

Bottle Brushes
Bottle cleaning brush are most well-known for cleaning baby bottles. Usually one end is a flexible stem and the other is bristles. Some bristles are made of plastic while some are of stainless steel wire to avoid rusting. They taper design, they can be easily inserted into a bottle opening.

Foam Bottle Brushes
This type of brushes is very similar to ordinary bottle brushes except there are foams in the front of the bristle ends. The foams of sponge head is designed for thorough cleaning of the base of the feeding bottle. The bristles of these brushes are very soft to prevent damage of bottle and bottle nipple.

Dish Brushes
Dish brushes are used for washing dishes. They are usually made of plastic and with long handles. Some of them have replaceable heads. Oxo Good Grips even launched a dish brush which is soap squirting.

Polypropylene Brushes
Polypropylene brushes are one of the most common brushes. These brushes usually have the base of wood or polypropylene. Their bristles are made up of coco fibre, nylon and mild steel wire. Their main uses are floor sweeping, scrubbing and light dusting.

Cobweb Brushes
Cobweb and duct cleaning brushes are also known as fan brushes. They are used to clean fan, cobweb or dust and debris in hard to reach areas (like corners and ceilings). It has a long handle for easier reach of room corners. Some of the brushes have extendable handles.

Roller Brushes
Roller brushes are usually made of nylon, bristles, hair, polypropylene, abrasive filaments, brass wires, Mexican fiber etc. They are available in different diameters. Roller Brushes are used for scrubbing, cleaning, grinding, and dust removing in wide face areas. They are suitable for glass washing and carpet cleaning.

Cloth Brushes
These are simply designed brushes with handles. Some of them are in round shape while some are in rectangular shape. They are designed to remove lint or furries from clothes. Another type of cloth brushes is with bristled brush on one side and tiny brush on the other and is named as lint brush.

Solar Pool Covers

Admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:36:03 +0000

We have share some useful information for different types of pool covers in another other post, this post we will focus on solar pool cover. Instead of keeping the swimming pool out of leaves and debris, swimming pool solar covers mainly help to keep the pool warmer.
How Good is Solar Pool Cover?
The solar swimming pool cover or the solar blanket has the ability to absorb the energy from the sun to keep the pool warmer and can reduce water evaporation. Therefore, it is environmentally friendly and can lower your operating costs. Solar pool covers can help conserve water by reducing up to 30-50% of water consumption; 35-60% of chemical consumption and 70% of heat loss from a swimming pool (or increase the water temperature by 10-15 degrees). When the weather is dry and windy, the evaporation rate of water is higher and you are most likely requiring a solar pool cover in such time.
Types of Solar Pool Cover
There are several different types of solar pool cover in terms of materials including UV-stabilized polyethylene, polypropylene, or vinyl to resist deterioration. Most of the solar pool can last for several years. Usually, you may find solar covers in the form of bubble packing material, but using thicker plastic with UV inhibitors. The bubbles help trap heat from the sun and transmit the heat to the pool. The other material, vinyl is a heavier material which has a longer life expectancy than bubble covers.
-Floating Solar Heater
Instead of the solar blanket, you can also choose to buy floating solar heaters. One kind of such heaters is called the Solar Sun Ring which is actually a passive solar heating device. It is made from two sheets of heavyweight U.V. resistant vinyl. The upper clear layer helps focus sunlight onto the lower layer. The lower layer then absorbs around 50% of sunlight and converts it into heat.

Solar Sun Rings are specially designed to be used with automatic pool cleaners. When the suction hose catches on a ring, the solar ring will separate from the raft. Then the pool cleaner can continue to operate.
Like the solar blanket, solar ring reduce the pool chemicals to evaporate from the two layers of heavyweight vinyl. Therefore, you can save both water and chemicals as much as the solar blanket. When the water in the pool has reached to a certain desired temperature, you can simply turn the solar rings over to reduce water evaporation.

-Liquid Pool Covers
Other than the solar sun ring, you still have another choice called liquid pool covers. This type of cover is less bulky. The working principle is to slowly emit a non-toxic liquid to the water in order to trap heat and reduce evaporation. Basically, there is no big difference in functions compared to solar sun ring or solar blanket except it is more user-friendly.

Use, Remove and Store
Unlike the winter cover and safety net, there are no anchors or tie-down required. You just need to let the cover float on the water freely. As you can guess, it is extremely easy to place and remove the cover by just pulling it. Storage is also easy as you can fold and roll the cover up easily.

Pool Covers

Admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 06:14:26 +0000

If you have a nice swimming pool, you have to keep it clean especially during the winter time. Therefore, what you need is simple a pool cover. Before you have chosen your swimming pool covers, there are factors worthwhile for you to consider before “wasting” your money! Generally, there are four different types of swimming pool cover including the winter covers, safety covers, solar pool covers and automatic pool covers. To choose your pool cover, taking out the price budget, you may have two factors to consider: function and usage.

Winter Cover

Usually, a winter cover severs more general and boarder functions. A winter cover actually can be used during the whole year instead of just the winter time. Such cover helps reduce water evaporation and keep out the pool from leaves and debris. Most winter pool covers are made with a woven mesh material which allows water to pass through but not the leaves and debris.

It is a good choice for those are going to use the cover for the winter times as the removal and replacement of such cover can be quite time consuming. A winter pool cover is ideal for owners who close down their pool during the winter months. Why it is called the winter cover because typically people use such cover during the winter time when the swimming pool is forced to close by the snow.

Safety Covers

Safety cover is mainly designed to protect infants, toddlers and animals from accidentally falling into the pool. With the other name of the safety covers as pool safety nets, you will know that most of such covers are in the net form. The net should be strong enough to support a huge weight.

As the cover is usually tightly anchored on the side of the pool, one adult alone can remove or replace the net in a few minutes. You can unhook or hook back the clips to release the cover or to place the cover back.

Automatic Pool Covers

While the pool covers can be manual ones, they can also be automatic ones. The automatic pool cover actually is very powerful and can be considered an all-in-one cover which embraces all the winter, safety and solar cover functions. It is usually made of coated vinyl fabric and can withstand thousands of pounds of weight so it is very safe. It may take around 45 seconds to 1 minute to fully open the cover when you need to swim. It is extremely easy to use as you only need to push a button.

Fabric Shaver/ Lint Remover

Admin — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 08:26:45 +0000

Lint can probably be found on most of your sweater. For certain areas of the sweater like the sleeves which are having more chances to get rubbed with your coat, there can be a lot of lint. The lint looks really bad. Even though the sweater can still be worn, you will feel it so dirty and old with the lint. You probably do not want to wear it anymore! A great help to your at this time is fabric shavers or lint removers.

The fabric shaver or lint remover operates by electricity generated by cell batteries. Electric fabric shaver is a small machine with a handle on one side and an electric razor on the other.

Such lint remover is extremely easy to use. You just have to move it on your fabric and the lint will be cut from your clothes. But you have to be careful that if you find that the fabric shave looks like being caught by the thread, never try to pull it hardly. Stop the machine and pull the thread out gently. Otherwise, you may rip a hole on your sweater!

Very commonly, you can find the small and handy one and the jumbo fabric shaver. More batteries are required for the jumbo one but they are usually more powerful in removing lint. Also, they are less likely to get caught by the thread compared to the small ones.

Evercare Fabric Shaver

Many people may have heard about the name Evercare Fabric Shaver. You can choose both giant and small size for this brand. You can probably get them at around $8 – $9. While the small fabric shaver is more appreciated by the customers, the giant one is not. Users really like the low price of it. Many of them are saying that when you remove the lint with this machine in circular motion, it really works. But from most of the fabric shaver reviews, Evercare electric lint remover is more suitable for small work. For some of the expensive sweater, you may not wish to use it as some quite a number of users complain that the shaver was caught on the thread.

Remington Fabric Shaver

Like Evercare Shaver, Remington is also selling at around $7 -$12 depending on the size. But, Remington Fabric Shavers are much highly rated by customers. Many users are surprised by this magic lint remover that makes their clothes like brand new ones. It also works fast, in around 2-3 minutes, you can notice a big difference. But when you use it, you may still need to be careful because in some cases, the shavers also rip holes on the clothes.

If you would like to look for other brands, you can also do a research on Oreck Fabric Shaver and Surround Air which cost you around $20. Both can operate on either batteries or A/C adaptor.

For more information on lint remover brush, please read another post!

Different Lint Removal Brush for Clothes

Admin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 03:55:17 +0000

Lint remover brush is a device to remove all the hairs and small debris in a quick and easy way by attracting them to the lint brush. With the lint brush, you need not to pick them up one by one of vacuum them. Basically, you find lint brushes in two forms including a brush form or the roller form.

Lint Roller

Lint roller is probably the cheapest lint remover available in the market. Usually it has replaceable sticky papers rolling on a plastic handle. When you roll the lint roller on your clothes or upholstery, the hairs and debris are stuck onto the sticky paper. You can then peel off the dirty sticky paper and repeat the process again and again. 3M is one of the brands selling lint rollers with many different designs of handles to fit different people and purpose. Users find the lint rollers are easy to use. Most of the people are quite satisfied with sticky power. The unit price for general roller is only around $2-$3 while with a special designed handle can cost around $5. Some users if use it for large area of surface may find this not economical to use. As they will need to peel off the sticky paper very frequently and ends up using the whole lint roller.

Lint Brush or Reversible Lint Brush

These two types of lint brushes are more like a real brush. When you move the brush on your clothes or upholstery, the hairs are trapped on the brush or the special fabric. These two types are good at removing hairs more than small particles. For the reversible lint brushes, they are specially designed to use in all direction of pulling. This kind of brush is not like the roller which needs quick replacement, they can last for quite a long ti

me. People are generally satisfied for the products as they work. But the problem with this product is that you have to remove the lint attached to the brush yourself, or after sometimes, you may find the brush not working well. The price for this type of lint brush is around $15.

Self-Cleaning Lint Brush

Self-cleaning lint brush is actually very much the same like the special fabric lint brush except you do not need to clean it but it is self-cleaning. After the hairs or lint attached to the fabric surface, you just slide the level and all the lint and hairs on the brush will be take out into a small chamber. Then you can empty the chamber. Such self-cleaning lint costs you about $15-$20.

Dryer Lint Brush

Dryer lint brushes are specially designed to clean the lint and hair in the dryer. By removing the lint and hair, it helps prolong the useful life of dryer and lower the risk of rent fire. By pushing the lint brush into the dryer duct and spinning, the lint is trapped and gets removed. LintEater is the brand with most positive feedbacks from users for effectiveness and clear instruction. LintEater one costs you around $30 while other brands cost around $20.

Toilet Brush

Admin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:30:14 +0000

Every house has a toilet. As important as the toilet, every house should have a toilet brush and holder. Toilet brushes nowadays not only emphasize on usefulness but also fashion and many other features. Usually, the brush sets are made of plastic, stainless steel, ceramic and even bamboo. Most of the toilet bowl brush and toilet brush holder together cost you about $20. Several types and brands are more popular than other and we will explore more below.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel toilet brush and holder looks really cool and elegant compared to brush made of other materials like rubber or wood. Users of stainless steel brushes find the brushes more long lasting and more hygienic than the plastic ones. Unfortunately, the ratings for the stainless steel brushes vary a lot. For some poor quality ones, users are actually complaining for a rusting problem. Of course stainless steel ones generally cost more than the plastic ones around $40 or plus.

Plastic

Plastic toilet brushes are the most common ones. Plastic toilet brushes are cheap to buy and therefore people do not actually choose a plastic toilet brush. They just throw the brush away when it does not work or when it becomes dirty. Actually, plastic ones now available in the market can also have many different features. One of the popular brand, Oxo Good Grips Toilet Brushes offer automatically open canister, flexible neck, curve toilet brush, etc. Many of the users rate highly. Users are satisfied with the cleaning power, the design and the quick dry feature with the air holes on the canister. Ordinary rubber toilet brush costs around $7 while Oxo toilet brush costs more at around $20.

Disposable Toilet Bowl Brush

Recently, TV commercials or other advertisement are selling disposable toilet bowl brushes. There is no canister for this type of toilet brush as you simple throw the scrubber away after. The best idea for disposable toilet brush is the super hygienic. Brands of disposable toilet bowl brushes like Clorox and 3M can achieve 99.9% disinfection. Some people do not like the disposable ones as they think the disposable ones are simply too expenses. The plastic ones cost around $7-$10 and can be used for quite a period of time. The disposable ones can cost around $3 for 6 scrubbers. Some users also think the disposable scrubbers cannot clean as good as the traditional ones.

Cleaners

Admin — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 03:27:25 +0000

Cleaners are the stuff that you use for your cleaning purpose. Cleaners are very important to our lives as they help us save time and increase effectiveness. There are many different kinds of cleaners from powder ones or liquid ones to machines ones like vacuum cleaners and steam cleaners. We will talk and know more about different types of machine cleaners. Know more about their function and you are ready to use them when you get tired of about your home cleaning!

Vacuum Cleaners

Vacuum cleaners are a device that creates a vacuum space which helps suck in the dust. Vacuum cleaner has been firstly invented in 1876 and has now developed with many different features. The main new features are upright, water based cleaning, steam (we will talk more in steam cleaners) and even remote control. Common brands are Hoover, Bissell and Dyson. Prices for vacuum cleaners range a lot from $200 to $400 for a general model.

Steam Cleaners

Steam cleaners are new devices sold by many vacuum cleaners companies. Steam cleaners perform the functions of a vacuum cleaner but with steam. The most important idea for the steam cleaner is the sanitizing function with its steam, therefore, no further chemical cleaners are required. This is most appreciated by whom have already tired about the toxic or flammable chemicals. Common brands include Hoover, Bisell, Haan and Euro-Pro. You can get a steam cleaner around $150.

Carpet Cleaners

Carpet cleaners are machines specially designed to clean the carpet, especially for the dust, dirt and especially the stains. Most of the time, what the carpet cleaner provide is wet cleaning and nowadays a lot are with steam cleaning. Common brands for carpet cleaners include Hoover and Bissell. They are priced ranging from $150 – $200 for a general model.

Pool Cleaners

Pool cleaners are devices for cleaning the swimming pools. Other than cleaning, pool cleaners help capture small debris, sands and leaves by suction. Common brands include Aquabots, Polaris and Kreepy Krauly. The price of a pool cleaner is around $200-$300 for a general model.

Air Cleaners

Air cleaners or air purifiers are designed to clean the air of your house. It helps remove indoor pollutants like particles and gases therefore is a great device to those having asthma or other breathing problem. Some of the air cleaners are designed to be installed into the ductwork and some of them are portable. Common brands are Honeywell and Aprilaire. A general model costs you around $50.

Cleaning Equipment – Mops and Brooms

Admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 08:57:42 +0000

Though mop and broom are not as common as it was in the old days with the invention of vacuum cleaners. It is still a good much easier way to clean your floor. Do not forget, not all types of floors are suitable to clean with vacuum cleaners, and wood floor is one of the types. In this case get a good mop or broom is extremely important!

In talking about the mop, you can actually find different types of them. The most common ones are traditional, cloth, microfiber and flat and sponge ones. This is also true for broom. You can find the hard bristle, soft bristle and electrostatic ones.

Mop

Flat and sponge or microfiber mops become significantly popular than the traditional and cloth ones. The biggest problem for the traditional mop head is it is usually not replac

eable bacteria can easily grow on it.

Cloth mop is very good at picking up dust and it is very light compared to traditional and even sponge ones. But when it comes to small particles, the cloth mop usually does not work that well. The other problem is though cloth mop can be replaceable, it is not long lasting, meaning you have to replace very often. For refilling mop, it costs you around $10 for 2.

For the popular sponge ones, they are much more long lasting than cloth and yet it can be replaced to reduce bacteria. Also, the cleaning power of the flat and sponge mop is higher than the traditional and cloth ones. You can get a general one at around $20+.

The other popular one is the microfiber mop. You will probably be amazed by the power of microfiber mop on dust and small particles. As with the extremely large surface area for the microfiber, they can effectively clean the dust and any other mess. You do not need different kinds of cleaners, just water will be fine.

Broom

Broom unlike mop, broom can be regarded as dry cleaning equipment instead of wet. Hard bristle brooms are more suitable for outdoor purpose. It is good to use for sweeping the doorway or the fallen leaves outside your house. I think I can hardly find any inside floor that is suitable for hard bristle broom.

Soft broom is ideal for indoor purpose. This is especially true for hardwood floor as if the broom is too hard, it can scratch the hardwood floor. Soft broom is good at gathering the small particles, but not that good for dust as it is simply too tiny. If you find the floor really dusty, vacuum cleaning or even mop can be a better choice.

Finally, for the electrostatic ones, they are your best choice if you have pets or if you find a lot of hairs on the floor (for families with more females!). These brooms are especially designed to attract the hairs. You can get such broom at around $13.