From cat beds to phone mounts for cars and even solar chargers, your “Does It Work?” team is here with opinions and reviews.
This time, we’re testing 15 items to see if they live up to their claims.
The reviewers are Beacon Journal food writer Lisa Abraham, home writer Mary Beth Breckenridge and myself, the consumer writer.
These are not scientific tests. We are just trying out products — mostly together and sometimes individually. We also solicited opinions from readers and they are published in a separate story.
Our verdicts might save you money by telling you to “Skip It.” With a great product, we say “Snap It Up.” Other times, we neither love nor hate the product and the rating will be “It Depends.”
You can go to previous “Does It Work?” articles online at www.ohio.com/doesitwork.
Today’s reviews are a mix of consumer products. More will be covered in Wednesday’s Beacon Journal Food section and Saturday’s Beacon Journal Home section.
Bell & Howell Solar Charger
This portable solar charger ($19.99) comes on a key ring and says it will “capture and store energy from the sun or USB cable” to charge phones and other items instantly. We were pretty disappointed despite many attempts to give it a fair shake.
Although the charger is handy with a key ring, you need to have the cords to get the charge from the device to your phone, so that’s not as portable.
Also, there was an immediate discrepancy. On the box, it says it comes with a full charge, though the instructions said to connect via USB to a computer for a full charge prior to first use.
The charger only works on limited phones and not older models. To be fair, most people have the newer smartphones.
We tried to charge things a few times.
The first time, it charged, but we didn’t test how long it would last.
On subsequent tries, I let my iPhone run down its battery to see how much a fully charged Solar Charger would give.
One time, I left the solar charger on my car dashboard for an entire workday.
When I got home, I read in the instructions that it needed two full days in the sun to charge (not very convenient). So with half of the charge, it only charged my battery for four minutes from 48 percent to 49 percent.
That night, I kept my computer on all night to charge with the USB cord. The instructions said a full charge should be reached in three to four hours.
After at least eight hours, it “finished” charging after 16 minutes and my battery went from 44 percent to 55 percent.
I was not impressed and wouldn’t buy it.
Lisa said she also wasn’t impressed, based on her testing.
“I think most folks use car chargers or plug-in chargers, so while it sounds like a good energy-saving idea, I suspect most folks won’t really find much use for it.”
Mary Beth said she’d give it an “It Depends.”
“I like the portability and the fact that you could use the device to charge your phone in an emergency, at least enough to make a few calls. But I recognize that charging the charger takes some forethought, and I’m not at all impressed by its capacity,” she said.
Verdicts:
Betty: Skip It.
Lisa: Skip It.
Mary Beth: It Depends.
GripGo
The GripGo says it’s a universal car phone mount that “instantly grips any style phone or GPS.”
It certainly was cheaper at $10.88 than the $24 or so I paid for an iPhone mount. But sometimes you get what you pay for.
In some cases, it grips too well, and in other cases, not enough.
The “sticky” surface is nice to quickly attach the phone and be done. But a few times, the sticky surface was so firm that the whole mount and phone came off the arm of the device — something I’m sure it wasn’t designed to do.
Other times, it felt not sticky enough. (You can wet the mount and it will get sticky again, though not as sticky as originally.)
Mary Beth felt like the GripGo was cheap and inelegant. She didn’t think it stayed mounted on the windshield, but also said very few mounts always stay on.
It was OK, but nothing great.
Verdicts:
Betty: It Depends.
Lisa: It Depends.
Mary Beth: It Depends.
Sunny Seat Window Mounted Cat Bed
This product says it installs in seconds, keeps cats warm and happy and will hold up to 50 pounds.
Having cats, Mary Beth and I know they are finicky. What one cat likes, another might not. And one day the same cat might like something and then not like it the next day.
I had some concerns with this product.
We installed it easily using the suction cups on a large sliding door in my family room. To be fair, that door opens to a large enclosed deck that my cats like to sun in, so they probably wouldn’t be all that interested in a bed on the door to the room they like.
We put one of our cats, Alfalfa, on the seat. He’s my most “solid” cat. A few times, he sat on the seat, but only when I would put him on it; I never saw him go on it himself.
But a few times, including once when Alfalfa was on the seat, which cost us $19.97, a suction cup came loose and the seat fell. Not surprisingly, Alfalfa was never interested again.
Mary Beth put her cat on it once and she stayed, but Mary Beth never saw her pets get up on their own. She also put toys on the bed and they disappeared. So we assumed the cats got them and didn’t stay.
Lisa doesn’t have any pets, but thought the seat was unattractive and questioned why anyone would want to have it hanging on their window when pets could easily find a spot on the floor in front of a window to sun themselves.
A reader said her dog loves it, so she assumed cats would love it.
Verdicts:
Betty: It Depends.
Lisa: Skip It.
Mary Beth: It Depends.
Rabbit TV
With people ditching cable TV and getting programming elsewhere, we picked up the Rabbit TV, which promises that you can enjoy more than 5,000 free Internet TV channels, 25,000 free movies and 50,000 free radio stations on your computer.
It’s possible you can see that many channels and movies, but the device wasn’t exactly what we thought it was advertised. It is essentially a portal or aggregator of websites that are already free. If you want to watch the latest NCIS episode, you click on the picture of NCIS and it will take you to the NCIS page on www.cbs.com.
So it’s not giving you anything you can’t otherwise get, but it’s giving you everything in one spot. Other websites, such as www.hulu.com also do similar things. There are some “pay per view” options for $3.99 for movies.
We were also disappointed to see that while the device was $9.88, it offered its service for free for one year, but then you have to pay $9 per year after.
Mary Beth pointed out the device might simplify searching for people who aren’t tech savvy and want everything in one place.
But if you are that uncomfortable with searching the Web for shows, this probably isn’t going to make it that much easier.
Verdicts:
Betty: Skip It.
Lisa: Skip It.
Mary Beth: Skip It.
Magic Tap
The Magic Tap is an automatic drink dispenser that is battery operated and says it can eliminate heavy lifting and pouring and offers a way for kids to help themselves.
The device, which costs $9.97, works. We tried it on a large jug of orange juice and while the juice shot out fairly horizontally, it didn’t spill outside of the cup for the most part. We also tried a few different cup sizes.
We tried it with a bottle with a narrow opening that approximated the size of a small juice glass. The juice shot past the opening when the bottle wasn’t angled. But as long as we angled the glass or bottle, the Magic Tap worked well.
There is also a switch that protects it against someone bumping it in the fridge.
“Big jugs of milk are always such a challenge for little kids,” Lisa said.
Cleaning was a bit difficult and it’s not dishwasher safe. You’re supposed to mix powdered dishwasher soap and water and dispense it through the Magic Tap, but we had success cleaning it with liquid dish soap and water.
For each household, this would be a personal preference. While large jugs of milk or juice on our top shelf of my refrigerator can still be a challenge for my 10-year-old, we weren’t sure that using the Magic Tap was worth it. But if you have younger kids and want to give them the freedom to get their own drinks, this is a possibility.
Verdicts:
Betty: It Depends.
Lisa: It Depends.
Mary Beth: It Depends.
Have you seen an advertised product and wondered if it really lives up to its claims? You can suggest items to be reviewed by Lisa Abraham, Mary Beth Breckenridge and Betty Lin-Fisher by sending email to labraham@thebeaconjournal.com or calling 330-996-3737, mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3756 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3724.