Three things that work as advertised.

I get tired of feeling cynical about commercial products, but they just won't give me a break. Or, they break. Here are three exceptions that I'm feeling pretty good about right now:

Fujitsu ScanSnap


Light, portable, and extremely intuitive. You can process your image any way you want it, right on the spot. Send it to iPhoto? You got it. Email it? Done. Several pages of a document? No problem, tell it when you're finished and it'll make it one file. I processed thousands of paper photos to digitize them, and I would have done it in half, maybe one-third the time with this puppy. Bus-power gives it extra ♥♥♥.

[Disclaimer: Annie bought this, and I just now choked up a little when I saw the price. Still, if you want a quick, small and convenient way to deal with paperwork on the road, I stick by my recommendation.]



Canon Pixma iP100 mobile printer

It's billed as a travel photo printer, but does a bang-up job on regular print jobs, too.  I have to print several times a week, and lugging our old HP up and down from the overhead storage was oppressive.  Losing my grip and dropping it on a cat was never popular.  It's light (made to be portable), but does the job well.  Not bus-powered, unfortunately, but I can't have everything.  Doesn't scan, but see above.




Mini countertop spin dryer


This is small, but effective.  I got this after I led you through a madcap laundry day in the Duck, and I like it a lot.  It isn't a dryer, as the description reminds you, but clothes come about halfway between just out of the conventional washer and completely dry, after two minutes of spinning.  Downside:  it doesn't hold a lot at once.  A pair of jeans, or three shirts.  But, if you like to do your laundry as you go, or you don't dirty a lot of clothes, this "downside" turns into an advantage, because its compact size makes it easy to hoist up onto the counter for a quick wring.

Another "downside" for me is that it isn't manual, so a little electricity is required.  It uses a nominal 0.75A, so if you ran it for an hour you'd use about 0.75Ah, or (for the gridlocked) 0.08 kwh.  Each 2 minute spin would use 0.003kwh.  If you pay 13¢ per kwh, like we do here, that would cost you 0.04¢/wring-a-ding (someone check my math).

If you get one, do read the instructions.  Especially the part about removing the shipping brace on the bottom.  If I hadn't seen a video it wouldn't have occurred to me to flip it over and take that thing off.

I haven't given up on getting a hand-wringer.  I emailed my man, Grant, at Get Prepared Stuff, because he offered me a used mangle at a good price, and I wanted to take him up on it.  Tragically, I never heard back from him, so I think our brief affair is over.  Some other woman is fondling the mangle that should have been mine.

Using a duck with a wringer.

You may think you're done, done, DONE with the washing subject and good riddance!  You may want to avert your eyes for a minute.  Better plug your ears, too, just in case.



Remember Grant, the Get Prepared Stuff guy whom I may be getting a little crush on?  He wrote more about the wringer, AND he's giving Good Luck Duck readers a coupon.







Grant sent me this link illustrating wringers on RV bumpers and other examples of Aussie ingenuity.  He also says about the Best Hand Wringer:

Not to back track from what I said in my last reply but if it came across like the wringer was of no value without a firm location to attach it to, I need to clarify that the wringer still works and will get considerable amounts of water out of clothing, it just won't be the best it could be and I don't have any real data other than to say it does pretty good.

 In explaining the items I have available for purchase I try to set expectation so you know what you are getting.  However, I've been known to talk people out of a good purchase simply because I've erred on over explaining the minuses while not explaining that the pluses could still out weigh the weaknesses. 

 A wringer even attached to a rather insecure bucket or tub will get enough water out of clothing to shave hours and even days off of air drying your laundry. That in and of itself could be worth it's use.  My hope is that people simply understand that it's a different process to wring clothing compared to an electric washer's spin cycle and the results can be much different depending on the clothes or material being run through it, how the wringer is located, how tightly you run the rollers and how much effort you want to put into turning the handle.  There are good reasons why wringers were gladly replaced by a washers spin cycle but I've not found a manual hand powered option that works any better than a wringer.

  My marketing as you've seen is still a lot to be desired but I'll attempt to at least help your readers somewhat and offer a $10 discount if they purchase a wringer and rapid washer together.  They will need to use Google checkout and type in: thegoodluckduck where it asks for a coupon.  They would need to purchase the items from the getpreparedstuff.com site. 

 I'll keep the coupon active for as long as possible but if the internet coupon sites pick it up I may need to turn it off.

 All the best,  

-grant

So, there you go.  He is also offering me a returned one in good shape for a decent discount - what should I do??

Something good may have fallen into place over the past week.  I mean GOOD.  It's not a done deal yet, but it's pretty close.   I should go ahead and tell you, because I'm not superstitious, but that might jinx it.  Better wait.

Mangled.

I've been looking at this hand clothes wringer, and I went looking for the owner of the company who sells them, Get Prepared Stuff.


His name is Grant, and he was extremely responsive to my questions and comments. Here is what he says about the wringer:

Thanks Roxanne,

The wringer is a good product and I've sold a lot of them unfortunately the cost is rather high and the two people that have commented were those that had less than stellar experiences with it.

The wringer is made in the USA from a design that hasn't changed in close to 80+ years. As far as a wringer goes it works quite well but the problem many have is that it doesn't work well on certain clothes such as jeans, overalls or other such clothing items that have buttons, zippers, snaps that bind up on the wringers rollers and prevent them from really "squishing" the water out around those areas of the clothing.

Wringing is a two step process where you run the clothing item through once to get a good amount of water out and then you tighten down the wringer even more and run the clothing through a second time which gets the most water out. This second time through is essential but it is the hardest to do for jeans and those types of clothing mentioned earlier because the tightness of the rollers prevent those clothing articles from going through without loosening the rollers over the rough spots.

The other problem with wringing is the stable and firm platform needed to clamp the wringer onto. When you tighten the rollers as tight as they should be the resistance to turning the handle on the wringer is quite stiff and it takes a good amount of torque to turn the handle. If the wringer is clamped down to a simple galvanized tub or other flimsy surface which doesn't provide enough rigidity to be able "put your back into" turning the handle you'll not be able to tighten the rollers down enough to get the most water out of the clothes.

There was one comment that a little clip would come off a pressure plate on the clamps foot and this is a known problem that can occur if you are moving the wringer around or clamping it on and then taking it off it's location. I've discussed this with the manufacturer and they are working on a redesign to hopefully fix the problem. The issue is that when unscrewing the clamp the pressure plate if it's at an angle can bind up with the "E" clip and twists the clip right off the end of the screw. If your wringer is not left on a fixed location this would be more of a problem because of all the clamping and unclamping than if it was left affixed to a single location.

That's the wringer in a nut shell.

If you have anything else I can help you with feel free to ask anytime.

Best regards,

-grant

I'm not positive that this is the right product for our needs, simply because I won't have that type of stationary object to clamp it to, and it seems to need that stability in order to put a shoulder into the job. But I like his style and his willingness to spend this much time explaining a product to one person. I didn't feel sold-to, and I'd like to think his responsiveness would extend to issues with purchased products.