Tag: Small appliances

Hoover HL4 Upright Pet Vacuum Cleaner with Anti Hair Wrap 

Family Life, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

With 2 children, a collection of pets and farmer in our house it’s no wonder I seem to spend a lot of time vacuuming! Whether it’s crumbs, hair, or the ridiculous amount of straw that seems to find a way into the house, courtesy of the boy’s wellies, I find myself having to vacuum every day to try and keep my house looking presentable. I was therefore very pleased to be given the opportunity to try the Hoover HL4 Upright Pet Vacuum Cleaner with Anti Hair Wrap which was voted BEST UPRIGHT VACUUM CLEANER by Good Housekeeping in 2023.  

The Hoover HL4 comes in a large box and I was really pleased to find there is no plastic packaging at all, well done Hoover! The vacuum does requires a small amount of assembly before use but it is really simple – even without reading the instructions! The vacuum comes with a crevice tool and mini turbo pets brush which optimise the cleaning performance of the vacuum. It weighs under 5kg and is very easy to manoeuvre, gliding easily over my floors, sucking up everything in its path. I was really impressed with how well it works, we have a mixture of carpet, tiles and vinyl flooring and it coped equally well on all surfaces.

There are three ways to use the vacuum – upright mode where you use the vacuum in the traditional way, upright accessory mode where you detach the handle from the unit and attach either of the tools to the wand, allowing you to reach into corners and along skirting boards and in this mode it is prefect for cleaning the car. The third option is my favourite of the three – it’s quite ingenious and certainly makes cleaning the stairs a lot easier. For this mode you remove the body of the vacuum from the brush head, detach the handle, and you then have a much lighter vacuum, giving you the freedom to manoeuvre around furniture and awkward spaces, either at floor level or higher up, and it made short work of the spiders webs that I can’t normally reach with my hoover, up  the top corners of my rooms .

For the majority my cleaning I usually use it in the standard upright position and as it has a 7.6m power cord I don’t need to keep unplugging it as I move around the house. The vacuum manoeuvres easily and cleans right up to the skirtings and it has a low profile head to duck under furniture getting all those stray pieces of straw that appear all over my house. There’s two settings, one for hard floors and another for carpets and it is easy to switch between them when in use. The Anti Hair Wrap brush bar stops hair accumulating around the brushes so is perfect for those with pets or with family members with long hair!!

As I generally vacuum every day, I thought we had relatively clean carpets until I switched to this vacuum – the amount of dust that was in the dust bin after cleaning the carpets for the first time was astounding – our old vacuum was obviously not doing a very good job!

Talking of the dust bin, once it is full it is simple to remove and empty and after a quick wash it looks as good as new again. For optimum performance Hoover recommend washing the filters every month, they are easy to get to and once you have removed the excess debris they can be cleaned under a lukewarm tap and left to dry for 24 hours before refitting.  

Overall we have been very impressed with the Hoover HL4 vacuum, we like how you can remove the body of the vacuum from the brushes allowing you to clean the stairs and awkward places easily and it is fantastic at picking up both dirt, straw and pet hairs. The vacuum is easy to operate, the filters are easy to clean and it comes with 3years warranty.


RRP  £219 but currently on offer at £168  

Haier I-Master Series 5 Toaster 2 Slice

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Family Life, Food & Drink, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden, kitchen appliances

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own

Haier are well known for their large kitchen appliances and have just entered the small appliance market with a new range consisting of 7 small appliances – a kettle, air fryer, blender, hand blender, compact food processor, toaster and  multi functional hot drink maker. We have been trying out a couple of them and I have to say I am really impressed!

Our previous toaster gave up the ghost recently after 25 years and I picked up a cheap one to tide us over, so I was really pleased to receive the Haier I-Master Series 5 Toaster 2 Slice toaster which with 21 different functions is  definitely in my mind the “Rolls Royce” of toasters!

The stylish black toaster looks unassuming at first glance however this black box has the ability to transform the humble slice of bread into a toasty delight. My pet hate is toasters with thin slots that can’t take a fruit teacake or even worse ruins them when they get stuck to the side, meaning you have to prise them out so I was very pleased to discover that this toaster has extra wide slots to accommodate everything from chunky slices of bread, bagels, baguettes and the all important fruit teacake.

This high tech toaster also has a one-sided function, which as the name implies allows you to toast just one side which is ideal for bagels. When I tried it my sesame seed bagel was lovely and crispy on the cut side but still soft and chewy on the other side.

I’ve been using the toaster for a week or so now and it has already proved its worth. I’m able to toast fruit teacakes perfectly without setting off the smoke alarm and they pop up nicely with no need to prise them out. The most important point of all is they are toasted nice and evenly and I no longer get the burnt bits where it caught the element.

There’s no dials on this toaster, instead you press the plus or minus sign depending on how well you want your item to be toasted. There are additional buttons for small slices, one sided toast, cancel and a favourite button allowing you to customise your favourite toasting method. The toaster also has a high-lift function so you can lift your toast out of the slot to check its progress without having to cancel the process and start again.

Cleaning the crumbs out is easy too, thanks to the removable crumb tray which pops out nice and smoothly. Another excellent feature is the handy lid which stops dust falling into the toaster and makes it look nice and tidy on the worksurface – why has no one thought of this before???

Whilst it’s not the cheapest toaster around everything about this toaster has impressed me – it not only has toasted perfectly every time, it has fitted every type of bread, bun and crumpet that I have thrown into it and the controls are simple to use. It looks very stylish and another measure of how good it is, is that the smoke alarm no longer goes off every breakfast time!!

It really is worth spending that little bit more on a quality toaster and, based on my experiences so far, the Haier toaster is up there with the best!

Matching the kettle it makes a perfect gift for any occasion, especially at Christmas when we have the time to enjoy a more leisurely breakfast .

RRP £119.99 but currently on offer at £79.99

Tower VL35 Plus Cordless 3 in 1 Vacuum Cleaner

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Home & Garden

Disclaimer: We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review and all thoughts and opinions are our own.

Traditionally falling on the Friday after Thanksgiving, Black Friday marks the start of the Christmas shopping season in America with huge discounts available on a wide range of goods. It’s now a big thing in the UK and pretty much all the emails pinging into my inbox at the minute have some sort of Black Friday deal. I love a bargain so I’m making a list of the best offers so that I will be able to make a good start on my Christmas shopping.

Tower Housewares have a number of small appliances in their Black Friday deals, which are running from the 13th to 27th November. The British company was founded in 1912 and has been producing kitchenware for over 100 years. Cordless vacuums are now very popular and one of their Black Friday deals is 20% off the VL35 Cordless 3-in-1 Pole Vacuum.

The vacuum is very easy to assemble and comes partly charged so you can use it straight from the box. It weighs 2.5kg and is very easy to manoeuvre, pivoting at the bottom of the pole which helps it to glide easily over the floor, sucking up everything in its path. I was really impressed with how well it cleaned my floors; we have a mixture of carpet, tiles and vinyl flooring and it coped equally well on all surfaces. I was also really impressed with the handle which goes flat to the floor allowing me to clean under drawers and beds with the LED lights illuminating the way to ensure all the bits have been picked up. I love the versatility of the vacuum as it can also be used without the pole and operated hand held, which is brilliant for the stairs and cleaning the car. Whether I am using it in stick or handheld mode it is very powerful, pulling up dirt and crumbs from the floors with ease. In stick mode, it glides across the floor and is extremely easy to manoeuvre around furniture. The ultra-efficient motorised anti-tangle floor head has an all-floor brush bar & extra thick bristles, which continuously comb the brush, thereby preventing hair build-up.

It is easy to charge the battery, it can be done by removing it and charging it on its own, or keeping the battery in the vacuum and charging it that way. It has a battery indicator so you know when it needs recharging and a full charge, which gives up to 35 minutes run time, takes four hours.

The vacuum is bagless with a transparent tank to collect the dirt, this is very easy to remove and empty.

The two speed cyclonic suction provides consistent airflow which sucks up dirt and it also has an anti-allergy HEPA filter removing 99.95% of fine particles from 0.3 microns, making it ideal for allergy sufferers.

Smartly designed, this cordless vacuum not only cleans incredibly well but as it can made into a handheld cleaner it is incredibly versatile. It comes with a crevice nozzle and 2 in 1 brush so you can get into the corners as well as cleaning upholstery.

There are loads of things I love about this vacuum, the main one being how easy it is to store, small enough to tuck away in the hall cupboard or if you are lacking in storage space just un-click the handle and it will fit under the sink.

RRP  £99.99  – Black Friday price £79.99