Product review: Durapower 500lm Rechargeable LED Work Light Bar Cordless

This work light exceeded my expectations. I did not fully understand how versatile it is until I began using it.



✔ I can hang the light horizontally using magnets on my HiLoft storage system. HiLoft shelves are a metal grid. The magnets are strong enough that they work even with this "sparse" support. The magnets work great on a solid sheet of metal, of course, like a hood of the car.



✔ I can hang the light by one or two hooks, providing me light either horizontally or vertically depending on the space I need to light. I have a long a narrow area behind the furnace where I every few months we need to change the filter, it is always a struggle to see what is happening because the furnace shades the overhead light and it is difficult to hold a flashlight while changing the filter. Now the problem is solved.



✔ The light can be rotated so the light provides the light to an area but not beam into my eyes.



✔ The light runs on a rechargeable battery, so when I use it I don't need to have it plugged in. (In fact the manufacture warns not to use the light while it is being charged).



✔ It has two modes low and high, both of modes are quite bright.



When I first opened it I wondered where the hooks are. Turns out they are hidden within the ends and can be either extended or retracted. The next puzzle was to find the port for charging, it is hidden on the end of the light and you need to rotate the hook to expose the opening. I show it in the video, as it is easier to show than describe. When the light is charging you red LED light is on, when the charging is done the red LED is turns off. The manufacture recommends not leaving the light charging continuously.



Overall, I am very pleased. Good amount of light and it can be mounted in many different ways.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.







AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Estilo Stainless Steel Toilet Brush and Holder

If this toilet brush did not have a crack in the bottom I would have liked it. It is made out thin stainless sheet body and cap, however the bottom is made out of very thin plastic which arrived with two cracks. Even though the cracks are not visible, given how it mean to be used something very unpleasant is going to leak through the crack and so it is really not usable with the crack. The fact that it cracked in shipping (the package itself was not crushed) indicates that the quality of this plastic is fragile and that it can break under regular use as well.



The toilet brush is 11" tall. It weighs 11.2 oz.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★☆☆☆

Product review: Prime Pro Spy Camera Pen 720p Video Camera

This is a pretty neat spy camera. Don't expect the results to be as good as a digital SLR, but for taking video and sound in a covert manner it is quite good. In attached video you can see and hear snippets of my evening out with the pen in my pocket. The video the pen takes pretty good quality but since you can't tell exactly where you are pointing the framing is difficult. The video has quite a bit of shake because it is taken while the person is walking or moving. In addition for the ladies the pockets are often on the part of the chest that is not flat so the camera lens will be pointing a bit up rather than straight ahead. In my video I got a lot of ceiling shots. Carrying this pen in the purse might be another option that will work in some situations better than a shirt pocket. Attached video contains the video taken with camera in my shirt pocket, I did not hold the pen in my hand so this is a realistic example of what the video would look like if I wanted to take video in a covert manner.



After I fully charged the camera, I was able to take video for 40 minutes. It is a little difficult to tell if the camera working or not. I could tell it was recording because it got slightly warm. When it stopped recording it got cool so I knew it stopped recording. When I got home I found two video files with a total recording time of 39 minutes. It is also hard to tell when it is fully charged or how long it take for it to get fully charged. When I charge it the indicator light is red, but it continued glow red even overnight when I think it was already fully charged.



The camera has no controls, it operates by detecting motion. The only thing you can control is setting the date to the current date, and this is done by createing a text file which contains the current date. A sample copy of this text file is present on the micro SD card. Just edit it with any text editor and modify sample time to current time. Save the file. The name of the file us userconfig.txt.



This pen camera looks very similar to a normal pen and it even writes well. It has a very short ink canister because most of its body is the battery and the camera.



The camera lens is right above the clip. The clip has a nice mechanism which closes the lens when you don't want it to take pictures. Very thoughtful!



The charging port and the port for Micro SD are revealed when you take off the cap.



The status indicator is a small light on the opposite side from the camera lens. If you are carrying the pen with the camera out then the light is facing you so you know what the camera is doing. To start recording you need to do a short press on the button on top of the pen. Another short press turns it off. A long press while it is on puts into motion activation mode. Note that the instruction refer to the color of the light is amber, but to me it looks like light green light. Do not remove the micro sd card until the pen stops saving the file which is indicated by status light being off.



The camera produces either jpg photos (1280x1024) or AVI videos (1280x720). The camera is 8 mega pixels. It can take TF card up to 32G.



Finally, if something goes wrong it is nice to have an escape hatch. There is a reset to manufacturer's setting pin hole on the camera. I was able to reset the camera by pushing it with the back end of a needle.



Overall, a very good combination of stealth and video.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.







AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: BUREI Men's Date Stainless Steel Multifunction Watch

BUREI watch is an attractive quartz movement watch. The movement is made by SEIKO, the styling is Swiss. It is classy and elegant. That watch is stainless steel with a black dial, silver numbers, and gold color hands.



The band can be adjusted for a large variety of wrists. What is super nice is that the package includes a tool that can be used to remove links from the band, no need to take the watch to the watch maker. The wrist band is 9.25", my husband has fairly slim wrists and we had to take out 2 links for a perfect fit. The tool worked perfectly and I captured how it works in the attached video. The most important thing is to look for embossed arrow on the back side of the band, this arrow indicates in what direction to push the pin. My husband says the band is extremely comfortable.



This watch is made in China but includes an English manual. The manual covers several watches so you need to match your dial to one in the photo to get the details on how to set various options.



The watch is water resistant to rain and splashing, but cannot be submerged into water.



Overall, this is a very attractive classy looking watch.

You can find it on Amazon by following this link.







AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Bags for LessTM Jumbo Sports Duffel Bag on Wheels, 30"

This rolling duffel would have a been a very nice bag if the wheels did not fall off in transit. I saw that another reviewer had the same issue when he took this bag on a trip, so I guess I was lucky to get an early warning. If the wheels do come off I rather have them come off before I took the bag on a trip. This duffel is so large that it would have been super heavy to carry without wheels. It has built in straps but for me it would be uncomfortably heavy to carry as a backpack if it was jammed packed.



The canvas bag construction is very nice and the duffel bag itself is very large, it fits as much as a large suitcase, except it is built as a duffel bag with two large compartments one on top of another. Its dimensions are 30" W x 14" H x 15" D. However, the plastic that holds the wheels is very flimsy. One wheel totally came off in shipment and another one had cracked plastic and was hanging on by one sliver of plastic. You can see the bag itself and the breakage in the attached video.



I received this bag with a request for a fair and honest review. If you are looking for a large duffel on wheels this is not the one to get.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★☆☆☆☆

Product review: Wireless Motion Sensor Spotlight by Hallomall

I test each product I review for at least a couple of weeks before publishing a review. My opinion of this spotlight change after 10 dasy. Initially, I liked it because it is produces a good amount of light and I can aim it in many ways. However, in 10 days four "D" batteries ran out of juice. The spot light is motion activated and light sensitive so it only was turned on briefly every day. I have a similar spot light I purchased a few years ago and it goes on the same set of batteries for more than 6 months. Both spot lights were mounted near each other as I thought the new one might be a replacement for the old one. But I don't want to replace 4 "D" batteries once a week.



The light has waterproof rating of IP65, which means it can withstand rain but not submersion if water. It has all plastic construction.



The light produces a reasonable amount of light. The lux meter reading at a distance of 12 inches shows 220 lux. It produces good light but it is not as bright as a 60 fluorescent watt light. For comparison, a 60 watt fluorescent bulb at the same distance produces 1119 lux.



There are things about this spotlight that I like, but the battery life is a deal breaker.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★☆☆☆



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Product review: VonShef Professional Fully Automatic Ice Cream Maker With Built-in Compressor

I enjoy making home made ice cream because I can control the ingredients and experiment with different flavors. My old ice cream maker required the bowl to be frozen for 8 hour prior to making the ice cream. This meant that I either had to dedicate it a permanent place in the freezer or never able to be totally spontaneous about making it. Having an ice cream maker with a built-in cooler totally solves this problem.



The ice cream maker is well built and easy to use. In addition to the main body it has only three parts (the bowl, the cover with a paddle, and the paddle motor). When it works it is quiet. You can hear it in the video, it is a little quieter than the dishwasher and a little louder than the refrigerator. The top of the unit has a digital display which shows the temperature (in Celsius) and the time remaining. If the ice cream is not hard enough after 60 minutes (which is the default) it is easy to add additional time.



When the ice cream maker is operating it has two modes: mixing and cooling, so every 10 minutes it stops mixing for 10 minutes. Once the ice cream maker is done it enters the extended cooling period when keeps the ice cream cool without mixing. This means you don't have to rush to remove the ice cream from the bowl as soon as it done mixing. The ice cream can be either served immediately or stored in the freezer in an air tight container.  It comes out softer than I like and I usually freeze it for a little bit of time to get it harder.



I am very pleased with it: great ice cream, easy to use, easy to clean.





You can find it on Amazon by following this link.







AshopZones review ★★★★★