Product review: Bread Knife 8 Inch by Zelite Infinity

This is a very comfortable bread knife to work with. It has a slim handle that is ergonomically shaped. It feels great in my hand and makes the knife very easy to maneuver. The knife weighs 9.2 oz. The blade is very sharp! It works well on both soft bread and crusty breads.



It is ok for the dishwasher, but I always hand wash nice knives. They will last longer and there's no risk of them cutting the plastic coating on the appliance racks.



This knife has a beautiful finish, which looks like a marbled design. The higher quality of Japanese knives uses laminated steel which has this beautiful pattern. The use of laminated steel improves the strength and rust resistance of the blade (and it looks beautiful).



In attached video I use to cut two different breads, I've tried to show the clean cuts.



I was provided this knife for testing and review as part of new product introduction. Getting a free product does not effect what I say. I leave critical reviews when the product deserves it. However, I am very pleased with knife and it has become my go-to bread knife.



You can find this bread Knife on Amazon via this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: K&F Concept® Full HD 1080P Car Video Camera 2.0" Mini Car DVR Dash Cam

The video quality that KF concepts camera records is pretty decent especially at night, however I ran into several problems with it. First, the camera is shipped with the default language set to Chinese. The manual is not detailed and has no information on how to change the language. I had to manually select every option on the menus one by one remembering what I already looked at by position (I do not read Chinese) until I found a menu choice that allowed me to switch the menus to English. I show where that option is located in my video. The second problem was the mount does not stay on the windshield during cold weather. We had a cold stretch of weather (12°F in the morning) and the suction cup mount does not stay on the windshield at this temperature. In the afternoons when the weather warms up I am able to mount it and stays for as long as I need. So if you live in a cold weather this dash cam will not work well for you. The mount is custom made for this camera, so you cannot replace it with another better mount.



On the positive side I like that the dash cam's compact size (2.25" x 2.25" x 0.75"). It does not block much of the windshield. The video quality is fine. It is not as good as 4K cameras, but quite reasonable and it does quite well at night. My video includes snippets under various conditions - day and night. 170° wide angle lens gives a good view of the entire road.



It turns on as soon as it gets power so you don't have to remember to turn it on. It can be turned off manually if desired. It is powered by a regular mini USB cable. The package includes a 32GB Class 10 micro SD.



When the dash cam writes out files to disks it saves them every few minutes, this is good, because if there is a problem you lose just a small segment not the entire video. I have not had any corrupted files with camera, but from experience with other cameras I now it can happen. I should note that the camera does not write out files to a standard directories. It creates three directories: event, jpg, and video. It uses JPG directory instead of DCIM for photos.



I received this camera for testing and review as part of a new product introduction. Overall, the camera has its pros and con. Hopefully, the manufacturer will fix the default language in the future versions of the camera, and I provided some help in how to do it now. So the only serious issue here is for the folks in the cold climates is the issue with the mount.



YOu can find K&F Concept Dash Cam on Amazon via this link.





AshopZones review ★★★☆☆

Product review: Orea Adjustable Nd Polarizer Hd CPL Telephoto Wide Angle Macro Phone Lens 4 in 1

This lens kit exceeded my expectations. I already have a camera lens kit with fisheye and zoom lenses for my phone so I expected something similar but wanted ti add a wide angle lens and a few filters to my collection. But these are better lenses than my previous kit. In addition the kit includes two holders (one screws down, one just clips on). I like the screw down mechanism better because it moves around less, however what I like most is having two holders. This allows me to quickly switch between the two lenses without having to unscrew them from the holder.



I am attaching a slide show of the photos taken with the lenses in this kit. To show what each lens does I show a picture taken with a camera without a lens and then next to it the picture taken with one of the lenses for comparison. The kit also includes two filters - a polarize filter and a variable density neutral filter. Polarizer is good for cutting down glare. Variable filter is really neat for capturing moving water (like waterfalls).



Taking photos with my phone is more fun with the filters. They are fairly large relatively speaking, so they do add a bit of extra gear to carry around.



I received this lens kit for testing and review. I like them! I hope side by side photos with and without the lenses help you see how they work.



You can find the lens kit on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: FLEXIMOUNTS 4'x4' or2'x8' Ceiling Storage Rack

This mount is meant for plywood or concrete ceilings. It is not designed for a joist ceiling which is common in a typical American house. The Fleximount storage can be mounted two ways as a 4" x 4" square, or as 2" x 8" long storage. The problem with the Fleximount is that it does not offer any flexibility on how far apart the supports can be mounted on the ceiling, they have to located exactly at ends of the metal shelf - either 2" or 4" apart. Neither matches the geometry of the joists. For comparison, in a system like HyLoft ceiling storage the ceiling supports do not attach directly to the metal grid shelve, instead they attach to the support cross bars which hold the shelf. This means the ceiling supports can be positioned as needed to match the joist, and the grid shelve rests on the cross bars.



I could not mount Fleximount storage system as it was designed. I was able to mount Fleximout storage after purchasing additional bars and hardware at HomeDepot at an additional cost of $40 dollars. In attached photos you can see what the final results look like. I was able to reuse the Fleximount's vertical support bars by mounting them on the joists and then attached them to the cross bars I purchased. Once the supports were installed I put the shelving on top of the support bars and secured the shelves to the support bars with a large number of cable ties.



The shelves and the brackets are well built, but to make it work in a typical American house construction took some thinking to figure out how to make it work and extra purchases.



I was provided Fleximount storage for testing and review. This is well made system but aimed at plywood or concrete ceilings. If you are looking to a system to attach to joist I recommend Hyloft storage instead.



YOu can locate FLEXIMOUNTS ceiling storage on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★☆☆

Product review: Ausland Women's Casual Fox Fur Short Snow Boots 9251

These boot look adorable. They look like they would be warm. However, they have no zipper or any other closure and I was not able to get them past my ankle. I do not wide feet and this is not something that commonly happens to me. I normally wear size 7.5 and got 8.5 boots (because there was no size 8 which I normally get for boots so I can fit in a thick sock).



I waited a couple of weeks to write this review until we drove to visit my mother who wear size 6 shoes. She also was not able to pull them past her ankle. She also has what I would describe as an average width foot.



So based on my experience these boots are for ladies with extremely slender ankles. I received these boots for testing the size and fit for American market. I hope my review helps someone from the frustration I had looking at the cute boots I could get past my toes.



You find Ausland Women's Boots on Amazon via this link.



AshopZones review ★★☆☆☆

Product review: Electric Meat Grinder & Sausage Stuffer by STX INTERNATIONAL

This is my first electric meat grinder and I was not sure what to expect. First, it is reasonably sized for household appliance it is 16" long, 9.5" tall, and 6.25" wide. Second, it works! It grounded 2 pounds of cubed meat in 5 minutes using the low setting. Third, it is loud. It was louder than I expected, if there is anything slightly negative I can say it would be the level of noise. What you see in the attached video is the grinder working on low speed and processing 2 pounds of lamb (clips are from the beginning, the middle, and the end of the 5 minute job). Fourth, the clean up is not bad. I was impressed by how little of the meat was left in the grinder, and washing it with soap and water immediately after the grinding was easy.



Overall, I am quite pleased. Using the grinder did not make much extra time to set up or clean, I was able to use better cuts of meat, and there is less worry about contamination that happens with the store-bought ground meat.



I received a unit to evaluation and testing and request for a video review so potential buyers can see the unit in action. My video includes the assembly steps. The manual skipped one important step about the use of the fasten knob, so I hope this will save someone time. Getting a free unit does not influence what I say, I covered the pluses and minus of my experience.



You can find STX-4000-TB2 Meat Grinder on Amazon via this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★★

Product review: Z-Edge Universal 2 in 1 Phone Holder Kit Air Vent/ Windshield Car Mount

This listing includes two different mounts - you get both two different mounts and two phone holders. My favorite of the two mounts is the vent mount. I like using vent mount for the phone when we use it for navigation. It puts the screen in a very convenient location for viewing the map while at the same time it is not obscuring any of the windshield. I also like the phone in that position because it is easier to reach to mount and remove the phone.



Both mounts have the same geometry of phone holder. The jaws of the mount open as wide as 3.5". It fits Nexus 6p phone which is on the large side. The holder holds the phone securely. It is attached to a vent by spring mounted connection. Spring mounted connection is better than the compression mechanism used in other designs of vent mounts because the hold is more secure. The jaws of the holder open from 1.75" to 3.5". The jaws are 2" on the side with the middle section that is open. In some phones it might be possible to position the jaws right in the center of the phone in a way that it does not press on any buttons. On Nexus 6p the jaws have to hold the phone off center to avoid pressing buttons. The depth of the jaws is 1".



The back of the mount has a button that releases the jaws to their maximum length so all I have to do is press them close with the phone between the jaws to mount it. I prefer this method to spring type jaws. This button makes it easy to remove or mount the phone and there is less chance of dropping the phone (which I have done with spring mounted jaws on a number of occasions). In addition this mount has a lock, so you can lock the jaws in place for extra insurance.



When you mount the phone on the vent the phone blocks some of the fresh air from the vent. I like flowing air in my face when I drive, so I prefer mounting the holder on the passenger's side vent. My husband does not like air in his face, so he mounts it on the driver's vent. He like that the vent mounted phone blocks the air from blowing into his face but cools the phone instead.



The package also includes a window mount - the jaws are identical for both mounts, so everything I said about the jaws above applies to both mounts. The mechanism that holds the jaws to the window mount was slightly lose and I had to use a screw driver to tighten it. The vent mount has a different mechanism for attaching the jaws to the mount and can be hand tightened by turning a ring. Being able to hand tighten is a better design.



This vent mount was provided to me by FIGERM for testing and review. I tried to cover all pluses and minuses of this phone mount. If you have questions I have not covered leave a comment and I will do my best to answer it.



You can locate this Z-Edge phone mount by following this link to Amazon.



AshopZones review ★★★★★