Wow, is this thing for real?!?!
Written: Jun 25 '07 (Updated Jun 27 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Cheap fix, cleans like it says it does.
Cons: Not enough people know about these!
The Bottom Line: If you want a clean that you never believed and have stains that wouldn't come off no matter what you tried, getcha one!
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| califtonjgirl's Full Review: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser |
Oh my gosh, although I haven't written a review in a million years but I just had to regarding the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (also referred to in this review as MCME)!
This thing is *MaGiC* indeed...it really does what it says it will do!!! Harry Potter, move over, you are so yesteryear.
I saw one of those cleaning "home shows" touting these, one of those shows where the house looks like it was hit by a Scale 5 tornado and then some, with about 300 feral cats, a skunk and 6 possum wandering about, doing whatever they wanted to.
So while I was perusing the latest & greatest in the cleaning aisle (I am a cleaning gadget junkie on top of it all), I saw the familiar logo of that hunky hair-challenged Mr. Clean, in his tight white T-Shirt, stretched artfully over his bulging biceps and I decided to give it a whirl.
When I got home and opened the box, I was so unimpressed. Inside the package, 4 sponge-like pads, white and wimpy-looking, sat there, daring me to defy their true cleaning power. Both sides are smooth, no embellishment, no big corpoate logo. They're about an inch thick and a little narrower than an average sponge, made of some dense but lightweight kind of material, similar to that space-age "Memory Foam" material that mattresses and pillows are made out of, the press-your-hand-in-and-it-leaves-a-hand-indent kind of stuff. This particular material made me all the more skeptical; I really felt like I'd been had.
"OK erasers", I said in a huff (geez, do I ever need to get out more), "Let's see what 'miracles' you can do here". And miracles I need, indeed. My 1 1/2 year old daughter Sarah has proven to be quite the efficient dirty-maker, marking up furniture and walls with crayon, lipstick, pencils and pens, anything she can get her hands on. I have tried all sorts of cleaners and even scouring pads to get the marks off, and all I got was a sore arm and a new vocabulary of creative foul.
So I wet the pad according to the directions with water, thereby activating it, squeezed out the excess and approached her plastic high chair tray, which had been covered with those glaring and defiant crayon marks for weeks.
I moved the pad around the tray lightly, because I really didn't know if the pad had abrasives in it or not. And then I saw it. Or more so, didn't see it. The crayon marks were gone!!!!!!!!!!! I stared at the tray. Then I looked at the eraser. And then I looked at the tray again. I really couldn't believe my eyes (and how much I need a vacation).
Literally cackling with glee and loving every minute of my Joan Crawford Cleaning Spree, I decided to try it on a leather recliner that's had an ink stain in the cushion for way too long. It took it out, again with minimal effort on my part, but it left a major clean spot. Then I realized how dirty the entire chair was...we had it in our former house, near a pellet stove...the ashes and smoke probably ground right into the leather. I hadn't seen the overall darkening effect until I used the MCME on it. Well I had to clean the rest of it, so off I went to rinse the Magic Eraser out. I couldn't believe the dirt that was rinsing out of the now-darkened eraser as I cleaned...it was sucking all of the filth right out of whatever I used it on! About an hour later, after a repeated going-over and rinsing, that chair looked brand new. I was amazed! I felt that I should use a leather conditioner on it afterwards, since it was clean, but looked very matte. Man, was I ever impressed, though.
The MCME gradually began to shrink, and then it just withered away to a soap-sliver so I tossed it. I never noticed any parts of it actually coming off so I was wondering how that happened. I mourned the loss of it but was happy to grab another and use it.
It does say on the package not to use this on varnished wood but I did anyway. It took the varnish off as well as the stains but I have some Tung Oil around and just put 2 coats of that on it after it was dry and clean and it seemed good as new. I wouldn't recommend using it on a fine piece of furniture though...in my case this was an oak TV armoire that we bought second-hand so no big deal.
I even started to use this on the brick surrounding our fireplace, but it lasted for about 12 bricks and then practically vanished, with only a scrap left. But again, I have to say, it was darned impressive to see how much schmutz was coming out of that hearth.
There's a stained glass panel in the kitchen that slides over to allow air to come in through the window it covers. I used this on both sides of it and I can't stop staring...it's sparkling!!!!!! I never realized how dirty it really was, and I had "cleaned" it with glass cleaner twice before I tried this on it!
I even tried this on the burner ring on my stove and it took the burnt-on whatzit right off with hardly any scrubbing that even Comet Bleach couldn't scour away.
The microwave's baked-on spatter just wiped right off!
Scuff marks, especially on the furniture that was moved and was marked up in storage or the van disappeared!
When I first used it and my husband came home from work, I was talking about it...for his amusement, he wants me to say the entire brand name whenever I mention the miracles it performs, "Thanks to the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, the scuff marks on our end tables are gone!" Oh boy.
I'm pretty sure I paid around $7 for the box at a standard grocery. I use a lot of coupons, so maybe a little less, give or take a buck.
There was an Urban Legend floating around for a while that the erasers have formadehyde in them. They do not and are completely safe to use in the household...read more at: http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/eraser.asp
As a frequent thrift-store goer and Garage Sale-r, I plan to keep one of these in a zip top bag...if I see something that I think would be a super buy and am not sure about whether or not it would clean up, like children's toys and furniture or plastic-ware, I'd take my pre-wet and moist eraser out of the bag and give it a swipe. I'd also highly recommend these for teachers and anyone with a day care. If I had a college-age kid I'd give them a box for sure. It'd be kind of cheesy in a way to give these as birthday or holiday gifts, but I'd give a box to someone as a sort of a little "try it" gift.
UPDATE: I've since used it on the grimy grout on my kitchen countertop, the glass on the toaster oven, the sides of my tennis shoes and the glass on our fireplace screen that was COATED with baked-on black soot and the MCME wiped them right off with minimal effort (but a LOT of rinsing, which is more than fair for the results)! I'll keep updating if I get additional remarkable results!!!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
califtonjgirl
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Location: Silicon Valley, CA
Reviews written: 39
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
I am a married female in her mid-thirties.
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