I've tried various Mr. Clean products over the years, and I really like the majority of them.I first tried the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser a few years ago, but had a bad experience with it so I never gave it another thought. The end of May, however, I wanted to refill the swimming pool for summer since it was already hot and humid out, but I wanted to clean it a bit before actually adding the water. A friend of my mother's recommended I try Magic Erasers, saying that that is what she uses and it works wonders for the linings of swimming pools. Since I didn't want to spend forever cleaning the pool with a rag, I decided to give them a try.

I buy Mr. Clean Magic Erasers at my small town's local Dollar General where they come in a two-pack for $2. They are also available in 4 packs for slightly more.($4-something). They can also be found at mass merchandiser stores such as Target or Wal-Mart, as well as grocery stores. In a blue and white cardboard box with Mr. Clean peering out at us from the cover art, these white Proctor & Gamble cleaning pads measure at 4..6" x 2.4" x 1.0"each. They are soft and give at the touch, a bit like a memory foam pad and I can't bring myself to use them without gloves because I hate the way they feel against my skin. It's a bit abrasive, but also dries out my hands much like chalk will (which gives it a milky white and withered look). The Magic Cleaning Pad can be used on many surfaces, but there are also surfaces that the box warns us against using these on. Those are high gloss surfaces, polished surfaces, satin, dark surfaces, glass surfaces, and stainless steel. It is also not meant to be used against the skin and should be kept away from children (in case of accidental ingestion).

Using the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is simple enough; take an eraser, dampen it, and begin to wipe the surface you are cleaning. You don't have to add any other cleaners with it (although with my pool, the job went so much faster when using this along with Lysol cleaning spray). I bought it to use with cleaning out my swimming pool , as I mentioned, because I wanted it gleaming before adding water (and not just "wiped down"). There were dusty gray marks on the textured blue lining as well as on the white bottom. I first started just using the Magic Eraser (fully saturated) alone and scrubbed the blue lining (which would be the walls). The marks started coming off but it took a bit of elbow grease. When I sprayed the walls with some Lysol spray and then started using the Magic Eraser, all I had to do was wipe the surface and the gunge came right off with little effort. With the white floor of the pool, there was no effort at all; all I had to do was wipe and all of the marks lifted. This was amazing for me because I spent what seemed like forever the previous year cleaning the pool out, before the Magic Eraser. Now, the Erasers do fade away, especially if left fully saturated. I had cleaned half of the blue lining and was already halfway through one of the Erasers. In all, the 15' pool used up 5 erasers completely, turning each a dull gray color before shredding them altogether at the end of their "life".

I've also used it around the house. The very first time I tried a Magic Eraser (and why I stopped using them) I bought it because of a specific purpose. Magic Erasers are supposed to be able to lift crayons off of the wall, and when my daughter was much younger, she had doodled a little squiggly line on my bedroom wall and it needed to be removed. I rubbed the eraser gently on the painted wall, and it didn't seem to be doing anything at all, so I applied a little more pressure and gave it a vigorous rubbing. When I lifted the Magic Eraser to inspect my work, I was greeted with the green crayon mark still intact, and all of the surrounding paint of my wall completely stripped off. I was livid and tossed that eraser and it's companion in the trash. Since I had one left over from using it on the pool this year, I decided to use it on a few other surfaces around the home that it can't possibly ruin.

I used it on a refrigerator (one of those standard white ones) which lifted any little spot I could find with only a minimal amount of scrubbing. It worked great on my stovetop, removing any spills or grease spots with one swipe (with the eraser dampened). I even used it in the bathroom, just spot cleaning, and around the baseboards. There really wasn't a whole lot for me to try it on in the home because I already clean, but everything it touched was mostly white in color, and only needed a tiny bit of spot cleaning, and cleaned with ease. One thing I did use it on and bought another box for is to clean the grease and gunk on the rims of my vehicle's tires. When I was washing the car, I brought out the still intact Magic Eraser to run around the rims. It pulled the grease off so easily, and since it is soft and cushy, it would mold into the tight spaces and lines of the rim getting those harder to reach (with a rag) places. I used to use this product that had a gas mixture in it, but honestly, this worked just as good and costs about $20 less, so I bought another box just to tackle the other car's rims. And so, even though it doesn't have a permanent place in my home since I already rely on other products to clean, it's earned a spot on the shelf in my shed next to the vehicle supplies.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser is handy to have around and could replace a lot of cleaning supplies. Expect to go through several of them if you do plan on using them in place of your rags or scrub brushes, because it doesn't take very long before they break apart. Once they do start to disintegrate, your surfaces can be left with little beads or shreds of this product on them, waiting to be picked off or wiped up. But, they are great for some things, and so I would recommend them. Because of my first experience with them, however, I just have to deduct two stars (one for leaving the crayon, and one for taking my paint instead.) and leave this product with a 3 star rating.

Recommended: Yes