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The Wet-It Swedish dishcloth may spell the end for paper towels

NEWS – I’m one of those people that uses paper towels for everything. I don’t even want to know how much I actually spend on paper towels in a year. The Wet-It Swedish dishcloths may be the answer to my paper towel gluttony.

The Wet-It Dishcloth uses a special weave that’s super absorbent, one cloth can do the work of 6 paper towels. Made of 70% cotton and 30% cellulose the dishcloths are soft, non-abrasive and durable. And they are reusable for up to six months or longer.

The best part is they can be used for just about anything. Cleaning countertops, stoves, scrubbing in the bathroom and even doing the dishes. Unlike paper towels the Wet-It dishcloths don’t streak, so they’re perfect for cleaning windows.

To clean them just put them into either the dishwasher, microwave, or washing machine. 

The dishcloths are also fully biodegradable.

Each dishcloth measures approximately 8″x7″ and comes in packs of 3 with your choice of design; veggie, fruit or chickens. 

The Wet-It Swedish dishcloths sell for $14.95 and are available on The Grommet.

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The Wet-It Swedish dishcloth may spell the end for paper towels originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 21, 2018 at 9:00 am.

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Brava’s Smart Oven cooks your food ultra quick with pure light

The days of nuking your food in a microwave are numbered if the Smart Oven from Brava takes off. The Smart Oven is a small table top cooking appliance that uses panels of infrared lights to cook food twice as fast as a conventional oven at the press of a button and without any preheating because it can heat to 500°F in under a second. The Brava Smart Oven is best at cooking meats and vegetables with no fat needed and at the same time without overcooking or undercooking either one. And guess what? It can even make toast!

This oven has a ton of tech features that are designed to make your meals turn out perfect every time. It has a built-in temperature probe so there’s no worry of overcooking your steak and it even has a built-in camera that lets you see the food inside the oven as it cooks. It uses the camera to make sure the food is cooked perfectly by comparing live images to a neural network of other images to look at the coloration and texture on the surface of the food. The Brava Smart Oven is available for pre-order starting at $995. Visit Brava for more info.

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Brava’s Smart Oven cooks your food ultra quick with pure light originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 11, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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Ninja Cooking System with Auto-iQ review


REVIEW – Lately, I’ve had a few reviews that were a little bit on the frustrating side, either dealing with problems or just a lot of figuring things out due to the lack of features or inadequate software. The Ninja Cooking System with Auto-iQ broke that trend by being simply a joy to use.

What is it?

The Ninja Cooking System with Auto-iQ is a multi-cooker system that is four appliances built into one. A slow cooker, a stovetop for searing and sautéing, a steamer, and an oven for baking. Not only that, but it has a little bit of seamless technology tossed in that makes it even nicer to work with.

What’s in the box?

  • 6-Quart Lightweight Nonstick Cooking Pot
  • 80+ Recipe Cookbook
  • Steaming/Roasting Rack
  • Glass Lid with Handle
  • Multi-Purpose Pan




Design and features

I work from home I and often do a lot of cooking in our household, not just because my wife often works later into the day than I do, but because I enjoy cooking, and I enjoy eating! The Ninja Cooking System was a welcome addition to the various cooking appliances I have, and may very well send a couple of them to an early grave.

I was initially intrigued by the Ninja’s ability to do several things. Often multi-use kitchen items work, but they don’t do each individual task they’re designed to do very well. The Ninja does each thing very well, and I think that’s because they’re each close in function to each other.

The first thing I did after taking unboxing photos was to toss in a bison roast and fire that baby up for a nice 9-hour slow cook. I must say, it came out fabulous. I think it was one of the best roasts that I’ve cooked. My old slow cooker only had warm, low, and high settings which were often either too low or too high of a temperature. Not with the Ninja! If the settings on the slow cook mode aren’t to your liking you can simply put it into bake mode and set any temperature in the range from 250°–425°F.

I really liked the steam mode, as it had much more room than my regular steamer. The removable steamer rack is 7.25×10.5″ and provides 3.5″ of vertical room to the top edge of the pot. That’s a lot of vegetables! It’s also easier to clean than my steamer.

The steamer rack can also be used to place a small pan or loaf pan in the cooker for baking bread or other items. It did a pretty good job of cooking a small loaf of bread.

The stovetop mode is just as it sounds, it’s like cooking in a pan on the stove top. This was a welcome addition to my kitchen because I really don’t like the electric stove I currently have because it’s too hard to control the heat. The stovetop mode also lets you sear meat and then cook whatever you want without having to dirty a separate pan. When I cook my chili I like to sear my meat very well, then I would normally have to add a little water to get all the caramelized goodness into my crock pot. With the Ninja, I simply seared the meat and then added my other ingredients directly to the pot without using a frying pan.

If you’re not comfortable with the manual cooking modes, there are the Auto-iQ modes. Simply pick a meal from the included 80+ recipe cookbook, follow the easy directions and select the recipe number and press start. Some recipes are as simple as just dumping in all the ingredients, selecting the recipe number and pressing start. You can choose from over 80 pre-programmed recipes divided into four Programs: Quick Meals, Layered Bowls, Grains, and Poached Infusions.



I found that the non-stick surface on the cooking pot was fabulous, it cleaned up very easily, even after cooking BBQ ribs for 8 hours. Unlike some slow cookers, being able to remove the cooking pot for cleaning was a real time saver and it is extremely light-weight as compared to a ceramic slow cooker. My wife even commented on how easy it was to wash.

Although the product I received did not include the multi-purpose pan, the product listed on the Ninja site shows that it is included when ordering it through their store.

A PDF of the cookbook is also available on the Ninja website if you want to check out the delicious recipes in the recipe book. The recipe book also contains a chart for steam times for various vegetables and a slow cook chart for various meats.

What I like

  • Additional accessories available such as a loaf pan, mini muffin tray and multi-purpose pan.
  • Temp and Time bake mode
  • Auto-stay warm feature when cooking is done
  • Steaming/Roasting Rack
  • 6-quart capacity

What needs to be improved

I can’t really think of anything that could be improved with this cooker as it does everything so well. If I wanted to be really picky I would say that the stove top feature could heat up a little quicker, but I like how the current model works because I don’t have to worry about it getting too hot too fast.

Final thoughts

Whether it was a roast, ribs, steaks, or corn or whatever else I cooked (can’t remember everything because I’ve used it a lot) everything came out great. I really like the control of time and temperature, without the need to constantly babysit stuff as I would on a stove top or oven. I’m so impressed with this cooker that I’m going to purchase another one because you can never have enough slow cooked food!

Price: $149.99 (other models available also)
Where to buy: Ninja and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Ninja Kitchen

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Ninja Cooking System with Auto-iQ review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 9, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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Rid your home of hot and cold rooms with help from the Keen Home Zoning System

I’ve mentioned before that my home tends to have uncomfortable rooms regardless of the season.  As I’ve said:  “Because of the location of the thermostat and the long shape of the condo, our bedrooms tend to be chilly in the winter and hot in the summer while our living and dining rooms are uncomfortably hot in the winter and cold in the summer.  Because of the age of the building, the cement walls and ceilings, and the neighbors above and below us, there isn’t much we can do to remedy this situation by rerouting ductwork or moving the thermostat.”  However, if I had a Keen Home Zoning System, it could monitor the temperatures in my rooms and redirect airflow throughout my house to equalize the temperatures without needing major restructuring of my HVAC system.

The Keen Home Zoning System consists of three components:  the Smart Bridge, Temp Sensors, and Smart Vents.  The system will also work with Lowe’s Iris Smart Hub or SmartThings Hub, if you already own one of those.  You’ll need the following to use the Keen Home system:

  • High speed Internet connection (DSL, cable, fiber, satellite)
  • Mobile device running iOS 8.0+ or Android 4.4+
  • Forced air central heating and/or cooling system

The Smart Bridge connects your home to the internet, so you can check or control your home’s temperature from anywhere you have an internet connection.  Keen Home recommends one Smart Bridge for each floor of your house.  The Temp Sensors “monitor the temperature and humidity of any room in your home. Temp Sensors work together with Smart Vents to control individual room temperature by allowing you to set specific temperature goals using the Keen Home app.”

The Smart Vents replace your existing vent covers.  The vents are available in four standard sizes for $110, or you can select from seven oversized vents for $140.  Features of the vents include:

  • Embedded temperature and pressure sensors to monitor the performance of your HVAC system
  • Airfoil louvers designed for precise and quiet operation
  • Interchangeable faceplate is easy to clean and paintable
  • Wireless vent-to-vent communication via Zigbee network
  • 2+ year battery life with included 4 AA batteries
  • Works with Nest, ecobee, Lowe’s Iris, and SmartThings

You can purchase individual components to customize a system for your entire home, or you can purchase bundles to help you get started.  A Starter Kit for 1 or 2 rooms has 1 Smart Bridge, 2 Temp Sensors, and 3 Smart Vents; it starts at $379 if you choose standard vent sizes.  A Multi-Room kit for 3-5 rooms starts at $599, and a whole Home kit with 12 Smart Vents, 10 Temp Sensors, and 2 Smart Bridges starts at $1399.

The Keen Home system isn’t cheap, but the savings potential in energy usage and the benefit of having comfortable rooms is great.  Unfortunately, the Smart Vents aren’t available in a size large enough to replace the giant old vent covers used in my condo.  Maybe they’ll add more vent sizes in the future.

Learn more about your potential energy savings and comfort gains at the Keen Home website.

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Rid your home of hot and cold rooms with help from the Keen Home Zoning System originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 20, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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Hate washing dishes by hand? Here’s a dishwasher that fits in even the tiniest kitchen.

If you rent an apartment without a dishwasher or spend a lot of time traveling in an RV, the SPT Countertop Dishwasher may be exactly what you need.  The dishwasher measures 21.67″ wide x 19.67″ deep x 17.25″ tall, so it will fit on many countertops.  You connect to the kitchen faucet with the included faucet adapter.

The exterior is white or silver-colored plastic; the interior and spray arm are durable stainless steel.  Just like bigger models, this countertop dishwasher has automatic detergent and rinse agent dispensers.  The dish rack and flatware basket holds up to 6 standard place settings.  The dishwasher has six cycles to get your dishes clean:  heavy, normal, light, glass, speed, soak.

The SPT Countertop Dishwasher is $230.00 at Amazon.

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Hate washing dishes by hand? Here’s a dishwasher that fits in even the tiniest kitchen. originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 19, 2018 at 10:00 am.

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