Two Goodies to Add Convenience to Your Car Care Experience
Two Goodies to Add Convenience to Your Car Care Experience
If you're a do-it-yourselfer you're always on the lookout for things that may make your life easier. Whether it's a new tool, a gadget, or a cleaning device, you're willing to try something that might make your car care experience easier, more fun, cleaner, or sometimes just different. Like you, we are always on the lookout for these things, and we want to share what we find. We've uncovered some serious winners in the past, along with some dismal failures.
In the process I hope we've saved you some money or time, or both.
Following are a couple of products we found that fit into the car care category, but also fit into the category of the potentially pointless. Let us check them out and test them for you, and you decide whether they are worth letting into your life.
There are many problems that can lead to a dead battery. The simple act of leaving your lights on overnight can result in a dismal morning. You turn the key and hear nothing, or hear a faint clicking from under the hood. The next thing you know you're trying to find somebody to help you jumpstart your car. Sometimes a dead battery can happen simply because a battery is old and will no longer hold a charge.
In the worst case, your battery could be dying because it is leaking acid. All batteries contain acid which maintains its charge. This acid, especially in modern batteries, is held safely in the plastic shell of the battery. However even th slightest jolt or impact can be enough to cause the battery to start to leak acid, especially around the battery posts.
This battery acid indicator claims to react to leaking acid around battery posts. We gave it a test and were pleased with the results. The product is also a battery cleaner (albeit a messy one) so even if you detect no acid in your test, you've removed a bit of corrosion in the process. If you really want an accurate test, it's a good idea to clean your battery then wait a week or so to look for fresh acid leaking. The way it works is this: you spray it onto to your battery at the battery post. The product begins to foam. It comes out of the can yellow in color, and if your battery is not leaking any acid, it will stay yellow. However if even the slightest amount of acid has leaked out around the battery post the indicator solution in the cleaner will turn pink.
We were able to confirm this using a battery we knew had a leak. If nothing else, this product will buy you a little peace of mind while you clean some corrosion off your battery posts and cables.
If you've ever changed your own oil you know how messy things can get. There are precuations you can take, but I've always just planned on getting black, used oil on something I didn't plan on, and this expectation usually means less disappointment when the black stuff eventusally spills, splatters or drips. But what if you could buy a kit that contained enough stuff to keep things clean, like actually clean?
The Blitz Oil Dis-Pos Kit contains a nice collection of bits that claim to do just that.
Inside the kit are two pair of latex gloves, a small roll of paper towels, a large absorbent pad and two stickers to indicate mileage of your oil change. The real question: will this help?
We tried out this kit and, well, I guess it did help to keep things a little cleaner! The gloves keep the oil off your hands, especially vulnerable when you are removing the drain plug from the oil pan. The paper towels are handy to wipe your tools and other things that may get oil on them. The giant pad was great to put underneath your catch basin and catch the impossible to contain little drips and flicks of oil that fall. And the mileage stickers? For some reason the car owners we talked to especially liked these. I think they give people the impression that they have done exactly the same thing they would have paid money for at the oil change shop.
The catch: why spend the money? The problem with all of these very handy stay-clean aids is the fact that they are super cheap -- almost free -- if you obtain them seperately.
A 4-pack of gloves can be had for a buck or less. Most people have paper towels in the house already. The giant catch napkin is great, but you can substitute almost anything. Some old newspaper or a section of cardboard box will do the trick just fine. In the end you're paying money for the little stickers you'll affix to your windshield.
If you're a do-it-yourselfer you're always on the lookout for things that may make your life easier. Whether it's a new tool, a gadget, or a cleaning device, you're willing to try something that might make your car care experience easier, more fun, cleaner, or sometimes just different. Like you, we are always on the lookout for these things, and we want to share what we find. We've uncovered some serious winners in the past, along with some dismal failures.
In the process I hope we've saved you some money or time, or both.
Following are a couple of products we found that fit into the car care category, but also fit into the category of the potentially pointless. Let us check them out and test them for you, and you decide whether they are worth letting into your life.
There are many problems that can lead to a dead battery. The simple act of leaving your lights on overnight can result in a dismal morning. You turn the key and hear nothing, or hear a faint clicking from under the hood. The next thing you know you're trying to find somebody to help you jumpstart your car. Sometimes a dead battery can happen simply because a battery is old and will no longer hold a charge.
In the worst case, your battery could be dying because it is leaking acid. All batteries contain acid which maintains its charge. This acid, especially in modern batteries, is held safely in the plastic shell of the battery. However even th slightest jolt or impact can be enough to cause the battery to start to leak acid, especially around the battery posts.
This battery acid indicator claims to react to leaking acid around battery posts. We gave it a test and were pleased with the results. The product is also a battery cleaner (albeit a messy one) so even if you detect no acid in your test, you've removed a bit of corrosion in the process. If you really want an accurate test, it's a good idea to clean your battery then wait a week or so to look for fresh acid leaking. The way it works is this: you spray it onto to your battery at the battery post. The product begins to foam. It comes out of the can yellow in color, and if your battery is not leaking any acid, it will stay yellow. However if even the slightest amount of acid has leaked out around the battery post the indicator solution in the cleaner will turn pink.
We were able to confirm this using a battery we knew had a leak. If nothing else, this product will buy you a little peace of mind while you clean some corrosion off your battery posts and cables.
If you've ever changed your own oil you know how messy things can get. There are precuations you can take, but I've always just planned on getting black, used oil on something I didn't plan on, and this expectation usually means less disappointment when the black stuff eventusally spills, splatters or drips. But what if you could buy a kit that contained enough stuff to keep things clean, like actually clean?
The Blitz Oil Dis-Pos Kit contains a nice collection of bits that claim to do just that.
Inside the kit are two pair of latex gloves, a small roll of paper towels, a large absorbent pad and two stickers to indicate mileage of your oil change. The real question: will this help?
We tried out this kit and, well, I guess it did help to keep things a little cleaner! The gloves keep the oil off your hands, especially vulnerable when you are removing the drain plug from the oil pan. The paper towels are handy to wipe your tools and other things that may get oil on them. The giant pad was great to put underneath your catch basin and catch the impossible to contain little drips and flicks of oil that fall. And the mileage stickers? For some reason the car owners we talked to especially liked these. I think they give people the impression that they have done exactly the same thing they would have paid money for at the oil change shop.
The catch: why spend the money? The problem with all of these very handy stay-clean aids is the fact that they are super cheap -- almost free -- if you obtain them seperately.
A 4-pack of gloves can be had for a buck or less. Most people have paper towels in the house already. The giant catch napkin is great, but you can substitute almost anything. Some old newspaper or a section of cardboard box will do the trick just fine. In the end you're paying money for the little stickers you'll affix to your windshield.
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