hFirstAlert offers kit to check toys for lead
hFirstAlert offers kit
to check toys for lead
If you wonder about the safety of things around your home, First Alert offers a lead-testing kit you can use on many surfaces, including toys, dishes, paint, soil and even water.
You choose from a “rapid” or “patented leach” method to do your testing. For rapid results, dip the swab into a solution vial and wipe the surface for 30 to 60 seconds. If the surface or swab turns yellow, brown or black, lead is present. No color change says no lead is present. The “patented leach” method lets you gauge the amount of lead that may be present.
Cost is $16.99. Available at www.firstalert.com, amazon.com and at hardware stores nationwide.
SeeSnake puts eyes
behind walls and ducts
What lies beyond isn’t such a mystery anymore.
The new Ridgid SeeSnake from Elyria’s Ridge Tool Co. lets you see where your own eyes can’t — behind walls, inside ducts, even underwater. It’s a miniature inspection camera on a flexible cable that fits into confined spaces.
The camera sends images to a 2.4-inch color LCD screen on the tool’s handle. Two adjustable LEDs provide light and are controlled by a knob on the handle.
The tool comes with three attachments: a hook tip that can be used to pull or pick up small objects or wires within the snake’s reach, a magnetic tip for picking up metal objects and a mirror tip that lets you see around corners or into other hard-to-reach places.
The SeeSnake has a suggested retail price of $239 and will be available starting in October at Ridgid retailers, including Home Depot. More information is at www.ridgid.com/seesnakemicro.
More than 9 lives
for Kit-Cat Klock
At age 75, the Kit-Cat Klock keeps on ticking. Sixty times a minute, the eyeballs roll and the tail wags side to side.
Made by the California Clock Co. near Los Angeles, the whimsical timepiece, which debuted during the Depression, comes in classic black or red plastic, plus newer shades of orange, turquoise and pink. There is now also a Lady Kit-Cat.
Company President Woody Young credits lifetime sales of “well over 10 million” clocks to the feline’s “disarming smile. I’ve had people say they talk to Kit-Cat because with its eyes and tail moving, it gives the sense of being alive; you feel like it’s got a heart beating. This is something you don’t get from a regular clock.”
Standard models, including those heralding the 75th anniversary, are $49.99. Blinged-up with Austrian crystals, they cost $69.99.
Visit www.kit- cat.com to check out all the kitty iterations.
New book offers tips
for year-round cleaning
The editors of “Real Simple Cleaning” (Real Simple Books, $21.95), leave us no excuse not to stay spring clean during any season of the year. Did you know ketchup can shine faucets?
Writer Kathleen Squires and photographer Monica Buck do, and they’ve produced a crisply organized text following the pristine design of parent Real Simple magazine.
Short of time? Follow the 10-minute-clean routine in the laundry room while the spin cycle runs out.
As for all those tools piled high in hardware stores, Squires says, “there’s a gizmo on the shelf for nearly every cleaning problem, most promising to work miracles while you lift nary a finger.”
But what really works and which do you really need?
Squires lists just 20 components for a cleaning kit that will clean your entire place.
Combined dispatches