Korean Biocera laundry washing ball with ceramic pebbles

I saw this Biocera laundry washing ball with ceramic pebbles at their road show counter, and bought home for a try.

This washing ball is said to be able to replace the function of detergent and softener when placed in our washing machine. It is able to clean, sterilize and deodourize our clothes and laundry by "activating" the water during the washing process.

It is said that each of this soft rubber ball with ceramic pebbles inside can be used for up to 1,000 washing cycle, which is at least a few years for normal household use. We only need one ball for laundry up to 6kg, and two balls if the laundry exceeds 6kg.

Here are my 2 Biocera balls in my 9kg washing machine, ready to use.

I was told to immerse the Biocera balls with water for about 30 minutes before their first use. I found some small black particles in the water after the 30 minutes immersion. Perhaps this is the reason, or else the small particles might cause blockage in the washing machine drum.

Panasonic NI-100DX cordless non-stick dry iron

This Panasonic NI-100DX is a basic dry iron, without fancy features and not of the steam iron type. As such, its price is very affordable too.

What makes it different is that it is formed by 2 separate parts: the main body and a base.

Its base contains the power cord to be plugged into the wall socket, and there is a storage compartment for this power cord, making it tidy and easy to carry around, suitable to be a travelling companion.

When the iron parked at its base with power on, its non-stick soleplate will heat up within 1-2 minutes and ready for use. This base also ensure you'll place it properly when you remove your hand off its handle, without accidentally heating on surface that not suppose to contact with its hot soleplate.

The iron with ergonomic handle is only 1.4kg. It is very easy to maneuver without any attached power cord during ironing. You can now iron in any direction and free from the hassle of tangling power cord.

I have been using it for several weeks. Its cordless feature really brings a good user experience.

Multifunctional digital alarm clock with calendar, temperature, humidity, weather display and time projector

Today I would like to share with you a China made multifunctional digital alarm clock with cool features and cheap price, which I purchased online. The model no. is DS-8190.

This clock can operate either using 2 AAA batteries or 4.5V DC current input.

I called it an alarm clock because when operate using the AAA batteries, its backlight will turn off to conserve the battery life, and you need to press its top button to turn the backlight on in order to see a clear colourful display on its screen. The backlight will be off again within a few seconds.

Without the backlight, the screen is too dim, although you can still be able to see the screen display with close observation. This is ideal for it to be an alarm clock, because its screen will be too bright with the backlight on.

On its screen, this clock is able to show the time in either 24 hours or AM/PM format, a full calendar from year 2001-2099 with the day of week, and it has sensors to track the humidity and temperature. Based on it tracked humidity and temperature data, it is able to estimate the weather condition.

The backlight of the clock is always on when it operates with 4.5V DC current. You need a separate AC/DC adaptor for this to work. I use a Lemax 500mA universal safety AC/DC adaptor with polarity dial (model S69D), and this is my setting for it to work with the clock:

Somebody has shown in Youtube about how he modified the circuit of the clock to make its backlight always on when operated with batteries. Perhaps he hasn't tried using the AC/DC adaptor, which serves the same purpose without the need of hassle to modify the clock internal circuit.

On the right hand side of the clock is a small projector, which will project the time onto the wall or ceiling when its backlight is turned on.

The projected time is quite bright and can be seen even at daytime. It seems to be even brighter and able to reach a longer distance when the surrounding is dark at night.

This feature is pretty interesting, enabling us to easily check the time when we awake at night. However, its backlight is too bright and glary at night. Perhaps it should have a setting to turn on the projector while still keeping the backlight of the screen off. That will make it perfect.

Lastly, as an alarm clock, when the alarm mode is turned on, it will beep when the preset alarm time is reached. The beeping interval will gradually become faster and faster, until you press down its top button.