Products: Conair Professional Garment Steamer (CGS18A)
Price: $149
Shop: The Good Guys Warrawong
Rating: ****

Comments:

I bought this product as an impulse buy. I didn’t do much research on it but I have heard about how you can use garment steamer instead of iron. I dislike ironing so when I saw this in the shop I bought one straightaway. When I got home I tried it immediately and I must say I was disappointed at first. I was ready to ditch my iron but the steamer didn’t do anything to my husband’s work clothes. After more experimenting, I realise the steamer works great on materials which are not easily ironed using normal iron such as stretchy t-shirts and delicate materials like polyester that will burn when ironed.

Now I’m very happy with it because all my clothes that I don’t usually dare to iron can look neat and straight again. So garment steamer will not replace your normal iron, but it will allow you to steam clothes that you usually wouldn’t iron. The rule of thumb is, if you’re afraid your iron will burn the material, use the steamer.

I have a lot of scarves made from delicate materials which I thought I had to give up because it looks ugly after a wash but they’re impossible to iron. Now with the steamer, they look brand new after being steamed.

This particular steamer is neither the most compact nor the cheapest out there but it serves its purpose. The advantage of being big is it comes with the hanger which can rotate which I find really handy. The water container is also pretty big so it can hold a lot of water so I don’t have to refill all the time. So consider these aspects before buying a compact one.

The wattage is also very important. If it’s too low it’s probably useless. This model’s wattage is 1300 watt. It works well so I wouldn’t get anything less than that.

We bought this bath stand + tub package from Baby Zone Wollongong today for $79.95. It felt really steady compared to other ones in the shop, the price is very reasonable, too. I like the fact that the top is like a basket and it’s big so it can fit most tub if I ever decide to get anything fancier. The tub that comes with it is good enough though. It’s big, stable, and has the drain feautre. It also has space to put soap/shampoo bottles.

The stand is collapsible comes with anti-slip mat. The ‘basket’ has a rail where you can hang towels. Oh the ‘basket’ and stand’ can be used to store things once it’s not used for the bath.

You can check more of the range here.

I thought that was a good buy compared to the fancy bath + change table in one that I wanted before but refused by my husband because i’s not collapsible and taking too much space. Most of the fancy ones may come with storage but have a lot smaller tub which I’m sure the baby will grow out in few months (and much more expensive!).

Products: 2.6kW Panasonic Inverter Reverse Cycle Air Conditioner (CS/CU-E9LKR)
Price: $940 + $550 installation
Shop: The Good Guys Warrawong. Installed by a local installer called Tim Rogers.
Rating:  *****

Comments:

We have this air conditioner for our main bedroom and although I haven’t had it for long, I love it. I haven’t had chance to use the heating feature so this review is about the cooling feature.

We took a gamble with choosing this model because Panasonic has good reputation and it seems to have the highest energy rating among similar models from other brand. In addition, it also has most features.

I have not had any complain so far, except maybe the price suddenly went down! We got ours a month ago for $940 but now it has dropped to $849 from the same shop. Ah well. I still love it all the same.

2.6kW is the smallest model in the range. I initially worry it won’t be strong enough. Although it was just for a bedroom, our bedroom is really hot! When I get back from work on a hot day, it’s like an oven. The bedroom is upstairs and our whole second level has low ceiling so we really feel the heat there. Today was quite warm, although not the warmest day of the year yet, I came home and turned it on. It cools the room really quickly so I’m very happy about it.

The first thing I notice about it is how quiet it is! You can hardly hear it. It has a lot of feature, you can see them here. All the features work as expected. I don’t really know exactly how the ‘Mild Dry Cooling’ works exactly but by reading a manual I have the impression that it’s simply about having the flap pointed in an angle that it’s not on your face which makes it feels like a sales pitch since you can adjust the flap manually anyway.

The remote is pretty easy to use and understand. It looks really neat, too. Only the main buttons are outside, the rest is hidden under a flip that you can slide.  So you don’t feel overwhelmed with unnecessary buttons you don’t really need.

Overall I love my aircon, it works well so far and serves its purpose. The unit looks simple and modern and not a sore in the eyes.

We finally installed an air condition in our bedroom. Yay! We bought the unit from The Good Guys Warrawong for $960 and was installed by this person called Tim Rogers who was recommended by a friend for $550  (second level brick house). We’re very happy with him and highly recommend him. He was easy going and easy to talk to.

We initially also contacted this company called Rapid Cool and was quoted $1800 for an old Panasonic model + installation. When asked to break down the unit and installation cost, they refused saying that they only do package and they didn’t want us to buy the unit somewhere else. I didn’t like not knowing what I’m paying for so we decided to look somewhere else.

The weather has been pretty cool so we haven’t tested the unit much. When we turned it on this afternoon it was very quiet which we’re really happy about. I will write more detailed review when I have used it extensively.

Shop name: Baby Zone
Address:  398 Keira Street, Wollongong NSW 2500
Open: Mon-Wed,Fri 9am-5:30pm; Thu 9am-6pm; Sat 9:30am-5pm; Sun 10am-4pm (yes, they open weekend!)
Products: one stop shop for baby needs.
Pros: great price, excellent customer service
Cons: only stocks popular brands, only local to wollongong.

Comments:

I was looking for a local baby shop and came across babyzonedirect.com.au which has warehouse in Wollongong. The website stated that they only open monday to friday so I took a couple of hours one friday and went there. To my delight they told me they do open weekend!

If you look here, the online shop itself doesn’t have good reviews especially in terms of customer service so when I went there, I didn’t expect much out of their customer service. To my surprise, as soon as I walked into the store and looked at a few cots,  I was approached by someone. We were approached by a couple of staff who readily answered all our questions and showed us how things work. One of them is this young lady called Angela. She was impressive. Although she was young, she was obviously knowledgable about the products and passionate about what she does. We came to the store clueless about carseats and prams but she enthusiastically and tiredlessly explained to us everything we need to know about them and showed us how they work. She was also very honest about the pros and cons of different brands and styles. She also told us other customers’ feedbacks regarding the products, good and bad. She encouraged us to not rush into decision and think more about what we want. She didn’t pressure us into making any purchase on the spot.

The shop itself is not overly big but not small either. They stock nursery furnitures (mainly cots, change table, drawers) of popular brands (Boori, Kingparrot), prams and strollers, carseats (mainly safe n sound), baby bath, baby walkers, etc etc.

I was told that the online shop and the physical store are two different departments that’s why on the website it was written that they don’t open weekend (also probably explains the difference in customer service).

As for the price, they will give you whatever the price on the website so if you live locally or not too far from Wollongong, it’s worth going there to check out the product if you see something you like on the website. The price on the website is the cheapest around (I’ve checked). So I wouldn’t even bother checking other shops.

Also, you will know for sure if something is in stock or not when you go to the store and how long you need to wait. You can also lay buy the item so you don’t need to pay until you actually get your item. A lot of people say that if you buy from the online shop, you will still get charged first eventhough the item is not in stock and they don’t really tell you when it’s going to be available.

While I cannot say the same for the online store, I definitely recommend the offline store just for its customer service especially if you’re a newbie like me. It’s going to be my new hangout place over the weekend : P