Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

Yesterday we looked at how to recycle old electronic goods.  Before you rush off to the local recycling facility with your old freezers, CD players or CRT TVs, take a minute to think if anyone else could still get some use out of them.

Three million children live in UK households that cannot afford to replace broken electrical items. If your electrical goods haven’t reached the end of their useful life, but you don’t fancy the effort involved in putting them up on ebay, here are some alternative ways to get them to people who really need them.

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The only problem with buying yourself a great new gadget, or fitting out your kitchen with up-to-the minute appliances is what to do with the things they replace. Disposing of old electricals can be a bit of a headache and they often end up gathering dust at the back of a cupboard or in the attic.

At the moment, over 75% of old electricals end up in landfills, polluting the soil. Every year Britain produces enough electrical waste to fill Wembley Stadium 6 times over. And this mountain of junk is growing - Britain produces 5% more electrical waste every year.

The irony is that over 85% of the materials that make up electrical goods are recyclable, and recycling them has never been easier. Here’s our quick guide to the right way to get rid of old TVs, kitchen appliances, gadgets and mobile phones.

What can I recycle?

If your product has a plug or a battery it can probably be recycled.  Double check by looking for the crossed-out wheely bin symbol somewhere on the product case or manual.

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At Reevoo we’re about more than just reviews. We’re about the whole process of buying and enjoying something cool and new. With that in mind the three resident Category Managers, Jo, Sam and Jon have taken some time to lay out some helpful tips across three different product categories.

Reevoo Washing Machine Buyers Guide

Jo’s Washing Machine guide should help get you out of a spin and into the right shopping cycle with her top 5 tips designed to help you decide which washing machine is the right purchase for you.

For a full guide of the 5 tips, just click play below or check the video out as you shop on the Reevoo washing machine category page itself.

The Tips:

- Plumbing
- Dimensions, Loading and Appearance
- Capacity
- Usage
- Additional Features

The Video:

In the busy and sometimes confusing market of MP3 players Sam’s Top 5 purchasing Tips should be music to your ears:

The Tips:

- How Will I Use It?
- How Much Storage Do I Need?
- Do I Want To Watch Video?
- Watch Out For Battery Life
- Is An iPod the Best Option?

The Video:

For a full, step by step walkthrough of the above tips check out the video below or on the MP3 Player category page on Reevoo.com

Jon’s camera guide walks you through the features and settings that come into play when taking a photograph. The guide should help you decide what type of camera you want to snap up!

The Tips:

- The Sensor
- ISO Settings
- Megapixels
- Aperture
- Shutter Speed
- Exposure

The Video:

As with the other guides Jon’s can be seen on the Digital Camera Category page whilst looking through the compact and SLR camera reviews on Reevoo. If you don’t want to go anywhere just hit play below!

Heard about all the 3D TVs ready to rock our world? Well gear yourself up for a new range of 3D appliances – the Panasonic 3D washing machines. Oh yes. Viewing goggles not included. But before you think we’re all going to be sitting watching movies on our washers, it’s not that exciting.

Panasonic have recognised the need for our washing machines to handle their loads in a different way. They say that the machines of today will spin your washing and as a result, it will all stick to the sides of the drum, meaning that your clothes suffer from an inefficient wash. But with this 3D jiggery pokery, it will sense the weight of your load, how fast and hard it falls from the top of the drum to the bottom and then use just the right amount of spin to make sure all your threads get a good dosing of soap on all sides.

And if that wasn’t enough, they’re also super green. One of the machines, the NA-16VX1, operates to the prestigious EU A-20% energy efficiency standard and so uses 20% less energy than an ordinary A-category washer. All of the washers have shorter washes and use less water than the average machine too.

The tilted drum contributes to the water saving and the spin sense magic helps save energy by reducing unnecessary spin.

If you’re loving the concept, check out the Panasonic website for more details. If you’re looking for a more conventional machine, check out the washing machine reviews before you buy.

via Electricpig

It’s not a particularly great time to be moving house at the moment so for those of you who just want to spruce things up a bit, you can do so for less than you think.

The kitchen is where all the action happens, food action, that is. It’s also one of the most expensive rooms to totally redo because of all the appliances that have to go in it. But there are some great bargains to be had in the appliances department. We’ve been through all the reviews to pick out a load of cheap appliances that have great reviews from their owners.

We’ve even managed to find a fridge-freezer, washing machine, oven, hob, dishwasher and microwave all for under £800!

We’ve also included some smaller items like kettles and toasters. Check them out:

Best cheap appliances

Washing machine - Indesit WIB111 - £175

Oven - Indesit FI21KB - £135

Hob - New World NWGHU60Ss - £78

Fridge-freezer - Hotpoint RFA52 - £209

Microwave - Russell Hobbs SMS21 - £40

Dishwasher - Beko DWD4310 - £160

All the above for under £800!

Kettle - Kenwood Mona Kettle - £15

Toaster - Kenwood TTP103 - £18

Food processor - Kenwood Delia’s Cheat Gadget - £17

Some real bargains there. I can’t believe that food processor is only £17! It’s been reviewed by 333 people and has a score of 9.1/10 so it’s definitely a little gem. It was also recommended by TV chef extraordinaire, Delia Smith, so it must be good.

There are plenty more bargains to be had too but just make sure you read the reviews first to ensure the product is actually any good.

This week’s Green Piece is about washing machines. We all use them but could we be investing in greener options?

LG’s recent Steam Direct Drive washing machines claim to be the greenest. They use 35% less water than other machines and 21% less electricity. Thanks to these stats, they’ve earned a rare A++ energy efficiency rating.

The steam also reduces creases so you will have little or no ironing to do after your wash - another energy saver and particularly fab if you have no time and hate ironing!

These have been out for a while but we wanted to wait until we had LG Steam reviews so that we could tell you what others thought of them. And, much to ours and the planet’s relief, they’re a big hit with their owners. Here are some reviews for the steam driven LG WM1437:

Jason, London:

“It’s looks are great, very easy to use, you can select standard programmes then ‘tune slightly’ e.g. spin speed, rinse cycle etc. It weighs the washing automatically first then calculates cycle times. It is very quiet and has a great estimate to complete timer. It also turns itself off when done to save power.”

Angela, Aberdeen:

“The load size at 8kg is brilliant and the steam option is very useful for engrained dirt. It is a very quiet machine and easy to use and it looks really good.”

“Looks good. washes and rinses extremely well. Very quiet. Environmentally sound.”

It all sounds great but what’s the catch? Well, as you may have guessed, all this washing brilliance comes at a cost. This model is currently around £500 but with your water, energy and ironing saving, it will work itself off pretty quickly.

If that all sounds a bit too much, there are plenty of other washing machines out there. Check out these A-rated washing machines so that you can still do your bit for the planet.

"dust just takes over in about 2 seconds! I don’t care much, but my wife does…." Atacama Equinox HiFi Stand

"Control panel can be a little complicated - more than my other half could cope with (But may have just been an excuse not to do the laundry!)" Zanussi ZWD14581W

"My 18 month old son absolutely loves this lawnmower, if only it had a working blade, our lawn would be like a bowling green!" Chad Valley JCB Lawnmower

"Fantastic Bespoke Stylish Design, with an ultra funky name (Believe it or not the name inspired me to throw a big summer back garden BBQ Party 3 weekends ago now, called ‘Lloyd’s Mojito Party") Mojito Glasses

"Piano Black finish collects dust like Zsa Zsa Gabors wedding albums" LG 37LG3000

With households around the land worrying that it’s time to tighten belts, we thought we’d help show you how you can get the most from your purchases and do your bit to save the planet at the same time – after all, who wants another summer like we’ve just had?

In addition to Reevoo’s normal job, of using real customer reviews to help you decide what to buy, Reevoo now allows you to search by which household products are the most energy efficient. With energy prices up by 20% this year, we thought this was pretty smart, as well as green.

So, what difference will this really make?

We took one of the market’s top energy rated fridge freezers, the Indesit BAAN134, which has an A* energy efficiency rating and carries the Energy Savings Trust Feature, and compared it to your average light bulb.

At roughly HALF the power usage of a 60 watt lightbulb, not only will the Indecit keep your beers chilled but it might tempt you to live by fridge-light during fast approaching autumnal months.

We wouldn’t expect you to compromise on quality either, the Indesit scored 9.2 out of 10 by those that bought it and 93% of buyers would recommend it.

So, if you’re interested in making your home as cost and energy efficient as possible, or just want to find out which washing machine uses less power than your iPhone, check out the home product reviews on Reevoo.

[Guest post by Matt]

LG shocked the world of washing machines in 2006 with the launch of its proprietary Steam Direct Drive unit. The range has continued to evolve, and since May it has been possible to purchase one of the new F1402FDS5/6 machines capable of washing 9Kg of laundry.

While fantastic to be able to wash so much in a single go, it’s still the technology behind the machine that deserves the most attention. Like Dyson introducing the bagless vacuum cleaner to the world, LG decided to throw conventional washing machine design principles out of the window and try something new.  By converting the water into steam before mixing it with your laundry, these machines are able to achieve the same or even arguably better cleaning results, whilst saving on the amount of water and energy used. This is a huge plus point, in a time when energy and water costs are rocketing sky high, and saving resources is high on people’s agendas. Another fantastic feature of a steam powered washing machine is its ability to rid your clothes of creases, so no more ironing!

All this does come at a price though, with the range retailing at between £600 and £700 from places such as Boots, Sainsburys and Currys. In the long run however, the extra initial outlay could pay for itself further down the line. For those of you out there that might not want such an expensive and feature rich machine, there are cheaper ranges also available that use the same core steam technology. If you are hungry to delve further into the world of steam powered washing machines head over to the LG website.

[Guest post by Andy]

It seems us Brits are baffled by modern technology that was sent to help us. According to a poll of 2000 people (by the folks over at Reevoo), mobile phones, SatNavs and even TV remotes send us into panic and rage when we can’t figure out how to use them. In fact, a whopping 32% of people admitted to throwing a complicated gadget across the room when they couldn’t work out what to do with it.

Digital cameras were voted the most complicated with SatNavs and mobile phones close behind. Interestingly though, people are obviously happy to live in confusion with their SatNavs, as only 6% actually read the manuals!

More alarming is that the same numbers of us are as baffled by our laptops as our ovens (the nation’s health crisis suddenly makes sense now…). And people are more inclined to read their TV manual over their oven’s. Hmmmm.

And even when a device goes wrong, more than a quarter will try to fix it themselves, or even buy a new one, instead of turning to the instructions.

Here’s the full list of things we find complicated:

1.    Digital Camera - 26%
2.    GPS navigation    - 21%
3.    Mobile phone - 19%
4.    Washing machine - 18%
5.    Camcorder - 17%
6.    DVD player - 15%
7.    Games console - 13%
8.    TV remote control - 13%
9.    MP3 player - 13%
10.    Microwave - 12%
11.    Computer - 12%
12.    Digital photo frame - 12%
13.    Scanner - 11%
14.    Laptop - 10%
15.    Television - 10%
16.    Modem - 10%
17.    Oven - 9%
18.    Printer - 9%
19.    Answer machine - 9%
20.    Freeview box - 8%
21.    Broadband - 8%
22.    Sky - 8%
23.    Dishwasher - 7%
24.    Digital TV - 7%
25.    Hi Fi system - 7%
26.    Tumble dryer - 6%
27.    Iron - 6%
28.    Telephone - 6%
29.    Clock Radio - 5%
30.    Smoke alarm - 5%
31.    Electric timer - 5%
32.    Smoothie maker - 5%
33.    Alarm clock - 4%
34.    Blender - 4%

…and how many people bother to read the manuals for these items:

1.    I don’t read manuals - 46%
2.    Mobile phone - 19%
3.    Washing machine - 17%
4.    Television - 16%
5.    Digital Camera - 14%
6.    Microwave - 11%
7.    Oven - 10%
8.    DVD player - 10%
9.    MP3 player - 9%
10.    Laptop - 9%
11.    Computer - 8%
12.    Printer - 8%
13.    TV remote control - 8%
14.    Broadband - 8%
15.    Telephone - 7%
16.    Tumble dryer - 6%
17.    Iron - 6%
18.    GPS navigation - 6%
19.    Camcorder - 6%
20.    Dishwasher - 6%
21.    Hi Fi system - 6%
22.    Scanner - 5%
23.    Freeview box - 5%
24.    Answer machine - 5%
25.    Alarm clock - 5%
26.    Modem - 5%
27.    Smoke alarm - 5%
28.    Clock Radio - 5%
29.    Games console - 5%
30.    Sky - 4%
31.    Digital TV - 4%
32.    Digital photo frame - 3%
33.    Electric timer - 2%