SOS vs Brillo Pads

My Dad bought me a set of copper plated stainless steel chaffing dishes years ago because I loved to throw parties. Well, now that I'm starting up my catering business again and serving food at special events, I needed to get the chaffing dishes back in its very shiny stage.

The chaffing dishes have been stored in the garage since we left Hawaii over 2 years ago, so you can pretty much picture how dingy and gloomy they looked. When my Dad was alive he spent hours making them shine. Well, I had to get them in the same state.

While shopping at Smart and Final I found a box of Brillo with Oxy Action and picked it up. My Mom tried to get it clean but it was not shiny. A couple of years of dirt and oxidation had been building up on these chaffing dishes.

It does take a lot of elbow grease and a lot of patience to use the Brillo, but it really does work! I could feel the grime coming off with each pass of the Brillo Pad. Of course it took one Brillo pad to clean just the top portion of the chaffing dish. Anyway, I didn't have enough time to get the chaffind dishes shining for my next event, so we did the best we could and at least got off most of the first five layers or so of collected grime taken off. It still wasn't shiny but it was very clean.

The problem with these very old chaffing dishes is the fact that with every use the build up starts again. So, we started to clean it again for the next event. We ran out of Brillo Pads and I didn't have enough time to go back to Smart and Final to get another box.

I found a box of S.O.S. pads with citrus and figured that would do the trick. My kids took to cleaning the chaffing dishes. The box contained 18 pads. After using them all up my son showed me what they'd accomplish with the S.O.S. pads. Not much, all it did was wipe up the dirt, no shine and no matter how much they rubbed and scrubbed it just wouldn't take off the layers of build up and they could barely get to the copper to shine.

The S.O.S. pads were more expensive then the Brillo Pads with Oxy Action. But, if it's for pots and pans, I'm sure they'll work just fine. That is of course taking into consideration that the pot you're wanting to get cleaned doesn't have really hard baked on matters.

It may clean up your spagetthi sauce pot where the sauce has hardened at the top of the pot. But, I don't think it would work for really hard baked on, hardened grime, you know the baking pan you used and figured you'd clean later on but left in the oven.

The Brillo Pad with Oxy Action doesn't hurt the finish and with a lof of elbow grease it really does clean very well. I am sold and am very glad at this new type of cleaning pad. I just picked up another box from Rite Ad, the box of 12 cost me just under $3.00, where as the S.O.S. pad with 18 pads that made not a dent in cleaning my chaffing dishes cost me almost $6.

Good Guys Tires - The last of the True Good Guys

I needed to buy new tires for my Rav4 which is something I didn't relish doing. The last time we purchased a tire it cost $65 that was for my husbands truck. In Hawaii I never pay more than $45 for one tire and my tires were always pretty big. Then again I knew where the Discount Tire Warehouses were located and I bought from the same company so he usually gave us a really great deal.

Well, my husband was told that Pep Boys had the cheapest tires in Fresno. I gave them a call and I was told that the manufacturer of the Rav4 created the tire size just for this particular car. Pep Boys doesn't stock 215/70R16 tires. It had to be a special order. The tune to this special order was $305.50 not including tax for 2 tires, alignment and balancing, plus tax. I about had a heart attack!

I had to find another place to buy tires, long story short, I called Good Guys in Fresno and spoke to a very nice man named Paul. I told him I needed 2 tires for my Rav4 and he said the same thing, but he could change the size of the tires for me to make it easier and cheaper for put tires on this car. He said he had some great tires for it for $127, I told him I just needed tires, like bottom of the barrel, lol . . he quoted me $170 for two tires including everything and tax. I told him to expect me the following morning, which was Wednesday.

Well, my husband took the car to work that night and had the mechanic at work look at it while he was trying to charge my batteries, it's less than 2 years old. Katie my youngest wanted to listen to the radio and in the heat turned on the air condition and by the time I got back into my car the battery was dead. Anyway, the mechanic said we need to buy 4 tires because what we didn't see unless we were looking was that the back tires had steel showing in the inside of it. Not very visible but very bad nonetheless.

Got up Wednesday morning, remember what hubby said about maybe needing to jump start the car, I proceeded to get the cables attached. Well, low and behold, his truck won't start! I called my niece at work and fortunately she was on her way to Sanger High School to pick up her daughter's schedule so she would over and gave me a jump. In the meantime I'm panicking because when I have this bad feeling, something usually happens.

I remembered there was a Good Guys in Sanger, so I called them up and I spoke to a man named German. Told him the situation and he at first wanted to sell me tires that were $97 each and I reminded him that Paul in Fresno could put 2 tires on for $170 and that I really needed it to be more affordable because instead of 2 I needed 4 now and possible a new battery. He said a new battery would cost me $79.95. The dollars are adding up and I'm calculating in my head how much I would need. Told him the battery was dead and he offered to have someone come and give me a jump, but because my niece was coming over it was okay. He said it would cost me $450 for 4 tires, a new battery, installation of tires and the new battery as well as the disposable of both.

Well it is one of those situation where you have to do what you have to do. So, he took my cell phone number and then we waited for my niece. An hour and half has passed by she is trying to jump my car and nothing is happening, I forgot to turn my cell phone on. My niece left her car running in hopes of maybe getting the battery charged enough for me to start it. I called German back up and he had be worried because he tried to call my cell and it wasn't accepting calls. Well, I told him the situation again and he offered to have a two truck to come and tow my car. Of course I'm saying I can't afford a tow truck and he says it's okay and for me to tell the guy to charge it to Good Guys credit and we'd work something out. Before I got the tow companies phone number they tell me the car started. So I'm happy to report this to German but stated I needed to go to the bank and he sternly told me to get in my car and go straight to their shop and they would take care of the car first then I could go and get the money I needed to pay them.

Okay, long story short, I ended up paying $500 to get the tires aligned and balanced. I didn't have to pay for taxes so that was a good deal and it was necessary. Yes, $500 for tires, still shaking my head, but they are 225/70R16 and I didn't really get charged for battery disposal so I was thinking I had a really good deal as compared to Pep Boys. When we were leaving and he gave me my receipt. He surprised me once again. He had given me a 60,000 mile warranty on the tires with maintenance meaning if I get a flat, nails or a blow out I just have to take it in and they will fix it for give me another tire for free, plus after every 5,000 miles they will rotate the tires for me for free!

What really got me is the fact that most of the time when a woman goes into a shop to get anything done for her car, they usually try to take you for a ride. German at Good Guys went out of his way to provide me service and then some. That is unusual and I know for sure now where to buy my next set of tires!

They really live up to their name, cause they really are "Good Guys!"

Welcome to A Mom's Review! There have been many times that I've wanted to just sit down and write a letter to one company or another because I either didn't like their service or really thought they needed to know how my family loved their product. Well, as life may have it, a business work at home Mom with a heavy schedule finds it a rarity to be able to just sit down and write a letter sometimes.

Well, this Blog is a great way to express my opinion as well as my kid's without having to take out a pen or paper or walk out of the house for that matter. It's very hot here in the Summer and too darn cold to walk to the mailbox which is across the street in the winter. Doing it on a blog is the best solution.

If you're anything like me I've got an opinion on almost anything, lol . . and I've raisded very opinionated kids who I've been teaching to know the difference between real quality or just advertisement hype! They've also been taught that they can't have an opinion on anything unless they've tried it or used it.

A Mom's Review is just that our reveiw of products that we've purchased. Companies, Restraurants, etc . . that we frequent and may have had some really gret experience with or something other than heaven. Feel free to add your comment to our postings!