Product Reviews by Daddy for Other Daddies.
(Rated out of 5-stars)
(Rated out of 5-stars)
Reviews from a daddy/design-engineer point-of-view, only products I use will be reviewed here. I will rate on usefulness, assembly, customer service or lack of, etc...
Potty Training - Forget the books, this is the best thing out there and it is free, a YouTube video called "Potty Time". I played this each day for the first week of potty training. (The first 20 minutes). My kids sign "Potty Time" now and potty training was a breeze. Yes a few messes, but as the video says, accidents happen.
Disco Lights - Daddy purchased three types of Disco lights from Amazon. A 4-Inch Rotating Disco Ball Light, a Generic RGB Crystal Ball LED Stage Light, and an XL-15 Crystal Ball Stage Light. The thought Daddy had was to project moving light around the room to get the babies something engaging to catch their eye and keep them entertained. The Disco Ball Light is a single bulb inside a "large" rotating globe that projects light through colored filters. While the two stage lights are essentially light bulbs. The stage light are made with three LED's, one Red, one Green, and one Blue, they have a small rotating multi-faced lens for the bulb. Below is a photo and video from the XL-15.
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| A watching the XL-15 Light Show |
Ratings:
All three get 5-stars for simplicity.
4-Inch Rotating Disco Ball - 3-stars - Not very bright, globe gets hot, slow and if bulb breaks hard to replace. Largest area of projection if positioned in right spot (light can get into babies eyes).
Generic RGB Crystal Ball - 3.5-stars - Made in China and shipped from China and therefore takes two-three weeks to arrive (this accounts for a half star deduction, delivery time). You can hear it rotating. Slow rotation. Smallest area of projection resulting in highest density of lights projected onto the ceiling.
XL-15 Light Show - 4.5 stars - Made in China and shipped from China and therefore takes two-three weeks to arrive (this is why a half star deduction, delivery time). Quiet, fast rotation, middle size area of projection, bright, and of the two stage bulbs bought this is easiest to install without touching the bulb/globe part of the light.
Babi Italia Cribs by LaJobi - Mommy purchased two at Babies-R-Us and "once" they were assembled they are really nice cribs. "Once" is the key word and appropriate word for all the daddies out there. Daddy has a full wood shop, daddy has multiple engineering degrees, daddy taught design, machining, manufacturing, and spent many hours repairing various forms of devices and equipment. With that said, Babi Italia does give you plenty of warning when you open the box with three one page flyers telling you who to call if you have a problem with assembly and you will. Even with multiple hours of IKEA training and the biggest collection of allen/hex wrenches, unless you have a set of metric taps or a very strong grip, you will not be assembling this product quickly. Each crib has two embedded nuts in each leg that the side rails attach to and should be a piece of cake to assemble, however, in each crib three of the eight nuts had damaged threading. The only saving grace is that the nuts were made of softer metal than the supplied bolts so with muscle (if you don't have a tap) you can tap some new threads with the bolts. The key is to test each nut with a bolt before you attempt to install the side rails so you can handle the problem without having the rails in the way.
4.5-stars once assembled - 1-star during assembly.
Update -- 12/15/2016
We have moved to toddler cribs. When I assembled the Babi-Italia Cribs I noticed they had some preset nuts for possible toddler rails. So I decided to convert the cribs myself. I took one side off and cut out five slates and took about 10 inches off the remaining slates. A little stain and here you go.
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| Homemade toddler rails using original crib rails. |
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| Toddler bed with feet. |
Summer Infant Products - Mommy bought a Summer Infant Bottle Warmer and in the process of washing for the first time, before we even used it, mommy dropped one critical piece and broke it. Mommy attempted to try to call Summer Infant repeatedly and never got to talk to anyone even after 4 hours on the phone. Daddy on the other hand complained on Facebook and instantly got a reply asking for our phone number. Summer Infant called back and replaced the part for free.
5-stars as a working product - 0 stars for calling customer service - 4 stars for Facebook customer service.
Last Updated: 12/15/2016
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