Cool new clothespin and outdoor sweeper

[sudsmaster]

All too often when one purchases something new, it turns out to be less than expected. Sometimes it's even crap that one wants to return or discard right away.

Not so lately.

First I found something I've been looking for, for years. Namely, clothespins that actually work and will last a long time. I like to hang the bed sheets and such on the line to dry - it gives a better result than the dryer and without consuming any energy. But all too often the clothespins I've found in the local shops are just not up to it. For a while I was using blue plastic ones, but found that after sometime that they've been exposed to the sun, they start to crumble. And even when they were new, they tended not to hold the sheets securely, and I'd find myself having to use two or three in each spot to keep the sheets from migrating down the line, or bunching up. The wooden ones are somewhat more sun resistant, but too often their springs rust out or the two halve get out of alignment and they self-destruct.

What I wanted were some sort of clothespin that grips the sheets securely to the line, can stand the elements, and don't fall apart. I found them on-line, after no small amount of searching. They're called Lifetime Clothes Pins. Made in Italy of stainless steel (non-magnetic, I've tested them), they really seem to be the answer. Below is a link and maybe a photo.

I've tested them with a set of bedsheets just now, and they work great. They are well designed and well made, the springs are captive and can't easily be displaced. They just do the job better than any other pin I've seen. I figure the Italians are probably the experts in this arena, seeing how their residential city streets are festooned with laundry hanging from upper story windows. Who wants to lose a garment or other freshly washed item because of a cheap clothes pin?

Molto bene!

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?cat=2,42194,67373&p=69724

 

[sudsmaster]

Hoover Spin Sweep Pro

Next up is the other pleasant product surprise. As I may have mentioned in the past, my property has a fairly large paved courtyard area behind a secure gate. For privacy some years ago I planted screening hedge trees near the fence. These work to shade the area from the hot afternoon sun, provide a wind break, and give some privacy from neighboring two story residences. Being evergreen pittosporum, however, they tend to drop 1 to 3 inch leaves year-round, along with little seed pods and spent flowers. They also seem to shed a fair amount of dust and dirt. I'm guessing some of that is from the trees themselves, as well as dirt in the air that the trees capture all the time. I found using a push broom to be tedious and awkward, especially when trying to get the little piles of swept up leave into the green waste bin. I tried using a bagged lawn mower to suck up the leaves but the dust cloud that resulted made a bigger mess. Plus the mower tended to send the leaves everywhere but into the collection bag.

I looked for regular motor driven pavement vacuums, but they tended to be rather expensive ($600+) or unavailable.

So along came the solution: a human powered pavement sweeper called the Hoover SpinSweep Pro. Found it on Amazon with free shipping. The reviews seemed generally positive and I figured for the price it would be worth a try.

Well, I can say the gadget does seem to be the answer. It sweeps up the little leaves quite well. It also handles the dust and dirt under them pretty good too. It's not hard to push, and easy enough to empty. If I had any complaint its that when a lot of leaves have fallen, the collection bin needs to be emptied after about 100 feet of sweeping. The answer to that may be to sweep more often, and this gadget makes that a lot less of a chore than the old rake, broom, and dustpan routine. The thing is mostly plastic, but it also seems fairly well designed and the reviews seem to indicate they are durable enough.

Now, it does prefer quite level pavement, and also doen't like to deal with twigs over a few inches long. But then the bulk of what needs to be swept up is just those small leaves and the dirt/dust. I also like that it fits easily inside a two foot wide paved sidewalk around the inner garden, making short work of any small debris that has collected there.

In any case, this thing is a keeper.

http://hoover.com/products/details/l1405---/spinsweep-pro-outdoor-sweeper/

 

[kenmoreguy89]

These ones have been around for ages  over here in Italy but catching a very small slice of the market....in my opinion  and from what I could see and hear they have more cons than pros, weight, holding ability (for some items)...plus  sooner or later despite what they claim they'll rust  or oxydate anyway (are never  inox stainless as it should be)....then I also heard complains about them being too bulky.
My granma used to buy a package of them years ago but after awhile she started to use them just to close flour  cookies or chips bags in the kitchen (pretty much all the uses of this kind) as she didn't find them good also.
Personally, I found to be the better the typical old style/old fashioned .... which are the strongest and most durable clothespins In my opinion, they're the only ones that can hold laundry even in the strongest of winds.
Spring ones sooner ot later will rust, moreover most of them does not hold laundry well and you need to many on an item in windy days with the risk they fly apart anyway, the old wooden ones in my opinion seems to be most strong, functional and  durable and plus will never rust... I've seen some of these wooden clothespins around that were of the great grandmothers and still as if they were new!
Also the plastic old type ones are also good (2 years ago I bought some from UK brand was Tuf Grip or something like that).
These are the main kind  I used , have to say  I don't use to hang laundry anymore  now that I got a gas dryer and have not to worry about electric bill (electricity in Italy is so expensive as you cannot even imagine)...
I kept  pulleys and lines outside for any evenience (gas or electric interruption etc), of course I  don't see why  having to deal with the drudgery of hanging laundry anymore, now that I can always benefit of  the conveniency of  the dryer and have  not to worry about  unsustainable bills.

These are the ones I prefer:

Avviso di reindirizzamento

[this post was last edited: 7/1/2013-19:20]

 

[kenmoreguy89]

P.S My grandmother still hang outside regularly from spring to fall, only  in winter she use the dryer.....she has an electric dryer and got to do this for the reasons above.

I think that when she will get older  I think 94-95  or something thereabouts  and she will be maybe not able to do this anymore ( <span id="result_box" class="short_text" lang="en"><span class="hps">at the ripe old</span> <span class="hps">age of 86 she is starting to develop light deforming arthristis) we will get for her a gas dryer.... if I know her well she will not allow others to take care of anything until she holds on her legs.....
</span></span>

 

[sudsmaster]

Interesting.

Well, the bulk of the stainless clothespins doesn't bother me, since there's plenty of room on the line and they really don't seem to take up much room in a pin bag. Weight? Well, that's the price one pays for stainless steel. Holding ability? It seems fine to me, at least for sheets on a relatively small gauge vinyl coated steel braided line (1/8" or about 3 mm). The upper grip on the pins holds the sheets just right. Had them up in the wind today, sheets didn't budge on the line. I could see that perhaps very bulky items might not get held as securely, but I've found that any spring loaded pin tends to be challenged by bulky items. OTOH, I'v had miserable results with the flat pins like you pictured. I've had them seem like they are on firmly only to pop off the line at the first breeze.

Time will tell for the stainless part. I've always known that even the best stainless steels can rust or corrode. Salt air would probably be the most worry, as chlorine atoms have a particular affinity for attacking the thin chromium oxide layer on top of the metal (which is the protective layer that forms naturally on stainless steel upon exposure to air). Which is why one should never add salt to a cold pot of water and let it just sit with the grains on the bottom while it heats up... add it after it's boiling and then stir the salt in so it's fully dissolved. Even so, a rusted bit of 304 can usually be polished up to look good, since the corrosion is generally not too deep. Wouldn't want the rust to stain the fabrics, though. I suppose I'll keep some pins in a bag on the line in the elements, and some under shelter, and see which ones go first. I do think these items are made of a better quality stainless, as they are completely non-magnetic. Of course I can't tell from looking if they are 303, 304, or 316, but they are likely to be one of those. 316 would be the most corrosion (and expensive) as it has the highest nickel content (10%, usually).

What do you think of the Hoover SpinSweep?

 

[sudsmaster]

PS-My SpinSweep looked like that photo above, when I took it out of the box and attached the handle. But after cleaning up the courtyard now it's pretty much covered with a thick layer of dust...

I am wondering if it would be any use in the machine shop. Probably it could handle plastic chips OK. Long stringy steel chips would probably cause problems. I think one of the Amazon reviewers said he used it on sawdust and it worked great.

 

[kenmoreguy89]

I find it very strange you don't like these old type wooden clothespins..... they have proven to be the best for me...they can old everything securely,  I never had something flied away by using them even with very strong winds...thing that happened while using all of the others in such occasions.
Many italians seems to prefer plastic ones though ...you can find countless types  here in every houseware shop...
Personally  one of the best types about spring ones has proven to be these:
http://www.mugue.it/prodotti_scheda_tecnica_pinzeDupla.php (these are coated wood and very strong)

I cannot really find the others online but when I've my camera fixed I will take some pics of the ones I have (about every kind),  will show you which  are the most common ones and which are the best spring ones IMO, always if you're interested.

As you mentioned Italy had the particularity of having a large number of  laundry hangers....because of the reasons I wrote several times on here about electricity costs and fact that gas dryers were not usual until 90s and early 2000ish....and are still not widely affordable just for everyone (cost of a gas dryer is more than 1000euros)...
My granma bought the same you posted but with another name...they were called "SIKURA"....she didn't like them as I said... very few wanted them again recently, they've been around since alot,  I've also seen them  advertised recently in a teleshopping program,  but  they have had a bad repuation from the past though as they slide on the lines and let items fly away despite they're advertised to be just the opposite..and as yourself mentioned and realized, when you hang your laundry over a condo lawn or street or from the pulleys out the window on a  busy bypass road  like usual landscape in Liguria, Tuscany etc and else places or  also over a water canal like in Venice you care so much about your laundry do not fall or fly because of a crappy clothespin...it may be the last time you see your favourite expensive T-shirt or pants.

Anyway.......

Sorry I cannot really comment your Spin sweep...don't know really what to say, I'm not a knower of these kind of appliances...

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, like I say, these stainless clothespins hold more securely than any other spring pin I've tried.

I have tried the one piece clothes pegs but their gap is too big to hold thin fabric on the 1/8" diameter vinyl coated clothes cable in my setup, or they appear to be holding snugly only to suddenly pop off when a breeze comes up.

What I've found with all spring loaded pins is that it's necessary to match the diameter of the line plus fabric to one of the two cutouts in the gripping area. This gives the most surface area for gripping. When I tested these SS pins the other day, I couldn't slide the sheets on the line even applying some force. With plastic or wooden spring pins, I'd have to use three pins instead of one for that level of grip.

In all cases it's necessary to fold the fabric over the line, and then pin it. I could see that someone trying to hold the fabric in the lower part of the pin, with the cutout holding only the line, would be a recipe for trouble. I could see someone trying that with delicates so as not to crease them, but for delicates I have a nice clothes dryer - or an indoor rack.

Perhaps in time the springs will get weaker and the grip will no longer be enough. I very much doubt it. Plus these pins have a lifetime guarantee, so I don't think it's a worry.

I haven't tried them yet with throw rugs (the other major line item here) but I don't anticipate a problem. I also fold the rugs over the line - I would never expect any pin to hold onto a damp and heavy run without the folding. Because of the weight of the rugs, the fold is along the middle of the rug, so as to keep it balanced on the line.

Yeah, I just don't get the enthusiasm here for the old fashioned clothes peg.

 

[sudsmaster]

PS-The SpinSweep is earining its keep. The only problem is not its fault: as soon as I sweep up the courtyard, if there's any kind of wind, the pavement is covered with leaves again. But today I got it out to clear the pavement so I could work on the van without crunching leaves, and that was a first. It's also doing a great job of keeping the dirt/dust off the pavement - better than a push broom, in fact.

It's also coming handy for cleaning out the carport, which can get leaves blown into it as well.

 

[sudsmaster]

The attraction of the wooden clothes pegs is that they may be quicker to use. You just put the item on the line, then push the pin over it. With a spring loaded pin of any sort, one has to take a few seconds to make sure the cutout in the gripping area is holding both the fabric and the line. Otherwise they will slide off.

It's been my impression that the clothespegs may grip ok intially, but the wood tends to warp and spread and lose its grip over a few hours. Leave the laundry on a line all day with a wooden clothes peg and it may be on the ground when you get home from work.