November 17, 2010 | Vacuum Cleaner Repair, Help & Advice | No comments
Universal vacuum tools are an inexpensive alternative to genuine tools, or a lifesaver if the tool for your vacuum is unavailable. Although we’ve found that customers often have doubts over whether ‘universal’ really means universal. Check out this video to put your mind to rest:
November 15, 2010 | eSpares Updates | No comments
Today we’ve been mostly working hard editing videos and generally catching up with the weekend. We’ve also been looking forward to the watching the International Space Station pass overhead at about 5pm. If you’ve got Monday blues, this photo’s for you. A mountain in the Andes mountain range taken from aboard the ISS.
November 8, 2010 | eSpares Updates | No comments
The main objective with the redesign of our product landing pages was to get rid of all the clutter. Have a look this is the old design…
And now for the new….
We decided to get rid of the ‘Related Products’ column at the left of the page to allow the focus of the page be completely on the product you clicked on.
Another important area we wanted to look at was the “Fits the following Appliances” section:
The new design has appliance models listed in a table format. Once you select your model and appliance type you can easily find your model number and be sure this is the part you need.
One of our favourite new features is an add to basket box that follows you as you scroll down the page so you don’t have to waste time scrolling back to the top of the page to add it to your basket once you have made your decision to purchase the product.
Overall I feel the newly designed product pages will make it easier and quicker for customers to be confident the part fits their appliance, making their time spent on the website a more relaxed and enjoyable experience.
November 2, 2010 | Kitchen Appliances Repair, Help & Advice | No comments
Cooking can generate all kinds of smells – some delicious, some not so delicious. However, one thing is constant. When your delicious beef bourgignon or sausage casserole has been consumed, the last thing you want is its scent to linger.
And that’s where our trusty friend the cooker hood comes in. Now a staple in the majority of kitchens, the units are usually a sleek stainless steel or more rustic shade, depending on what you’re going for. There’s a hob-facing cooker hood lamp in them too – handy, functional, and good lookin’.
A decent hood can extract all kinds of odours and get them out of your kitchen and with multiple speeds and settings they are very often capable of doing this quickly and efficiently. One area where they are particularly useful is in small flats or homes where the kitchen backs on to the living area – after all who wants to sit in front of the TV with the smell of last night’s curry in the air.
However, when the the odours appear to be going nowhere and smells seem to linger even when the hood is cranked up to its highest setting, the time may have come to replace the filter on the unit.
We stock hundreds of cooker hood filters. You can get universal filters, which can be cut to size to fit your hood, and you can get genuine replacements, which are manufactured to specifically fit your model.
It’s always recommended that you get the genuine replacement, if there is one for your model. They’re generally a little more expensive than the universal filters, but the fact that they’re made specifically for your hood means they’ll generally do a better job of filtering the smells and grease effectively.
September 23, 2010 | Kitchen Appliances Repair, Help & Advice | No comments
Detergent dispensers are a vital part of a dishwasher, without it you’re just pumping regular old water round the washer, and that ain’t no good if you want crockery and cutlery that’s meal worthy once the cycle’s finished. Like the cutlery basket, it’s a part of the dishwasher that’s getting used constantly. Constant use can lead to wear and tear, and sometimes wear and tear will lead to damage.
You’d have thought that replacing a dishwasher detergent dispenser is one of those pop in-pop out FIY jobs, but actually, it’s a little more involved than that. Luckily, you have the knowledgeable Helen on hand to guide you through fitting it. Enjoy.
September 6, 2010 | Gardening Tips | No comments
We’re getting towards last cut of the year kind of time, and after a hard summer of keeping the grass in check, does your lawn mower need a bit of love? Even if all seems well, it’s always worth giving it a quick MOT to make sure everything’s running smoothly.
Parts worth checking are the lawnmower blades (safely of course!), which do blunt over time. Check the drive belt too, this can slacken and cause inefficiency. Another obvious one is the grass box – empty to prevent build up, which can lead to grass being deposited on your carefully cultivated lawn. If anything needs replacing, we’ve got thousands of lawnmower spares at our website, as well as a bunch of videos helping you fit them too – in this one Helen gives a Flymo a whole new motor. Impressive.
August 23, 2010 | General Appliance Care & Advice | No comments
Over the last year or so we have been making an effort to provide a more helpful ‘fix it yourself’ (FIY for short) web experience by creating our own ‘How To’ videos. At the time of writing we’ve got over 130 videos, with 750,000 total views, across 12 video sites. The vast majority of these are viewed on our Advice Centre and YouTube channel.
However, we are just a small drop in the web’s ‘How To’ ocean. Here’s a look at some of the best FIY the web has to offer:
The biggest of the bunch is eHow.com, formerly known as Expert Village. Their eHow Home and eHow Home Appliances sections have a load of FIY gold. Its user-submitted content varies wildly in quality and usefulness but the sheer amount of articles and videos make it a great resource. It’s also very US-centric, so you’ll have to sift through a lot of propane burner and termite infestation stuff to get to anything relevant for repairs or appliances in the UK.
5min.com is a personal favourite. Its home appliances section has a lot to look at, and (unlike eHow) all the ‘fix its’ are in video format.
wonderhowto.com is a great little site with over 400 home and garden appliance videos. The range of videos is great however the video player is a little odd in that it doesn’t have any controls. You can’t forward, rewind or seek to any point the the video – essential for playing and replaying parts of a ‘how to’ video.
Lastly, for a broader insight into how appliances work on either a practical or scientific level howstuffworks.com is brilliant. It has an appliances section with great interactive articles like how refrigerators or microwaves work. Fantastic brain food, and great for getting a wider understanding of how and why appliances are put together.
Happy FIYing.
July 21, 2010 | Uncategorized | 5 comments
Today’s post is for the benefit of my fellow connoisseurs in the eSpares Coffee Appreciation Society and any other coffee lovers out there.
With its shape and name, you’d be forgiven for thinking coffee is a bean in the same family as the kidney, soya, broad and cannelloni brethren – but the truth is your beloved cup of black gold comes from a fruit. Really. The coffee ‘bean’ itself is formed from short-lived white blossoms that give way to a red and round fruit that looks much like a cherry.
Although there are a number of varieties of bean – over 60 different types are grown across the world – it is the Arabica and Robusta variants that are the most prevalent. Coffee trees can grow anything up to and beyond 15 metres when left in the wild, although the regular pruning that has to be done on plantations keeps them at a more manageable size of between 1.5 and 3 metres. The tree itself has dark green leaves that are broad and shiny and it is said once the white blossoms appear they are similar in smell and appearance to the flowers of the Jasmine tree.
Countries such as Kenya and Colombia are among the most famed for producing high yields of coffee for both freeze-dried instant and ground varieties of the beverage. The labour-intensive picking of the product is often the most expensive part of the harvesting and processing chain.
Coffee trees are capable of producing for up to 25 years with an average annual yield of approximately 2,000 beans – the equivalent of around one kilogram of raw coffee per year. However, initially the plants can take between three and five years to start production and this is heavily dependent on climate. The bean from the Arabica plants is most reliant on rich mountain soil and performs particularly well in high, volcanic areas – this is where its deep and rich flavour comes from.
Altitude plays a large part in how coffee is grown in a number of other ways. The speed at which the plant can produce as well as the quality and density of the bean is all dependent on the height of the plantation. This is due to the amount of oxygen that is available to the tree as it grows and slower development can mean a longer wait for the blossoms to mature. However, this alters the taste and in many cases gives the bean more opportunity to obtain a full, rich flavour.
Aside from coffee keeping us all focused and working hard here at eSpares, we also sell coffee machine spares like jugs and seals. We stock lots of coffee maker cleaning tablets and filters too.
July 14, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 comment
Over the past few weeks a lot of the UK has bathed in beautiful, and very warm, sunshine. And while the weather has been perfect for heading down to the beach for the day or playing Frisbee in the park, it’s a decidedly more stressful time for garden owners across the country as they try in vain to keep their lawns from turning in to parched wastelands. The damper weather this week has offered some respite, but summer can still be a testing time for lawn wranglers.
An arid looking Hyde Park
There are ways to combat your patch becoming too parched, as laid out in our handy Lawn Care Calendar. Here’s the advice for July:
“Continue mowing. If the weather is hot and dry, mow less frequently and consider raising the blades for a higher cut – less moisture will be lost this way. Subject to hosepipe bans, water the grass thoroughly during dry spells using a sprinkler. Spot treat any stubborn weeds with a weed killer. Scarify the lawn (rake with a spring tine rake) to remove dead thatch and moss. This will prevent brown patches appearing.”
If you need to whip your lawnmower in to shape, we’ve got loads of Flymo spares as well as lawnmower spares for loads of other brands. And if you don’t live in the North West, we’ve got an assortment of watering products too.
June 28, 2010 | Gardening Tips | No comments
I’ve often wondered why we sell so many replacement Flymo cables. Surely you’ve got to be pretty careless to run over the power cord when you’re mowing the lawn? Well, I’ve since found out that it’s actually very easily done. I now feel somewhat humbled.
I was happily mowing away, thinking about what a fine job I’ve done with the lawn this year, then Bang! You’d be surprised at what a noise it makes as the cable is dragged into the blade and minced. I leapt backwards into the air, away from my Flymo, and immediately thought “Ahh, that’s why we sell so many Flymo cables.”
I’m pleased to say that I was unhurt in this little incident. However, I might not have been so lucky, as I didn’t have an RCD Safety Plug fitted. These little devices cut the power in a matter of milliseconds so that if the severed live cable flings around and hits you, you don’t become the easiest route to earth and get a nasty shock. I have now replaced the cable and invested in a safety plug – at under a tenner, they’re a low price to pay in case my mind goes wandering again.
