I have long been of the view that the scourers from Lidl are better quality than most others, so we don't often try out any others if I am doing the shopping.

Last week my wife bought these and although washing up isn't one of my tasks as divided within the household, I do from time to time feel the urge to have a good old scour, so I have been trying these out.

We have had the pack for a fortnight now and are still on the first of 6 units in the pack. That's a good sign to begin with because so many of the cheap options seem to disintegrate after just a few scrubs. I particularly dislike those ones where the layers separate easily. These ones seem well stuck together and so far they remain bosom buddies, sticking together through thick and thin.

Thicker than any of the value options in the major supermarkets, these also present a good surface area with which to scrub. Yes, they do have a finger grip but then most do these days - it's just a way of using less foam really and adds little to the scouring operation.

In terms of how good they are, well, we haven't found them wanting yet, although it's been ages since I burnt any pans so it's when the going gets tough that these will really be tested.

On the dark green scouring layer, the weave is a very close one and they do feel quite rough to the touch. A new one might make a good option for hair removal for your legs, girls - but probably not your bikini line (Yeowch!). On a more serious note, I would be careful about which surfaces you use these on. The pack details advise you not to use it on non-stick surfaces. I expect we have all swallowed a bit of Teflon in the past which has come off in the stir-fry, courtesy of an over-enthusiastic scrubber.

Like most scourers they can be useful for other cleaning tasks and not just for scrubbing the pots and pans. I keep one in my car cleaning bucket for example for the wheel hubs, but they tend to be older ones which don't scratch.

An interesting additional use listed on the flimsy packaging is for cleaning vegetables, which I guess it would be good for - new potatoes, carrots etc.

I think these are really rather good value at 82p for a pack of 6 - that's 13.7p per scourer. It's still 6 times more than the value ranges but probably at least 6 times better. 4 out of 5 for me.