Citrus Twist or Baccy? (Glade)

Member Name: aefra

Product:	Glade
Date:	13/12/02 (746 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Pleasant Fragrance of choice, Long lasting

Disadvantages: **

It would be an understatement to say that I like space. I need space! Without it I am soon claustrophobic and become positively tetchy. Those among you who are 6' tall will understand that this world does not cater for we who are typically challenged. Chairs are made for typical people, as are the heights of door handles and kitchen sinks. Only those with legs untypically long will appreciate a 20 mile journey in a commuter train. We either pile our possessions on the seat next to us and glare at anyone who wishes to impose, or have to play kneesy with a complete stranger for the duration in order to avoid painful cramp.

What, you ask, has this got to do with an air freshener? I will enlighten you. Although my house is not tiny (I would like 26 rooms, but there you go!) it is a nice average 3 bedroom 30's semi. I have added space by leaving the double doors to the lounge (Val's front room to everyone else) ever open. I also always have the hall door to my large kitchen/living room permanently open..... although I suspect the latter is so that anyone on the doorstep can see my new kitchen. Thus I can perambulate through the house and from room to room unimpeded and uninterrupted by barriers.

There is only one problem created by my insistence on space. Although keeping my habit to the lower floor, I am a smoker and, as I type this, the fumes are gently drifting throughout the ground floor, before wending their way up the stairs cleverly avoiding smoke alarms on the way. Flinging windows open this time of year is not an alternative which would be appreciated by a non smoking visitor, so air fresheners it has to be.

I have tried many and, until recently, found the most effective to be the airwick variety. You know, the ones which stand obtrusively on a table or shelf with a long wick flopping over the side of a tall bottle. Apart from being less than attractive, they are easily knocked over, although admi
ttedly the carpets smell gorgeous for ages afterwards whenever this happens. The plug in variety of freshener rather worried me because of what they are (more about that later). It occurred to me recently that it is a simple matter to switch them off when I leave the house or go to bed, and so have been using the Glade Natural Breezes plug in air freshener for several months now.

For the uninitiated this is a bottle of liquid perfume set beneath a white plastic unit 3" x 2" incorporating a three pin plug. The earth pin is dead plastic, but the other pins slot into an electrical socket and the slight warmth produced when the circuit is switched on radiates the scent.

This is an air freshener which works for me. A short while ago I was reading in the lounge, cigarette beside me. I have just walked back into the room and a pleasant citrus scent has already permeated most of the area. There are a variety of scents available, including Secrets of the Orient, and I choose Citrus Twist. The packet in which the unit is packed tells me that the perfume will last for 75 days if used for 16 hours per day. Since I switch off the freshener when I am not around, I have only just bought a refill after a good 3 month's use. The original device cost me £4.99 in Sainsbury's and the re-fill bottle £3.99. It has been my experience that the cheaper stand-up ones soon dry out and become no more than forgotten ornaments on window sills, so the Glade is good value.

The bottle of perfume comes with a neat cap to it and we are warned that this should be replaced when the Glade is unplugged. I should think that this would be because some fragrances can damage surfaces if spilt. The original unit comes in a box together with the perfume bottle. It is a simple matter to remove the cap, exposing a short wick, and slot the bottle into the section holding the plug. Plug in, switch on, and start deoderising.

Since I would r
esearch the web even for an op on an elastic band, it didn't take me long to find a site containing information about withdrawal of a similar product by S C Johnson, the Glade manufacturer. This was a scented oil air freshener with an extra outlet and not the one I am writing about. However,there have been concerns about the safety of this type of fragrance dispenser. I have emailed S C Johnson with a pasted extract of the website I mentioned and am waiting for a reply. It has been suggested, in defence, that not all home electrical sockets are wired as they should be. Since millions of these things are sold I am happy, with the precautions I have mentioned, to use this product. I just feel that I should responsibly point out these concerns which have arisen from time to time. I have taken off a star because S C Johnson haven't replied to me after 3 days.

Meanwhile I shall continue to type and smoke, before returning to read my book in an atmosphere which has freshened, thanks to Glade, during my short absence.

UPDATE: I received the following reassurance from Glade;

"......Consumer safety is paramount to SC Johnson and that is why, if we
discover there is a potential problem, we do the responsible thing, that is
immediately alert consumers and take steps to fix it. The problem you
refer to in your e mail related to only a few of of a specific type of
Plug-In, Extra Outlet Scented Oil PlugIns, and no other Glade PlugIns
product was affected. We discovered that a few of these products had been
improperly assembled and we went to the Consumer Product Safety Commission
with our plans to recall that version of PlugIn. Within 2 months of the
recall the product was re-introduced and the CPSC has closed the file on
this matter, satisfied that we met our obligations to consumer safety."

Summary: