Scenting Your Room With Fly Spray...? (Tesco Value Air Freshener)

Member Name: chrisandmark

Product:	Tesco Value Air Freshener
Date:	10/02/08 (122 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The mechanism works nicely...

Disadvantages: ...it's all downhill from the first use of the aforementioned mechanism

I watched a TV programme recently which extolled the virtues of buying supermarket branded products over big brand names, with the arguement being that even the no-frills brands can be as good, if not as luxurious.

I've had a few successes (Asda crisps are lovely, different to Walkers but definitely as good) and some failures (Sainsbury's no-frills bread... eugh...), so when I spotted Tesco Value Air Freshener priced at just 30p I decided to give it a whirl.

It's awful. I won't keep you in suspense, it really is the most appalling thing. You pay 30p for air freshener, you get a product worth 30p.

The tin is horrible, it's vile. You know the Tesco Value red and blue *BASIC* label? Well, it's that wrapped around a cheap aerosol tin. I'm not a label snob by any means, but I hid this air freshener in the cupboard as it would have looked too naff sitting on my kitchen shelf!

The aerosol mechanism works smoothly and accurately, which is the only redeeming feature of the air freshener. And believe me, once you've sprayed this once you'll not want to use it again - however smooth the spray action is.

The spray comes out in a mist, the mist isn't as fine as I'd expect from my usual Airwick air freshener and I thought the spray itself was rather 'wetter' than I'd have imagined. This was confirmed when I sprayed it into the air above my tall cabinet, the wet streak it left on the top proved that more liquid is coming out in each spray than is needed. I bet this tin doesn't last long.

The first time I used it, I carried out my usual air freshener routine - one short spray in each corner of the room and a longer burst in the centre. Oh.My.Goodness. Too much! A few seconds after spraying I realise the one thing I've been missing since spotting the tin on the supermarket shelf. This stuff stinks like fly spray. Eugh. Eugh. Eugh. I should have known it would based (shallowly) on the appearance of the product, but I didn't realise.

There is absolutely nothing positive I can say about the smell of the air freshener; no fruity scent, no spicy scent, not even a naff floral additive smell. Cheap air freshener usually smells of lemon, or a variation on a rose aroma. Not so the Tesco Value offering. It quite simply smells of fly spray; there's a nasty metallic tang as soon as I spray it, the bonus being that it fades really quickly so I'm not left gagging on the smell for too long. When it fades, however, it's not replaced by anything nice - it's not replaced by anything at all.

So, as a room scent it's bad. And, I can tell you, as an air freshener it's even worse. I could have lived with the horrible metal smell if the spray had freshened my room, but it doesn't. I usually keep a window open so my room doesn't get too stuffy, but I *do* like a nice scent in the air. Airwick is brilliant for this; it takes away any mustiness in a room as well as infusing the air with a subtle aroma. Tesco Value fails on all counts; I think I was basically spraying a squirt of vaguely smelly water into my room, as my room did not feel any fresher or brighter than it did before spraying.

There are two tests in our house. The cubby hole where Mark and the girls' keep their trainers, and the conservatory where the dog sleeps. Yeah, right... For all the good this air freshener did I might as well have sprayed fresh air - fresh air would perhaps have been better as I could have avoided having to smell the stuff. Something in the air freshener actually worked badly with the smell of wet Staffordshire Bull Terrier as the conservatory stunk of something reeeeeeally bad after I'd sprayed - then it settled down to just the stink of dog so I knew the air freshener hadn't done a thing!

I tend to use air freshener only at night as our older daughter has asthma and it can upset her chest sometimes, I think this one would definitely have her reaching for her inhaler. I have a healthy set of lungs (can blow balloons up no problem), but even I was coughing and retching after spraying this one in our small bathroom with the window closed. You really need to follow the directions on the tin which advise you to spray only in well ventilated areas! Airwick can be a little heavy in the air, but it never makes me cough; this god-awful Tesco Value air freshener quite literally made me heave.

A little aside here. I did persevere with this air freshener as I decided not to waste it, even for 30p - I wanted to use it a few times so I could get a balanced view of the product, and I can honestly say however many times you use it it'll always be a really bad product. I also noticed that the dust in our house was a little worse during the two or three days that I used this air freshener, so I wouldn't like to think about the chemicals present in the tin to cause this dust...

Would I buy it again? Well, what do you think??? If I had £2 for an air freshener, I'd buy Airwick. If I had £1 I'd pop into PoundLand and grab a tin of Glade. If I had 30p? I just wouldn't bother buying an air freshener.

Summary: You really do get what you pay for when it comes to air freshener!