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Argos Value Step Ladder
by CallMeRalph
Every now and again we all need a little step up in life, sometimes it's for reaching the back of the top cupboard, sometimes it's for changing that one annoying light bulb and other times it's for climbing into that scary little hole you call the attic. For such jobs what you are really looking for is a step ladder. Back when I lived ... with my parents my dad had a very old step ladder which was covered in paint and very rickety indeed. When I ventured up it I often feared for my life. But to be fair it had been around for over thirty years and was still going strong, or strongish.
Any who, when I came to move out of home and have a house of my own, once again a need for a step ladder came up. To be honest we'd had the keys to our new home for less than an hour when I remarked, I need a step ladder! At first it was a case of borrowing dad's antique offering but soon it became time to grow up and purchase my very own step ladder. Doing this was a little more challenging that I expected.
It turns out step ladders come in many different shapes and sizes. You can get wooden ones, plastic ones and metal ones. You can get two foot high ones, five foot high ones and even ten foot high ones. You can get fold up ones or straight one. The choice really is mind boggling. For our new house though there were a few factors to take into consideration. One was that we have no room to store things as we live in a tiny little cottage and the other was that the ceilings are pretty low, so chances our we would not need to go higher than a few feet. Come to our rescue, the Argos Value Step Ladder.
To be fair the Argos value range is not that bad at all. We've bought a few things from it over the years and while they are never going to be amazing, you do get a good working product that you tend to be able to rely on. So how about this one? Well really they are better described as steps rather than a step ladder, as there are only two steps up so you are never going to get more than about 2ft of the ground. The steps fold up neatly and so they are easy to store away, they are light so they are easy to move around. You can either lie them down flat or lean them up against a wall, or in our case squeeze them down the side of the hoover under the stairs.
The steps come in white and the little steps have a non slip pattern on them, this is quite useful as it means you feel that little bit more stable when you are on them. Although to be honest being 2ft of the ground is not really all that much of a worry. There is a handle that sticks out at the top which you can keep hold of, although when you are on the top step the handle is a little bit low down so it does not really offer all that much support. I tend to rest my knees on it if I'm stretching up for something and this helps me balance that little bit better.
The fold up mechanism is fairly simple although sometimes I have nearly trapped my fingers in it, so a little bit of care needs to be taken when you are folding these away. When the steps are up though they lock into place and you don't feel concerned that they may suddenly fold up at any moment. There are also a few rubber ends on each leg which means it is less likely to slip, we have a wooden floor in the bedroom and I have used it on this a few times and never been worried that it might suddenly disappear from under me.
The steps are made of steel so they are fairly solid, although I can imagine if you were willing to pay a little more you could get ones that would feel far more sturdy and safe. It says on the steps max load 150kg which is about 24 stone, so unless you are carrying some serious weight you should be fine. But as they are from the value range you can't expect them to be overly special, they do feel safe which is of course the main thing when you are up any kind of ladder, be it 2ft high or 50ft high.
So what exactly have we used these for. Well they come in very handy when a bulb goes in the kitchen and for some reason that seems to be once a month at the moment. They also come in handy when we need to lug something down from on top of our wardrobe in the bed room. I have used them for decorating and painting in those hard to reach corners, and they have also come in handy when cleaning the windows and you can't quite reach that last little spot. So overall, pretty handy indeed.
So as we have mentioned these come from the Argos Value Range, so are they good value? Well I think these cost us around £15 and looking online they now appear to be closer to £13 so they really are very cheap. Other step ladders you can buy could set you pack somewhere in the region of £100, so the fact is they are a real bargain. Truth be told there are far better step ladders out there, I can't see these lasting 30 years like my dad's have, but for the purpose we need them for at the moment they work just fine. Obviously if we move to a house with high ceilings then we may have to rethink the steps, either that or put a few yellow pages underneath.
So overall I would have to give these a big thumbs up. They fold up easily, they are easy to store, light weight, sturdy enough for my considerable weight and they don't look to bad either. All that for a tiny little price of around £13. So if you are looking for a small, sturdy, easy to use fold up step ladder then this one comes highly recommended. It should keep you going for a good few years and who knows, maybe in thirty years time you will be able to terrorise your kids with it when they have grown up and are looking for a house of their own.
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Abru 3 Tread Stepladder
by NotMyToothbrush
Everybody, no matter how tall they are, needs a step ladder from time to time and therefore such products are essential in every household. We moved into our current house about 4 years ago and needed to do a lot of DIY. This meant that even though I am over 6ft I still needed that extra height occasionally when putting up shelves, ... putting up curtain rails, painting, hanging wall paper and so on...
When you are doing so much all over the house, a key feature of a step ladder is that they must be lightweight to make this as easy as possible. Luckily, this step ladder really is lightweight and moving it from place to place is a breeze and really takes no effort whatsoever. This is greatly aided by the fact that they fold up almost instantly - there is no fiddling around with clasps and leavers. Simply push it and it will compactly fold up for transport and storage.
The fact that it is lightweight means that the material used to make it is not as solid as you get on some products and it does feel a little cheap. However, this is no problem whatsoever. To make the step ladders feel of higher quality you must sacrifice the very usefulness of the step ladder, the portability. Also, as my step ladders and now covered in glue, paint, varnish and wood shavings, I feel a lot better doing this to products which I didn't buy because they look or feel nice but because they are practical.
The step ladder has three steps; any of these can be stood on without compromising balance. For extra stability of yourself when on the ladders. there is a rail reaching towards the top of the ladders which you can either lean against of hold onto to prevent slipping. This is very helpful when you are trying to reach something either very high or something just a little too far away. On many other step ladders you could risk falling in these situations, with this one you are perfectly secure!
The top level of the ladders is a larger platform than the others. although this can be used as a step, I usually use it as a table to hold all of my tools when I am working. This is ideal as it puts it a perfect hand height for me. It doesn't inconvenience me either as usually if I use the top step, I am too high and hit my head off of the ceiling anyway!
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