Wipe your board and shine shoes at the same time (Berol Dry Wipe Erasor)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	Berol Dry Wipe Erasor
Date:	30/03/09 (68 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: easy to use

Disadvantages: easy to break

Continuing with my 'what's in my classroom' theme, I come to the Berol Dry Wipe Erasor, which can be seen here: http://www.berol.co.uk/productDetail.asp?sectorID= 15&productID=90

Basically, this is a product used to wipe off the marker pens used on white board in schools, conference rooms etc. Rectangular in shape, the wipe is made up of a two inch thick foam backing, and fluffy fabric front.

First off, the erasors clean the boards pretty well. When I say pretty well, I mean that they do take the writing off the board, but leave a faint smudge which, over time, makes your whole board a dull grey. It isn't noticeable unless you're using on a new board, as all boards soon become this colour, but I cleaned my board with soapy water today and realised just how dirty it truly was.

In terms of the product, there is one big down-fall: the foam back. Sadly, using foam for this (a kind of grey sytrofoam) means that the moment they get into the kids' hands they get stabbed at with pens, or bitten, or dug with nails. This means that, after a few months, the foam is (at the very least) a mess, and in some cases ununsable. This also makes them prone to snapping in half, again making them unusable. In this respect, I much prefer the Expo erasors, which have a hard plastic backing.

After a few week's use, the board rubber gets so ingrained in black in that I actually use mine to buff and polish my shoes at the same time. To overcome this, they are washable, but I don't think that's a great selling point as it's quite impractical in a school setting to wash and leave them to dry.

Price wise, they're £3 each on the Berol site, which is about average for this type of product. Whilst it still has a lot more advantage than using a cloth, the fundamental design weakness of the foam back mean this product leaves a lot to be desired.

Summary: not the best