Welcome to Pinside Consumer Reports, helping pinsiders make informed choices about products, services, and safety.

Unbiased reviews welcomed for pinball and non-pinball related products and services.

For a pinball product I endorse and recommend Blitz Carnauba Paste Wax for waxing pinball playfields. Cleaning the playfield and using a clean applicator is recommended. I purchase both products from Pinball Life. https://www.pinballlife.com/

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While doing dishes the last year or so I came across a great product that I endorse and recommend. While shopping we would always choose the liquid/gel or powder Cascade dish detergent to wash our dishes. Most of the time the dishes would come out with spots and were still dirty. We thought it may have been a faulty dishwasher or something was wrong? Often times we would have to run another cycle to get them really clean. Well one day we decided to give the Cascade Complete pods a try, and we have been pleasantly surprised by the performance. Our dishes are now spotless with one cycle and I highly recommend giving the pods a try. We were so impressed we decided to switch to the Tide pods for laundry as well-stay tuned.
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Those chips look tasty and I have never seen them before, they must be a regional product.

Sounds kinda funny saying 'Shrimp Chips'. I can just see myself sitting on the sofa-'Hey babe-can you get me some Shrimp Chips meow'. Now say Shrimp Chips three times to pass go

Let's talk about protection, and one of the best vendors in the business-Cliffy's Premium Pinball Protectors. I recommend using some of Cliffy's protective shooter lane eject protectors to help protect the pinball playfield's shooter lane. I also recommend turning down your shooter eject power in game settings to the lowest level to help reduce premature wear. Cliffy sells a variety of great products and is a pioneer in the industry. I also like Cliffy's scoop/vuk protectors, etc., they really do a good job protecting the playfield from ball wear.

https://www.passionforpinball.com/

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One of my dreams is for Stern to partner with Cliffy and bulletproof all of their games off the line so I don't have to

I recommend Super-Bands for pinball flippers and I prefer the performance with game play over other flipper rubbers,etc. I know this is a controversial subject and everyone has an opinion on their personal preference, but I am a big fan of Super-Bands and have them on all of my machines. I purchase them from Marcos. https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/RUBB-POLY

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My father once told me 'Your oral hygiene is the gateway to your health and well being'. I truly believe this and oral hygiene has always been important to me. One product that I recommend and swear by is the Sonicare electric toothbrush. The electric toothbrush has revolutionized the dental industry and has helped millions of people maintain proper oral hygiene. If you are still brushing your teeth the old fashion way it is time to check out an electric toothbrush(removes up to 7x amount of plaque). Once you check out a Sonicare-you will not go back. Your dentist will also thank you when you have your annual check up and cleaning. I purchase my Sonicare's from Amazon-top notch product and I highly recommend.

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Wanted to elaborate on the various available Sonicare's on the market. We had purchased a couple of the cheaper versions off Amazon and were not impressed with the power of vibration and level of cleaning. We have since went with the 3000-4000 and diamond clean series Sonicare's and we are pleased with the performance.

Also wanted to reply about switching to Tide Pods instead of liquid laundry detergent. Wow is all I can say. The amount of money we have saved over the last year switching to pods is substantial. My wife would buy liquid detergent every week and now we buy a bulk box of Tide pods at Sam's club for $23.00+/-. The box last forever compared to the liquid detergent & cleans clothing well and I highly recommend switching to pods if you have not already.

Let's talk about roofs. In the last couple of decades the weather has gotten more and more severe. We have experienced hail storms more periodically and in turn have had to replace numerous roofs. It seemed like every five years I was replacing my roof due to hail damage. Over the years I continued to upgrade and try and find a roofing material that was somewhat hail proof. My last roof was a top of the line triple layer asphalt that was supposed to hold up to severe hail-well it did not hold up and again I had to look for a product that may be somewhat hail proof. I ended up doing some good research and shopping around. I really like the look of the classic shake and found two vendors that peaked my interest. One was Decra metal roofing and one was Davinci roofing. I found out the Decra metal roofs are not ideal to walk on for cleaning gutters, etc. and may be difficult to try and repair if they get dented. Talked to many contractors and they all highly recommended the Davinci roofing material that is known to be hail proof-made with pure virgin resins fortified with state-of-the-art UV stabilizers. I was tired of replacing roofs every five years so I decided to go with the Davinci roofing system. I am really impressed with the system and really like the look of it on my home. I highly recommend it if you are in the market for a new roof.

https://www.davinciroofscapes.com/

Cheers

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Another pinball related product that every pinball collector needs to have is a hydraulic pinball table cart to help move machines around, putting on legs, etc.

The Harbor Freight hydraulic lift cart is a good cart for the money and many people modify them to meet their needs...

https://www.harborfreight.com/500-lb-capacity-hydraulic-table-cart-61405.html
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How about the best product for cleaning playfield glass?

Right now I am trying to decide if I prefer genuine Windex(not the cheap Walmart brand) or Sprayway glass cleaner better? I go back and forth on these ones, I do like the foam style spray on the Sprayway. I use Sparkle paper towels with both
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I live in south Denver and please do not move here, we are already starting to become the next California. From the front range to Kansas we are in what is called 'Hail Alley' and we receive a good amount of severe thunderstorms with hail. We do not experience intense tornados that will rip your home apart in the middle of the night, we don't have a lot of nasty bugs, and we average over 245 days a year with sunshine & blue skies. Overall a great place to be-other than the occasional hail storm.

Where do you buy it from? I can't seem to find stores that sell it? My Walmart carries Sparkle paper towels but not Sparkle window cleaner?

Nice Art-I have not tried the patches yet. I have seen the Shaq commercials now-so if he uses them-maybe I should check them out

I use the Bio Freeze roll on applicator, especially for my lower L4, L5 area.
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Lets talk about toilets. We have purchased several different brand toilets over the years and have found a vendor we prefer. We have found that the quality of today's toilets are not nearly the same quality as some of the toilets made back in the day with the quality of porcelain, etc. Buying American Standard, Kohler and other box store brand toilets had us realizing how cheaply made they were. I started to talk with our plumber about what toilet he would recommend and he said he swore by TOTO and that is all he likes to use/install if possible. Now we are starting to switch towards TOTO brand for toilets. We have been impressed with their Tornado Flush technology featuring two powerful nozzles that create a centrifugal, cyclonic rinsing action which reduces waste buildup and keeps the bowl cleaner(especially with new low flow 1.28gal). If you want a true Al Bundy worthy toilet-may check out the Tornado Flush TOTO toilets. They are a little more expensive than the standard toilets but I feel they are well worth it. So far the quality of the porcelain seems to be holding up well compared to other previous brands we have owned. If you have not checked out TOTO brand toilets yet-they are worth checking out.

https://www.totousa.com/toto-toilets
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How about protection for pinball cabinets without lollipop rails, or protecting a shooter lane until a Cliffy can be installed.

Some pinball machines are susceptible to premature cabinet wear around the flipper buttons and the paint/decals can be rubbed off quickly without protection. If you have a game like Tommy, Adams Family, Elvis, etc. the cabinet paint/decals can rub off just from normal game play. Some people prefer to add metal lollipop rails for protection, but for those who do not wish to drill holes for screws there is another option.
A pushbutton cabinet shield mylar protector set from Marcos pinball is a good solution. Also want to mention that Marcos sells a sheet of mylar that can be used to cut down for a temporary shooter lane protector and other areas like magnets and pops.

https://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=mylar&S_CAT1=CABP-BUTTON

https://www.marcospecialties.com/pinball-parts/66-MMFT3
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Let's talk about Cats meow...

For those of you who have a cat/s I feel I have found the best solution to keep up with maintaining the cat's litter. This chore has always been dreaded and nobody likes doing it. Some people swear by clumping litter or fancy expensive color changing litter for their feline friends. Vendors like Pretty Litter are trying to cash in on the vulnerability of a passionate cat owner by selling a litter that changes color if a health ailment arises. I am skeptical on this litter and feel it is a bit of a shame-just take your cat to the vet for routine checkups, etc. to ensure their health is in order. That being said I have found a cheap easy solution to changing cat litter and thought I would share for those of you who want things done simply and cheap.

I used to use clumping litter or buy the giant buckets to save a few bucks but now I found something better. What I discovered is using Jonny Cat heavy duty litter box liners to line the inside of the cat litter box. What is great about these is not having to mess with trying to clean out the bottom of the box every week. Simply pull out the bag with one weeks waste and then it ties up with draw strings and can be disposed of easily to the trash can without getting your hands dirty. I wanted to get away from cat litter with added chemicals(clumping litter) and find a cheap basic clay litter. I found a bag of basic all natural clay cat litter for $1.60 at Walmart(Kitty Diggins) that has the perfect amount of litter and makes weekly changes simple. I wish I would have discovered this five years ago-so I thought I would share.

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Nice thanks Terry-I have been searching all over town for it. I think what is going on is all the new private label products that companies are trying to implement. Walmart has Sparkle paper towels but only Walmart brand windex(which I do not recommend). They may have once stocked Sparkle brand but now shelf space is set aside for private label.

I will say some of the private label Walmart brand food/products are pretty decent. I am sure they spend a good amount of R & D trying to copy large name brand products. Just this last week I tried the Walmart brand Golden Grahams. I have to say-they were pretty tasty and half the price of regular Golden Grahams. Private labeling can be hit or miss depending on the vendor/s.

I finally found the Sparkle brand glass cleaner at Ace Hardware and the Pinside Consumer report's testing began.

I tried four brands for the testing: Windex original, Sparkle, Sprayway foaming glass cleaner, and ZEP foaming glass cleaner with added mint smell.

After extensive testing the results are in.

My favorite glass cleaner was the Sprayway foaming glass cleaner. I preferred it because of the ease of application and the performance. Having the foam application helps control overspray and seemed to have more consistency. The ZEP foaming spray was also decent but I did not care for the smell of it. The Sparkle did outperform the Windex but the spray application vs the foam application is what the determining factor came to when deciding the winner.

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So we have five senses-sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. I have seen many pinheads explore different options to maximize these senses when designing their game rooms. Game rooms that are visually stimulating, have great sound systems or subs added, have some snack machines or mini kitchens for food/drink choices, etc.

I got to thinking you have maximized all of the other senses but what about the other sense left out- the smell of your game room? Does your game room smell like teen spirit? Is it in the basement and has a musty basement tinge to it?

Well after extensive testing to find the best scents for my game room, I feel I have found the perfect scent and I thought I would share it. I love Nag Champa and other incense but the smoke is not good for the machines-even with a hepa filter(recommended).

I decided to add a wax warmer from Walmart and have been experimenting with different scents to find the one that I like best. Some of the wax cubes smelled like fruit loops or a jabroni at a nightclub wearing Drakkar cologne and were overpowering with smell that would give you a headache. Well I think I found the perfect scent that inhibits a calm relaxing scent(pure zen) and it is not overpowering. It also helps cover up crop dusting

After extensive Pinside Consumer Report testing the results are in...

My choice for adding a great smell to your game room is using a wax warmer with the Better Home and Gardens wax cubes in the French Lilac and Flowers scent.

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