ddl101

Excellent – Sean (named for the male Irish voice chosen for our one One XL ever since we’ve had it) has been an invaluable member of our family. Bought for our relocation, it helped us…

navigate around when we had NO idea where we were going. However, like all family members, it has a few annoying habits! Very easy to use – intuitive for most operations, easy to navigate the menus (excuse the pun…) and very forgiving if you miss the turn. Inexplicably get lost in the city in certain areas – maddeningly frustrating when you’re half way home and suddenly it goes on holiday… Also needs to be reset sometimes when it simply doesn’t pick up a satellite signal after power on.

Good – Nice little camera. Easy to use and the picture quality is good and videos are great, even in lower light conditions. Needs good batteries though... Great video quality, even in…

lower light. Good zoom too, and easy to use picture scroll facility. The panoramic picture is fun to use – stitch multiple pictures together, taken with the same exposure settings for consistent picture quality across the span. Can be very demanding on batteries. The NiMH batteries I’ve been using do not cut the mustard – even when straight from the charger they barely do a dozen photos – and that;’s even with the display setting on power save. However, I have found that low-discharge NiMH batteries do the trick.

Good – Reasonable price for an intelligent machine which qualified for state subsidies based on its water rating. Has proven to be reliable so far – no issues except when it sometimes…

aborts loads due to excessive vibration… I also attach a poly hose & sprinkler to the outlet hose & water the adjacent garden! Adaptive water level (fuzzy logic)

Fast spin speed

Excellent water and energy ratings

Reasonable price Have some difficulty with unbalanced loads, when the washer migrates around the laundry. However, this may be attributable to the loader and not the washer. Perhaps mystic forces are required when loading the clothes to ensure optimum distribution. Or perhaps limit of towels-per-load. Or perhaps I should read the instruction manual…nah!

Good – After several mixers (expensive and cheap supermarket units) that broke down after trying to mix batches of dough, I was looking for a mixer with a decent warranty that would do…

the job. The Cuisinart, even though rated at a modest 220 watts, has more power than mixers I've had that advertised 50% more power! The beater also comes with a nice spatula. It deals with double batches of scone dough most impressively, and will whip egg whites really well with the whisk attachment provided. The beaters have no center posts so creaming butter & sugar doesn't end up with you trying to extract a sticky lump from inside the beaters. The only complaint is the first speed is a little high, so you can end up with a flurry of flour or sugar when you first start mixing.

Excellent – A semi-premium ground coffee which offers a good java using pretty much any coffee-making appliance you like to use. Full flavoured but not roasted too dark, it makes a…

commendably good cappuccino. The full-priced packs at the supermarket can be a little dear in my opinion, but certainly a good pick when it comes up on specials! A lovely, warm coffee blend that gives a dependably good cup of coffee, whether using an espresso machine or a plunger. We often buy this product, mainly for making cappuccinos at home. More expensive than other packaged ground coffee, sometimes verging on the cost of select beans available from specialist coffee retailers.