So most people have been consuming pancakes in large amounts over the last week, but here in this house it’s been waffles! Sweet ones, savoury ones, ones with bananas and others with just plain old sugar and lemon… with the addition of our newest kitchen gadget the Waffle Maker from Domu making waffles is actually even easier than making pancakes! The Vonshef Waffle Maker is simple to use, plug in and it starts to heat up, and when it’s hot enough to use the green light comes on! Pour in your waffle mix, shut the lid and wait for them to cook! This bit takes a bit of trial and error and can change depending on the recipe you use but generally 3 -6 minutes will do nicely! Once you’ve popped your waffles out (using a plastic fork or tongs) then you just unplug the waffle maker, wait for it to cool down and give the plates a wipe over and that’s it (or make another batch!) Here’s the recipe that works best for us for lightly sweetened waffles: 1 teaspoon of Baking powder

1 teaspoon table Salt Plonk all your dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, then crack your eggs into the milk and beat lightly. Then add the egg/milk mixture and the oil,  making sure to get all the batter off the sides of the bowl. Don’t beat too much otherwise the waffles will be a bit stodgy (I learnt this from experience!) and a wooden spoon will do the job better than a proper food mixer I’ve found! You don’t need to cool the batter before using, I tried a couple of times and it made no difference!miele s2111 lava grey vacuum cleaner Don’t over fill the waffle maker, it will spit hot batter out of the sides!panasonic upright vacuum cleaner mc-ug304 You can pop unused batter in the fridge for up to 2 days, perfect for adding different flavours to later onhitachi vacuum cleaner cv-bl16

Cooked waffles can be frozen and reheated in the toaster once defrosted! Try adding cocoa powder, cinnamon or ginger to your waffles for a different flavour. You can of course make savoury waffles, and add various things in like grated cheese or chopped ham and herbs. There are hundreds of recipes on the internet for you to have a play with, but I found that adding a small bowl of grated cheese and some pepper into the above recipe, and taking out the sugar worked really well! You can buy the waffle maker via Amazon here (on sale for an amazing £22.99 instead of £64.99!) and if this post has got your taste buds watering then you might want to enter my competition to win a waffle maker of your very own!This simple timetable will give you an idea of the type of maintenance that you can expect and that will be required for your air purifier to continue functioning as designed. Keeping up to date on filter maintenance will allow your air purifier to perform at its maximum effectiveness and efficiency.

Reminder:  These are only "estimates" and "averages" throughout the industry. Filter and other air purifier accessory lifespans will differ from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. For specific filter and other air purifier accessory maintenance intervals for the model you purchased, please refer to your Owner's Manual or to the Manufacturer's website. AVERAGE FILTER MAINTENANCE TIMETABLE UV Lamps or Bulbs PRE & POST Filters 6 - 12 Months 2 - 5 Years True HEPA Filter (Sealed) Filter lifespans can be effected by the amount and type of air contaminants the unit is filtering at any given time and how it is being used. If your air purifier is going to be used to filter heavy amounts of air contaminants on a regular everyday basis, filter changes may need to be done in shorter intervals. The same could be said if the air purifier is run 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. If the unit is constantly filtering, you will more than likely cut your filter life in half.

In this instance, a HEPA air purifier with a filter life of 5 years will be cut down to 2 to 3 years when running it all the time. Most air purifiers are built to be run 24/7, but realize that if you do, filter life is usually based off an air purifier being used when needed or about 10 to 12 hours a day max. Try not to run your air purifier 24/7, unless necessary. The opposite can be said if the air purifier is not being heavily used on a daily basis, such as only a few times a month or week. Filter life may be extended in most instances, but in this case, you should not extend it too far beyond the manufacturer's recommended lifespan for the filters and other accessories that will need to be maintained on your unit. Key Tip:  If your air purifier comes with a prefilter, here are some easy steps to prolong your HEPA filter life and the continued effectiveness of your air purifier after initial purchase and use: After about a month of initial use, open the air purifier and check the prefilter.

This will determine how often you should clean the prefilter. If it is really dirty only after a month of use, you will need to clean your prefilter more often. At least once a month and then replace yearly. If it is moderately dirty, clean once a quarter and replace every other year. When cleaning the prefilter, try to leave it intact and use a damp cloth or vacuum attachment to clean the debris from off the prefilter. Try not to submerge the prefilter in water to wash and clean it unless it is a washable prefilter. Some of the units that we sell have filter change indicator lights which let you know when to change your filters. These are nice options, but not always necessary. If you have a model that does not have filter change indicator lights, try to clean and replace your filters on a regular basis based on manufacturer recommendations. This information can usually be found in your Owner's Manual.It's April already, and the weather is shifting well away from the misery of Winter to something more like Spring.

The weather is getting warmer, the birds are coming home, and it's about time we got the annual spring clean over and done with. It's a big job, and it might take some time, but it doesn't have to be difficult. There are plenty of gadgets and bits of technology to make it easier, so here are the top picks. Definitely the most well known hi-tech cleaning tool, the humble robot vacuum takes some of the pressure off vacuuming the floor by doing some of the job for you without supervision. This one has three room settings (based on size), navigates using IR sensors, and works on hard and carpeted floors. It lasts around 80 minutes, and has sensors to make sure it doesn't fall down the stairs. [Buy it here] iRobot Floor Mopping Robot, £229 So you've vacuumed your floors, but if its tiled or hardwood it probably could do with mopping. If you can't be bothered with doing it yourself, get a robot to do it instead. It's nice and quiet, and all you need to do is attach a cleaning cloth (using magnets, naturally) and let it do its thing.

Cleaning the windows can be a pain, especially if you don't want any streak marks (pro-tip, coffee filters do a great job with that). But, if you want to avoid using up all your elbow grease there is a robot that can help out. It's a bit pricey, but it can be stuck onto any vertical glass (windows, doors, etc) to clean everything up and leave them sparkling. This should be particularly handy for upstairs windows if you don't have a giant ladder. Self Cleaning Toilet Brush, £30 I do hope to god that you don't wait until Spring to give your toilet a proper clean, but now is a good a time as any to upgrade the cheap brush you have in your bathroom. Try this for size, a toilet brush that cleans itself - saving you all the hassle next time the limescale build-up becomes too much to bear. Just push the top and this bad boy will clean the bristles and sanitise is for next time. Whether it's the one in your oven or on your BBQ, the grill can be an absolute bitch to clean with conventional tools.

Thank god someone motorised the process to make scraping away grease and grime an absolute breeze. Just throw in four C batteries, and that grill will be squeaky clean in no time at all. Your keyboard does get pretty grim, and it can be a bit awkward to clean at times. This putty makes it easy. Just press it down into the keys, and it'll pull up all the shite that accumulates on and inside the keyboard. Best part is it won't leave any crap or residue for you to carefully peel off. If you want to be really anal about your cleaning, you're going to want something that does more than vacuum. This UV vacuum cleaner has a 600W bulb that promises to wipe out bacteria, allergens, dust mites, and even bed bugs. After all, the stuff we can't (or struggle to) see is the stuff that causes the big problems. Automatic Vacuum Cleaner Bin, £175 Right here you basically have the device that's going to make the humble dustpan obsolete. A lot of people still use brushes to clean crap up off their floors, but the design of the dustpan means you can't get up every scrap.

This beauty sorts that out, because it's basically a bin with a vacuum cleaner stuck on the bottom. Sweep whatever it is you're sweeping over to the base of the bin, and the vacuum will automatically activate (using IR magic) and suck it away. Sonic Scrubber Cleaning Brush, £15 Whether it's physical ailment or pure laziness, we don't have it in us to scrub all the time. Thank goodness for technology, right? This brush looks like a giant electric toothbrush, and that's basically what it is. It powers through all the cleaning you can't, whether it's difficult to reach places or just areas that need far too much work than your elbows can give. All in the name of saving time and precious joints) [Buy it here] Dyson Pure Cool Link, £349 This is more of an all-year-round type gadget, but a clean home is pointless if it's full of dirty air. Dyson's Pure Cool Link aims to remove 99.95 per cent of pollutants from your house, automatically monitoring the air quality and adjusting accordingly. Whether it's second hand smoke, mould, pet hair, or what have you, the Dyson will stop you having to breathe it in all the time.