my Rinse Well review (and another review)

My other thread asked about this, and I want to confirm that while a cute idea, it is not practical for us FP'ers. It does not get rid of the GUNK that sinks to the bottom of the "coffee water", and thus I would find myself doing 2-3 flushes just to get clean water! Considering that the tank holds only 8-10 "flushes", this is just wasteful and time-consuming. It DOES look great, but no matter what I do, I cannot make it work for me without adding MORE work. On the other hand, my toddler girls ADORE it for their art desk. Of course, mommy has a LOT of running to the sink to do, because their new favorite activity is flushing! Anyway, I don't like this for FP'ing and do not recommend it. Your mileage may differ though

On the other hand, I found my cleaning system LOVE! I bought one to try it, and just now bought 3 more - 1 for changing out, 2 to always have on hand (I brush more than I sponge!), and 1 for my travel/"emergency" FP kit that I keep in my car. It is really great! It seems SO gentle and the FP GOOK that sinks to the bottom stays on the bottom and when you swirl your brush it hardly even gets disturbed. Love it! Again, your mileage may differ...

http://www.dickblick.com/products/silicoil-brush-cleaning-tank/

REgards,
Barbie

Looks good to me... but, too bad it is clear glass!!! But you can cover it.

I agree about the Rinse Well, it is almost close to useless.

Do you use water in it or the brush cleaner they recommend?

I just use water! (Can anybody tell me if I should use brush cleaner? My feeling is that it destroys my brushes quicker... but that is my gut, if someone can let me know I would appreciate it).

The glass is very, very thick - thicker than a rocks glass for example. I have the feeling it will withstand a ton of abuse. In fact, I plan to cart all three in my FatMax with no padding or protection. We will see how that goes, I don't mind being the guinea pig. That is how confident I feel about the thickness of the glass. Now the *weight* of them is another story - but I find them worth the wee bit of extra effort
Barbie

Wow! Can't wait to see the final vote after the risk of breakage. It's pretty cool to see it works w/ just water.
I don't use brush cleaners because they're not meant for skin. I just clean w/ ivory soap, rinse very well & then swish the brush in 70% alcohol. Once it's dry, it's clean & sanitized. SF has Brush Bath, but it has Tea Tree Oil in it; a common allergen.
I saw a thread on another forum about using peroxide & would love to hear what ya'll think about it.

To try and avoid breakage, would a foamy thermal beer can holder fit around it? That might give it some protection.

Peroxide is dangerous. I wouldn't use it. My doctor actually told us NOT to use it even for dissinfecting cuts etc. It kills not just the germs but surrounding cells too apparently.

Yes, you can gargle with it, and bleach your hair, and it is a germ killer but don't use it where it will then come in contact with your paints or the skin of children.

Your water should be WATER only, for painting and rinsing. If you are cleaning, then sure, you could use something but I would stick with 70% Isopropyl alcohol because the peroxide will bleach your brushes particularly if you dip and leave it to dry ON the brush!!

Yup yup, Shannon is right; peroxide causes necrosis (cell death), which is the reason it stings so much. I was surprised to learn this in my medical courses for becoming a surg. tech. Definately avoid unnecessary skin contact and if no other options are available for dissinfecting, only use it once and liberally. NEVER use it on anything more than a small, superficial wound.

Hmmm... good to know. There's another forum that is recommending peroxide use. I figured ya'll would counter it w/ a logical answer or we'd all be using it by now. Yep, my water is water only.

Yeah, well some of the information on those other forums is highly suspect ... half the stuff that is circulated can actually be checked out on Snopes and disproven!

LOL! I only get the emails from them, this is my "home"

I use the brush bath with a 3 rinse system..... cup 1 water only, cup 2 (2-3) drops brush bath in water, cup 3 diluted alcohol /water. Works great. Hmmmmm i guess if I were to consider this I would need to get 3. Let us know how it works out, I would be interested to know.

So... why bother with brush bath AND the alcohol (BTW, use the alcohol straight, DON'T dilute - serves no purpose and can actually breed bacteria rather than kill it!) ???? Shouldn't it be one or the other?

I do a three stage which is actually a four stage clean - wash, rinse, rinse, saturate in straight 70% ispropyl. Health regs say it MUST be 70% minimum. If you add water you aren't sanitizing as it isn't strong enough.

How long does it take for the alcohol to evaporate off the brush? I wouldn't want to put that on someones eye.

When the brush is dry it is ready to use again. Doesn't take long.

Psalmbook wrote:How long does it take for the alcohol to evaporate off the brush? I wouldn't want to put that on someones eye.

I looked this exact question up and it wasn't easy finding an answer. In fact what I found was a scientific response that I cut and pasted and forwarded it to the health inspector to see if she could translate it into normal English for me..... no response back yet.. lol

LOL, just an update that my 3 other glass jar rinse containers arrived from naughty word Blick... and you will not believe how they were packaged. They were LOOSE and ROLLING around loudly inside the box (no peanuts or inflatable cushioning) and were not protected AT ALL! And they are in perfect shape, LOL. Idiot packaging, to be sure. But they are looking great.

Like I said, these things just inspire confidence that they will never break - and thus far have borne it out

can i ask how heavy these are. thinking adding three to your fat max might make it start to get pretty heavy. but i am definitely intrigued to find out more about them and how they hold up

I just felt them and they feel like almost a pound a piece. 2.5-3 pounds is a lot of weight. But when you think of how much most of our FatMax's weigh already - that is adding maybe 5% additional weight. I am okay with that, AS LONG AS the item is something of great value to me. Brush cleaning IS of great value to me, since I use brushes more than sponges. But I think I changed my mind and will only be carrying 2. I figure if the gig is that busy, I will have a line manager who can easily switch out my dirty water for me anyway...

It is all a learning process
Barbie