
WASHINGTON, DC (WUSA) -- All this rain is good for the grass, but it means more lawn mowing for you.
And, if your old Bessie is no longer doing the job, we found a couple that will.
Consumer Reports' testers used 50 push and self-propelled mowers to cut six acres of grass. After each job, they got down on their hands and knees to see just how each of them made the cut.
"Here's a classic example of unevenness. Here's a particularly big piece that pushed down," says one tester.
The mowers were also rated for side discharge, mulching and bagging. Two budget-priced mowers, one from Ariens and one from Yard Machines, did a good job for $200.
The side discharge models are only fair. But the self-propelled Toro Recycler for $320 did the best job overall.
If time and money is the reason you keep putting off that inside paint jog, listen up.
Brands from Kilz to Behr to Valspar and others claim they give one-coat coverage.
So, several colors, along with white, were used to see how well they covered darker colors.
Paint expert Rico de Paz says, "Here we have one coat of two different brands of paint. You can see the one on the bottom that most of the lines are visible fairly quickly. While the one on the top is covered with just one coat of paint."
Behr's $24 Premium Plus did a very good job of covering with just one coat. There's just one caveat. It may not be the best choice for a sunny room because it tends to fade.
Finally, time to clean the caked on peanut butter, pudding and other baked on goo off of your plates, pots and pans.
Now, there are eco-friendly dish detergents you can use the next time you wash dishes.
But some of these 18 choices, while green, didn't do so well getting dishes squeaky clean.
"Five out of the seven detergents that lacked phosphates didn't do well at all in our cleaning tests. In fact, they left large amounts of food and goop all over the plates, says Tod Marks.
Only two-phosphate-free detergents did well in Consumer Reports' dish test.
The Method Smartly Dish tablets and Simplicity 2 in 1 packets. But neither of them did a great job on pots.




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