Scotch Brite Dish Wands

Mon, June 16 2008

Are really awesome for those who hate touching the wash cloth or sponge when doing dishes. Like me!

They’re very simple creatures; simple enough, in fact, that this review might seem silly. But I’d like to recommended the Scotch Brite Dish Wand to you so here I am, reviewing it.

The wand you buy comes with a sponge head which is replaceable. Depending on the wand you buy, you may get just a sponge or the heavy duty sponge, which has 2 layers: 1 yellow softer sponge on bottom and 1 green scrub sponge on top. I picked up the Heavy Duty Dish Wand because it was all they had. Scratch refills can also be purchased for those really tough jobs.

So what makes this more than a sponge on a stick? Well, the “stick” or the handle is hollow and you filled it with your dish soap of choice. (The end is a cap which screws off.) The soap is then dispensed into the sponge via a tiny hole; it took me a few minutes to locate it when I was actively trying – although this was when there was already soap bubbles on the wand.

Once you fill up the Scotch Brite Dish Wand, you’re good to go. This method really helps regulate the amount of dish soap you use, helping you reduce waste. Furthermor, you always have an adequate amount of bubbles on the sponge to really clean your dishes.

The sponges are typical Scotch Brite quality and the heavy duty sponge head works well for scrubbing dried on food. Of course, after some use (it will vary depending on how many dishes and how dirty they are), the heads will need to be removed. You can probably prolong the life of the dish wand heads by being careful around sharp utensils such as knifes. Nevertheless, they will need to be replaced and doing so is easy, and fairly cheap; the replacement heads seem to run around $2/2 pack.

I love that the Scotch Brite Dish Wand keeps my clean and while making my dishes the same. I love that I save dish soap in the process. I love that I don’t need to use a big, bulky sponge to scrub my dishes.

Of course, there are several aspects I don’t love. Traditional bottle brushes will work better for some dishes (bottles, glasses, jugs) because the heads are more malleable and straight. The particular angle of the Dish Wand doesn’t work well. Sometimes I can’t reach and often, with glasses, I feel like I cannot clean the bottom of glasses adequately.

Also, most of the Dish Wand is plastic which doesn’t make it a very “green” product. I can accept the handle as it doesn’t need to be replaced and can probably be used for some time but each of the replaceable heads have some chunks of plastic on them which get tosses out with the rest of the head. However, for the convenience and cleanliness it offers, I’m willing to make that sacrifice. You might disagree.

If you want something to make doing dishes easier and almost, maybe, a little fun – check out the Scotch Brite Dish Wand!