Good at first, ultimately disappointing
582098
I bought a bunch of these to use for giant soap bubbles.  They work well, especially with the top thin portion removed.  But sometimes they jam so I'm forced to tap them down hard on the ground to close them.  This causes the screw cap at the bottom to crack and fall off.  I've broken three of these already.  I contacted Shakespeare Wonderpoles directly to buy replacement caps but they "do not have a repair center for rods nor do we have replacement parts" and simply directed me to a couple of fishing equipment sites.
2289072
I've used this product for not quite a year.  At first, I was quite pleased to have the flexibility of a canister on my 10 gallon tank.  One big plus was the ability to use whatever filter media I wanted.  With a little rearranging, I was able to use a coarse foam, bio-rings, a Chemi-pure pouch, and filter floss.  (It's a 10gal with a few guppies, so not a lot of each needed.)

It's a little tedious to clean because hoses are not meant to come off once installed.  This means either leaving the top portion (with the impeller) with the hoses on the tank, or else removing the intake and spray bar from the tank every time.  I normally did the first, and only removed it all occasionally to give everything a more thorough cleaning.

Other than the cleaning, the first real deficiency that I found is that the supplied hoses are REALLY cheap.  If the flexing is kept to a minimum, then these could last longer, but by my second cleaning (~2mo) the one hose split right at the barb fitting.  I had regular 1/2" tubing on hand from another tank, so it was a quick fix (most fish supply stores should carry hoses, often cut-to-length).  After changing out the hoses, everything worked fine.

Now, the reason that I gave it only 3 stars is that the pump motor choked before even a year of use.  After about 8 months of use, I found it stopped pumping.  After several times cycling power, flushing and re-priming, I could get it to work again.  But, this would only last a few days (at most) until it stopped pumping again.  I took the covers off the impeller to see what was going on, and made sure to clean it out good too.  When powered, the impeller would just oscillate but not rotate.  By chance, after cycling power a few times, it would spin again, but not consistently.  Nudging the impeller with a finger could get it rotating too.  Could never get it to consistently rotate on it own without intervention.  I believe there's something likely wrong with the sealed coil that drives the impeller, but I'm not spending any more time on it.

I've since removed it and put in a plain-ole' hang-on power filter.  Nice concept, cheap execution.
2121691
I started out really liking this. It comes with a nice case, calibration salts, and the cover fits real snug. They recommend waiting a full minute for an accurate reading, but you're basically there instantly (i found after waiting for the number to settle - 3-5sec - it won't change more than another point by the end of the full minute). This worked great for about 2 months...

that's when the top switch fell out and then the unit started reading everything in a range between 3.1 and 3.6. After a day of fiddling I tossed it and now have a different brand on order. Seems like a lot of other people had theirs fail around the 2 month mark. At the very least I can say this sold me on digital meters over reading a color chart.
4138984
I have had my Jawbone since December.  At first I loved it.  I had read that there were problems with how rugged (or rather how not rugged) the hardware was but figured I would give it a go anyway.  I've given up on it today, 9 months later.  It no longer will sync.  I've been having trouble getting it to sync for about 2 months, but as of this morning, none of my usual tricks are working.

The jawbone does track steps reasonably well.  It tracks sleep reasonably well (thought there are nights I know I wake up at 2 in the morning and it doesn't always register).  The band is comfortable to wear for daytime use, but I found it less comfortable at night.  The app is user friendly

My review of 2 stars is based primarily on how long the band lasted.  it doesn't matter if the band tracks well if it won't sync.  Jawbone will need to fix the hardware before I will consider getting another.
114531
Honestly I feel like I cannot complain too much about this Car Charger adapter. It worked great for almost a year, and for the price that is wonderful. About 3 months ago I noticed that I was having intermittent charges while I was driving. It started as once or twice in a 30 min drive, and when I removed it and reinserted it, it seemed to fix the problem. A couple weeks later, it got a lot worse, to the point I couldn't get any charge because my phone was taking and loosing a charge so often. I ended up buying one at my local Walgreens counter, for $5 and I'm back up and running. Again, it lasted a year, and for less that $2, it was worth the price, I just which I could have doubled or tripled the time with it, before it started having issues.
4209589
What a great idea...for the first few weeks.  And then the problems started up.  I should have seen the signs of buyer's remorse approaching.

The primary problems with this product are the batteries.  The battery life is less than a cheap digital camera being used to film HD movies on night vision mode.  When this product worked, I thought the light was interesting as well as slightly informative.  Unfortunately, however, the product has a shelf life on par with bananas on top of the fridge.

Additional problems are the outside coating that looks like stainless steel, but really ended up being a paint coating that chips fairly easily.  The fact that water goes directly through the product and activates the light - via the power of the batteries, of course - is a great idea until one realizes that metal, circuitry, and water don't play well together.

It's easy to assemble and attach, but the initial promise quickly turned into a novelty that wore thin and died.  Wasted money.
2721606
I liked this case a lot at first, but it doesn't hold up very well.  My iPad never really seemed to fit snuggly, it always felt like it wasn't all the way in the case. As a result it did slip out sometimes. Admittedly, I'm clumsy and it fell a few times. I never dropped it far (only my desk at work) but pieces of thin plastic started chipping off. The there are cut outs for the volume buttons and the thin plastic broke on its own after only a few months which further decreased the stability. My iPad barely stays in the case now and is constantly slipping out when I move the keyboard or open the case. Some strange discoloration also appeared on the case after a month and I have no idea where it came from and I can't clean it off.

I like the 360 rotation. It makes for a very handy keyboard case. The keyboard also works great once it's fully charged. Just make sure to turn it off when you're not using it and that saves the battery. The keyboard is sturdier than the case part and has remained in tact so far.

Maybe if you're not as clumsy as me this will work better for you, but I still feel the case part isn't secure enough even if the keyboard itself is very nice.
4269578
I had high hopes for this budget camera based on the reviews. Initially, I was impressed with the easy setup, simple apps for both phone and PC, excellent daylight video, good night video and solid build quality. After three weeks of use, the connection became unreliable and it started eating SD cards. Two brand new SD cards had formatting issues after a few hours in the camera.

In addition to the physical failure of the camera, I wasn't too excited with the privacy issues or having to rely on far off foreign servers for functionality. There was also an annoying recording glitch where the light sensor would switch the IR LED's on and off repeatedly for several minutes during dusk and dawn. Although there was no movement at this time, the camera alerted my phone and recorded pointless footage.
1546099
Worked really well for a few months, then suddenly stopped
1860255
Initially, I was very happy with this product.  As a frequent traveler, it seemed to be the perfect option for a road warrior that needed to charge all of their devices in the hotel room or airport, when power outlets can be few and far between.

However, over the months of use, it has not held up well.  Almost immediately, the main power cord started to fray where in plugs into the unit - even though I never stored it plugged in and always removed the power cord, carefully wrapping it with the included Velcro strap.  Shortly thereafter, several of the USB outlets became unusable, without "jiggling" the connection.  Three of the five USB ports are now virtually unusable on any device.  Yes, I have tried multiple variations, used different USB cords, etc.  The connection is just not consistent.

Short term, it was a good option that lacked durability.  I am now down to a two USB only charger that I could have accomplished with a much less expensive option and less bulky.
9241
While this was good for the first few uses, the micro-USB charging port became loose and fell into the headphone. Therefore, I can no longer recharge the headset, rendering it useless. Also, if the electronic the headset is connected to is in your pants pocket, the audio will cut in and out while walking (up stairs particularly); this is mostly a fact of bluetooth products, but I did want to mention it.

I did attempt to fix the charging port accessibility, but it keeps falling. I believe it is a problem with the plastic housing around the (female) charging port, and I hope that this problem can be resolved in future versions of the product.
2475254
I received this as a gift, and at first I quite liked it. It asks for your weight, height and stride length, along with tracking the date, time, and your steps. It was cool to see how many steps I take just at work and trying to get up to goal. It doesn't look bad on the wrist, either. But after a couple days I noticed the clock had somehow reset...I assumed I'd rubbed the watch on something just right, mashing the reset button. But then this started happening at least once a day for several days. I wondered what I was doing. Then, one of the times I popped the tracker out of the band to calibrate it yet again, it reset on its own just after I had input the information. I hadn't touched any buttons. It seems some slight pressure on the case can reset this thing. I've researched a bit and I've seen that others have had this same issue, which renders the device almost useless. Also, I had the same problem mentioned by another user here - the wrist band is not very secure. I've had it fall off multiple times quite easy. Lastly, it is a cheaper product and you can tell. Apart from the problems above, the face of the watch is made of soft plastic (presumably to take an impact) and scratches easily. So, while I really did like the product and the price, I'm not sure I'll get much real use out of it anymore.
1707797
This was an awesome printer and scanner--for about 6 months.

I bought my Epson Expression XP-420 at our local (and now defunct) Office Max less than 10 months ago, shortly after my less than eight month-old (and obviously NOT recommended) Canon IP4920 developed an unfixable clog, and I conceded that it was not going to let me reach a necessary deadline.

At first, the Epson did everything I wanted: text-only printing was dark and clear, photos came out looking awesome (they still do), and it scanned without any problems whatever. What's more, the branded inks, relatively speaking, were fairly cheap, but of good quality.

Now, I have to clean the ink heads EVERY TIME I want to print in black only, or the printing simply doesn't show up on the paper. Worse, the scanner can NEVER see the computer, no matter which slot I plug the usb cord into. Since nothing else I own has this issue, I can only assume it's a problem with the Epson, and not all six of my usb ports. Pretty much anything I need to do with this printer now takes twice to three times as long--and twice to three times as much ink and paper--as it should. I'd say, at this point, that I'm spending just as much on ink, because of the need to clean the heads, as I would have had I been able to keep the Incredibly Useless Canon.

Basically, if you need a printer RIGHT NOW, and don't care how long it will be useful (not long at all), then the Epson XP-410 is the printer for you. If you actually think getting value for your money matters, and NOT being frustrated at almost every turn when you need to print or scan something is what you prefer, you're going to want to run, and run quickly, in a direction that does not lead you this printer.
24041
Like many here, I found this to be a pretty terrific inexpensive receiver with lots of bells and whistles. I was concerned, however, that it wouldn't stand up to usage and fail based on reviews here. Nevertheless, I thought I would give it a try--it was terrific but, after a couple of months weird issues began to occur.

I really enjoyed this receiver for 5 months and then the HDMI connections began to fail. I thought that, perhaps, it was the cord at first and replaced it. It worked for a couple of weeks and then failed again completely. In speaking with the Sony customer service center, I ended up chatting online with a tech who could not write in English very well. He had me go through the same steps I had already done myself (this isn't my first rodeo and I explained I had done all the steps that he suggested).

It was determined that it was the unit and they suggested that I return it to Sony for service. They did not, however, provide a prepaid shipping label which meant I would have to pay to sent it back. Given that I had the device less than six months, this wasn't acceptable and I told Sony. Nevertheless, they insisted that's how this had to be done.

While this has some great features, sounds great, after a handful of months, it stopped operating due to the HDMI inputs being either defective or poorly manufactured.

I was very disappointed as Sony's reputation was better than this but, as I have found over the years, that reputation was based on the high quality material that Sony USED to produce.

Look elsewhere for a better received.
212198
Started out very accurate and easy to use. I use this primarily to weigh out the beans for my morning coffee.

The power button stopped working after about a month, which sucks because that was kind of the killer feature I was looking for. Now I take a battery in/out when I want to operate it. The accuracy seems to have dipped as well -- it's not as responsive as it used to be, which is frustrating when I think I need to add/take away and the total jumps by ~a gram.

This is disappointing because otherwise the construction feels good, the backlit display is bright and looks great, and it has a bunch of nice options and features it can cycle through.
3138749
I was very happy with this foam roller for the first few weeks I used it - foam rollers are pretty simple, and there's not much to go wrong. I started to notice after a month or two that it no longer rolled very well and inspection revealed that it had started to compress in on itself mostly on two sides, turning it from a round roller into a ovoid roller.

As time went by it continued to shrink into itself (like melting plastic), and now the diameter in the middle is easily a couple of inches less than the diameter at the outer edges. The ovoid shape has become more pronounced to the point where it's no longer a foam roller and more of simply an awkward foam rocker.

Honestly it's been a long time since a product has let me down so much, especially one with so many positive reviews. I purchased a "real" high density roller for a few bucks more and so far it has been rock solid. Usage note: I use my roller for ~10min 3-5x a week and weigh just over 200lbs.
2371003
I'll start with the good stuff (there's not much): they were easy to pair, easy to opperate (volume buttons, playback control, etc was easy to use) and the sound quality was good with music and calls (when they stayed connected).  Initially I was impressed, and I really wanted to like these, but that's about it for the good stuff.  As for the not so good stuff: The part that wraps around the ears is too bulky; they weren't uncomfortable to wear, but as soon as I would start to sweat (even a little) they would start to slide around on my ears, add any sudden movement (you know, like you would do in "sports" and they would completely fall off).  I tried all 3 of the eargels that were included and could not get them to stay put.  I also had problems with them staying connected.  Like most (all?) bluetooth headsets, they recommend using an armband when outdoors so that the bluetooth can work propperly; I did this and the sound still cut out frequently (once every minute or two, and occasional several times per minute), I've tried others that work much better. For a product marketed as a "SPORT" headset, these were useless.  If your primary desire is too listen to music while indoors and sitting still, these would be okay, but there are better options for that too.  If your physical activity involves very little movement of your head (weight lifting, or eliptical machine use, maybe) then these might be okay for you too, but if you plan on biking or running (especially outdoors) don't waste your money on these.