Well, its time to write about my Bean bag experience. Last month my friend got married and I was thinking what to gift him. I had discussed this matter with my wife and she came up with the idea of gifting a bean bag. I too remembered then (tubelight) that he had actually wanted a bean bag some time back. I had actually been with him for enquiries. So I decided to buy him a bean bag and went to Caprius bean bag in Koramangala and gave an order. When I tried the bean bag, I felt very comfortable. Caprius delivers the bean bag free of cost!!. I gave an order for a XXXL size bean bag which costs Rs.2900. After some haggling I had a deal for Rs. 2600 with a free home delivery. So I had it delivered to my friends place directly. I have to admit, it was very comfortable to sit on a bean bag.
My birthday was around the corner and I asked my wife to gift me a bean bag (am one of the fortunate few :) I guess). After a week we had been to the same caprius bean bag center and found it locked. When I called up their office, no one picked up and I thought they closed down forever. So I started searching at other places. I remembered seeing a bean bag at the featherlite showroom at Forum and asked my wife to enquire there. They charged Rs 2125 for a Jumbo sized one. We also enquired in the @home store (right opposite Forum) and found that the quality was not very good and moreover it was overpriced at Rs.2700. I had even seen the bean bag at M.K.Retail @ Indiranagar. It was Rs. 2000 (1999 to be precise) there. I was not impressed with their quality. I had searched online and got a couple of other manufacturers viz., F-Gear and Pensee leathers both based out of Bangalore. I got a chance to see the F-Gear bean bags at SPAR hypermarket on the Bannerghatta road. The quality of the material used was not great. They had some other brand which cost Rs.2950 which was way more than by budget. Meanwhile the Caprius bean bag store was still locked. It was almost two weeks since I had started my search. I found the one at Featherlite, Forum was the best and gave an order for it. There was one problem here though, they dont deliver it at our homes, we have to arrange to carry it ourselves.
So, here I am sitting comfortably on my bean bag and watching the IPL Season 2. I believe the Caprius have reopened their stores recently!!!!
Some Facts
Bean bag refers to a leather bag filled with polysterene beans. It takes the shape depending on which way we sit. For best comforts, buy a big size bean bag. Long use of the bean bag causes the beans to be compressed and reduces the comfort level. So, we have to top-up the beans (just like our prepaid mobiles :)). All the manufactures say the beans would normally last for 1-1.5 years depending on our usage. The beans cost around Rs.300 per Kg. A big size bean bag will need upto 4-5 Kgs of beans. It may not be necessary to refill the entire set of beans. We can fill as per our requirements.
Dealers in Bangalore: Featherlite, Caprius, @home, Looking Good Furniture, M.K.Retail,
F-Gear, Pensee leathers, SPAR hypermarket etc..
Price(the largest size): Featherlite Rs.2125
Caprius Rs. 2900 (you can bargain plus they give free home delivery)
@home Rs. 2700
M.K.Retail Rs. 2000
SPAR: Rs. 2950
Warranty: Most of them provide a minimum of 1 Year warranty on the stitches.
Caprius provides 3 years warranty.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Induction cooktop
I had recently bought an Induction based cooktop. Actually i was looking for some alternative to Gas stoves (Getting a government subsidised gas connection is very difficult in many places :( ).
I was looking at many alternatives like the Electric hotplates, microwaves etc.. Thats when I came to know about something called induction cooktop from my parents. It is relatively a new entrant in the kitchen scene. It is widely used in Europe, Australia and other far eastern countries. It is quite new to the US and in India it is available for the past 2 years or so. It is based on the phenomenon of induction which the electrical and electronics engineers would have studied in their engineering days!
The stove is very light weight (single burner), weighs around 2kgs.. and is very sleek.. There is a coil below the surface (invisible to the eye, ofcourse) and it produces alternating magnetic field. This alternating magnetic field induces heat on the vessel placed on top of it through hysteris loss. I guess we dont need to go too technical. All that is important is that the thermal efficiency of this process is around 90%. This is considered excellent compared to Gas which is only 50% or so. Atleast this is what is claimed by most of the websites :P.
I went to a home appliances store in thippasandara, bangalore and had a demo of the product. I was really impressed. Just place a steel vessel on top of it with some water and switch it on.. Zoooom, in matter of seconds, the water begins to boil. There is no fire or flames. I decided to buy it but was postponed my purchase when the shop keeper told me that you should use only steel vessels on it. Glass, ceramic, copper bottom, aluminium or indalium alloys will not work. So once again I decided to get some more insights in to the induction cookware.
I already had quite a few vessels (stainless steel) and I did not want to spend on a new set of cookware. When I searched online for induction cookware, all the sites gave one thing in common. That is, for the vessel to be induction compatible, it must be made of ferro-magnetic material like iron. To test whether a vessel is suitable for induction cooktop, just stick a magnet to the base of the vessel. It it sticks then it will certainly work on the induction stove. So I bought some magnets and tested all my vessels. To my dismay, the magnet wont stick to anyone of them. I thought that I had to buy the entire cookware for using the induction stove. I was in two minds whether to buy it or not. Then somehow I decided to buy the induction stove and some vessels.
So, I bought an Pigeon Induction cook-top, 1800W. It comes with a free steel vessel. I had taken along the magnet with me to the shop and when I placed the magnet on the vessel it stuck onto it. I thought the info given on the internet on the inducion cookware is right. The induction stove costs Rs. 2450 but there was a combo offer. You get a Pigeon induction compatible pressure cooker (5 lts) with the induction stove for Rs.3000. I went with the combo offer.
As soon as I came home, I began testing my vessels and to my surprise all my vessels (normal stainless steel ones) worked on the induction stove. It is not necessary that a magnet must stick on to the the vessel for it to be induction compatible. This was the conclusion I drew. This information was not present anywhere on the web explicitly. It saved me from buying a new set of cookware.
Cooking in induction is pretty fast. According to many websites, it is almost double the speed as a gas stove. I had cooked rice for two people in 10 minutes. It normally takes more than 20 mins on a gas stove. I am yet to experiment on my induction stove. But one thing is that one must use vessels with thick (reasonably) base as it heats very fast.
I cant say whether i am really satisfied with my induction stove at this moment thought. But it seems as though it is worth it!!
Some Facts
Brands Available: Prestige, Pigeon and other chinese makes
Cost: Pigeon 1800W - Rs. 2450 (with a free vessel, but this vessel is not very good)
Prestige costs around Rs. 2200 and other chinese makes costs from Rs. 1700 onwards.
Actually the cost varies according the the design and the power.
Warranty: 1Year
Some points to consider while buying/cooking on induction cooktops
I was looking at many alternatives like the Electric hotplates, microwaves etc.. Thats when I came to know about something called induction cooktop from my parents. It is relatively a new entrant in the kitchen scene. It is widely used in Europe, Australia and other far eastern countries. It is quite new to the US and in India it is available for the past 2 years or so. It is based on the phenomenon of induction which the electrical and electronics engineers would have studied in their engineering days!
The stove is very light weight (single burner), weighs around 2kgs.. and is very sleek.. There is a coil below the surface (invisible to the eye, ofcourse) and it produces alternating magnetic field. This alternating magnetic field induces heat on the vessel placed on top of it through hysteris loss. I guess we dont need to go too technical. All that is important is that the thermal efficiency of this process is around 90%. This is considered excellent compared to Gas which is only 50% or so. Atleast this is what is claimed by most of the websites :P.
I went to a home appliances store in thippasandara, bangalore and had a demo of the product. I was really impressed. Just place a steel vessel on top of it with some water and switch it on.. Zoooom, in matter of seconds, the water begins to boil. There is no fire or flames. I decided to buy it but was postponed my purchase when the shop keeper told me that you should use only steel vessels on it. Glass, ceramic, copper bottom, aluminium or indalium alloys will not work. So once again I decided to get some more insights in to the induction cookware.
I already had quite a few vessels (stainless steel) and I did not want to spend on a new set of cookware. When I searched online for induction cookware, all the sites gave one thing in common. That is, for the vessel to be induction compatible, it must be made of ferro-magnetic material like iron. To test whether a vessel is suitable for induction cooktop, just stick a magnet to the base of the vessel. It it sticks then it will certainly work on the induction stove. So I bought some magnets and tested all my vessels. To my dismay, the magnet wont stick to anyone of them. I thought that I had to buy the entire cookware for using the induction stove. I was in two minds whether to buy it or not. Then somehow I decided to buy the induction stove and some vessels.
So, I bought an Pigeon Induction cook-top, 1800W. It comes with a free steel vessel. I had taken along the magnet with me to the shop and when I placed the magnet on the vessel it stuck onto it. I thought the info given on the internet on the inducion cookware is right. The induction stove costs Rs. 2450 but there was a combo offer. You get a Pigeon induction compatible pressure cooker (5 lts) with the induction stove for Rs.3000. I went with the combo offer.
As soon as I came home, I began testing my vessels and to my surprise all my vessels (normal stainless steel ones) worked on the induction stove. It is not necessary that a magnet must stick on to the the vessel for it to be induction compatible. This was the conclusion I drew. This information was not present anywhere on the web explicitly. It saved me from buying a new set of cookware.
Cooking in induction is pretty fast. According to many websites, it is almost double the speed as a gas stove. I had cooked rice for two people in 10 minutes. It normally takes more than 20 mins on a gas stove. I am yet to experiment on my induction stove. But one thing is that one must use vessels with thick (reasonably) base as it heats very fast.
I cant say whether i am really satisfied with my induction stove at this moment thought. But it seems as though it is worth it!!
Some Facts
Brands Available: Prestige, Pigeon and other chinese makes
Cost: Pigeon 1800W - Rs. 2450 (with a free vessel, but this vessel is not very good)
Prestige costs around Rs. 2200 and other chinese makes costs from Rs. 1700 onwards.
Actually the cost varies according the the design and the power.
Warranty: 1Year
Some points to consider while buying/cooking on induction cooktops
- cannot fully replace gas, sometimes you need to cook something directly on fire, like roasting etc..
- Always use thick bottomed vessels and vessels with flat bottom
- Very efficient, can cook upto two times faster that gas. Most of the models come with various presets and you can adjust the temperatures as well.
- The pigeon model comes with a feature that will tell you how much power you have consumed while cooking in KwH. This is an interesting feature for those who are energy conscious :)
- Common non-stick cookwares cannot be used, beware!!! There are special induction enabled non-stick cookwares available in the market
My first post
Hey this is my first post! Alas!!. I always wanted to blog.. but somehow it never happened so far. And now it has happened as I am writing my first post. I have an habit of reading a lot about products which I plan to buy. But all my research fades with my memory and time.. I thought of putting the information I acquired to some use and hence i have started this blog. I intend to share my knowledge on some of the products. Hope some of you would find the information presented here useful..
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