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In this Episode of The Handyguys Podcast, we announce the winner of our toolkit contest and discuss some innovative products from Magnogrip, CarMD and PermaFLOW.

Winner

Congrats, Andrew. Your toolkit is in the mail. We had a lot of awesome entries, so it was difficult to pick our winner. You can read Andrew’s winning entry here. This duct tape tie idea put him over the top and it is much cheaper then a Brooks Brothers classic tie. We are going to produce a future podcast that reviews all the great “valid” duct tape submissions. Thanks to True Value for picking up the tab on the toolkit!

Innovative Products

We often get requests to review products on the show. We only want to discuss stuff we think brings value to the listeners of the show without all the unneeded junk. We turn away many product pushers. If we do receive a product to review and it turns out to be junk, we absolutely will not discuss it in a positive light during the show.  In fact, we try  to not even receive products that look like a waste of time. However, this year, we picked three items to discuss. You can decide if they make appropriate Christmas gifts for the Handyguy in your life.

Magnogrip

Magnogrip makes toolbelts, belt clips, wrist bands and other products with magnets built in. Why magnets? When you are working on a project and you have lots of little parts such as screws, nuts, and bolts, you can stick them to the magnets to prevent you from losing them. Instead of having to continually dig through pockets, they will be handy for when you need them!

Check them out in the Handyguys Amazon Store

• Carpenters tool belt
• Builders tool belt
• Wrist band

CarMD

The Handyguys haven’t talked much about car maintenance. There is only so much information we can cram into our brains. When we look at car problems, we want to make diagnosis as easy as possible. When CarMD asked us to check out their diagnostic computer we were intrigued. This product is extremely easy to use.

What does it do? It plugs into your 1996 or newer vehicle and reads the vehicles on-board computer. The computer in your vehicle stores information about what those idiot lights on the dashboard represent. There are a lot of devices on the market to read your computer. In some vehicles, you can actually go through a process where your vehicle can blink a series of lights on your dash to tell you the trouble. An old reader Brian has gives you a cryptic code you need to look up in a book.

The CarMD plugs in, reads the computer, then connects to your home computer, or laptop, via a supplied USB cable. This connection will then synchronize your vehicle’s details with the CarMD website. On the website, you can see details of your vehicle, what may be wrong, etc. You can also pull up safety recall information or purchase Technical Service Bulletins. You can buy these directly from CarMD.

PermaFLOW

The PermaFLOW is a clear plastic P-Trap for under your sinks and includes a knob to push away any clogs.  We were a little skeptical about this product at first but it works as advertised. If you are handy, you may ask yourself why not just disconnect the trap or snake a clog. Well, not everyone is handy. Install something like this for someone who has a p-trap that clogs often and can’t, or doesn’t want to, go to the trouble of unclogging the drain themselves. No more harsh chemical drain cleaners if the clog is in the trap. The clear plastic makes it easy to figure where the problem is too. You can pick one of these up at The Handyguys Store.

Disclosure

We were one of five bloggers selected by True Value to work on the DIY Squad. We have been compensated for our time commitment to the program and our DIY projects as well as our posts about our experience. We have also been compensated for the materials needed for our DIY project and this giveaway. However, our opinions are entirely our own and we have not been paid to publish positive comments.

 

The products evaluated in this show and podcast were provided to The Handyguys at the expense of the respective company or their representatives. The Handyguys were not compensated beyond the receipt of the products. However, our opinions are entirely our own and we have not been paid to publish positive comments.