OXO Dish Brush

Hello there! I hope you all had a wonderful Easter holiday filled with quality time spent with close friends and family. Eric and I drove home on Thursday for an extra-long weekend. The best thing about going home is the fabulous greeting you get at the door...loving embraces from mom and dad, enthusiastic hugs from siblings, and even the hair-shedding, tail wagging, jump-all-over-you greeting from the family dog. My family may very well be the loudest on the planet, but they are also the most loving. I'm not quite sure who or where I would be without them.

--And that concludes the sentimental portion of today's post.--

While I was at home, we were talking about the blog. My mom and dad suggested that I start including things other than my recipes, even though (of course) they love those.   ;)   So, I started brainstorming on the way home, and decided they were right! In the next couple of weeks, I'll be posting product reviews, article discussions, and information about my garden, along with the latest recipes that I've been trying. I hope you enjoy these new components!

So now, I would like to present to you the OXO SteeL Soap Squirting Dish Brush! I know you may be thinking, "Of all the things to talk about...a dish brush? Really?" The answer is YES! You see, I have a lot of high maintenance high quality items in my kitchen, like my stainless steel cookware, bamboo cutting boards and utensils, and most importantly, my knife set. I am unwilling to trust my dishwasher with these items, since they would be quite expensive to replace. Because of this, I end up doing a lot of hand washing. Some say dish brush, I say rock star!

 This dish brush will cost you $12.99 and you can get it at that price from the link above. It's also available from Amazon, Bed Bath and Beyond, and probably most other stores that carry the OXO brand.

Eric and I bought this dish brush because we were tired of constantly replacing the cheap plastic ones. We also loved the fact that you can buy replacements for the scrubbing part of them, making them a lot cheaper in the long run! Plus, we had one of those awesome 20% off coupons from Bed Bath and Beyond, which made spending $12.99 on a dish brush a little bit easier to swallow. 


I have to say that I was a bit skeptical that this brush would be worth it when we bought it. Having had other experiences with less expensive dish brushes, I was concerned about its durability and ability to actually stay soapy while I washed dishes. However, after using it for a couple of months now, I am extremely happy with our purchase.


My hands-down favorite thing about this dish brush is the way it squirts out the soap. When you push the little black "button" down, it literally squirts out like ketchup from one of those clean-squirt bottles. It's awesome! Sometimes, I squirt soap into my dishes just so that I can watch it shoot out of there...which is totally not weird, at all. Something else that I really like is that it completely replaces the soap bottle that I had sitting out on the counter. Need a little soap to wash you hands? Squirt some on there. Need soap to soak a particularly dirty dish? Just squirt it in! See how easy and wonderful it is? Plus, it makes doing the dishes faster because you don't have to keep reaching up to add more soap to your brush. The bristles are also a good compromise between hard and soft. If they were any harder, they could scratch delicate items, any softer and they would never be able to scrub anything. I am also very please with the way it has held up. The handle is in perfect condition, even after months of hard use, and the bristles are still holding up, although we'll probably be replacing them when we get a new coupon from BB&B.


This wonderful dish brush does have some negative qualities that I cannot ignore. One thing that is a bit annoying is that the head of the brush is not angled, making it a bit difficult to get into small spaces, such as a cup or wine glass. It cleans the center of the bottom just fine, but the corners are a bit hard to reach. Another thing that bothers me is that sometimes the bristles have a hard time really scrubbing those really baked-on spots, even after soaking. Occasionally, I'll find myself scrubbing and scrubbing at the same spot over and over again. However, for everyday cleaning, they are perfect. One thing that I have discovered, with all dish brushes, is that they are less than ideal for cleaning up a pan that has been used for scrambled eggs. For some reason, little bits of egg get in between the bristles and are next to impossible to get out. To solve this, I just keep a Scotch Bright sponge close to the sink, which solve both the egg and baked on food dilemmas. 


Despite those few negative qualities, this dish brush definitely makes doing the dishes faster and easier, and it's the one that we'll be using as long as they keep making the refills.


So, what do you think? Are product reviews something to continue? Does the OXO SteeL Soap Squirting Dish Brush sound like something you might consider using? I am looking forward to your comments!!


Disclaimer: I am not being compensated for this review from OXO or any other suppling company. The views and opinions expressed in this post are entirely my own.