Saturday, July 30, 2011

Not The Miracle Anti-Stink Device One Might Want: Renuzit Aroma Adjustables Apple & Cinnamon.


The Good: Generally decent smell, Inexpensive enough, Easy to use
The Bad: Does not look all that great, Does not endure all that well.
The Basics: The Apple & Cinnamon Renuzit Aroma Adjustable had a great initial scent, but within a day, it required more manipulation to get anything out of it.


Given that my wife and I live together in the upstairs of a house with two cats and a dog, how our place smells is of great concern to both of us. Cramped quarters and the summer heat have put us both a little on edge about the potential for our living area to smell, especially because of the litter boxes we have to keep close together. My wife decided to deal with the potential problem head on by picking up a pair of Renuzit Aroma Adjustables in the Apple & Cinnamon flavor. While she has had excellent experiences with them in the past, I am finding the product to be mediocre at best.

Renuzit Aroma Adjustables are best analogized as scented candles without the wick. These are waxy cones that come in a plastic cone package that are actually solidified essential oils that emit a scent. The principle behind them is simple; air passes through them, they slowly effervesce throughout a room and for a couple of months, the living environment smells like the scent the Adjustables claims to have, in this case, Apple & Cinnamon. The principle is a generally good one; Renuzit Aroma Adjustables eliminate the potential danger of burning down one's house by having an inflammable odor-releaser and offer long-lasting odor coverage.

The problem I'm having with my Apple & Cinnamon Adjustables, though, is that it does not seem to work in the long term the way it promises. Renuzit Aroma Adjustables have an instant scent, but the longer my Adjustables have been open, the less the smell permeates the room. Given that the point of this little device is supposed to be making odor control effortless - as opposed to having to light a candle every day or two and remember to blow it out - the Apple & Cinnamon Renuzit Aroma Adjustables fails horribly.

The Renuzit Aroma Adjustables are five-inch tall plastic cones that look like an overturned snowcone. The base is a clear plastic dish that reveals the red of the Apple & Cinnamon air freshener inside. Use is ridiculously simple; twist the white cap up and set in a place where one wants fresher air. Opening the Adjustables only half an inch instantly releases a cloud of great-smelling air.

The Apple & Cinnamon Renuzit Aroma Adjustables smells exactly like every other apple and cinnamon air freshener I have ever found. It is a sickly sweet scent that is evocative of apples and the cinnamon additive makes it smell more like a pie was baked recently than anything else. The scent is warm and inviting and it certainly covers the smell of cats and dogs quite well. . .

. . . for about a day. The Renuzit Aroma Adjustable is a good theory with a mediocre execution, at least with the Apple & Cinnamon scent. Opening the air freshener half an inch gave us a reprieve for about a day from any animal-related scents. There is the option to open the product more, which is a simple matter of raising the plastic cone on top higher. This does disperse more of the Adjustables's scent. It, however, comes with the added detraction of drying the product out much quicker (when the Adjustable is fully dried out, it is done).

I realized this mediocre product was underperforming when I considered the efforts my partner and I have been making lately. We have our windows open, we've had a fan on, we went over both cats with a shedding blade (reviewed here!) and she shaved her cocker spaniel almost bald! We are not slobs and I clean the litterboxes two to three times a day. But a day after Mitzie - our cocker spaniel - was made almost hairless, I sniffed around and I realized I could not smell even a hint of apple or cinnamon in our home.

I have tried the two essential permutations with this product; closing everything up (and opening the Adjustables more) and opening the upstairs up for more air flow. Neither left me with the scent of apples and cinnamon filling our rooms for more than a day. After the initial opening of this product, the scent only seems to come back when I open the Adjustable more. Even then, the scent of Apples and Cinnamon lasts only about an hour before it fades. To be fair, our home does not smell bad, but it did not smell bad before, either. We purchased the Adjustables more out of concern over the potential for a bad smell than the actual occurrence of one (that we know of!) and watching the Adjustables desiccate - it shrivels up as the oils inside dry out - is far less impressive than having a home that smells like apples and cinnamon.

The Adjustables are easy enough to use; after about a month the red waxy portion that initially looked like a candle will be shriveled to look more like an apple core and even sticking one's nose into it will not reveal the smell it originally had. At that time, the plastic cone and dish may simply be thrown away. This is very easy to use and when placed in high places, it is very safe for use around children and animals.

My problem is that it barely works. For best results, it seems to need to be opened more and more each day and this is hardly the effortless odor control that the device promises to be. I'd rather use something that eliminates odors at the source, is truly effortless or offers me more diverse scents - i.e. incense. Renuzit's Aroma Adjustables left me unimpressed.

For other scented product, check out my reviews of:
Method Pink Grapefruit Cleaning Wipes
United Pet Skunk And Tough Odor Remover
Arm & Hammer Pet Fresh Odor & Stain Remover

3.5/10

For other home and garden product reviews, click here to visit my index page for an organized listing!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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