ShamWow Kitchen Test: Will you really say 'Wow?'

One product still selling well in the Recession is a yellow rag known as the "ShamWow." Maybe you've seen it in a commercial....or two...or three.

Will the ShamWow really leave you saying "wow?" Wait till you see what we found.

Hot Selling Product

Businesses everywhere are hurting this year...unless your name is Vince Offer...and youre selling the ShamWow.

"ShamWow. You'll be saying wow all the time," says Vince in the ad. But is the commercial true? Will you really say "wow" if you buy one?

A few months back, I tried out the Sham Wow at a car wash. I'll give you the results of that test in a moment (click link above for the full report).

But afterward, several viewers asked why I didn't test it in a kitchen... the way Vince does in the TV ad. Great point....so this time I did.

We Re-Enact the Commercial

Using a carpet square....and a can of Coke...I poured cola all over a piece of tan carpet....just like Vince does on TV.

Vince says "50% of the cola...soaked up right there! Are you following me, Camera Guy?" Vince showed how the ShamWow soaked the cola right up, saying "it acts like a vacuum!"

But when I tried it, I had to push and push on the ShamWow to get it to "vacuum" up the Coke. And even then, it still left some Coke visible on and underneath the carpet.  It was still quite damp. Not quite a "wow."

Sweater and Bowl of Water Test

What about Vince's sweater test, where he rolls a wet sweater in the ShamWow?

I did the exact same test...leaving the sweater rolled up tightly for 5 minutes. But when I unrolled it, I found it was still dripping wet. No, that wasn't a "wow" either.

One area where it did work as well as the commercial was sopping up a bowl of water: it really did soak it right up in seconds.  OK, I said "wow!" to that.
 
The Car Wash Test

And as for my first test at the car wash? Two people who tried it out both felt that Autozone's house brand drying cloth dried their car better than the ShamWow.

They, and I, all found that the ShamWow left streaks of water behind on the car's windows, no matter how many times we wiped and wrung out the ShamWow. The gerneric car drying cloth did a MUCH better job of drying the windows.

The Pros and Cons

I must say the ShamWow is a good value: we got 4 of them, plus 4 smaller clothes, for $19 at Walgreens. So it might be worth picking up a box....as long as youre not expecting miracles.

On the upside, the Sham Wow will sop up water as advertised....and it's reusable. But we found plenty of downsides: when it comes to spills on carpeting, wet sweaters, or getting a car completely dry, we weren't wowed.  So John's final grade is a "B."

As always don't waste your money. I'm John Matarese