JML Bobble Off

...on television purporting the name JML my brain automatically switches off and reminds me that on the whole they flog overpriced *cheap tat*. However when the advert for the JML Bobble Off kept appearing on television I found myself more and more interested in buying one as I had been looking for something like this for a couple of years now. The principle behind bobble off is that it is a handy gadget that removes all of those irritating little bobbles ...
...to give in to the JML phenomena and give it a go. The next time I was out shopping I fortunately managed to stumble across one of these so I purchased it there and then for what I thought was a fair price of £4.99.

The Packaging:

As soon as I got home I took my purchase out of my shopping bag and proceeded to inspect the box. The first thing I noticed was that although the box was fairly small, it was made out of a very ... more

Normally when any advert comes on television purporting the name JML my brain automatically switches off and reminds me that on the whole they flog overpriced *cheap tat*. However when the advert for the JML Bobble Off kept appearing on television I found myself more and more interested in buying one as I had been looking for something like this for a couple of years now. The principle behind bobble off is that it is a handy gadget that removes all of those irritating little bobbles that can ruin jumpers and cardigans. After seeing the adverts for a couple of months I decided to give in to the JML phenomena and give it a go. The next time I was out shopping I fortunately managed to stumble across one of these so I purchased it there and then for what I thought was a fair price of £4.99.

The Packaging:

As soon as I got home I took my purchase out of my shopping bag and proceeded to inspect the box. The first thing I noticed was that although the box was fairly small, it was made out of a very cheap and flimsy cardboard. It looked very shiny, almost as if it was better quality than it really was. Not only this, but the box did not contain any real information. It showed the name 'Bobble Off' and a picture of it being used on a beige jumper. There are a few bullet points with all of the different materials that this can be used on. This is useful as although I would have liked some further in depth explanations either on the back of the box or in an information leaflet. Sadly, these were both lacking as there is no extra information on the back of the box. Instead the same information from the front is repeated as is the same picture. If you look closely at the picture it looks as though the patch that has been de-bobbled has been photo-shopped to look that way. This did not fill me with much hope and I was rather sceptical that this would work.

Inside the Box:

After opening the box which was easy to do as the box was so flimsy I was confronted with the Bobble Off. There was no other fancy protective packaging and the gadget was just sitting snugly inside the box. I hastily removed it and proceeded to look for an instruction booklet. I didn't feel I really needed one but always like to flick through one to reassure myself before attacking my clothes. However I was disappointed when I only found a small and thin paper booklet containing no more instruction than the outer box did.

After taking the bobble off out of the box the first thing that I noticed was how light and cheap the item looked. The main body of the tool is made out of an off white/ cream coloured shiny plastic. The battery compartment, the on/off switch, the waste compartment and the part that houses the covered blades are in a coordinating blue/ purple colour. In my opinion these two colours do little to add to the quality of the product. It all looks and feels very cheaply made.

Bobble Off requires two AA batteries which are quite tricky to fit. The battery compartment comes off easily enough; however it takes some effort to squeeze the batteries into the gap. The battery compartment is then difficult to fit back on securely when the batteries are in it as there are two small catches on either side that you have to squeeze for it to shut properly. When the compartment is off you can see inside the machine and it looks very empty apart from a couple of thin wires that look very badly soldered onto the connectors.

Bobble Off in action... or should that be missing in action?

After inserting the batteries the moment of truth came as to whether or not this much longed for gadget would actually work. So, I hastily slid the switch from off and on and waited and waited for my opinion to change. Nothing happened, no sound, no movement...zilch. I quickly tried the switch again hoping it was just me but again nothing happened. I checked I put the batteries in the right way and I even took them out and put them in the wrong way just to see if this would help. The only thing this resulted in was that the batteries got stuck! All of my initial suspicions were confirmed and I was quite disappointed at having wasted £4.99.

Before taking the item back to the shop I let my other half inspect the item to see if he could figure out why it wouldn't work. He took one look and noticed that one of the wires that were just inside the battery compartment had come away from the connector. We both concluded that this must have happened as I was inserting/ removing the batteries. To me this just shows exactly how badly made and fragile this gadget was, as although it was difficult to get the batteries in I don't feel I was being particularly heavy handed. In fact as it was new I remember being extra careful as to not break anything. After my boyfriend managed to re-solder the connection we managed to get the machine to work.

However, I use the word 'work' with caution. Yes, the motor was turning and the blades were spinning behind their protective foil casing and it turned off and on when I wanted it to. However when I came to test the gadget on my clothing I was not really impressed. I'm not sure whether my jumper was just too far gone and too bobbly or whether I was expecting it to look 'brand new' either way I was disappointed. It took a lot of effort to see minimal results. I had to keep working over the jumper again and again. Although quite a bit of waste was collected it was difficult to notice the difference on my clothes. I tried changing the setting from 'long' to 'short' on the dial around the blades, but once again this made little difference.

Summary:

Overall I am not very impressed with this gadget. In hindsight when I had managed to get it to work, it did make some difference to my jumper. It definitely did look better than it did before, yet the results were nowhere near as good as I had expected. The adverts had promised to make my clothes 'look like new' and I felt I had been short changed. I guess in the end it is my fault for wanting to believe in JML's claims and I should have been more sensible. All in all I wouldn't recommend this to anyone unless you enjoy an impossible challenge! In my opinion cutting the bobbles off very carefully with a pair of scissors would be more effective and less time consuming.  

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