JML Magic Carpet

Every one must have heard of a little company called JML who are well known for bringing strange yet quite useful things to the general public, such things as Kitchen utensils to cleaning equipment and a certain little item which I am going to tell you about. That being the normal looking but slightly more useful doormat that goes under the name if the JML magic carpet.

This magic carpet, although technically it’s not a carpet, nor is it magic really as it doesn’t fly, but as for the carpet name, it’s more a mat as it only comes in two sizes, those being 700mm x 400mm, which is the small mat, and 900mm x 600mm, which is the large mat, so really it’s a mat and not a carpet. But they do come in several colours, giving you more of an option to go with where ever you want to put it, the colours being red, blue, brown, purple and green and more, with each one having a strip going down the short sides or long side, giving them that extra little ‘style’.

The first thing you may think when you hear the name JML magic carpet is the advert that claims that this carpet, sorry, this mat, can soak up moisture, water, dirt and mud due to the way the weave of the mat is put together. So when you walk over the mat what ever is on your shoes or boots will be instantly wiped off and will stay on the rug instead of being walked into your house.

Sadly though I do have to say that the claim to be able to absorb water is a bit on the exaggerated side as it doesn’t stop the wet foot prints going across the floor, even if I’ve wiped my feet a few times.
But as for the claim about the mud and dirt, well this is a little less exaggerated as it can trap bits of mud and dirt, but does let some mud pass onto my floors.

Don’t get me wrong, it does work, with-in reason, and does manage to ‘trap’ a lot of water, moisture, mud and dirt when you walk over it. To do a proper job of it you do have to wipe your shoes a few times over it as you would any other doormat. But once wiped this way it does take more from your shoes than your standard doormat, which it is supposed to do and is why they called it a Magic Carpet, (so it’s not got anything to do with flying then?).

As for its looks, well it looks like any other doormat, apart from the harsh bristle ones that would rip the skin from your bare feet if you were silly enough to stand on them. It has a good rubber backing which does help it grip onto the floor so it doesn’t slide about when you stand on it, giving you less chance of doing an example of those people on the television who tend to prance around on frozen water.
Although the rubber backing does have its downside as it tend to trap moisture underneath it, leading to you having to wipe the floor a few times.

Cleaning it is just like cleaning your normal carpet, being a matter of running it over with the a vacuum cleaner, although my upright does tend to try and eat the edges as it passes over them so I do have to be careful.
It is also washable, according to the few details that came on the cardboard that this mat was stapled to, but I haven’t washed it as yet so I can’t tell you what would happen if it was washed.

The other thing that I’ve noticed about it is that after a while, even if it’s been vacuumed every day, if you turn the mat upside down there is an awful lot of dry dirt that drops out of it, and more pushed out if you run an upright vacuum over it. So it does trap dirt and hold it inside it quite well.
(try it, turn the mat upside down and run your upright over it as if you’re cleaning it, then see how much duty dirt comes out).

In all, if you want to keep most of the mud, dirt and water out of your house then this will help you do that. But if you want to keep all the dirt, mud and water out of your house then take your boots off at the door, or stay inside forever.

As for the price of this ‘magic carpet’ which is actually a door mat?
The prices range from around £7.00 for the smaller mat to over £20.00 for the larger size, but to be honest if you shop around you’ll probably find the larger ones at a much lower price than £20.00.

Are they worth the price..?
£20.00 for the larger one, hmmm, maybe not, due to the fact that a little shopping around may lead to the price that I paid for it, £11.00, which I was quite happy with. So if you can get the larger version for around a tenner then I’d say yes then, it is worth the money.

For the record there are other mats of this type, with a variety of names, all claiming to be the same as the magic mat but at a much lower price. And to be honest, as I’ve tried other mats from such stores as B and M, pound-stretcher and others, and have come to the conclusion that they all do the same thing, although the JML version does tend to work a bit better.

© Blissman70 2012