ShamWow

Photo: Andrew Nawrocki

Photo: Andrew Nawrocki

Shamwah wah waaah The line that stands out the most in the infomercial for superabsorbant towel ShamWow comes when the guy with the headset microphone shouts (he doesn’t seem to have an indoor voice), “It’s made in Germany! You know Germans make good stuff!” Well, guess what? The Germans need to go back to the drawing board with this one. The ShamWow did a good job of cleaning up spilled water on a countertop, but not any better than a regular old paper towel. On the commercial, headset guy claims ShamWow can absorb liquid pooled underneath the carpet. We dumped some water on a rug, and while the spot appeared to go away as we blotted it with the towel, the rug still felt fairly wet. A dry ShamWow didn’t even make much of a difference when we attempted to soak up a wet spot on an upholstered office chair. The catchphrase on the outside of ShamWow’s box says, “You’ll say WOW every time!” We didn’t have that reaction once, but the box includes four large and four mini towels, so we have the option to keep trying. Available for $20 at Walgreens (locations around the city); shamwow.com.

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