Illumibowl is a clip on motion activated "night light" for your toilet. Initially funded by a Kickstarter campaign, this product was invented to help people with their middle of the night bathroom trips -- no more turning the light on and blinding yourself at midnight. No more trying to go to the bathroom without the lights on, only to bump into the counter and bruise your hip in the process. In March, 2016, Illumibowl was featured on Sharktank and is now partnered with Kevin O'Leary and available for purchase either on their website or at your local Bed Bath & Beyond.
Now, in theory, this product seems like a great product. For me, not so much!
I have a 5 and a 3 year old who both are potty trained and use the bathroom on a regular basis. Show young children like mine the pretty new lights in the toilet EVERY time they walk into the bathroom and you have a problem!
They want to push the button to switch colors, want to sit there and watch every single color shine through, making their bathroom adventures longer than ever.
As if that didn't drive me crazy enough, the suction cups on the product would not stick, no matter what we did! (Their FAQ has suggestions for dealing with that, but they didn't work for us.)
So when the kids were not trying to get the colors to change, they were trying to "help" by fixing it and resticking it somewhere, not always on the toilet, but now I was having to try to keep them from sticking their hands in the bowl to attach the light!
I eventually took it off the toilet and pointed the sensor towards the toilet so it still turned on whenever you sat down, but we never got the cool effects that the product promises.
I think this product may do a lot better with a hook type element rather than the suction cups. Something that hooks over the bowl itself. I noticed that for the short time it did stick, as soon as my husband lifted the lid, it would flop over leaving him having to move it back. Kind of annoying!
So for the women of the world (who don't lift the seat) , this may be the product for you! Keep away from men and kids, in my opinion!
I switched the batteries a few times and nothing seemed to help. I contacted the company and was assured that customer satisfaction was 100% guaranteed and a new product would be sent out to me.
I got a new product in two weeks, but unfortunately the replacement had the same issues and I ended up throwing it in the garbage one irritated night.
I love that the company is willing to make sure that the customer is completely satisfied, but after receiving a product, then a replacement and it still not working, I am not sold. Had this not been a review in which the product was complementary to me, I would have been asking for a refund rather than a replacement!
If anyone has had success using the Illumibowl, please share your experiences with us in comments!
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That's hilarious! We like to watch Shark Tank and they seem pretty critical in which products they endorse so I'm really surprised that this product had so many issues, hopefully they will get it resolved. I can imagine that for kids this is like an invitation to play, and that would get old really quickly for me. I bet that this does help in the middle of the night, so that you aren't exposed to the bright bathroom light which could make it harder to get back to sleep, but I bet a dimmer switch on the bathroom light itself would be a better option. Thanks for sharing your experience!
ReplyDeleteI was sent this product to review and I thought it was pretty neat. The reason it intrigued me was I was hoping it would get my son to actually pee in the bowl and not on the floor. It helped some in that regard but I didn't like that the room had to be pitch black for the light to go on. We ended up covering it with a washcloth so the light would stay on. Had no problem with the suction cups though. Really loved your post.
ReplyDeleteDisaster, never sticks or stays on. Constantly falls off. Goes through batteries constantly!
ReplyDeleteI am glad you covered this product. Such a cool little product. I myself wrote a review of Illumibowl at Reddit. Here it is if you wanna check it out - https://www.reddit.com/r/HomeImprovement/comments/5qotjv/illumibowl_20_review_motion_activated_nightlight/
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