We have new exciting light bulbs in stock. They are LED accent bulbs. We have them with candelabra base for chandelier type bulbs, with a medium base for standard type bulbs or with a GU10 base. Gu10 is the two prong base that many halogen fixtures take. What is so great about these LED bulbs? Well, they use virtually no electricity. The manufactures claim that the medium base bulb pictured below replaces a 40watt bulb, while using only 1.5 watts of electricity. Yes, 1.5 watts. Wow! Now that’s a huge energy savings. They also run cool, creating almost no heat. LED bulbs have a very long life as well. The bulb pictured below has a 30,000 hour rating.

I will admit the 40 watt replacement may be a bit optimistic. Possibly because the light is a little different in color and quality, it does look different from a standard, soft-white 40 watt bulb. These would be great in fixtures where the bulbs are covered and would be especially good for accent lighting.

The best thing about these LED bulbs is that this is just the tip of the Iceberg, so to say. We have been talking to several bulb companies about LED bulbs for some time. The technology is just hitting the consumer market now, and will only get better and cheaper in the years to come. This is much like the CFL market was ten years ago. I predict that someday, before too long, if you’re not buying a CFL bulb, you’ll be buying an LED bulb. Between the two we’ll all be able to save a huge amount of electricity used in our homes every day. Keep watching for new and innovative bulbs, they’re coming soon.

We’ve just added a new local product!  GETGreen Lawn Greenalizer comes from GETMicrosolutions located in Fort Collins. 

GETGreen Lawn Greenalizer is not a fertilizer, yet a formula that uses naturally occurring nitrogen-fixing Azospirillum bacteria.  This bacteria helps build green grass and stimulate root growth.  After application grass will naturally green your grass within two weeks.  Growing larger, deeper roots will help cut back on watering costs. 

GET Green Lawn Greenalizer will work in all geographies, with all soil types, and all types of grasses.  It can be applied anytime from early spring to fall dormancy.

This product is in stock today.  Check out our prices compared to online.

A bunch of new appliances from Hamiltion Beach just hit the shelves.  Among them include their Eclectrics All Metal Stand Mixers and Wave Blenders.

The Hamiltion Beach Eclectrics Stand Mixers are comparable to the 4 Quart KitchenAid Mixer.  These Eclectrics stand mixers come with include these features: professional 2 way rotating mixing action, stainless steel 4.5 quart bowl, 3accessories (dough hook, beater, and wire whip), 400 watts of power and a limited three year warranty.  These mixers are great for basic food preparation; the only downside is the lack of add-on accessories.  Compare our prices to those online and you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Hamilton Beach Wave Blenders are another new addition to our inventory.  Wave Station Plus 12 Speed Dispensing and Wave Master are the two new products added.  Both these products have the Wave-Action system which continuously forces the mixture down into the blades creating a smoother mixture; leaving you with no more ice chunks!

Another great product added to our inventory is the Proctor-Silex Space Saving Blender.  The jar on this blender flips over for storage.  Check out this product at Proctor-Silex.

Here at ACE we’re finally pursuing the recent trend, the trend to “live green.”  It seems like in today’s society this challenge faces us everywhere, from our commute to work straight to the television shows we watch.  Yes this year even the Emmy’s went “green.”   Several of our new products have been eco-friendly; such as the recent Fresh Wave Odor Neutralizer.  Many of us here have incorporated the earth-friendly products into our lives and find value in using them.  Not only do they work great, but they also lack harmful chemicals.

In continuing to go with the trend, our new earth-friendly product is Ecos Earth Friendly Products.  The company is exceptional when it comes to their quest to be green.  They maintain their four manufacturing centers across America; where they recycle wastewater and source their ingredients domestically.  All Earth Friendly Products are made with replenishable and sustainable plant-based ingredients, making them safe for people, pets and the earth. 

The products we carry include: Dishmate (Almond and Grapefruit), Creamy CleanserToilet Cleaner, Floor Cleaner, Wave Auto Dishwasher Gel and Powder, Furniture Polish, Ecos Free and Clear Laundry Soap

Take a look Earth Friendly Products website.

We just received the line of Fresh Wave Odor Neutralizing products that Peggy discovered at the Fall ACE show in Denver.  She has tried every air freshener/odor neutralizer in our housewares section to no avail.  She purchased this product at the show and placed it next to her litter box in her laundry room; this area as always been a problem due to her three cats.  Since she’s been using the Fresh Wave Crystal Gel the smells of her cats are nowhere to be smelled! 

Fresh Wave Odor Neutralizing Products come in a variety of products, from candles to Pearl Packs.  All their products contain a mixture of soya, purified water and natural extracts of lime, pine needle, aniseed, clove and cedarwood.  The exceptional thing about Fresh Wave is it’s earth-friendly, natural, effective, yet still safe for using practically anywhere, even on your hair!  

Visit our store for Fresh Wave or for more information visit www.fresh-wave.com.

Are you tired of cleaning with harmful chemicals?  With many of us striving to live our lives more “green,” Green Works cleaners adds in this push.  Green Works cleaners are all natural powerful cleaners.  The Green Works products were developed with three core principles in mind: a product that was sustainable, biodegradable and not tested on animals.

Green Works cleaners are 99% natural and work the same (or even better) than the traditional cleaners that contain harsh chemicals.  Currently Green Works has an all purpose cleaner, toiler bowl cleaner, glass & surface cleaner, and a dilutable cleaner.

Look in our cleaning aisle (aisle 10) for these new upcoming products!http://www.greenworkscleaners.com/

A single-coat faux finish.  Yes, “forget what you know about faux finishing.”  Michelangelo is a single can of paint that lets you achieve the faux finishing look that you desire.  All it takes is just one coat of paint and a simple tool to create “endless possibilities.”  Once the paint is applied, apply pressure and movement with a basic tool, such as putty knife or sponge, to create depth and darker shades.  The color range is created by what tool you select.  You can work with the paint as much or little as you’d like to create the right look.  And if you mess up, just paint right over it and start over again.

 This is a great product for the first time faux finisher.  Not only is it cost-effective, but it’s easy to use and far less time consuming than other faux finishers.

For more information visit www.MichelangeloHome.com or come visit our helpful paint department.

Shiny New Pot Rack, originally uploaded by dzvette53.

I recently moved in with my girlfriend Shannon, and as a result, for the first time in my life I live in a place that actually has a touch of class. So just to show that I could contribute to our great looking townhouse (and since I have ugly but NON-STICK pots and pans that are good for cooking and she has beautiful stainless pots and pans that are terrible for actual cooking), I brought home from the store this black pot rack with silver grate that looks fantastic hanging over our island. The rack is cool product #1… it looks great and is easy to install with a few drywall anchors.

But what I was really impressed was cool product #2 I found as part of this project. That was MAAS metal polish. The old stainless pans needed a face lift going from production cooking duty to purely display and WOW did MAAS do the trick. Totally impressed, so much so I ran around the house doing all the faucets and most anything else that was shiny metal I could find. Anyway, I highly recommend it (and of course it came from ACE also). More info on it available at www.maasinc.com.

We had an exciting weekend this past weekend. The big semi-annual ACE Hardware convention was this weekend and for the first time in several years it was in Denver. That means we had a chance to get a bunch of our employees down to the convention center to experience. I hadn’t been myself since I was a kid really so I enjoyed spending Friday afternoon and Saturday morning checking things out. Here is a cell phone pic of the “Welcome to Denver” sign in the airport for all the Acers flying in I saw in the airport Sunday night on my way out to Philadelphia:

I would bet Clark will have a post on the show coming up too since he is really the head of operations when it comes to that sort of thing. But… speaking of interesting welcome signs, check out this one on one of Denver’s most famous strip clubs right across from the convention center! What kind of people do they think we Acers are exactly?

Anyway, good show, and we’ll have exciting new products and news to follow I’m sure.

So as some have noticed (and sent me emails about, thanks for that), since we launched our redesigned website, the little search box in the top right corner of each page has not worked. Attempting to use it just resulted in an error. Well, no longer. Now when you use it, a Google search of the orchardshardware.com website (including this blog) is done. Fairly helpful I think. The unfortunate part of this is that of course everything we have in the store is not on the website so a search won’t find MOST of what we carry, but still helpful for finding information on the site.

Here’s a cool little deal though. For anyone who uses the Google customized home page (iGoogle), which I definitely recommend, you can add a gadget to execute orchardshardware.com searches right from your Google homepage! While I am fully aware that real estate on your homepage is precious and almost certainly no one but me will add this gadget I thought I would post anyway just in case. Just click the “Add to Google” graphic below.