Activeion Pro {Review & Giveaway} Clean and sanitize with just water! ARV $299

{This giveaway is now closed. Thanks to those who entered!}

My girls are really into playing with pretend food. I'm commonly asked what toys they are into and my answer is always the food. Anything that can be done with fake food - we do it. We push grocery carts and shop for food, we carry it around in paper bags, we cook it in the pretend kitchen, we lay it out on miniature plates and talk about how much we like eating it... you get the picture.

While Little Sister B doesn't quite do all of the aforementioned role playing, she still loves the food. She'll pull each fake ear of corn or piece of bread or realistic-looking potato out of the bin, examine it and mimic eating it right along with her sister and me. All in all, the pretend food has been among our most-used toys since the day it all arrived at our house. (It may look like Little Sister B, but the picture at right is actually Big Sister E when she was around 15 months old testing out the new food.)

Considering the amount of use the food gets around here, I've turned it into a fun task with Big Sister E to give it a "bath," where it all gets dumped out and thoroughly cleaned. Unfortunately, it doesn't work the same way for the shopping carts or play kitchen... or any of the other larger items in our playroom.

I cringe at the thought of spraying them down with chemicals, considering that they'll either directly or indirectly go into my daughters' mouths... but just water isn't going to get rid of the germs, which is especially important this time of year. Right?

But how about... activated water?


A first glance at the Activeion Pro from Activeion Cleaning Solutions and, yes, it looks a little futuristic. But in a sense, the concept of cleaning without having to buy any bottles of harmful chemicals almost seems like a fairly far-fetched idea. How can this little hand-held machine use only water to rid my house of dirt and bacteria?

The scientific explanation is that by electrically charging tap water and passing it through an ion exchange membrane, a mixture of positive and negative nano-bubbles are formed. This activated water actually attracts dirt like a magnet and lifts it away from the surface for around 30 - 45 seconds, giving you plenty of time to easily wipe it away.

In terms that people like me can understand, basically the plain water that you put in to the Activeion Pro comes out all hyped up and able to loosen and suspend dirt particles away from your counters, tubs, tiles, carpets, toys, etc. Whether you're cleaning glass, marble, stainless steel, wood or fabric, when used as directed, the Activeion Pro offers a greater than 99.9% reduction of a whole list of disgusting bacterias, including the H1N1 virus.

Considering my entire house needed cleaning, I wasn't sure where to begin. As lunchtime was ending, I brought over the tray from Little Sister B's high chair to test the Activeion Pro on the aftermath of one of her mealtimes.

Now just imagine what the floor looked like.

You have to look closely, but along with all the peas, there is quite a bit of dried, crusted food on the tray, too (particularly along the top edge where Little Sister B's oatmeal-covered hands quite often rest). Normally I would have to tackle the tray into the sink and try to bend it under the faucet to scrub it down, but this time I took the fully charged Activeion Pro, filled it with cool water and gave it a spray.


The Activeion Pro lights up green (the whole base lights up, it's actually pretty cool) to let you know that it's working and I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't make a loud noise when being used. As soon as Big Sister E saw me pick up the Activeion Pro, she started to protest because she had also assumed that it would be loud (she can't be anywhere near the vacuum) but after a spray or two, she was sold.


After I wiped the tray with my handy washcloth, I thought... that using the Activeion Pro sure seemed easy. I loved how sparkling clean the tray was and that I hadn't used a single thing on it that would at all be bad for my daughter to later eat from. Best of all (and shhh, don't tell my husband this part), I actually had fun doing it.

Moving around my house, I used the Activeion Pro on toys, the bathroom sink, Big Sister E's booster seat, ground-in dirt in between bathroom counter tiles... and the whole time all I needed was a cloth and tap water.

The Activeion Pro took the place of multiple bottles of cleaning solutions and not once did I miss the horrible smells or the concern over lingering chemicals on surfaces. Plus, I was able to tilt it in any direction (I even tried completely upside down) and it worked great at getting into every nook and cranny that I tried.

For nearly $300, yes, the Activeion Pro is a big step to take initially. However, go green! This is better cleaning for you, your family, the environment and, in the long run, you'll save money by not having to buy all those bottles of harsh products year after year.

Activeion's newest product, the ionator HOM (seen at right), would also be a wonderful item to own and use around the house. Using the same principles as the Activeion Pro, the ionator HOM is slightly smaller, white and costs $169. If you weren't sure about purchasing the Activeion Pro, the ionator HOM is definitely an investment worth making for the health of your family.

If the lower price of the ionator HOM isn't quite enough, how about a discount, too? Right now Activeion is running a friends and family promotion through 12/31/09. Enter the coupon/promo code family online and you'll receive an additional $20 off the ionator HOM!

I love being able to pull out the Activeion Pro for cleaning pretty much anything, big or small. There's no waiting for the kids to be done playing or need to have them leave the room or even waiting around for the toy they want to fully dry - it's water! As soon as I trust that I won't find the entire room soaked, I plan on teaching Big Sister E to use the Activeion Pro herself. It's never too early to learn good cleaning habits!

Be sure to keep up with Activeion on Facebook for more information about all of their great products. Thanks to the generosity of Activeion Cleaning Solutions, one person will get to use this wonderful product too, because...

One lucky person is going to win an Activeion Pro of their own!
ARV $299.00!

To enter to win your own Activeion Pro: Visit Activeion Cleaning Solutions and tell me why you think this would be a great product to own. Please do me the favor of leaving an email address or making absolutely sure it is visible in your profile. I have to have a way to contact the winner.

Extra Entries (available after the mandatory entry above is completed; please leave a separate comment for each entry in order for them to be counted. For example, if you subscribe, leave one comment saying "I subscribe #1" and a separate comment saying "I subscribe #2")

1 Extra Entry (per method) if you follow Activeion on Twitter and/or tell me the distributor nearest you that carries Activeion's great products (the distributor locator is on the top right of their website).
1 Extra Entry (per giveaway entered) - Enter any (or all) of the giveaways running on Thanks, Mail Carrier for the duration of this giveaway. See the list on the top of my right sidebar - there are some really great ones going on right now and coming up!
1 Extra Entry if you follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway by copying and pasting the tweet below and leaving me the link. Tweet daily for an extra entry every day!

Win an Activeion Pro (ARV $299) - the healthiest way to clean @thxmailcarrier from @active_ion! http://bit.ly/4uDmYD #giveaway #win

2 Extra Entries per follow method (leave 2 separate comments for each type) if you follow me with Google Friend Connect (see sidebar), subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe to Thanks, Mail Carrier by email.
3 Extra Entries (leave 3 separate comments) if you put my cute button up on your blog. Please leave an address where it can be found.
3 Extra Entries (leave 3 separate comments) if you blog about this giveaway linking back to Thanks, Mail Carrier and Activeion Cleaning Solutions. Please leave an address where it can be found.
Giveaway will end on January 4th, 2010 (a little extra time to skip over the holidays) at 11:59pm CST. The winner will be chosen by random.org and announced here as well as emailed. The winner will have 48 hours to contact me or respond to notification or a new winner will be chosen. Giveaway open to U.S. residents only.

A big thank you to Amber at Activeion Cleaning Solutions for providing me with an Activeion Pro to review as well as for one lucky giveaway winner. The future of cleaning is green - and it's here! The opinions shared are my own and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.