C4 Superscrimper "expert"

shaun_from_Africa

I was watching Superscripmers on C4 last night, and I was amazed to hear one of their experts saying that a good way to save money is to avoid using distilled water to top up car batteries, instead just used boiled water that has totally cooled.

Boiling will kill the bacteria in water, but will do nothing to remove any of the contaminants and in reality could make it worse than it was prior to boiling as some of the pure water would evaporate therefore condensing the contaminants more.

If you have very alkaline tap water, boiling this then putting it in a lead acid battery will end up killing it if done on a regular basis.

So if anyone on here watched that particular program last night, don't try to save a few pennies by following the advice as it may end up costing you far more in the long run.

garyhopef2s

They should check their information before airing the program. The gardener also told us to dig a hole 30 feet deep to put in a bit of piping. Surely he meant 30 cm ??

Dave_C_2

I thought the majority of car batteries these days were sealed, no need for topping up under normal circumstances.:)

Life of a sealed battery can be extended by topping up, but once a battery starts to fail its life can only be extended for a few weeks at the most.

Dave

Valli

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Boiling will kill the bacteria in water, but will do nothing to remove any of the contaminants and in reality could make it worse than it was prior to boiling as some of the pure water would evaporate therefore condensing the contaminants more.

If you have very alkaline tap water, boiling this then putting it in a lead acid battery will end up killing it if done on a regular basis.

So if anyone on here watched that particular program last night, don't try to save a few pennies by following the advice as it may end up costing you far more in the long run.

Do you mean increasing the amount of impurities to a higher level of concentration?

I haven't topped up a car battery for years and years anyway. Not since I got sent to the stores for a 'long stand' They're sealed now.

theanimals

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

I was watching Superscripmers on C4 last night, and I was amazed to hear one of their experts saying that a good way to save money is to avoid using distilled water to top up car batteries, instead just used boiled water that has totally cooled.

Boiling will kill the bacteria in water, but will do nothing to remove any of the contaminants and in reality could make it worse than it was prior to boiling as some of the pure water would evaporate therefore condensing the contaminants more.

If you have very alkaline tap water, boiling this then putting it in a lead acid battery will end up killing it if done on a regular basis.

So if anyone on here watched that particular program last night, don't try to save a few pennies by following the advice as it may end up costing you far more in the long run.

Spot on.
I phoned Ch4 and complained about this item. It's a sad reflection on our science education system that this could be shot, edited and previewed with no one picking up a basic mistake.

Car batteries can also be very dangerous animals.
I witnessed one exploding once. An electrician had been charging a battery and decide to check the state of charge by doing a 'prong test' which draws a load from the battery. Doing this produced a spark which ignited the hydrogen gas given off during the charging process. It blew the top of the battery. Fortunately he was wearing a protective mask and gloves and only ended up with minor acid burns.
Its made me extremely wary !!!

trumpton

I thought it was a bit odd too as I haven't seen an unsealed battery for years. I think they just have these old fashioned scrimping tips in the show to add a bit of variety.

I also thought that encouraging people to forage for plants to eat could be a bit dodgy too. Stay away from the 'shrooms, folks.

The same woman was showing how to make home made pesto. By the time you have foraged for your wild garlic, bought the pine nuts, oil, and so on, you could have bought a jar of pesto for under a quid. Mass production and cheap foreign labour has put paid to many money saving activities, I'm afraid. It's cheaper to buy a new pair of socks from Primark than it is to buy a sewing kit to darn the old pair.

I'm all for reduce, reuse, recycle, but smart shopping is the easiest way to save money these days.

wary

theanimals wrote: »

Spot on.
I phoned Ch4 and complained about this item.

What kind of response did you get?

I once complained to C4 about a documentary that was factually incorrect in places and could easily lead people into a scam. I thought at very least they'd make a careful log of my call (even if they didn't check out my claims and go as far as to air a correction etc ...), but there was none of that whatsoever. Rather, the guy to whom I was put through seemed to see his role as defending C4 when under criticism.

He was aggressive in his attitude from the start, and when he took exception to something I said on the grounds that I didn't personally know the guy in the documentary, the remainder of the "discussion" was conducted with him shouting & bawling, rather than discussing it as a supposedly civilised human being and listening to what I had to say.

So I hope you got a more receptive response from them than did I. Certainly from my experience, Channel 4's complaints process is a total farce and an absolute disgrace.

Pollycat

trumpton wrote: »

By the time you have foraged for your wild garlic, bought the pine nuts, oil, and so on, you could have bought a jar of pesto for under a quid. Mass production and cheap foreign labour has put paid to many money saving activities, I'm afraid. It's cheaper to buy a new pair of socks from Primark than it is to buy a sewing kit to darn the old pair.

I spotted that too!

A mug of olive oil, I think she said. :eek:

And the woman who was making earrings for free - no mention of the cost of the earring wires or feathers. I certainly don't have feathers like that hanging around the house.

I also thought the item on selling unwanted gold was a bit iffy.
They mentioned some postal sites but didn't give a warning that some of these websites are not as honest as they should be.

And Mr Wallop didn't pack much of a wallop, imho.
The so-called savvy woman in the energy bill segment had signed up to change her supplier to a cold-caller on her doorstep.

Not my definition of savvy, dear. :cool:

browneyedbazzi

I haven't watched the new series but did watch the show in the past and was disappointed with some of the money saving tips...including all the things one old woman figured you should clean with lemons.

How exactly is using a lemon that costs around 25p (or more, it's been a while since I bought lemons!) better value than using a squirt from a cleaning product at a penny or two? I often wait until shops have offers on and stock up on cleaning products so rarely pay more than £1 or £1.50 for a bottle of cleaner that will last for ages...surely that's more moneysaving than going out buying crates of lemons all the while.

Unless you live somewhere warm and have a lemon tree growing in your garden of course.

trumpton

That's the trouble. Old-fashioned money saving has been made obsolete by the sheer cheapness of most stuff nowadays.

I think that money saving is kind of a hobby for some of the people on the show. If you actually did the economics of it, taking time spent into account, I can't imagine that it is actually cheaper to clean the house with lemon and vinegar than to buy Stardrops from Home Bargains at 89p for a massive bottle.

It's a shame in a way as it leads to items being thrown away that should really be repaired. And it leads to us buying an endless stream of cheap tat, made in China by people paid next to nothing, which just ends up as landfill.

I hate to waste money, but so many of the tips on Superscrimpers, especially the clothing ones, seem more like people just following their hobbies as cheaply as they can, rather than genuine money saving ideas.

I think the family challenges are good, though. I am always amazed at how much some people spend. I am looking forward to next weeks show - the trailer suggest that family spent £13k a year on food, including £4,600 on takeaways.

browneyedbazzi

trumpton wrote: »

I think the family challenges are good, though. I am always amazed at how much some people spend. I am looking forward to next weeks show - the trailer suggest that family spent £13k a year on food, including £4,600 on takeaways.

What are they eating???? and how much of it???

I feel less bad about my £150 a month (for two of us) now!