Tried It Tuesday - Off! PowerPad Lamp

As a BzzAgent, I recently was invited to participate in the BzzCampaign for Off! PowerPad Lamp and Clip-On Mosquito Repellent. I figured it would be nice to have an alternative to spray repellents or citronella candles, which always seem to be very smoky.

I have not yet had the chance to try the Clip-on Mosquito Repellent, but it provides "personal mosquito protection". You can clip it to your bag or belt or sit it next to you to get your own individual radius of protection from mosquitoes.

What I did try this weekend at our Memorial Day picnic was the Off! PowerPad Lamp. With the PowerPad Lamp, you light a small candle that activates the repellent pad to protect an area up to 15' x 15', the size of an average deck or patio. According to the literature, this same area would require 15 citronella buckets (really?).

The PowerPad Lamp was very easy to use. You simply open up the cover, place the candle in the candle holder and open and place the repellent pad in the lamp. Light the candle and close the cover. The repellent pad needs to be replaced when the candle no longer lights - this is a nice feature, making it easy to know that you are covered as long as you have a candle. Plus, it makes it convenient for them to package the two parts together in their refill packets.

Overall, we were satisfied with the performance of the lamp. There didn't seem to be any bugs bothering us, as we visited on our deck into the late hours of the evening. The candle is supposed to burn for about 4 hours. We only had it lit for about 3 hours before extinguishing it and heading indoors to watch some Cav's basketball (they lost, should have stayed outside visiting). I am curious to see how much more time we get when we light it next time.

The PowerPad Lamp is unscented, but the new unit seemed to give off somewhat of a burning plastic smell. One of my guests indicated that the smell of citronella would be preferred to the burning plastic. I am not a big fan of citronella, so I'm not so sure. I felt like the smell diminished the longer it was burning, and imagine with continued reuse of the lamp that this smell would go away completely.

The starter kit retails for $9.49 and the refill pack, which contains 3 refills, retails for $5.49. They also offer the starter kit in a lantern version that can be hung in your back yard. For us, we simply placed the lamp on the table we were sitting around, but if you had a bigger yard or were not planning to be around a table, the lantern would probably be a great option.

You can find a coupon for the Clip-On here.

Have you tried the Off! PowerPad Lamp or Clip-On? What did you think? Leave us a comment or link to your blog.