Aldi's Genius Gadget Makes Cleaning Dirty Kitchens A Breeze (Without The Hefty Price Tag)

If you're not a fan of putting in elbow grease to get grime off your backsplash tiles or remove gluey stovetop messes, Aldi has a formidable solution for you: The Ambiano cordless handheld power scrubber. It goes for $14.99 and includes three attachments: a wide brush, a narrow brush, and a scouring sponge. You also get a USB cable for charging.

Those features are all pretty useful: The wide brush is good for bigger surfaces like countertops or floors, while the narrow one is handy for getting at hard-to-reach corners. You can break out the scourer to tackle any baked-on grime. Just know that this kind of scrubber isn't the safest way to clean sticky, grimy cabinets. The USB charging is also a perk, as you don't have to worry about getting tangled up in a cable or buying batteries.

The Ambiano scrubber seems to have received generally good reviews, too, with buyers saying it works a treat for cleaning all sorts of surfaces, taking the manual labor out of cleaning. Some users also recommend it for the bathroom, though you should grab two if you want it for both rooms. That shouldn't be an issue since perhaps the biggest perk of the gadget is the price. The best-selling equivalents on Amazon go for noticeably higher prices, sometimes well over double. And while the Synoshi brand has an equivalent device for around the same price at Walmart, it has fairly mediocre reviews, with complaints that it's ineffective and breaks quickly.

Of course, there's always a catch or two. One notable issue is that the scrubber is part of the Aldi Finds collection, which basically means it's a special item that Aldi stocks for a limited time until it sells out. There's no clear way to tell when such products will return, although Aldi's catalog (online and in-store) will announce items around a week before they appear on shelves. That said, at the time of writing, it appears that the scrubber is available for purchase on Aldi's website.

If you're questioning the apparently unknown brand, know that Ambiano is an in-house Aldi brand. The supermarket gets Ambiano appliances from third-party manufacturers, which means it's unclear who actually makes this scrubber, making it tough to judge based on brand name. That said, some online reviews for other Ambiano products have flagged problems. 

For the power scrubber, there aren't many thorough reviews out there, but it's possible to find similar complaints — for example, about the scrubber breaking down after a few uses. One complaint that stands out is that it's difficult to take the brushes off. Apparently, it requires some force. Another shortcoming could be that Aldi doesn't seem to sell replacement brushes, so if they get irredeemably dirty, you may have to resort to DIY solutions like trying to fit another brand's brushes on the device. That said, Aldi's return policy is reasonably generous, so if you don't like the scrubber, you can take it back within 90 days of purchase.