Chronically poor sleeping usually leads to me doing some stupid things. Can’t tell you how many times I’ve dropped things on the kitchen floor in the morning because I was so tired. Or made the coffee too weak because I wasn’t paying full attention. Or misplayed Wordle by putting a letter in the same position that was already deemed incorrect. But one of my worst habits on those kinds of nights is watching shopping network shows. I do that because they are generally boring and often allow me to drift off again. And while I never immediately buy anything from them, I will often become intrigued enough about a specific product to start researching it online the next day.

And that recently happened with an infomercial I saw for a battery operated scrubbing brush that the man in the ad was using to conveniently and easily clean his car with – as well as several other household items. It just looked cool and fun to use. And I imagined myself – for some unknown reason — using it to clean the perpetually filthy wheel covers on my wife’s car. Whenever I wash her car, I hate bending down to clean those covers. So I just give each of them a quick power spray and hope it cleans them to some extent. In reality, it never really does.

But don’t touch that dial! I was recently invited to test out the HOTO Electric Spin Scrubber that is described as a waterproof bathroom shower cleaning brush and scrubber. It comes with a telescoping long handle and six interchangeable brush heads. I’m not sure if this is the same product I saw on TV, but its premise is the same.

And it’s been satisfyingly fun and hypnotic to use in my experience. Its motor can be set to two speeds through a little toggle on top, and it promises to give a thorough cleaning without risking damage to surfaces. The high-capacity lithium battery provides about 100 minutes of juice on a full charge. I was able to effortlessly clean our shower wall and floor tiles in minutes. I just sprayed the shower walls with some cleaner, doused the brush head in water, and then essentially rubbed the scrubber up and down the wall. I could see the dirty white tiles immediately turn white and shiny during the process. I then took it outside and used it on our car windshield to quickly get rid of some nasty sticky tree sap that was a pain to do by hand. And yes, the big test was when I used it on the wheel covers. It worked just as I’d hoped and imagined. My wife now has the cleanest wheel covers on the block.

One thing I hadn’t anticipated is that when you’re done cleaning, you have to rinse out the brush and then set it aside in the sun to dry out. Not a big deal but you can’t tuck it into the included storage pouch while it’s still damp or else you’ll get everything else in there all wet. Also, the telescoping handle for some reason is way too long to fit into that pouch. But overall, it’s been fun to use. And now that the wheel covers are clean, maybe I can get some shut-eye.