Things you've learned through experience

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Things you've learned through experience

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Contributor: Boxers Over Briefs Boxers Over Briefs
There's a lot of information on this site and I've been wondering how much of it has been learned through experience, and how much is just parroted from other articles and reviews. Good examples of this are the obligatory statements in all silicone toy reviews: "10% bleach solution, boil for three minutes, or top rack of the dishwasher blah blah blah," and "never use silicone lube." Nearly everyone says it, but has everyone tried? I boiled my silicone toys for the first time tonight and discovered their amazing capacity to hold heat. I immediately grabbed one of my plugs, put it in, and was amazed at the sensation; I had no idea. The point of this post then, is to find information that has been discovered first hand that maybe everyone hasn't tried, or is not commonly repeated here.

tl;dr: Stuff you've discovered first hand.

Jelly is crazy porous and will absorb smells.

A masturbator is not necessarily better than a hand.

Silicone retains heat really well, and feels fantastic a moment or two after you've boiled it for three minutes.
02/07/2010
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Contributor: LicentiouslyYours LicentiouslyYours
Quote:
Originally posted by Boxers Over Briefs
There's a lot of information on this site and I've been wondering how much of it has been learned through experience, and how much is just parroted from other articles and reviews. Good examples of this are the obligatory statements in all ... more
I think it's a combination of first hand experience and information found here.
I use the material information page which gives information on the properties of the material, cleaning and safe lubes to use that I just didn't have when I first started reviewing.

I know there are some things that get parroted along the way and become conventional wisdom even tho they might not be 100% accurate.

An example is "keep silicone toys away from other silicone toys." But I know at least one reviewer who stores her silicone toys one right on top of the other without consequence. I have a few silicone toys from the same manufacturer and I store them in the same place with nothing between them and they seem fine.

So, if a claim made over and over seems fishy, that's when you should try to discover first hand if what people say seems true in practice.

Most of my specific observations on an individual toy come directly from holding it in my hand and trying it out. And that's the way it should be. But sometimes it's nice to get information from someone else's experience with a toy.

For example: The fabulous Carrie Ann sets all her silicone toys on fire to make sure they are genuine silicone (which doesn't burn and only melts at seriously high temps...toys that catch fire or melt under the heat of a cigarette lighter are most certainly not 100% silicone) so we don't have to. That's the kind of thing you just can't figure out for yourself without a commitment to destroy your toy in search of the truth! Thank you CA
02/08/2010
Contributor: Sammi Sammi
I agree, it is a combination. I have a lot of silicone toys, and so I don't have silicone lubes. I rely on others that have had the lube react, and I don't want to harm any I have.

I don't typically boil toys (although I have) since I don't have big enough pots to make it practical, and when I clean, I mass clean. So, a few dishwasher cycles will do it. I know from experience that silicone, metal, glass, etc. all go just fine through the dishwasher, and that's a great way to clean them. And they do retain a lot of heat that way

I've had a few silicone toys that I've piled on each other that did strange things, and others that didn't have a problem in close quarters. So I typically will recommend keeping them apart.

I won't set my silicone toys on fire - I'll rely on Carrie Ann for that .
02/08/2010
Contributor: MuffysPinguLove MuffysPinguLove
I wish I was cool enough to set my silicone toys on fire, but I think my roommates would have heart attacks if they walked in on my lighting said toys on fire
02/09/2010
Contributor: Alan & Michele Alan & Michele
It's a combo here too, although we have quite a bit of first hand experience with the no silicone lube on silicone toys thing. We literally ruined a Tantus toy once with a supposed 'high grade' silicone lube, which led to a lengthy experimentation to find out how common that was with other lubes. It turned out that almost all silicone lubes did damage even the best silicone toys, so we generally tell people not to do it.

Boiling silicone and putting it in the dishwasher are both things we've done (and yes they do retain heat well), but bleach does weird things to me so we'll likely never try that. I figure it's safe enough for us to mention it as a cleaning option in reviews though since we know a lot of people personally who do clean their toys that way.

We haven't made any comments in reviews in regards to storing silicone with silicone (that I recall) because what we have so far stores together with no issues. Other materials are a different story in our experience, particularly TPR.
02/09/2010