Things that just bug ya?

annr said:
The thing I don’t understand about the alledged energy efficiency scheme is: how is it more efficient to buy 3 appliances instead of one in the same period of time.
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Brilliant observation.

The Lemon Laws corrected many issues with respect to cars. Applying a similar logic to your comment is the kind of government regulation I can get behind.
 
marchone said:
Brilliant observation.

The Lemon Laws corrected many issues with respect to cars. Applying a similar logic to your comment is the kind of government regulation I can get behind.
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The irony is that the older appliances weren’t lemons.

It was government regulation to “improve” them that appears to coincide with their truncated lifespan. I’ve never heard any mention of improving this either.

Root cause? Don’t know. Foreign manufacture? That gets into corporate tax questions…and more. But I think it’s fraudulent if companies could already manufacture a system that performed 30, 40, 50+ years, were forced to replace it with one that likely won’t make 10 years, and then tell us that’s efficient.
 
22-rimfire 22-rimfire
We had converted to circuit breakers just prior to the electrical storm, however the affected appliances were not on surge protectors (or would that be impossible and my memory is off?). The new appliances all seem to have surge protection built into the power cords—one meaningful improvement.

We replaced our fridge this fall, and for the first time in 30 years I’ve had food repeatedly mold or rot before I was able to finish it. (I haven’t figured out what that’s all about.) I’m wondering if the glass—rather than wire—shelves promote/trap more moisture around the food or if the shape of interior space contributes.

About your indoor temps: any possibility of a hotel/motel if it gets too chilly?
 
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Hotel/Motel is a worst case option at this point. We have plants that I don't want to freeze too, but I doubt indoor temps will get that cold in this case. Temps may become a little uncomfortable, but I believe we'll be okay. I will have to experience it tonight to be sure. It really depends on the day time warm up more than anything. If temps stayed in the 30's during the day, it would become a bigger problem.

I have circuit breakers also or I think I do. Indoor stuff is somewhat protected with surge protectors. But I read that there is no protection from essentially a direct lightning strike. Too many amps all at once and the damage is done before any kind of protection reacts.

I have a number of portable electric heaters already. Also have a kerosene heater that I have never used. Bought it just prior to the Y2K thing as a blanket safety device for winter heat. Also have a torpedo heater that I use for work stuff. I don't really want to use it inside my house due to CO2 and CO, but I will if necessary and will pay very close attention when it is active. I can crack a window in the room it is located too.

We replaced our frig two years ago after a long run with the old one. No complaints about that. The ice maker had died on the old one and I never got it repaired. I am a bit weary of valve malfunctions and water indoors. Had that happen once and will never forget all the water from just a damn frig. The freezer side had completely filled up with water.
 
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Sounds like you’re prepared. Good luck.

One other thing: around here pipes can freeze when house goes unheated in cold temps (don’t know if that’s an issue there), and it’s supposedly smart to leave the water running slightly to avoid bursting pipes.

ETA: we have basements.
 
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If temps continue to be sub-freezing during the day, I would take precautions on water pipes. But things are barely going to be freezing over the next couple of nights. Uncomfortable to be sure.

We have a gas fireplace also. But I have never used it in 20 years of living here. They are huge energy hogs.
 
22-rimfire said:
22-rimfire 22-rimfire
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It was a struggle to push the storm doors out with all the snow drifted up against them this morning ... and now the snow-devils whipped up by the high winds are whiting out everything. But, the accumulation today is light according to the forecast. I will not even try the snowblower until the wind subsides - perhaps tomorrow, not likely today.

Wow - snowshoe weather finally (when the wind drops):p

And while we are taking issue with all things with built in obsolescence - I have taken two small chest freezers, different makes, that both died at month 12 1/2 ... so past warranty. I took paint and lettered "LEMON" along with the brand name, dates of purchase and death, on both of them and left them conspicuously up front in the recycling section of my busy transfer station. Will never buy one again.

Most recently, I had to replace my inkjet printer - the old one having been damaged in the move in the fall of 2017. OK - the new installation required a download of 32 mb, so I was off to the public library. Not good enough - the printer had to be cabled in to the laptop, so a second trip complete with printer and cable and laptop to the library in town. At this point, I had to do some fancy dodging to ensure that the printer was disabled from communicating directly with the manufacture so it could not 'cry' for ink when its 'bottle' got low. These things have a licence to print money! Love/hate printers.

Stay warm all.
 
taldesta taldesta
That pretty much sums it up when you can readily compute your freezers’ life spans in months—that’s reserved for babies’ ages!

I never used to buy the extended warranty, and now I always do. Recently, that saved me about $1100. My hot water heater died within 6 mo. of the termination of the extended warranty. Same for the screen on my computer—it developed a problem a few months shy of the extended warranty deadline—translation: saved $500 and got new screen.

It’s sad when the salesperson warns you you are better off with the warranty—and they are correct!

Good luck with the snow. 30% chance of snow here for about 2 hours this AM with high wind warnings til evening. Could mean anything or nothing…
 
I have three ink jet printers. I suspect all have dried ink inside their plumbing and essentially kaput. Why three? One was to print family photographs for my wife and two were printers I picked up during out of town jobs and needed to print stuff. I have two laser printers (one color and one b&w) in my little office/man room. Unfortunately, I will probably buy another ink jet (because they are relatively cheap) if and when I'm on an out of town job and need hard copies. They are money hogs on liquid ink which is why I use laser printers which have a powdered ink supply. I discovered that there is a time limit also on the life of the liquid ink.... won't work if out of date. Money racket to be sure.... I have never found the wifi connections with these printers to be very reliable and cabled all of them when I used them.

I'd like to find a small (mostly portable) inexpensive b&w laser printer to carry with me on out of town jobs. Probably need to look into that again.

Had a separate fax line up until about a week ago. Seldom use or receive faxes any more. I have still maintained one wired land line telephone connection to the house and will manually plug in the fax machine IF I need to fax something.

Have a small chest freezer... the plastic hinge broke after about 10 years. Manufacturer does not have the part any more. Eventually I will have to buy another freezer simply because of a plastic hinge I can't replace. Tried gluing. To date, that has not been successful. Even super glue is not strong enough (even braced).
 
22-rimfire said:
taldesta taldesta
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I know this is a sales tactic, and until 2013 I would have refused. (Also depends on the item and cost of warranty, risk/benefit.)

I was SHOCKED that I could find the water heater papers from 10 years ago in 30 seconds. (And I’ve had a lot going on in those 10 years that would say I couldn’t.)

For me, the trick is having one or two dedicated spots (if possible) for all instruction manuals, paperwork, etc., no matter the item. Currently, I have two.

The first spot is in my home office: one file rack. The other is the corner of the dining room hutch. I tend to put the high ticket items, warranties, and receipts in my office—I don’t look at the water heater instructions often, if ever, and I don’t want to lose the receipt or warranty.

Things that I need to refer to the manual for and lower priced items (may not have extended warranty) I keep on the dining room hutch—easy access and handy to kitchen, laundry, etc.

I’m the only one who touches the stuff in my office. Other family members can use manuals on hutch and replace.

There is a store that has a smart policy IMO, if you do not use the extended warranty, they give a 50% credit toward a future purchase (most likely you will need one of their appliances before you die!)
 
In addition, you could scan the important docs and organize on your computer. In my case they were mainly interested in some ID#s and proof that I was the original owner.
 
annr said:
In addition, you could scan the important docs and organize on your computer. In my case they were mainly interested in some ID#s and proof that I was the original owner.
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I have been doing this somewhat. I try to download a copy of a manual on a new appliance to save on my computer. I'll save them with a common name that I will recognize.

Scanning a copy of the extended warranty agreement is a good idea. Of course, you need to back up your computer files regularly if you save much stuff on an on-going basis.

Noticed when I was doing backups the other day that I have almost a gig of scanned documents saved on one computer. If it was important, it will be saved somewhere else too. Think I need to delete a bunch of those.
 
Another safety measure: after you scan receipt and warranty, you could email them to yourself (and family member?) for future access —just in case you can’t locate originals, scans, or external backups.

ETA: seems all companies are emailing receipts even for in store purchases. So, maybe this will become the norm for warranties, etc. (sure made doing taxes easier primanrily combing through emails)
 
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annr said:
Another safety measure: after you scan receipt and warranty, you could email them to yourself (and family member?) for future access —just in case you can’t locate originals, scans, or external backups.

ETA: seems all companies are emailing receipts even for in store purchases. So, maybe this will become the norm for warranties, etc. (sure made doing taxes easier primanrily combing through emails)
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Yeah, this is common now. But do you realize how many emails I get in a single week? I delete the crap, but even finding an email from years ago is a royal pain. Yes, you could create individual folders groups of stuff. I had to dig up a bunch of emails for a court case. I think scanning is the way to go and downloading a digital copy of a manual when the appliance or whatever is newish. Finding manuals on ten year old stuff can be challenging at times.
 
I’m able to search my emails (3 accounts) in minutes, so I don’t know about yours.

Anyway, it was intended as a redundancy ICE. I mentioned emailing yourself the scans. You can name the scan so it is more easily located, and with an attachment it can be sorted from the rest. Also, a folder works. The other advantage is you could access them from anywhere.

The main thing is a workable, reliable system.
 
This is a problem (more than a bug), and if anyone knows how to solve, that would be great.

When I send faxes to people, my machine says that the fax was sent OK. The other person says they (who are in charge of faxes) never got anything.

This also happens when someone faxes on my behalf—the recipient denies receipt.

Usually these are important documents. What’s up? Any answers?
 
No idea on the fax. The sending is usually not the problem; it's the receiving that gets screwed up with paper that doesn't pull through the fax machine and so forth. They have e-fax's now that are simply go to your computer via your wifi connection. You have to pay for this service. It is probably worth it IF you fax much or receive much. I have never connected my computer to a fax machine. That is something that I should probably do with a 3in1 type machine... print, scan, fax..... Not going to spend the money until I need to however.

I would fax some test pages to a trusted friend and see what happens. If they don't get the fax, I suspect there is some sort of glich in the scanner (saving the picture of the scan). If I depended on the fax machine, I would probably get a new one.

I generally email stuff now.... scan it and insert or attach to an email. I save them as jpeg's (vs pdf's) and insert into a MS word document saved as a pdf file. Thank goodness I don't have to do this often as it is a little time consuming.
 
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