• May 27, 2012

    Review: ZeroWater 8 cup pitcher

    When we moved into our last house, there was a reverse osmosis system that we used for awhile until I replaced it with one that I could get filters from Home Depot instead of having to goto a speciality store. The water tasted pretty good, or at least we didn't notice the taste. When we moved into our rental, we quickly realized how bad tap water tastes. Within the first week, we went to pick out a filtering pitcher.

    My wife said she didn't like the taste of the Brita filters, so we looked for an alternative. Wal-Mart had a few choices and we settled on the ZeroWater 8-Cup Pitcher. The marketing gimmick that sold us is that it included a test meter to show us the total dissolved solids (TDS) of the water as the pitcher was supposed to bring the tap water down to 0 parts of million of stuff in the water.

    When we got home, we used the meter to test and it read 323. We poured in tap water, let it filter and then after a few minutes, we had a pitcher full of filtered water. We tested it and low and behold, it read 0 ppm. The water tasted pretty good and we started a system of filling up the pitcher and transferring it into another pitcher that we put in the refrigerator. (My wife likes room temperature water, I like cold water.)

    Things went well for about a week and then I went to test the output of the filter and it read 60. The instructions said the replace the filter after the water reached 6. Hmmm, if 1 filter lasted about a week and the filters cost about $15 each, it would cost me about $60 per month for filtered water. I drink a lot of water and due to the poor quality of our water, the filters just weren't going to last.

    So what were my options? Buy filters? Get bottled water? Drink tap water? I decided to try the second option and for about $30 per month, we're getting bottled water delivered. Based on our water consumption, this will be about half the cost of the filters and a whole lot less work.

    Pros

    • Included test meter is cool.
    • Water tastes pretty good.
    • Pitcher fits in refrigerator.

    Cons

    • Filter cost is too high.

    Summary

    While I liked the concept of the filtering pitcher and the water tasted pretty good, the filter cost is far too high. If you live in an area that has better tap water to begin with, the filters might last longer. I really wanted to like this, and now I feel kind of weird about having water delivered (I kind of always thought that people that had bottle water delivered were wasting money).

    If you have bad tasting water, I cannot recommend this product and possibly more generally, any filtering pitcher, due to cost if you consume a large amount of water. I drink 48-64 ounces of water or more a day consistently, so I'm pretty picky about the water.

  • May 14, 2012

    Counterfeit goods

    Last week I went searching for a Mophie Juice Pack Plus battery for my iPhone as I've been traveling more and my iPhone doesn't quite last all day when I use it. I did a Google search (after I decided that I wanted it over the other batteries) and found prices ranging from about $50 to $100. The list price is $100 so all the prices in that range seem legitimate. The $50 price on Amazon looked too good to be true. After reading through a bunch of reviews, I discovered the reason. It would appear that some Amazon sellers are selling counterfeit products.

    I would have expected Amazon to better screen their sellers especially when they are fulfilling the orders for these merchants and are offering it via Amazon Prime. This also happened with an OtterBox case we bought for my wife; the build quality is not up to par and didn't come it the retail packaging. Does it matter? Now that the case is falling apart, I'd have to say yes.

    How can you protect yourself from counterfeits? First off, a tip off is "does not come in retail packaging to save you money". Second, if the price is too low, there is likely a problem. However, I'm taking another stab at an OtterBox off eBay. In this case the seller says that it came from a store that they closed and it is in retail packaging; the packaging has AT&T on it and not OtterBox. After a little research, I found that the seller is an AT&T reseller, so this adds legitimacy to the seller. Third, is it shipping direct from China? Not everything that ships from China is counterfeit, but companies usually ship to distributors in the US and ship from the US.

    Of course, buyer beware. Safe shopping!

  • May 10, 2012

    Walking for a cause; please sponsor me

    It seems that many charities have walks, runs, etc. to raise money and awareness for their cause. The MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Society is no different. Last year my wife decided to walk in the MS Challenge Walk, a 3-day, 50 mile walk. For her, this walk was very personal as her mother (my mother-in-law) has had MS for many years.

    At the end of the walk last year, my wife said she wanted to do it again this year as she had a great experience and wanted to know if I'd walk with her. Of course, I'd walk with her and support her (and the MS Society). So now the begging, pleading, and hitting up everyone I know begins. In order to participate in the walk, I have to raise $2500 by September. I'm not one to go knocking on doors asking for money, but I'm going to knock on your virtual door.

    Most people have charities that he or she donates to each year. If you're one of those people and don't normally donate to the MS Society, please consider diverting a small amount of your yearly donation to help sponsor me for the walk.

    All you have to do is visit my personal donation page and make a donation. If you work for a company that matches your donation, don't forget to find your company at the bottom of the donation page.

    Like the famous people that host telethons say, "every dollar counts". Please help me reach my goal.

  • May 8, 2012

    Another advantage of VoIP

    When we switched to Ooma awhile back, I had in the back of my mind that someday we'd move and be able to take our phone number with us. I didn't realize it would be so soon, but with this move, transferring our phone was one of the easiest tasks. I just unplugged the box, took it to the new house and plugged it in. Once the cable modem was connected, the phone worked. I just had to update our service address in Ooma for 911 service and I was in business again.

    This is, yet another, reason that I really like Ooma. We've saved a ton of money, we have 2 lines, get voicemail sent as email, and I can quickly block telemarketers via the web interface.