Tag: Reviews

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.

Last time I was in Portland for work, one of my co-workers had an iFrogz Luxe Original case on his iPhone 4S that he had picked up at the AT&T store during a closeout of cases. Up until then I hadn’t been using a case for my iPhone. Since I run fairly often, I put my iPhone in an armband holder and having a case on it would make it hard to fit in. Furthermore, most cases are difficult to get off and I didn’t want to have to go through that everyday.

The iFrogz case, however, was different. It is a two piece design with a button that makes it easy to slip the pieces apart and remove the case. I was almost instantly sold on it. I started my quest to find the case for as little as possible and while I wanted the all black case, I ended up with the blue/black version that I got off eBay.

I’ve been using the case for about 6 weeks now and it looks like it protects the phone (prior to this, I managed to scratch the back of the phone which the case would have prevented). It is easy to remove to go running and also when I need to slip it into my car mount for navigation. There isn’t a whole lot to say about a case; this case isn’t bulky and gives a nice feel to the phone. The only downside is that since it is metal, it seems to interfere with the compass on the phone. I have to remove the case to use star gazing apps or the compass app.

Pros

• Inexpensive.
• Provides adequate protection to the sides and back.
• Doesn’t look too ugly.
• Doesn’t add much bulk,
• Easy to remove.

Cons

• May interfere with compass functions.

Summary

If you’re the kind of person that wants a lightweight case for his iPhone, the iFrogz Luxe Original case is worth a look. I don’t know how well it will hold up in the long run, but the price is right and at a minimum, it will protect the back and sides of my iPhone.

Over a year ago, my wife started bugging me about getting a Vitamix 5200 blender. She said someone she knew had one and couldn’t stop raving about it. So, I indulged her and bought a Vitamix from cost a year ago last December.

If you have never heard of Vitamix, the machines are used by major chains such as Jamba Juice. They are supposedly commercial grade blenders. At the price they charge, they sure had better be!

My wife started using it like crazy to make smoothies and using it to prepare dinners. She went as far as putting chicken in it to make chicken enchiladas! There seemed to be no end to the uses for the machine. What struck us as the best thing about the blenders is that it could blend frozen strawberries and everything we threw at it, it chopped up without a problem.

Fast forward a year. Over the past year, we started using it less, but then in order for my wife to get all the nutrients into my son (he’s a very picky eater), my wife started making him smoothies every morning. Now all 3 of us have smoothies every morning; banana, strawberry, rice drink (and some other good stuff).

The Vitamix makes it quite easy to blend the frozen strawberries and blend up the smoothie. One of the things I hated about blenders is how hard they are to clean. The instructions for the Vitamix say to rinse it out, fill it half way with water and put in 2 drops of liquid dishwasher soap. Then run it for 30 seconds at full speed. This works fabulously and cleanup is super easy.

So while this blender will set you back a bit of change, if you like to have fresh smoothies and hate fighting a blender that can’t chop up frozen ingredients, then the Vitamix is a perfect choice.

Pros

• Chops frozen fruit without a problem.
• Super easy to clean.
• Durable.
• Versitle.

Cons

• Very expensive.
• Dry container isn’t very useful for us.

Summary

The investment in the Vitamax has really started to pay off as it is helping get our son to eat his fruit and get his nutrients. In addition, it is making it easier for my wife and me to get more fruit in our diets. So much so that we’re going through 5 pounds of frozen strawberries and 2 bunches of bananas a week! I’m quite pleased with the purchase and would do it over again.

On the surface the Vitamax looks like a very overpriced blender; however, it is a tool that I believe will stick around our kitchen for years to come.

In the past 6 months, I’ve started to spend a lot of time on the phone for work, so having a comfortable way to listen (mostly) to the calls has become quite important. I’ve tried various earbuds and a few Bluetooth headsets, but haven’t quite been satisfied. Since I use the second line of my Ooma
for work, I have to use a Bluetooth headset (I used earbuds for my iPhone). The problem with this arrangement is that the headset has to have a physical mute button; this is a button that many manufacturers are leaving off their devices as they rely on the phone’s mute capability. So my quest began in December to find a Bluetooth headset that had a mute button.

Somehow I stumbled across the Logitech h800 wireless headset. I purchased it locally in case I didn’t like it. This headset looks bulky, but is quite comfortable and has been performing well when connected over Bluetooth to my Ooma and also when connected via the included dongle to my Mac for Skype calls.

I’ve setup many, many hours on the phone with the headset and have found the voice quality very good and the headset is comfortable. While the headset has been working quite well, there are a few disappointments with it. First off, it is cheaply made. For an $80 device, it is all plastic and the controls sometimes feel like they are going to break. Second off, it can’t connect simultaneously to multiple Bluetooth devices. (You can pair it with multiple Bluetooth devices, but the first device that connects gets to use it.) I’d really like to be able to pair it to my iPhone as well as my Ooma. Third, it can’t connect to Bluetooth and the Mac at the same time. I’d love to be able to wear them all day long and have it automatically switch between Bluetooth calls and Skype calls (as well as listening to music).

Pros

• Lightweight
• Comfortable
• Decent sound quality
• Allows pairing with multiple Bluetooth devices
• Works with the Mac
• Physical mute button

Cons

• Cheap construction
• No multipoint Bluetooth for connecting multiple devices at once
• Can’t connect Bluetooth and to the desktop at the same time
• Expensive

Summary

For my purposes, the Logitech h800 wireless headset is a life saver. Using earbuds or other types of headsets just have not been comfortable for me. With the physical mute button, I can easily keep working and then tap it to chime in on calls. The voice quality has been more than acceptable and I have been quite pleased with the headset. If you work from home and are on a lot of calls, I’d definitely consider buying these. I’ve had them since December and they seem to be holding up. Time will tell how long they last.

I’ve read about a number of

When I work, I put my iPhone on my desk next to my computer. Sometimes I pick it up or use it to make a phone call and thought that having a stand for it would be it more convenient. There are lots of stands out there and I didn’t get around to buying in until I saw a Kickstarter project called The Oona. I thought it looked neat and pledged some money towards it. The cost was a little expensive, but I was willing to give it a try.

All the updates sounded promising as the makers were testing different suction cups and designs.

After many delays and lack of communication, my product finally arrived. I set it on my desk, put my phone on it (my phone has no case or screen protector, so the suction cup was attached to the bare phone) and within a few minutes, my phone slid off the suction cup. I kept trying to get it to work and finally gave up. I wasn’t even going to attempt to use it in a place where my phone was more than a few inches off a surface as I don’t trust it.

The product had promise, but is a complete failure. I saw a deal come across for a plastic stand called The Jack and bought it. It was far cheaper than The Oona and actually works.

Pros
None

Cons

• Expensive
• Doesn’t work

Summary
Don’t buy it. This product is a complete waste and isn’t useful at all. The designers need to go back to the drawing board and work on the suction cups.

I’m not much of a tool person, but have my collection of tools and occasionally pick up something that looks like it could be useful. After one of my last projects doing electrical work, I picked up a Klein Non-Contact Voltage Tester from Home Depot. The concept is pretty simple, turn it on, wave it near a wire, electrical outlet, light switch, etc. and it will beep if there is electricity flowing. I’ve used it a few times mainly just to see how cool it is.

This past weekend, I discovered that the motion sensor in an outside light wasn’t working, so I needed to fix it. The problem was that since it wasn’t working, I didn’t know which circuit breaker to turn off and just relying on the light switch was potentially dangerous. While the switch was in a box with 2 other switches, I could hope that they were all on the same circuit, but given my luck, someone probably went against code and wired it such that 2 circuit breakers controlled the box.

I remembered that I had the Klein tool and pulled it out. With the breaker on, waving the tool over the switch showed electricity flowing. While I went outside to the breaker box, my wife, used the tool and let me know when I hit the right breaker. I was pretty confident that I wasn’t going to get shocked, so I took the light off the wall, used the tool again and verified that I wasn’t going to get zapped.

This tool is absolutely a tool that should be in every handyman’s (or handywoman’s) toolbox. It’s relatively inexpensive and saves you the trouble of getting knocked on your rear when you touch the live wires.

Pros

• Relatively inexpensive.
• Uses standard batteries.
• Easy to use.

Cons

• After changing the batteries the button gets stuck a lot requiring some wiggling to get it to work.

Summary

I definitely recommend this product. I’m sure I can resolve the hiccup with the switch by rubbing a little bar soap on the places that the button rubs. I wish I had gotten this years ago as I’ve gotten zapped at least twice because I wasn’t careful enough; I do test every outlet, but made assumptions because outlets in the same room were out, but not the ones that zapped me. This tool would have immediately told me to stop; it’s easier to use than a standard 3 prong tester or a regular test meter.

For my birthday, my wife bought me a very nice pair of Senneiser noise canceling earbuds. They actually were the top of the line. A few months later, Newegg sent my wife email and left a message saying that the earbuds were recalled. They sent a postage paid return label, apologized, and gave us a $20 credit. I sent them back and started searching for a replacement. Looking for any active noise canceling earbuds was quite hard as there are very few; the price range was pretty huge, so I could get basically whatever I wanted. I searched and searched and ended up settling on the Audio-Technica ANC23. When I bought them, they were $75 and while that seems a bit steep, they were far less expensive than the Senneiser ones.

Normally when I work, I forget to turn on music and only sometimes wear headphones (it depends on if my son is running around making a lot of noise). So, I use the earbuds when I travel. I don’t travel all that often, but this year, I’ve traveled 7 times (most of them after I bought the ear buds). Once I put the earbuds in my ears during a flight and turn them on, the airplane noise immediately is drowned out and the flight becomes a lot more comfortable. I’ve found that with the Comply tips that come with it, the earbuds are quite comfortable.

I always keep the earbuds in my bag and am not sure I would want to fly without them.

Pros

• Comfortable.
• Inexpensive (they’re now down to less than $40.
• Good noise cancellation.
• Good pasive noise isolation.
• Compact.

Cons

• No microphone or volume buttons like the iPhone (it has a manual volume control).

Summary

My only real complaint for these earbuds is that I bought them for $75 less than 6 months ago and they’re now down to $39 on Amazon. I found that these were almost as good as the $250 Senneiser earbuds my wife gave me. If you can wear earbuds (earbuds don’t fit in some people’s ears), these are a no brainer for anyone that occasionally travels or wants some quiet when working.

A few months ago when the local utility guilted me into conserving more energy, I bought an APC 4 Outlet Power-Saving Timer SurgeArrest and a APC 6 Outlet Power-Saving Timer SurgeArrest to shut off components of my media center at night. The surge protectors are your basic surge protectors, but have a built in timer that allows me to set times for the strip to turn on and turn off. I set up one timer to basically turn off from 11:30 pm to 5:30 am and the other to turn off from 10:30 pm to 6:30 am. Setup is extremely simple and I have already seen a reduction on my electricity bill. Some of the media center components sucked a bunch of juice and by turning things off for 1/3 of the day, it’s no wonder I’ve already seen a slight reduction in my electricity!

There isn’t a whole lot to say about the power strips. If you can arrange your components to turn off for long periods, they can pay for themselves pretty quickly and then some.

Pros

• Easy to setup.
• Pays for itself quickly.

Cons

• More expensive than regular surge protectors.
• Battery life for timer is unknown.
• Timer LCD is not easy to read.

Summary

If you’re looking for a way to save some money and reduce electricity, the APC SurgeArrest devices are a great addition to any media center or computer workstation. Once you setup the timers, you can forget about them and start saving money. There is no downside to getting this surge protectors.