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Induction stove. Its responsiveness and power are incomparable to electric or gas. I’m never going back.
Alternatively, my Steam Deck. I use it practically every day. A gaming PC that I can take anywhere has always been my dream, and it absolutely delivers.
Problem with induction is you can’t use anodized aluminum, ceramic or other nonmagnetic cookware. I usually prefer gas, but I’d do hate what fracking is doing to the world, not to mention the constant small benzene exposures aren’t good for you. But traditional electric ranges are a pain. Wish there was another option.
Gas stoves also release carcinogens and need to be very well vented. They re superior other than that, IMO. I just run my vent hood when my stovetop is in use.
Yeah, I mean if the stove is in good condition it only releases anything when it’s first turned on before it fully ignites and possibly a miniscule amount when it turns off, but yeah, it’s not a bad idea to vent during that time or if you have a stove that’s in bad condition or is dirty and not directing the gas properly so it fully burns. Same for water heaters, though, and older furnaces, though modern ones deal with it.
But either way it’s a tiny bit and on its own is not likely to cause problems. The problem is that we get exposed to so many other carcinogens that it all adds up, so any exposure that you can limit is a good thing. And of course, risk increases with age.
Recent studies have found that this information is entirely false and propaganda by the gas companies. It releases huge amounts of quite toxic stuff every second it is lit. More closely aligned with everyone in the house breathing second hand smoke from cigarettes continuously while it is being used. It has been all over the news these past few months.
Yeah I know. I have a gas leak/no2 detector because I had a leak once that the gas company was dilly dallying over. I’ve tested around my stove and it’s relatively low compared to others I read about in those studies. But if the part that splits the gas before burning is dirty it can sit on there wrong and some gas escapes before burning and several other issues can lead to gas escaping. My point was that we’ll maintained stoves are relatively ok. Those are what the gas companies do their testing on, new products, but those don’t really exist in many homes.
They make metal plates you can use over an instruction stove to use whatever cookware you have
The only one I tried was so slow and pathetic that it’s completely put me off the idea. Was it just a bad example?
US-based perhaps? The electricity there is like someone bought electricity from wish.com
A good induction hob is 5kw+
Umm stoves/ranges are wired for 50amp 240v. Being on an American grid that also supports 120v is irrelevant to this.
This was a presumably quite expensive one (the house it was in was outrageous) in the UK. Did our friend group’s Christmas dinner at one of their parents places in the country. Trying to cook dinner for 16 was a huge pain using that thing.
Just about everything I’ve saved up to buy, that had a reputation for longevity or built for commercial use:
Appliances: Speed Queen washer/dryer: Washer is 10 years old this year and is working just like the day I bought it. Unlike the GE frontloader it replaced, which died at 6 year of age. Speed Queen actually rates their equipment’s duty cycles. I’m about halfway through the washer’s rated life. The dryer is about 4 years younger.
Wolf DF304 range: Cooking is a hobby for me, so it gets used… A LOT. Far more than the average range gets used. Otherwise, this is an extravagant purchase for most households. I clapped out a Dacor range in 6 years, but suffered with it for an additional 2 to save up for the Wolf. Have had the Wolf for 8 and it still works like new with no issues, unlike its antecedent.
Electronics: McIntosh: MC7100 it’s 30 years old and I’ve owned it for 20 of those. I also have an MC7108 that had issues that I corrected. My grand kids will be fighting over those two pieces. Before, I had to dig into box store branded stuff at about 8 to 10 years to replace capacitors, or other things that happened to them or they were just junk. The MC7108 had a bad capacitor in the on/off circuit. It still worked, with that bypassed. It’s fixed now as it was worth fixing.
Cars: Toyota: 85 Corolla GT-S (raced it in Autocross for many years and it never had a problem). I currently own a 14 Camry LE that has been reasonable over its 147,000 miles, but not as good as I was hoping. I detest fancy cars and anything that guzzles gas. Simplicity is where it is at, if you want a car to last a long time and not be a garage queen. People that buy the fancy German cars are just bewildering to me. Sure, they are nice, drive great, and might even get you laid… But that’s a LOT of money to put into something that will uneconomical to fix by 150,000miles (241401km for my more civilized friends).
On my list of things I want to buy that I’m fiarly certain will be worth it:
Dash Cam
A dash cam was definitely one of the best purchases I’ve made. I was able to submit video to the insurance company to show a collision wasn’t my fault. It has also captured some other random interesting events like an electrical transformer explosion during a storm.
I’ve got an old Maytag dryer that seems to be made by speed queen. They share the same parts, and it looks identical to my dad’s newer speed queen dryer.
Mines giving me a lot of crap lately though, but it’s easy to fix. I’m waiting on parts for it right now.
Damned interesting! For example, I didn’t know Speed Queen still made washers.
Thoughts on a 2002 Mitsubishi Eclipse? (It’s a Spyder convertible, same thing.) Needs a head gasket again, but it’s a reliable car and fuel efficient. I loathe new cars. My gf’s Subaru makes me want to punch it.
Had to look up the McIntosh. :) Not an audiophile, but I just got a 1986 Sony EQ that’s dope. And for y’all youngins, that’s genuine Japanese 80’s manufacture!) Also running a Pioneer DT-500 for kicks. $120 for both on eBay. I’ll never in life buy modern audio stuff.
Let me know how the cam thing works out. I’d buy some crappy Chinesium unit and regret.
Energy regulations killed the original model SQs. They’re back with the TC5000. I scored a 2016 set for $800 locally- the front panel of each comes off with 2 screws and everything is right there. Stupid easy to service. I was checking belts and brakes after I bought them but it looked brand new inside.
How do you clap out a range? The valves get loose??
The first thing you need to know is Dacor only makes parts for its products for 2 years. If you need something replaced after that period, you are pretty much out of luck.
As to what broke, here goes:
Oven door handle (broke just after two years and the part was unavailable.)
Every igniter had to be replaced in the first two years.
The coil that powers the igniters. This died after the two year period, so I spent nearly 5 years lighting the burners using a lighter.
As an aside, there was only one coil powering all four igniters. If you didn’t clean the range top properly and dry off the igniters, then only one would work. The Wolf has coils for each burner, so you don’t have to worry about one igniter having less impedance than another.The controller for the oven died twice. This, fortunately, was ONE part that was available past the two year period. I think they used the same board in the next model range. However, the nail in the coffin was at 6 years of age, it died again and the part was no longer available, permanently disabling the oven.
Various bits and bobs were either worn, or broken by the end.
Funny enough, the gas valves were the one thing that lasted the entire time it was in the house.
Jeez, that sounds like a nightmare. My oven is separate from my range so no controller, therefore much simpler. B ut it has been rock solid- something like this
Honestly, my first washer/dryer, dishwasher, microwave, and refrigerator were all GE. We bought the house new and were 500 miles away. The house came with the dishwasher, and microwave. The builder put me in contact with his appliance supplier and I got to use their discount, which was only offered on GE products. I paid for the Dacor separately, as that is the range my wife wanted. At the time, she was the cook and my entry into the hobby of cooking was about 3 years away.
Here is how long each one of those GE appliances lasted: Washer: 6 Dryer: 10 Microwave (over the range type which I hate): 8 Dishwasher: 12
On top of the lack of longevity, the performance of each appliance was terrible compared to their contemporaries.
Each was replaced with: Washer: Speed Queen current age 10 and works like new. Dryer: Speed Queen: currently 6 years old. Microwave (ditched the over the range and bought a range hood and a counter top microwave) Panasonic current age 8 years. Dishwasher: Bosch 800 series. With that said, the old GE was still working, however the dish racks were all rusting.
A computer that was good enough to run Windows Vista. Trust me when I say that I fell in love with it. And yeah, it was used when I got it. It served me a very long time, 11 years to be exact.
My house.
I started by looking at apartments, but after seeing a few I just wasn’t feeling it. I’ve always wanted a yard, more space and privacy so I thought I’d have a look what kind of houses would fit my budget and found out that by paying just a little more I could get a small one on a good location for almost the same price. Now I own a small granny cottage with a damn nice yard, well, root cellar and a sauna in a separate building aswell as a small workshop. On top of all that my mortage payments are less than what my friends are paying rent.
That’s the dream! Congrats!
Wow. I couldn’t fathom collecting more in rent from my friends than I would need to keep both them and myself housed.
It’s not me they’re renting from
Global Entry. Best $100 I ever spent, even with the headache of the application and scheduling interviews at airports. I only fly a few times a year and I’ve still probably accumulated high tens of hours of time saved from aggravation and standing in queue.
I used to feel the same way, but then I was standing in a (short) global entry line and I watched people breeze right by that. Found out they were just using the free CBP app. Felt a little cheated, honestly.
Haven’t been doing as much international travel since second kid was born, so we didn’t get him global entry. Last trip we did I used the app instead. It was just as fast as global entry, possibly faster.
The only real reason to get global entry again now is for tsa ore check, and there are easier and cheaper ways to get that.
Good info! Will look into this.
A road bike. I got slimmer and also found a way to just clear my head. No stress, no worries, just ride. It’s a great way to switch off.
I’ve always had mountain bikes. Most recently got a 29er. I don’t ride much these days, but feel like a road bike might get me out more.
I have an MTB too. I mainly ride it when it’s icy so it’s too dangerous for the road bike. Gravelly off road isn’t really a problem when it’s icy.
A good set of mechanic hand tools. Sockets, ratches, wrenches, etc.
Just bought some on prime day, after dragging my feet for years. Used it almost immediately to work on my dryer.
This probably goes against the spirit of the post, but my 2.5 acres of NW FL swamp. It’s dope.
Mom died of COVID, and after my divorce, I still had just enough inheritance left to pick it up. It’s a place to camp, shoot (guns and bows), hike, relax, whatever the fuck I want.
Benefits:
- Learning to build stuff. Working on converting trash trees to lumber right now, proper cabin next.
- Learning the environment. Too much to go into, but I’m learning ecological things I never knew. Trying to improve the biosphere while keeping it (nearly) strictly native.
- It’s my home away from home. No matter how stressed I am, I can get out. I go every weekend and work on it.
- I have a place to run away, no matter what. I’m no prepper, but I have a SHTF place for sure.
- No matter how foolishly I live the rest of my life, I can still pass this to my kids when I croak. They’re 8 and 10 and get to see it next month! (Playground isn’t near done though.)
- 1,000 outdoor skills. Again, too much to list, but you could drop me off naked in January and I’d be comfortable within 15 minutes.
- I can recycle so much stuff! So much of my gear was found on the side of the road. Plenty good enough for camp materials.
- It’s a place for friends to gather. Had my cat’s funeral out there and it was a blast, after all the crying was out.
tl;dr Get some damned land if the opportunity presents itself. They’re not making any more.
My SteamDeck. I fucking love that thing
Seconded.
TKC 1800
What is that?
Mechanical keyboard
Ahh okay.
I bought it as a kit directly from The Key Company. It’s a modernized version of the Cherry 1800 and it runs QMK. I have Box Pinks in mine at the moment.
nice!
Creative sbs 370 2.1 speakers; using it for 19 years. The sound quality is the same as day 1.
The wired remote stopped working after 15 years, so I cut it off and connected the wires.
After seeing your comment I went and checked when I got my Logitech X-540 set, not quite as long, 14 years, but also still going strong. Probably far from ideal for an audiophile, but they’ve been fantastic for my needs and can still blast out great sound when they need to. Been hooked up to whatever media centre setup is on my TV since I got them, in fact they’ve been the only consistently connected piece of tech in that system in 14 years. Literally everything else has changed multiple times.
My old Logitech Z2300 2.1 set has been going for 15 years now. They’ve since been demoted to my work office instead of home office but I still blast them when everyone else has gone home.
My Sony noise cancelling headphones (XM3). I love them and use them every single day. And also my wall mounted pull-up bar.
Reusable water bottle. It’s just something I always have on me and it’s great because I’m not wasting money on plastic with liquid in it.
I’m not wasting money on plastic with liquid in it.
What are you wasting the money on now?
Liquid with plastic on it.
Ah, a boat
God I hate it when I accidentally drink a boat
Honestly, the one liter smart bottle is my favorite.
I’ve found that I do like the metal smart water bottles too bad they’re ment to be disposable as I hate how fragile the caps are id love a bottle of that size so it fits in my cars cup holder but also has a cap so I don’t have to walk so carefully with it
Thanks for being honest with us.
Mine is an extension of my body. I can’t not have it with me going out. But I get thirsty a lot. Took me a while to fine one that works for me size and function wise.
it’s honestly crazy to me that this isn’t an item every person owns. the fact that some people call it a ‘reusable’ bottle, as if that isn’t the standard, is shocking.
like imagine historic humans spending time making a clay bottle or leather waterskin only to just throw it away on the ground after using it a single time. “disposable” bottles and other plastics are a crime against humanity and that’s not even an exaggeration
To make things even worse is that you can still reuse the disposable ones not as nice as metal ones but are lighter when empty and get the job of holding water until you get thirsty ultimately you can pretty easily tell who is from the country by what they consider a normal water bottle is because one person can easily just go to a store and get a new water bottle much more often than the other guy
yeah maybe true about rural/urban, but any city boy who’s ever been camping probably owns a normal reusable bottle
My mazda mx-5 or miata depending from where you are from. Discovered lots of cool places fairly close to where i live. Sunny weekends are always a joy.
Always loved the Miatas. The latest generation in targa version is something I wish to have one day.
No way! I came here to say Miata haha. So much fun.
