What's a gadget or appliance that you purchased that you would wholeheartedly recommend to others?
2mon 1d ago by lemmy.ca/u/AnAverageSnoot in asklemmy@lemmy.ml
For me, it's an electric toothbrush. It doesn't matter if you go with Sonicare or Oral-B, once you start using an electric toothbrush, regular toothbrushes don't ever feel like they clean your teeth properly. The smooth plaque-free top layer of your teeth that you can feel after using an electric toothbrush can't be replicated with a regular toothbrush.
I bought a used one and it gave me the confidence I needed to move over to Linux. I tried Pop os and wasn't really feeling it, and now I'm on Mint and I'm mostly happy. I want to build a desktop and do cachy os instead of getting a PS6.
Steam deck is an impressive little thing, but it's not quite powerful enough for what I'd like to do with it. I would trade the portability for more power. But a handheld PS4 is absolutely nothing to sneeze at!
I was going to say the same thing. I regret waiting so long to buy one. Between that and Bazzite I never play my consoles anymore.
I am currently in the process of making an arcade cabinet for my Steam Deck! I bought it for my wife, but she basically stopped gaming for now. So, I decided to turn it into an arcade cabinet instead. Love that thing
Any coop game recommendation?
To play with a kid? Untitled Goose Game, Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time, River City Girls.
Robot vacuum. My floors are spotless except for some areas you’d never walk on and I only need to do some spot cleaning every month or two.
Dishwashers are awesome too, watch Technology Connections’ video on YouTube if you think your dishwasher doesn’t do a good job. It’s likely just how you’re using it. Priming the hot water before running, using powder detergent instead of liquid or packs (booo), and using the pre-wash and rinse aid will have even the gnarliest dishes coming out spotless.
I was so excited when first got a roomba 5 or 6 years ago, but that faded so fast after it turned into an endless stream of notifications that it was caught under furniture, stuck on a cliff (the edge of a rug), full of dirt, couldn't find its base, or trapped under a maze of dining room table legs.
I love the idea, but man that was $500 wasted. I'm sure they are better now, but I cant bring myself to buy another one.
Later gen w/ lidar has way better mapping and avoidance. I am 100% satisfied with my roborock.
Love my robot vacuum! As someone who works 12+ hours a day, it's such a life saver. We have had our Roborock for 4 years now and it has 0 issues. Any issues I had were easy fixed by just opening the thing up and cleaning inside.
Absolutely love watching Technology Connections. Dude improved my dishwasher game by 400%
My first roborock met the fate of dog poop and an idiotic husband who thought he could just hose it 🙃 my second one is doing great.
My Roborock actually also went through doggy diarrhea, but I was able to open it up completely and clean it up with a lot of rubbing alcohol and paper towels. Never had an issue with it again
When I cleaned it I also had no issues. He wasn't as smart about it lol.
Second husband, presumably.
While I did get a divorce, it was not over there vacuum 🤣 we're still besties just not in love
20 computers. I can’t stop getting more computers I need help there’s so many computers they’re in every room and they’re computing aaaaaaaa
You certainly won't regret buying 20 computers.
I mean, they're not 40 cakes or anything!
I had this same disorder. I cured it temporarily by giving them away to everyone I know. Christmas, birthdays, Thanksgiving, everyone's getting a computer, doesn't matter if you already have one.
They're starting to pile up again though and now I don't know what to do because all my friends and family won't talk to me because I keep giving them computers.
Go to church parking lots in early summer and put them in people's back seats, you will have to take some zucchini out to make room though.
Wait, when did I leave this comment?
Someone I know (who isn’t close to me geographically) said their laptop just broke and now they only have their phone… I wish I could get to them. I have like six computers waiting to be used for stuff, the rest of them I’m playing with/learning with!
Oh I have this problem too hahah
Electric kettle. Fast at boiling water, especially if your stove heats slowly. Great for things like tea or instant noodles/lunches.
This is quite a strange comment to see as there isn't a single house in the UK that doesn't have an electric kettle in it.
Over here, you'll find a pot of water on the stove more common. Our regular outlets are 120v, but our stoves are typically 240v. A water kettle here would be about half as fast as our stoves (generally speaking). Over there, yeah, with 240 being the standard, a kettle makes a lot of sense.
At least here in Finland a decent amout of stoves are 400v. Still, even at 120 a kettle is faster than an electroc stove. An induction stove is a different story
400 is crazy for residential service! That actually sounds awesome.
Even with 120v the kettle is still faster. Pot on the stove has a wild amount of waste heat. Perhaps excepting an induction stovetop.
Are we both thinking the same kind of kettle or is it British/American English different? What I'm talking about is a pitcher with an electric heating unit in the bottom?
Yeah that’s the one. Literally every household.
I think they would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly here. I have one, but it takes about 4 minutes to heat 2 cups to boiling. It's still worth it to me, but it's not much faster than the stovetop for us. There's something about the electric service in the UK that allows electric kettles to heat much faster there.
240V vs 120V. For an equivalent amount of current, 240V supplies twice the amount of power to the heating element.
Is no one going to post the Technology Connections video???
Okay, then
Also https://youtu.be/RpoXFk-ixZc
And maybe channeling electro boom: https://youtu.be/INZybkX8tLI
I can confirm, pretty much every UK household has one of those, they're just one of those things you have in the kitchen.
Not a fan of microplastics or extra unnecessary gadgetry..
Seems like silly waste to be the next lemming without any substantial difference to the age old system of boiling water, same with rice cookers.
Unless I don’t hav a stovetop they’re basically not needed, a waste of money and another point of plastic contamination.
They come in glass or metal aswell, rice cookers always have an aluminium basket, the lid might be plastic and rubber but those parts are usually not mechanically strained. The microplastic argument seems weird here
I don’t see how that it’s weird but to each their own. Every plastic and/or polymer based product sheds/leeches microplastics, especially heated or constant usage.
Aluminum is hardly better and health wise causes other harms and contaminants in the body.
Glass, stainless, cast iron is gtg..plastic and aluminum not so much.
Not arguing, but I don't think I've ever even seen a plastic one. Mine has a plastic lid, but the inside is still sheet metal. I can't even imagine one with plastic parts that aren't just cosmetic. Plus they've got to adhere to some kind of safety regulations lest they be penalized by some federal agency. 🤔
Most (though not all) in the UK since at least the 90s are plastic except for the heating element and electronics, microplastic concerns aside they're considered more efficient since it's a better insulator. Regardless of material every home has one I can tell you that.
Whats wrong with aluminium, like 80 of the earth's surface is basically some aluminium oxid
Iirc there was something about aluminium in deodorant sprays a while ago that turned out to be not that bad, but what's wrong with solid sheets of the stuff?
They heat efficiently rather than transfer through the stove and the pot, etc. And so fast.
i was always totally with you on the rice cooker, then i got a tiny one from aldi for my partner who doesnt cook much. now i use it all the time. haha
Australia also. It's like owning knives and forks. It's a basic necessity
I think this must be an American thing, because I have actually never known anyone who doesn't own an electric kettle. It's just so much more efficient!
Does a bicycle count? Changed my life.
As a Dutch person I would assume everyone already owns at least one bicycle.
_At least _ one.
DNS filtering. I'm using NextDNS, because I can't be bothered to be my own server admin.
Why? It does a great job at filtering out ads, tracking the rest of internet cancer on mobile devices. Works no matter where you are. With pihole, you get the filtering only when you're at home, not when you're scrolling funny cat videos while waiting for the train.
DNS adblocking is awesome! The other day I found it blocks ads in some OTT apps too lol. I use Mullvad DNS btw. Only problem is the server goes down now and then. I keep switching between Mullvad and Adguard.
How do I use NextDNS? I use DNS over TLS since it doesn't require an app and can't find the addresses for NextDNS when I searched.
I know it's an annoying cliche answer at this point but I really do love my air fryer, it got me out of a cooking rut and made me more creative. I've had it for a year and a half an use it 3-4 times a week.
I am firmly of the belief that people with ADHD should be prescribed an air fryer.
It is such an incredible tool because it almost destroys the mental barrier that something like the oven has. I actually make myself food now!
Without having to fry. My executively dysfunctional ass has resorted to cooking (frying veg and tofu) the same meal every day so I don't have to think about ir
I just discovered the joys of the ninja double basket one. You can set the timer for both sides but then also set both sides to finish at the same thing. Crazy awesome.
Even just throwing tater tots into the air fryer makes 'em crispy on the outside with zero use of oil. About as healthy as you can eat potatoes and as easy as a microwave. Love it.
Aren't those ultra processed potato nugget things? Why not mashed potato
Depends on how they are produced
If you're reheating a pizza without an air fryer, you're just plain doing it wrong.
2-5 minutes, no preheat, and it tastes better than the night before.
Most bar food reheats well in it too lol
Sorry but the correct way to heat up pizza is in a covered frying pan.
It's nice to have 2 extra mini ovens and my kitchen is small.
A dedicated portable audio player with support for high-res files (that's NOT running Android).
You can't just doom scroll all day, no one can call you, you won't get any spam texts or emails on it. It's just you and your music.
Any recs?
I've bought a Hiby R3 Pro II a while back and it's amazing. The build quality is top notch, the battery lasts for 20+ hours and it has basically everything one could need; USB-C, Bluetooth with Apt-X and LDAC, a good screen and a balanced output with plenty of power.
Even rudimentary support for Tidal and Qobuz. The only downside is that there's no storage built-in, but you can use microSD cards up to 2TB.
Mechen! Love it plus it's pretty
You probably want to pick something supported by the Rockbox firmware, in case the native firmware is so-so.
I regret giving away my iPod Touch to my sister. I wish I still had it so I can take it on walks without all the notifications from my phone
If you can find anything which can play standard 16/48 FLAC files then that is all you need. https://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html
Instantpot. I live in a teeny studio apt and the Instantpot puts in work daily.
I live in a tiny studio and am considering some sort convenient cooker. What do you cook with it?
Not the person you're asking but when I used to travel for work all the time and I was so sick of out food, I got the smaller instant pot and brought it with. I made rice, beans, potatoes (a lot of potatoes lol), spaghetti, I think I made taco meat in it a few times, and a few other things I can't think of.
Most of them have settings for rice, for simmering, pressure cooking and some other fun stuff. Instant pot and air fryer, you can make just about anything.
Agreed. If you get an instant pot that is part airfryer, you will be set
I forgot they made one that was both! I just have one of each
Thanks
I used a slow cooker when renting a bedroom. Leave it it on all the time and just top it up with ingredients after having a portion.
Lol “perpetual stew”.
Yeah, works pretty well in a slow cooker. Plus without a fridge it's the only real way to store meat which is nice when the corner shop is selling a pack of sausages for £0.19 at 23:45
An analog watch. Nothing fancy, just a cheap Casio or Timex or whatever.
An analog watch is the one thing I can't leave home without.
Ive had the same Timex for about 20 years now. Had to replace the strap a couple times and the battery, but the time keeping works like a charm and keeps perfect time. Mine is the leather strap with a white face and also shows day of the week and date. Not bad for a watch that cost me $20 a lifetime ago.
I do use a smart watch when im exercising though.
Stick blender! I delayed buying one because I thought the regular blender I had was enough, but this one is so convenient for sauces and soups.
e-reader: another item I delayed buying for too long because I believed paper books were better. I bought a Kobo and ended up reading more often.
I can FLY on an eReader. I bump the font up a bunch and just go, baby. Love reading ebooks (i read them on an ipad mini). I was also Mr. Physical Books Forever. Boy was I wrong about that.
- Warm white christmas lights. Diffuse lighting is so much better.
- Induction cooktops. Because gas cooktops are toxic both inside and outside the home.
I found gas struggles to do low temps too, minimum power in the smallest ring is still too hot for rice unless you want to keep stirring it. Induction I just get it to a boil then leave it on low and it won't burn without stirring and leave it for 15 mins.
I still suggest a plug-in induction burner, because they have temperature and autooff timer.
Second the warm white Christmas lights.
They can quickly make a depressing apartment feel like a warm home.
This is more of a tool, but I have a set of 4” knipex cobra pliers that are perfect for around the house. Just small enough to fit into about any space, super grippy, and you can easily make minute adjustments to the plier spacing. I’ve used them more than any other tool I own.
Oh, and noise-canceling headphones (ideally over-the-ear). Instant quality of life upgrade.
Just mentioned this in another thread, but the XTEInk X4 is one of the most focused and portable e-readers I’ve come across. Less than $100 and isn’t locked down so you can load custom firmware on it. For anyone like me who finds most e-readers go unused because they don’t go with you, I’ve yet to find a better option.
I was gonna say my jailbroken kindle. But that affordable mini e-reader has definitely caught my eye.
With I knew this before buying a new nook
Pressure Cooker. I have one from Fissler and it’s my go to for so many dishes that normally would take ages to cook.
It’s also so convenient to throw dried lentils in there and have them ready in half the time lol.
I just got a pressure cooker as a gift and have no idea when to use it! I did read it makes chicken tender?
It does! I will admit it sucks to find good recipes that use it but you can just cook anything you want in it as long as it normally takes a long period of time. Think sauces, beans, lentils, meats, etc. Things that normally take hours can take 30 minutes for example. Rice is also great and easy to make in it if you don’t have a rice cooker.
So basically if a recipe calls for you to cook something for a long time - throw it in a pressure cooker! Reddit is a great source for info and your pressure cooker should have come with a manual on how long every ingredient should take to make.
I very often make a quick meal with bulgur and some veggies for example. Also try Indian cooking, a lot of it uses pressure cookers!
There's actually a pretty cool community sort of tangentially related to this! buyitforlife@slrpnk.net
Anyway, my pick is definitely just a GOOD mp3 player. Whether that be an open hardware one you can crack open and repair, a proprietary one that can at least be Rockboxed, or bare minimum a proprietary one with a good iFixit rating.
What's the advantage over a smartphone?
- Better quality DAC
- Don't have to drain my phone's battery
- My music collection is big enough to fill my phone's storage, and they don't come with SD card slots anymore
- Smaller and lighter than a phone
- Definitely will last way longer and is easier to
- My phone doesn't have a 3.5mm jack 😭
That's everything I can think of right now
well yeah. But most phones w/o a 3.5 mm jack don't have an integrated DAC anyways, so the choice is up to you.
But the storage and the fact that it's all in a light weight bundle, that's indepedent of your phone is pretty convincing.
I remember having on, back in the day, that ran on a single AAA battery for a week an was marginally larger than one of these. Unfortunately I tinkered with trying to run it on an external power supply when I knew to little about electronics and ran a few too may Volts through it. Otherwise this thing would probably still work fine. I kinda never looked back since was content enough with my phone for listening to music. But I do have fond meories of those things, and I miss the 3.5 mm jack on my most recent phone, maybe I should reconsider...
Maybe so! If you do pick one up, you'll have to tell us how it goes, I'm curious
I guess it's not for everybody, but for my specific context it's pretty great. I think if I did have a phone with expandable storage, a 3.5mm jack, and still had an unlockable bootloader I could run Graphene/Lineage/Postmarket/etc on, it could probably replace the music player easily enough. I'd probably still end up eating a lot more battery that way though
Durability I imagine. My 10+ year old MP3 players still work fine. My phones from 5 years ago don't.
Also wondering this, VLC can run so many formats too
For me, the primary benefit is that it's NOT my smartphone. Music is a separate, intentional thing, divorced from the pocket distraction machine. YMMV.
Portable Bluetooth label maker. Not a necessity, but you can use it outside of typical application for lots of fun things!
Somebody park like an asshole? Leave a fun message for them!
Got something you want to personalize? Custom stickers of whatever you want!
Wanna leave memes around in public for people to find? You already have templates saved!
Want to advertise yourself or someone/something else? Boom, instant QR codes.
I've been having fun with the mini I originally got for work, about to buy one that prints larger labels.
Any particular model you can recommend?
I started with a Nelko one for $20-ish, but they have a free/paid system where you don't get all the stickers/fonts unless you pay a yearly fee. Next one I'm looking at is this one that specifically advertises no mtx.
Ultimately the main thing you want is a laser printer with thermal paper. Won't print in color, but it's much less hassle without ink carts and the only thing you'll need to replace is sticker rolls.
Thanks for sharing. That is pretty neat!
Dont quote me on this but I remember reading that thermal paper is carcinogenic. So maybe look into that before you get some.
Only if you actually burn it. Like with a fire.
Electronic countertop scale for the kitchen. Start cooking by mass rather than trying to decide if that's a half a cup packed or unpacked.
If you regularly store things in jars, a canning funnel. So much easier to pour sauces into jars without spillage.
Bone conduction headphones. Listen to music or talk on the phone hands-free while still leaving your ears open to what's going on around you.
If you've got sore muscles, a percussive massage gun. It looks like a horse vibrator, but it does wonders on a sore back.
A warhammer. Don't get a sword unless you are actually trained and know how to use and maintain it. A warhammer isn't going to get bent, chipped, or rusty, and even if it does, it's still a warhammer and will still smash things just fine. Don't smash melons or coconuts unless you're prepared for the biological mess that will get left behind; smash blocks of ice frozen inside of old yogurt tubs instead. Wear goggles.
Digital bath thermometer. I love my baths and I can get to my exact desired temperature of 43.5 degrees c every time. Great 5 quid purchase.
As an American who can't stand warm baths but enjoys a cold plunge here and there, I'd try it if you change the c to an f.
Like five wireless chargers scattered through your home wherever it is you usually just drop and forget your phone
Also, a little frame-controller for your phone, you can play warframe on that thang
If you're in car land, a good solid jump pack.
I recommend Napa .
Mine is also a portable compressor, a flashlight, and it'll charge your phone. And it's way more powerful than jumping off of a small car battery using cables.
Those are great !!
I had a combo unit that was all of that, AND a car jack!! It was VERY slow and there's no way I'd go near a car using it as a Jack, but as an absolute emergency it was useful
I disagree on the toothbrush. The problem is all the e waste. Everything else being equal I would love it and my wife won't give it up but basically the manufacturers change and you can't get heads that will work and you end up having to buy a new brush every few years which is almost worse with rechargeables.
Wife and I have had our Sonicare toothbrushes for something like 15 years and never had trouble finding replacement heads. In the event Phillips stops making them I'm certain 3rd parties will still make them.
must depend on model because one was definately soniccare.
But you could just go with Phillips? They have been using the same heads for a long time I believe. I buy mine from Costco in bulk.
Im not sure who I started with but initially there was no rechargeables and then like the first rechargeable I got had to be replaced because we could not get heads. I gave up at that point. I just don't trust them to keep the things going. A few years is not enough for me its gotta last minimum a decade and preferably a few.
You should take a look at Suri. I had the same annoyance and objection fo oral b and philips and their lazy lack of any form of effort to improve or innovate or be environmentally responsible. Been very happy with a suri for a couple years now, I send heads back for recycling and the battery lasts months at a time. https://www.trysuri.com/
Our family has tried electric toothbrushes more than once. We're all back on old school brushes and I doubt I'll ever try electric again.
I have been using Quip toothbrushes for quite a few years now and they seem to be going pretty strong. Every quarter they send me a new brush head and battery and your toothbrush is covered under wareanty as long as you have you subscription. I have rwally liked it and there doesn’t seem to be much risk of their support ending.
it disturbs me they send you a new batter every quarter. Do you send back the old batter? If so do they say what they do with it?
It is a regular alkaline battery, so no I don’t send the old one back. It is not required you can just get the brush head if you like and use a rechargeable battery that you supply if you want.
A subscription for a toothbrush?
Cordless drill. I was a die hard corded guy but then I tried a friend's one during a big move. Went out and bought one the next day.
I really don't like the proprietary batteries each company use for their cordless tools though. I don't want to be locked into 1 company and I don't want to buy 8 different batteries.
I wanted to punch someone when i realized my Bosch drill and Bosch electric saw use different batteries. They're identical in size, but the plug part on one is a mirror image of the other and so not interchangeable
They make some pretty low profile battery adapters now that will let the different systems interoperate.
To be fair, the early ones were pretty crappy compared to what they have now.
At the start, you really couldn't use it for real work. The convenience came at a huge cost.
These days all but the most extreme tasks can be done with cordless.
I also agree, but to take it further, I decided I'd had enough of cables on my circular saw. Got a small, lightweight one, and omg, it's SO good.
A usb c mini dock. Those that fit in your hand and are pretty much an entire docking station (multiple ports, hdmi, Ethernet) minus the power supply. So many devices come with only 1-2 ports.
Water pick - if I keep it in stride wit OP's post.
A bidet. Hands down the best $35 I've ever spent
Thermal printer. I play a lot of tabletop rpgs and wargames and it helps having the ability to print out handouts without worrying about how much ink I have left!
Not cheap, but a robotic vacuum. It's a life saver with a shedding dog.
I've been thinking about getting one lately, any suggestions?
This is our third one. I would look for one that can be serviced, is self emptying and has mapping technology.
For me, it’s a watch with a built in flashlight. Way more useful than I expected
A Vitamix blender. Most reliable blender I've ever used and so many things you can make in it. Smoothies, nut butters, you can even cook soups in them.
They are on the expensive side, but the worst model refurbished is still well worth having and goes on sale from time to time.
Wake up light. If you live in places where is dark most of the time this is quite handy to initiate a sunrise...
I have one from Phillips, but it lacks more music tracks.
Bought a tribit Bluetooth speaker. Now I have music all around the house and it doesn't give a fuck what I do to it. Dropped it in mud? Ok I'll throw it in the sink, it's fine. Shower music is fantastic.
carbiners and keyrings. they are hella useful although while you don't need to get climbing grade you don't want the cheapest level of consumer crap. The spot bot is great if its still the same setup. basically it just automatically rotates a scrubbrush with soapy water and sucks it back up. It basically cleans a spot like you got on your hands and knees with a bucket and scrubbrush to clean it. Very small area but thoroughly cleaned. crappy unbrella hats. its nice to keep the rain off while being able to use both hands. folding kitchen step stool. the larger kind with two levels, a magna cart, thumb drives, steamdeck, man likely lots of other things.
I needed a Bluetooth speaker for my work PC (I work from home). I got one with a radio tuner as well. I’m fortunate that I have several radio stations in my area that play music I like. I prefer having some music on in the background while I work, but I was getting tired of having to actually think about what I wanted to listen to next. So I’ve been listening to OTA radio quite a bit, and it’s a nice change of pace from streaming music. And it’s not like the radio bits added much to the cost of the speaker.
Edit: also eyeglasses (sure, I’ll count that as a “gadget”). I hadn’t been to the eye doctor in probably 20 years. Hadn’t really noticed any problems but wanted to get my eyes checked since I had just gotten insurance. Doc recommended a prescription and now it’s like seeing the world in HD instead of standard def. If you’re in your late 30s/early 40s and haven’t gotten your eyes checked, it’s possible your vision has slowly degraded over time and eyeglasses will help more than you realize.
Mosquito magnet
Expensive to buy. Expensive and fiddly to run. But boy, does it totally destroy mosquito populations!
Especially if you start it up from the moment of Spring thaw... catch the very first females as they reach reproductive maturity. Breaks the population cycle. Love it.
Jar opener
If you like pickles
Air fryer
For frying meat without using oil
Slowcooker / Multicooker with a basket.
Throw rice & pulses in it, throw water in it, throw vegetables and fish in the basket.
Turn it on. Do something else. Ding! Meal.
You don't even have to be on time. This thing will keep it warm.
I'm extremely lazy.
Instant read digital thermometer.
Game changing.
No more over-cooked meats and ending up with tough chicken and rubbery fish. No guesswork if something has reached safe internal temperature. A must have in the kitchen.
Venta LW45 humidifier. easy to clean, uses like 8W/hour (compared to ~40 for ultrasonic or 300 for electric heating ones), quiet, goes through a 9l tank per day easily. And has almost no part that could break i.e. i could replace whatever could break easily.
but the price is insane for what amounts to a bucket with a fan
Wireless charger for my phone. No more fiddling with cables.
Some little wireless ear buds. I just got cheap ones but I use them all the time, they're small, the case charges them, so they last ages. The sound quality of mine is mediocre, but I'm sure there are ones with better sound.
I love my wireless charger. I have an older iPhone with their stupid lightning port, no USB C for me. So instead I just use my wireless charger. No fuss with cables, put it on the pad to charge, pick it up to check something, put it back on. No fuss, no mess, perfection.
A smartwatch or band. You'll never have to hear notification or ring tones on your phone anymore. In addition, sleep, heart rate monitoring, sports tracking etc. are a big bonus. Cheapest bands are very affordable and obviously there's no upper limit if you're a wealthy pig.
Even though I love my old square G-Shock, the pros of wearing my Garmin Vivoactive over it just outweigh the cons.
My Garmin goes with me everywhere. I would recommend a Garmin to everyone. As someone with ADHD who forgets to charge their electronics, having a watch that only needs to be charged once in 8-10 days is absolutely amazing.
It’s a pricey one, but a kegerator converted to corny kegs. Infinite seltzer water.
Plus room for another carbonated beverage of your choice.
This is the answer right here. The ability to rock up and fill a quart size insulated tumbler with bubbly water on a hot day is literally one of the best things in my life right now.
I need to work on getting one of the corny keg lids that has a water input post plumbed to a water source and an internal float so it is self filling thus replenishing
Oh man that’s the dream right there. #lifegoals
Only problem is that it’s all I want to drink. That and coffee (and occasional wine/cocktail)
a magic wand vibrator. truly next level stuff
Oh I am sure it gets you on the next level!
A tens unit. Literally the best $30 spent ever.
Can you just attach them anywhere? Do they shock you? Do they help nerve pain?
They do give little shocks, but it feels more like vibrations on the lower settings. I'm not sure about nerve pain, but it helps a lot with muscle aches.
Nvidia Shield. Years old but still the best.
Hell yeah. Great device.
Red light therapy panel.
You mean infrared, right? What positive changes die you experience?
The panels typically offer both red and near infrared light. The biggest benefit for me which was a surprise benefit I had not even intended to address is my asthma. Specially the near infrared on my lungs has allowed me to stop all asthma medication that I took for over 45 years. It is super effective and there are research papers emerging that support.
Thanks for your report. While looking for a daylight therapy panel I glanced over the reviews for red light panels and people were raving over them. Seems there is some truth to that. Congratulations for getting rid of your asthma. Know how that feels. Had pollen allergies through my whole teenage and young adult years which are completely gone now. I attribute starting running and exposing myself to that MFs.
Zojirushi rice cooker. 110% worth the hype. Makes perfect rice everytime.
I can't convince my wife to buy one. She insists on cooking in a pot on the stove
I have an older style Breville Stand Mixer. It has attachments like a dough hook, beaters, scrapers, etc. I thought I'd never use it. But! It sits on the bench (must be there for ease of access), and the amount of times I use it is astounding.
A small countertop water cooler/dispenser with a refillable filter bottle on top. (if you have the floor space, a stand up cooler is usually more energy efficient tho)
Something like this:
With one of these on top: https://www.zerowater.com/products/filtered-water-cooler
Clean filtered water, both boiling hot and almost ice cold, on-demand. Filling water bottles, cups, making hot chocolate, tea, instant noodles, even just starting to boil a pot using pre-heated water, taking so much less time. I love this thing.
When it comes to filters:
Zerowaters products specifically come with a Total Disolved Solids meter measuring in parts-per-million.
I was previously using a Brita filter jug which poured into a second filter from Aquapur ontop of my cooler.
My Tap water: 143ppm
Brita filter: 139ppm
Brita+Second filter: 87ppm
Replaced both with a single zerowater filter: 0ppm
After pulling close to 30 gallons through that filter its risen to ~8ppm (they want you to replace it at >6)
Why would I care about trace minerals in drinking water though? Just want the chlorine taste removed and activated carbon filters seems to do that just fine.
It's not just trace minerals in drinking water, but lead, mercury, chromium, micro plastics, and chemicals like chlorine, fluorine, and PFOA/PFOS.
All of these, zerowater filters are certified and tested to greatly reduce if not totally remove. I've noticed a significant improvement in taste, and the chemical testing I've personally done shows far better results than what I get from the tap. I highly recommend watching that ProjectFarm video I linked, and getting some testing kits for your own water.
My area is regularly on a boil-water notice because of poorly managed water treatment and damaged or changing piping during heavy development (at least 6 separate times in the last 5 years). We're not currently on such a notice, but the water we receive still isnt great.
My sister is immunocompromised due to illness and the medications required to fight it. She can't safely drink straight tap water, but this has been much much better for her.
Clearly I live somewhere with better water regulations, never even heard of a boil water notice
It just means water quality in the area is below the normal standard, so residents are advised to boil their tap water before consumption for a short time (usually a few days, maybe a week).
It's never possible to guarantee 100% uptime in any system (especially something as large as a city wide water supply, underground piping and all), there will always be failures/disruptions. You can plan for a lot, and make tons of redundancy, but eventually something WILL fail.
When it comes to water treatment, those failures/disruptions mean contamination and that means flushing as much as you can out and telling consumers within the affected area to boil their water for a short time. That can be anything from the various processes within the treatment system itself failing, to simple damage to supply piping introducing dirt and other contaminants, or even just planned maintenance/additions/upgrades.
Where I currently live it's bit ridiculous how many times we've had such conditions, but I've also lived places for years and never had an issue. It happens everywhere eventually (as long as your government doesn't suck and actually bothers to tell you about it), but you may never even notice.
Maybe you've been lucky enough to have never had such a disruption, maybe you didn't notice the warnings/communications about it, maybe they just didn't bother to tell you and hoped it wouldn't be a noticeable issue.
When there is a water outage here it is normally localised to a small area and makes national news because of how infrequent it is. The water company must provide bottled water when this happens too.
That's usually down to the scale of the outage. Knock out half a city and yeah, the news is interested and water gets supplied via alternatives (bottles, localized fill stations, etc); one pipe supplying a neighbourhood bursts due to slow ground movement over time, nobody but that neighbourhood cares... I've experienced both.
My current issues are because a very small native government is managing treatment in our area, the systems are in desperate need of updating, and there's been a ton of expansion (new housing) added on, so they're struggling to cope. (this has been very unusual in my experience)
I've also lived in a completely different country where the water was very well managed. I walked out my front door after loosing water pressure one day and there was a new fountain of water pouring out of the middle of the street because the main line running under it broke, creating a sink hole and introducing contaminants to the now open pipe.
Similar to a power outage; a whole city loses power and you get national news articles about it, 1 house loses power and even the smallest local news doesn't really care as long as it's fixed relatively quickly.
/edit: well would you look at that. Woke up this morning; no water pressure. Pipe burt in the apartment building beside us, they had to turn off water to the whole lot (which includes me) to fix it. We're probably going to have to boil water for a day or so for extra caution.
This! But mine is just a pitcher with a filter in the lid. Stick it in the fridge to keep cool, use it to fill backup bottles.
I started with one of those for at least a decade and upgraded to a large dispenser jug in the fridge for like 4 years.
The small pitcher doesn't hold enough water needing a refill pretty much every use (large water bottles, and several family members). Refilling means setting it in the sink, add water, wait long enough for it to filter the first batch, then add more and return it to the fridge. Takes too long.
The large dispenser jug was a PITA to take out, filter water into (using the top of the Brita pitcher in like 5 batches), then return to the fridge around twice a week, if not more. It's heavy, that process takes a while, and you've gotta babysit it to add enough water and put it away to be chilled.
The countertop cooler filter is much more convenient. It holds ~5 gallons of filtered water and you can dump like 3.5-4 gallons into the top at a time. Takes like 1/5th the time to refill with no babysitting/waiting around to add more water.
The major upgrade there is the hot filteted water. It is SO nice being able to get boiling hot filtered water immediately. I really like hot chocolate, my sister drinks a ton of tea, and we all like instant cup-a-noodles. Never wait for a kettle, and cleaner water than the kettle.
Electric brew kettle for homebrewing. It's soooooo much better than using the standard kettle on the cooktop. Don't have to monitor the temp manually and watch the clock, just turn it on, set the temp and timer and it does its thing.
Also can be used to sous vide an entire 10kg ham
Countertop ice machine. I keep mine on a table right next to my bed for infinite cold drinks whenever I want without getting out of bed.
Rada Quick sharp and a cheap hone
Yes we all know about people who obsessively talk about knife care and sharpening, but for the average person, just use this to get your knife sharp and get on with your life.
I have a set of small, palm sized stones I picked out of a local river. Nearly as good as my japanese whetstone progression set. :-) I seriously use the more, and my kitchen knives I can shave with. Feels so.... manly :-)
Or you could just get a quick sharp and get on with life/cooking
Wait till you try a miswack.
I agree with this. I have a friend who is a pediatric dentist and she said to get a sonic toothbrush and use it the rest of my life. It immediately made a difference and I credit it and regular thorough non-alcohol mouthwash rinsing with keeping dental infections at bay, which I was prone to beforehand.
LAN tester.
I thought of it as fancy electrician / network equipment. Not anymore. Now it's basic troubleshooting / procedure.
On a particularly frustrating switch installation, I picked one up for like $20 on Amazon, and it's made me much less annoyed by network changes.
For context, I'm one of those people who hoards any electronic bits that might prove useful on a hobby project later, so lots of old patch cables and cable reels with unknown breaks, so maybe a LAN tester is really only worth it for others like that, but I'd recommend it to any level of tech enthusiast at least.
Few things. One is a home vacuum seal machine. I can keep food for much longer. Just vacuum seal it. Never thought I would ever use it that much. Secondly our Chinese toilet with inbuilt massage shower head to wash my ass. Most people refer to it as a Japanese toilet. The cleanliness feeling after it hits the stream right on target, is just the best. These unfortunate underpaid people can burn down all the toiletpaper warehouses in the world.
The vacuum sealer reminds me: a handheld electric pump.
Some are strong enough to blow up car tires. Especially if you have kids, they're great for inflating water toys and balls and whatnot.
A good watch, like a Citizen Exceed or a Casio G-Shock Square. Price/performance out of this world and will last you a lifetime.
Breville Milk Frother. Got one 10years ago. Really elevates your morning cup of coffee or tea and also great for putting on porridge. They've gotten ridiculously expensive though.
Vitamix.
This is great! Can you check how much this weighs? It would be great to know if I can take it backpacking
This is kind of cheesy probably but I upgraded to the Pixel 9 Pro XL and added on the Pixel Watch 3 (45mm), as well as the Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds the year before last. I had exclusively used cheap budget Android phones and wired earbuds before. I did already have a Samsung Watch 5 but I got the Pixel Watch 3 for the total current generation ecosystem experience at the time. It is so much more elevated than my scene prior to that. The Pro 2 earbuds are fricking phenomenal. I sleep with them every single night without any discomfort whatsoever and both buds are still in my ears when I wake up virtually every day. Anyway, I was shocked at how much more pleasurable it made my interaction with personal tech. I will likely never spring for all new gadgets again but I will continue to buy the flagship level devices from now on, even if I'm buying them a couple of years old on Swappa.
Apple peeler and core remover. Game changer for apple pie.
I think OP's point in asking this was so that people could buy the things that other people thought were useful.
No one knows what this is, other than some "generic ice cube tray".
The picture is pretty self explanatory imo, its an ice cube box that makes proper ice cubes, comes with two trays so you can make a whole bunch at once, the box acts as convenient storage so you can prepare a ton of cubes ahead of time, and the lid works as a tool for getting all the cubes in a tray out at once, without having to press them individually like on some other solutions.
The picture showcasing the well thought out design was preferable to posting a link or naming a specific manufacturer, since its a generic design you can find on Aliexpress or other sites from various brands. It should be easy to find by just looking up "ice cube tray box" or something.
A picture gets the idea across more easily than describing the product I think, and leaves less room for interpretation.