Love his channel. He finds the most interesting devices and topics to talk about. Even when some of the electrical details go over my head, I still learn a lot. I share his fascination with pre- microprocessor electromechanical devices, even though I also love a good microprocessor. I annoy my wife with stuff I've learned from him all the time. Yes, including water heater facts. And because of him, I now run hot water tap until it runs hot before starting my dishwasher to make the first rinse more effective.

Also the man makes me feel contempt over things I had never even considered before. Taillights and blinker behaviors on cars, the rarity of single unit heating and cooling heat pumps, American outlets, power cords, and non-clicky switches, etc. And his indignant rage over product manufacturers competely missing the point of standards or choosing things like aesthetics or marketability over efficiency, safety, or usability becomes my own indignant rage.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Still thought about him yesterday night when pouring liquid in the pre-wash compartment before starting the dish washer

[–] marine_mustang 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

He’s the reason I switched to dry flake dishwasher soap. It makes so much sense! Why pay to ship what is mostly water? That’s the same reasoning (along with reducing waste from packaging) that I used to switch to SodaStream and kegs of beer. Bonus: I got an adapter for my SodaStream that allows me to run it off the kegerator CO2 cylinder, which is much cheaper than SodaStream’s own cylinder exchanges.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

Yep, I'm on my last bottle of liquid detergent after I saw his video.

[–] marine_mustang 13 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wish I had known about heat pump water heaters before I replaced mine about 6 years ago. Heat pumps for home heating and water heating should be mandated by building code here in mild California. It’s the perfect environment for them. Unfortunately, I use heating so infrequently during our “winter” that replacing my perfectly functional furnace is not really worth it. So, instead I started using the heat pump mode on my portable air conditioner (yes, I know, but also used infrequently) to provide just those couple of degrees of heat that I need. It’s not bad, with a COP of 2.7.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

has anyone tried flipping the portable air conditioner around so the cold side is outside on the balcony but protected from the rain, and the hot side is pointing into the house? I'm talking about the kind with the hoses.

[–] DanVctr 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I think you'd end up freezing the unit, but I don't know enough about it to back up my gut feeling.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

actually it's not cold enough outside for any significant freezing to occur in southern California.