Yesterday morning I thought I better clean my bedroom air conditioner before the really unbearable temps get here. I keep the filter cleaned twice a week but I noticed the front of the evaporator was really covered with cat hair and dust since I got these young kittens. I spent about an hour cleaning the front and as much of the squirrel cage that I could actually touch with a few fingers without backing up my truck to the window and remove the entire unit. When I clean like this the first start the fan is very slow turning because all the soapy water is covering the lower part of the fan, it tosses soapy water up and over like a Ferris Wheel and I keep pouring clean clear water over it as it spins then it slowly starts spinning normal speed. I have to say if air conditioning is a gadget then it has to be my life saver. I cannot stand for the power to be down for long, I will cover my face and chest with a wet towel if the power stays off too long. There have been times when the power is down for 4 hours before coming on again. I have a lot of gadgets but none are better or make my life easier than that air conditioning. Funny thing is my Truck air stopped working 15 years ago due to a leak and I just never felt I needed it, but now I am much older and it would be nice to have air in the truck again but it will never happen. I don't drive that often so I can live with the heat while driving.
I have some things I'm like a little kid about. One of them is the need for a hands-free phone when I'm on a call for an extended period of time, or I'm on a call and I need to access my computer or a website (and I need to type.) I had one of the early hands-free AT&T "squawk boxes" at work in the late 1970s, mainly to save my neck. I bought an iPhone last July, and a short time after that I bought a wireless headset off of Amazon. I love this thing. It is so easy to use, is crystal-clear, and cost under $30. Set up with my phone (pairing) went flawlessly. I just read some of the negative reviews on Amazon to refresh my memory (10% of the folks rate this One Star) and I've not had any of their problems in my 10 months of ownership, but I am only an occasional user. Maybe this is not the best model on the market (Plantronics cost several hundred dollars), but for being on the phone when tracking down parts or clearing up a banking problem or other account issue, it's worked flawlessly for me. This guy did a side-by-side review against a $600 Plantronics and declared this cheaper model to be the winner.
I remember coming out of the wilderness after several weeks in the woods, and the two things I craved were toilets and ice cream!
I had two Craftsmen 19.2 volt drill-drivers with adjustable torque. I've worked them hard for 30+ years and one just finally gave out. I took it apart thinking to replace the brushes but it was non-repairable. I replaced it with a Hart 20v drill-driver which I'm sure won't last as long. Along with a Dewalt 12v driver I'm set. I have to have three for most work. Drill the pilot hole, countersink the hole then drive the screw. I need three unless I want to constantly be changing bits.
This stuff makes me angry. I'm sure many of us have been replacing brushes and doing a bunch of other repairs since we were kids. I still do it, not to save money but because I hate throwing stuff out that is otherwise serviceable. I have something like this that I use in the back of my car to hold the plastic grocery bags so they don't flop around: I then use it for carrying my groceries into the house. The handles are stitched into the thing, and after a while one side of a handle ripped free. I can afford to buy a replacement, but I wasn't gonna throw away a perfectly good carrier for something like that, so I broke out the grommet kit I bought when making tarp roofs for my firewood racks and sort of riveted it into place. While I was at it, I tore off the other side of that handle and did the same thing to it. That was well over a year ago. Just last week, one side of the second handle tore free, and I did the same thing to it. So now I saved money, I kept the thing out of the landfill, I made use of those grommets I already paid for, and it's stronger than it was when it was new. In the spirit of the topic, that collapsible grocery tote is a gadget I can't live without. It stops the plastic bags from spilling their contents in my car, and it saves me from making multiple trips to the house when unloading. I'm also finding more uses for this gadget:
Nice tool for sure. I think you will enjoy watching this video of mini engines, there are many different engines on you tube. Today hobbyist can afford to buy some fairly cheap machine tools to build mini models. I think they are cool. There is also mini jet engines which are super cool for the radio control enthusiast. https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=yo...i=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfAFw-LUx3Y
I saw a youtube video which told that lightbulbs would last lifetimes but a law was passed to keep companies in business and competative, to make the bulbs with built in obsolescence. Lots of products followed suit even before the crap from China. Not long ago we wanted things to last forever but then we wanted NEW things all the time. It is a throw away economy starting to swing the other way. Of course if everyone was like me and made do, the economy would never have taken off.
I'll buy a new product (like when computers came out), but don't need the latest model. I'm like you, everything gets fixed 'till it can't be fixed no more. To wit, these continued to meet the requirements for "field footwear" before I got tired of wet socks: Regarding gadgets and light bulbs: A gadget I installed to lengthen their lives was an electronic dimmer switch. It's not the dimming that lengthens their lives, it's the electronics of these switches. Light bulbs die an early death because the surge of electricity when they are first switched on from "a cold state" stresses the thin filament, which eventually breaks. These electronic switches do not present a "fast on;" rather, the electronics pause for the briefest of moments before passing current through. I believe that this pause attenuates the surge, thus lengthening the life of the bulbs. This is the style. The dimmer is a slider that remains at a given setting, while the toggle turns it on & off: 8 years ago I installed these gadgets on: -hallway lights (3 equally spaced recessed halogen fixtures) -kitchen ceiling lights (a surface fixture with 3 halogens) -main bath (incandescent vanity and ceiling lights) -half bath (incandescent vanity lights) -dining room (incandescent ceiling fan light tied into 2 recessed halogens) I have yet to replace a single bulb, and I have been retired (at home) the entire 8 years using these lights. I won't call these "can't live without gadgets," but they save electricity and the cost & hassle of frequent bulb replacement. The ability to dim is a marginal benefit that was not my primary motive for installing these.
I honestly can't think of a "gadget I can't live without," unless it's a can opener. There are plenty of gadgets I'd be sorry to lose but none of them will kill me.
Hmmmmm, I like lots of little gadgets but I can't really think of one I would miss.....unless it went missing, when I needed it. Maybe one of those rubber or silicone grip jar openers. They are making jars harder to open all the time.
And eye glasses. They are making print smaller all the time. I used to complain about the print in the phone books but nobody is in phone books anymore.
I was just thinking. In shows like Naked and Afraid or that Island show with Bear Gryllis, I was screaming at the screen USE YOUR EYEGLASSES to start the fire! To heck with rubbing two stick together if you don't know what you are doing!!! I don't think my daughter will ever forget that factoid.