Category Archives: Product Reviews

I think therefore I buy. Verdict and justification of my purchase

Product Reviews

iRobot Roomba 530

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irobot530roomba

Vacuum the floor is an essential house chores I love to hate. On one hand, I don’t want to live among the dust. On the other hand, dragging the vacuum cleaner over all the place is not a pleasant task. I don’t have to vacuum no more. I just got a iRobot Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. Now, I can just press a button and tell Roomba clean the house for me. I haven’t seen it in action yet, it’s still charging up for the first time. I got one of the basic model only come with the base station and virtual walls. The more advance version has schedule program and remote control. All 5th generation model has the same vacuum mechanism. I don’t those electronics function justify 50% more expensive.

I bought it at Home Sense sales this week. The regular price is $369 and it’s $70 off this week. For this weekend only, I got another 25% off if I use the in store credit card. Since I don’t have that credit card, I got a further 10% off just applying that credit card. At the end, I only have to pay $220 for the Roomba 530. The price is so low that it even beat eBay and an almost new 2nd hand unit on Craig’s list. I think cashier made a mistake. The 35% discount suppose only apply to regular price items. Anyways, It’s a really good deal, so I won’t complain.

Product Reviews

Milwaukee M18

6 Comments

m18-drill

It is man’s duty to maintain the house. When something is broken, the man of the house should know some easy repair skills. Being a handy man in the house is what defines the masculinity of a man. A power drill to has man living in a house is like a sword to a swordsman, a gun to a soldier. Every man needs a power drill.

I have been shopping for my power drill for a while, since I got my own place. I did many research online and talked to my colleagues. I have concluded that a few rule of thumbs buying the first power drill.

  1. Never pay full price for a power tool. Hardware shops have sales every few months, wait and save
  2. Power drill should be your only cordless tool. Battery is not powerful enough for saws.
  3. Get a 18V cordless driller instead of 14.4V or 12V. It’s more powerful and easier to use
  4. You need at least 2 batteries and a quick charger. Or you have to stop and wait when the battery is drained.
  5. Don’t buy cheap Chinese made power tool, it breaks fast.
  6. Warranty, warranty, warranty.

I was debating within myself should I get a normal drill or hammer drill. The impact drill is in between and it’s pretty much useless. A normal drill is good enough for indoor work, but I may want work on the concrete in my backyard, so I decided a hammer drill. At first I think I can get by with just a drill and use it as a driver instead of getting a separate impact driver. I saw the 2-in-1 hammer drill and impact driver combo on sales, it’s 40% off the regular price. It is too good a deal to miss, so I end up having both tools. After all, it is better to fasten screws with a impact driver.

I saw the Dewalt combo in the sales fryer. When I was at the hardware shop, there was Milwaukee sales booth. Both Dewalt and Milwaukee are very good power tool bands and I only see good review on the web. Dewalt seems more to be popular but Milwaukee has a reputation of better quality. Dewalt is made in Taiwan or Mexico, but Milwaukee is made in USA. The specification of the Dewalt and Milwaukee is pretty similar, both use Li-ion battery. The Milwaukee has slightly better torque and speed. Usually Milwaukee is a bit more expensive than Dewalt. The Milwaukee sales offer to match the price of the Dewalt combo and throw in an extra battery. So I walked out the door with a Milwaukee M18 hammer drill, impact driver combo with 3 batteries.

Product Reviews

Home Design Software

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Our new house just completed transaction, so it is time to think about renovation ideas. Pat has some idea how to renovate the new house. However you won’t know whether or not you really like your renovation idea until it is done and that is too late if you don’t like it. It is much safer to visualize the charge, fine tune the details before hiring a contractor to get the job done. I have been spending the weekend creating a 3D model for our new house, so we can experiment in the computer before finalizing out idea.

ewart_front ewart_back

I tried two different software, HDTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite and Better Home Design Suite. The former one is written by a little known company market under the banner of a TV channel. The latter is written by the same company that creates Chef Architecture, the software of choice for professional interior designers. To my surprise, the HDTV software is much better than a dumb down version of the professional tool. The user interface HDTV is very initiative, I don’t even need to read the manual, just use open the online help occasionally when I am confused about the function of the dialog box. Creating the basic model is pretty fast, probably it took me about an hour to draw the walls, windows and doors. Get the an accurate measurement from the house to fine tune the model took me a whole afternoon.  After I drew the wall, the software then auto generate the floor, ceiling and roof.  The shape of the roof is a bit off, but close enough for planning purpose.

ewart_second_floor ewart_ground_floor

Now I have entered the model of my new house, we can start trying different paint color and wallpaper.  We can also test run our furniture arrangement to figure out the optimal floor plan. The software also support landscaping, so we can try out how different plants in the model when we fix the gardens next spring. Making the house look pretty in the computer only needs some creativity, but making the house looks the same in reality requires some hard works.

Product Reviews

House Inspection

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HRB2004

Before buying a house, it is very important to have a house inspection before signing the final offer. It is much better to hire a certified house inspector then trying to do the inspection yourself. Many people tends to only look at obvious problem, like whether things turn on, is water running, any obvious leaks, etc. The house inspector will check those things too, but they are also train to look for structure problem, which would cost a lot more to repair than just fixing the switch or the pipe. You want to get a good estimate on repair cost before you sign the contract. If something is really bad, you can bargain for a lower price to cover the repair cost.

There are many house inspection company on the market. Pick one that give you the best report. What is a good report? First the inspector has to be through, but you don’t really know unless you have reference. Second, the report has to be easy to read. The report often come in a from of a huge check list. A list of code word on the check list is not very useful information to the home owner who don’t know how to interpret the data. You want to hire a house inspection company that use the Home Reference Book for their report. It is not only a check list, it has detail descriptions on everything you need to know about a house. Highly recommended for first time home owner.

Some people just let the inspector do their work and read the report afterward. To get the most worth of your money, go to the house inspection, follow the inspector around when he is inspecting and ask him if you any questions. You are not buying a few pages of paper, you buying an inspection. The best way to get all the information is seeing the inspector do his work. Of course don’t obstruct his work or he will kick you away. Most often the inspector are welcome to have someone accompanying him. It is less boring to talk with someone during the job. It is a lot easier to understand what’s wrong if the inspector points out the problem right in front of your eyes then trying to tell the problem in words when reviewing the report. Moreover, you can pick up a lot of useful house maintenance tips and details about your house. I would never know which circle breaker control which socket or how radian heat system works if I didn’t follow him around.

Product Reviews

iPhone

9 Comments

iPhone

iPhone has become the new de facto standard of cell phone. Almost everyone I know who bought a new cell phone since iPhone 3G released got an iPhone. I estimate over half of my friends is already a iPhone user. I am pretty late to the iPhone bandwagon. Actually, I am not really part of the iPhone crowd, the new iPhone belongs to Pat. Her old cell phone dropped in water and totaled. Given the popularity of iPhone, it is quite obvious which phone I should buy her as replacement.

I spent the night setting up her new iPhone. I am never a fans of Apple, but I must praise its elegance. The iPhone is well integrated with iTune, the user interface is intuitive and easy to use. The only hassle I had is calling up Fido customer service to disable the data service in the cell phone plan. It took me awhile to get the customer service agent do exactly what I asked. Pat is using a very cheap $17 monthly plan that does not come with any data package. Data is charged per kbyte, so monthly bill would be quite expensive if Pat turned on iPhone’s 3G data features by accident. It is safer to disable all data services from the carrier side. Pat can still go online with her iPhone using Wi-Fi, just like go online with a laptop.

The iPhone is as powerful as a mini-computer. Probably more powerful than the first laptop I own many years ago. The phone is also a very good deal, the 16GB version only costs $199 after rebate. The cost of the iPhone is heavy subsidized by carrier. The carrier’s plan to turn a profit is using the lucrative data plan come with the contract, which costs $30 a month plus surcharge if the bandwidth usage is over the limit. It is more economical to stay away from the 3G data plan, use iPhone as a phone, a mp3 player and only use its online features at coffee shop with free Wi-Fi. I wonder why people pay extra for the data plan. How often do you need to go online while on move? I don’t think I can surf the web and driving at the same time. If you want to check up something quick, there are Wi-Fi coffee shop every where.