What are your next major purchases?

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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by geezer »

ImLawBoy wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 5:48 pm I've only included the frustrating things lately, but before this latest round of chaos I did splurge for myself with a Steam Deck.
I've been kind of wanting one of those for awhile, but I'm on the fence. How is it? I would mostly play strategy type things - CIV, Crusader Kings etc. Is the screen big enough and does the UI work? I'm seeing mixed reviews on teh internets...
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by raydude »

The girls have been playing and practicing their piano lessons on a Williams Allegro 3 Digital Piano since 2019. Up until recently it's been adequate and has been able to give a "good enough" dynamic range (louder when pressing the key faster/harder vs. quieter when pressing slower/softer). Now though it gives the same loudness no matter how hard or soft I hit the keys. This means dynamics are out the window, which means pieces where the bass clef is meant to be played softer than the treble clef cannot be played the way they are meant to be played.

I went online and looked at some piano reviews, and found some by ThePianoForever. Based on his reviews and comparisons to other digital pianos the wife and I decided to get the Kawaii ES110 for $699. Should be here by Friday; can't wait to try it out and see.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by stimpy »

geezer wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:02 am
ImLawBoy wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 5:48 pm I've only included the frustrating things lately, but before this latest round of chaos I did splurge for myself with a Steam Deck.
I've been kind of wanting one of those for awhile, but I'm on the fence. How is it? I would mostly play strategy type things - CIV, Crusader Kings etc. Is the screen big enough and does the UI work? I'm seeing mixed reviews on teh internets...
Fyi....they are all 10% off until 3/23.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by ImLawBoy »

geezer wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:02 am
ImLawBoy wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 5:48 pm I've only included the frustrating things lately, but before this latest round of chaos I did splurge for myself with a Steam Deck.
I've been kind of wanting one of those for awhile, but I'm on the fence. How is it? I would mostly play strategy type things - CIV, Crusader Kings etc. Is the screen big enough and does the UI work? I'm seeing mixed reviews on teh internets...
I primarily play action shooters, so it's hard for me to comment. The biggest concern would likely be reading text on screen and inputting text. Check out a few games you'd want to play to see if they're verified or not for the Deck. In my genres, when they're not verified it's often because on screen text is small and can be difficult to read and you have to use the onscreen keyboard to enter info. I also avoid anything that says you may have to futz with the video settings because I have enough stuff to play and don't want to waste my time tweaking games.

Overall for my purposes the Deck has been great. It's taking me a bit to get aiming and shooting down as well as I'd like (it's no mouse and keyboard), but that's coming with more gaming.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by pr0ner »

Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:43 am Taking a cruise for the first time in my life. Cruise price wasn't bad, adding excursions and alcohol got REAL pricey. They wanted $1000 for the alcohol package. I don't drink that much in a year. That is for 2 people for 8 days. Issue is 4 of those days we will be off ship, and you can't pick the days you are on ship for the alcohol. So guess we'll just pay as we go.
What cruise line are you on? On my Royal Caribbean cruise last year, my drink package for a week was $600, and I easily got my money's worth since I also drank a lot of non-alcoholic beverages that were included in the package.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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We had our kitchen updated last summer and finally got painted last month. We discovered yesterday we had a leak. Turns out the 10 year old dishwasher takes a dump a few minutes after you turn it on. So today we will be looking for a new one and hoping that there is no damage back there when they pull the old one out.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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pr0ner wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:03 pm
Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:43 am Taking a cruise for the first time in my life. Cruise price wasn't bad, adding excursions and alcohol got REAL pricey. They wanted $1000 for the alcohol package. I don't drink that much in a year. That is for 2 people for 8 days. Issue is 4 of those days we will be off ship, and you can't pick the days you are on ship for the alcohol. So guess we'll just pay as we go.
What cruise line are you on? On my Royal Caribbean cruise last year, my drink package for a week was $600, and I easily got my money's worth since I also drank a lot of non-alcoholic beverages that were included in the package.
Carnival. It's 8 days at $70 a day for 2 people. So $1120. I may have 1 drink a night. Wife, maybe 2, and not every night.

Non alcoholic is a separate package. It wasn't bad, $15 day maybe.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by pr0ner »

Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:49 pm
pr0ner wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:03 pm
Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:43 am Taking a cruise for the first time in my life. Cruise price wasn't bad, adding excursions and alcohol got REAL pricey. They wanted $1000 for the alcohol package. I don't drink that much in a year. That is for 2 people for 8 days. Issue is 4 of those days we will be off ship, and you can't pick the days you are on ship for the alcohol. So guess we'll just pay as we go.
What cruise line are you on? On my Royal Caribbean cruise last year, my drink package for a week was $600, and I easily got my money's worth since I also drank a lot of non-alcoholic beverages that were included in the package.
Carnival. It's 8 days at $70 a day for 2 people. So $1120. I may have 1 drink a night. Wife, maybe 2, and not every night.

Non alcoholic is a separate package. It wasn't bad, $15 day maybe.
If you're not going to drink a lot, you definitely should just pay as you go. You'll never get value out of a drink or two a day.

On Royal Caribbean, the alcohol package includes the non-alcoholic package, so I am surprised Carnival wouldn't do the same.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Lassr »

pr0ner wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:01 pm
On Royal Caribbean, the alcohol package includes the non-alcoholic package, so I am surprised Carnival wouldn't do the same.
Maybe they do and I just didn't notice due to the sticker shock...
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

We never buy the drink package (it's included on our upcoming Greek cruise tho).
We might have a total of four/five drinks on a seven day cruise so it's WAAAY cheaper to pay as you go.

We also never get the regular soft drink package.
We each will bring a 32oz mug and fill it with water or bug juice from the free dispensers.

We tend to go super cheap when cruising including getting interior cabins (really, you're never in there except to sleep, use the bathroom, change clothes, and shower) and skipping a lot of the excursions unless it's something we REALLY want to see/do.

Of course, we end up paying a premium since most of the cruising we do are lifestyle/clothing-optional cruises so we grab the cheapest options when we can.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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Whats the bug juice?
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

Bug Juice
Definition
Noun

(slang) A colored non-alcoholic beverage similar to Kool-Aid.

Simply put, it’s the cheap government form of Kool-Aid served at sea. It usually comes in the colors red, orange, yellow, green, or purple (others exist as well). However, the color has zero bearing on the flavor. It all tastes the same…sweet.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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Well ok then.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by em2nought »

Oops, wrong thread. Coincidently, Navy bug juice is pretty good for cleaning battery terminals. :wink:

Santorini is well worth a stop while doing the Greek Isles. Crete too!
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by gbasden »

Brian wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:38 pm We never buy the drink package (it's included on our upcoming Greek cruise tho).
We might have a total of four/five drinks on a seven day cruise so it's WAAAY cheaper to pay as you go.
Honestly, for most cruise lines you have to be verging on alcoholism to get your money out of a drink package.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Anonymous Bosch »

geezer wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:02 am
ImLawBoy wrote: Fri Mar 17, 2023 5:48 pm I've only included the frustrating things lately, but before this latest round of chaos I did splurge for myself with a Steam Deck.
I've been kind of wanting one of those for awhile, but I'm on the fence. How is it? I would mostly play strategy type things - CIV, Crusader Kings etc. Is the screen big enough and does the UI work? I'm seeing mixed reviews on teh internets...
Stellaris, Civ V, and Civ VI all run great on the Steam Deck. I haven't tried Crusader Kings III on my Steam Deck and don't have sufficient free space to install it, but it does runs natively on Linux and ProtonDB suggests that it works on Steam Deck with a few mods to further improve scaling of the UI:
ProtonDB.com wrote:Tinker Steps: Switch to experimental
Control Layout: Switch To Community Layout: Crusader Decks
Difficult To Read Text: Yes

Fixed through mods

Recommend a few workshop mods to help with UI:

Better UI Scaling by Agami: Let's you move more boxes and scroll to see previously hidden info. Have played with UI scaled to 100% without issue. Huge improvement from the regular 60% max.

Configurable News Feed - Updated By FunGaming44: let's you move and rescale the notification box, and a much better notification UI overall.
Since your primary gaming focus is strategy games, you'll likely find that it can take time to sufficiently reacquaint yourself with the relevant control layout for the strategy games you're playing. But Community Layout control schemes can often be a godsend for providing much-improved control layouts over basic default settings (as the above ProtonDB post suggests for Crusader Kings III). And you can further customize and personalize your controls to an astounding degree courtesy of the options Steam input provides, as shown here. So, it's usually just a matter of practice until you become accustomed to how the game controls work with your Steam Deck.

FWIW, I believe Steam does provide a 14-day return policy if you do decide to purchase a Steam Deck. So, I'd thoroughly recommend treating yourself and at least giving it a whirl. I enjoy mine immensely, and have found it to be an absolute backlog killer. It's helped me appreciate and enjoy many games and genres I'd otherwise overlooked. It also works superbly well as a portable retro gaming console if you have any interest in emulation.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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gbasden wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:05 am
Brian wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:38 pm We never buy the drink package (it's included on our upcoming Greek cruise tho).
We might have a total of four/five drinks on a seven day cruise so it's WAAAY cheaper to pay as you go.
Honestly, for most cruise lines you have to be verging on alcoholism to get your money out of a drink package.
Challenge accepted, if I were ever willing to ride on one of those plague ships I would drink it dry because what else is there to do?
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by pr0ner »

gbasden wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:05 am
Brian wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:38 pm We never buy the drink package (it's included on our upcoming Greek cruise tho).
We might have a total of four/five drinks on a seven day cruise so it's WAAAY cheaper to pay as you go.
Honestly, for most cruise lines you have to be verging on alcoholism to get your money out of a drink package.
Not really. On Royal Caribbean the alcoholic beverage package includes a lot more than booze.

Fountain soda and refills at any venue
Coca-Cola Freestyle beverages*
Coca-Cola® souvenir cup
Non-alcoholic cocktails (mocktails)
Still and sparkling water
Premium coffees and teas
Fresh-squeezed juices
Cocktails • Spirits • Liquor
Beer • Wine by the Glass

Considering how much they charge for cocktails/liquor ($14 for a lot of it on my last cruise), as long as you stay hydrated all day (and not just on alcohol), you'll get your money's worth.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

em2nought wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:36 pm Santorini is well worth a stop while doing the Greek Isles. Crete too!
Unfortunately, Santorini, where I would really really really like to go, is not one of the stops on the cruise.

Nor is Crete but I've at least been there before thanks to the Navy.

In fact, on this seven day Greek Islands cruise there is only one stop that is actually an island and that would be Mykonos. All the other stops are on the mainland.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by LawBeefaroni »

pr0ner wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:01 pm
Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 4:49 pm
pr0ner wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 1:03 pm
Lassr wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 9:43 am Taking a cruise for the first time in my life. Cruise price wasn't bad, adding excursions and alcohol got REAL pricey. They wanted $1000 for the alcohol package. I don't drink that much in a year. That is for 2 people for 8 days. Issue is 4 of those days we will be off ship, and you can't pick the days you are on ship for the alcohol. So guess we'll just pay as we go.
What cruise line are you on? On my Royal Caribbean cruise last year, my drink package for a week was $600, and I easily got my money's worth since I also drank a lot of non-alcoholic beverages that were included in the package.
Carnival. It's 8 days at $70 a day for 2 people. So $1120. I may have 1 drink a night. Wife, maybe 2, and not every night.

Non alcoholic is a separate package. It wasn't bad, $15 day maybe.
If you're not going to drink a lot, you definitely should just pay as you go. You'll never get value out of a drink or two a day.

On Royal Caribbean, the alcohol package includes the non-alcoholic package, so I am surprised Carnival wouldn't do the same.
I'm assuming you can't just bring a few bottles along. Would not like to be trapped on a ship like that.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

Most cruise lines allow you to bring one bottle of champaign/wine but if you drink it anywhere but in your cabin they will charge you a corkage fee.

Seeing as I don't like champaign and wine, that's not a problem.

As for hard liquor, as noted, we might buy four or five drinks total over the course of a cruise so pay-as-you-go is much cheaper for us.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

You have to either catch a good sale or drink A LOT to make a drink package worth it. As both adults must buy the package your talking binge level drinking. I believe it was like 12 drinks a day each to break even last time. :lol: I wouldn't even remember the trip if I tried to do that.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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malchior wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 11:31 am
Zaxxon wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 11:23 am I think you mean MWh.
Correct.
That seems like anything but a shit show--I'll net about $1500 total over ten years for CO's RECs, and that's people installing today get bupkus. I know you have a big system, but $22k is nothing to sneeze at, even if it's taxable and NPV is less due to the long payout period.
That's lack of context on my part here. The price is wildly unstable. It's $90 right now. It might be $5 tomorrow. It used to be hundreds of dollars. It's market traded now so I can't really depend on it being $22K. It could come in higher but seems doubtful. The price has only decreased over time.

The real problem with the REC situation is on the commercial side where they put everyone into a time-limited transition incentive program. There have been numerous issues. The state has refused to extend timelines. So we saw utilities dragging feet on connections - sorry project you missed the deadline - panels became scarce due to supply chain issues - sorry project you missed the deadline. The financials on big community and > 50MW scale projects fell apart. We've been seeing layoffs of construction crews throughout the state as the projects stall out. It's a legit shit show. Guess who owns the program? The Board of Public Utilities which nominally is public...but seems to consistently protect the utilities.
A little update. I had a beautiful clear day yesterday. The system produces quite a lot of power.

Image

I quote the above to contextualize the next part though. The incentive side of the solar (beyond the Federal tax credit) is unfortunately a bureaucratic semi-scammy mess here in NJ. I mentioned the install time was super slow because of the government overhead. I'm 6 months past install and still don't have a complete registration for my system with the program that issues RECs. I checked in with the solar company which told me it'd be 4 months and they said they have customers who have been waiting 10 months now. :o

Then we have the net metering. I was directed by my installer to contact my local utility (PSEG) to change my anniversary date for credits. They recommend a March-February cycle in NJ. They estimate if I do that I should generate enough credits to be able to make it into December/January without any electrical charges. If I leave it as the anniversary it is now (meter install) - it'll be September-August and I'll build up a ton of credits and they'll buy them at end of cycle at the WHOLESALE price which is horrible.

Faced with losing money you can guess what the power company is doing. It has turned changing the date into a full-blown Douglas Arthur "Bureaucracy" adventure. I called the number provided and it directs you to call a new number. I called it, and it told me to call a different number. I called that one and get a voicemail box. I've left 8 messages with that voicemail box. I've called at different times without them picking up. It rings once and then immediately into voicemail so pretty sure it never actually rings a phone. They also give you an email address to contact them at. I've sent them 5 messages without result.

The total effort here has been way more than it should be and I've been trying this for 3 months. I contacted the solar provider and they...blew me off and told me sorry...it is a PSEG problem. You're not the only one having trouble with it. Cool.

I tried the general service line and they gave me the first number in the chain above. Seriously. I gave them a history and said I'd love to talk with someone higher up the chain who could help me. I was told it was a whole different organization and the general service line I called had no escalation path to that organization. Ok, whatever man. I asked if that other group had a help desk. You can guess the answer. The number I was given. Sure. Guess the next step is to file a complaint with the regulator.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by em2nought »

Brian wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 10:31 am
em2nought wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:36 pm Santorini is well worth a stop while doing the Greek Isles. Crete too!
Nor is Crete but I've at least been there before thanks to the Navy.
Were you stationed at NSA Souda Bay or just a port call? I was stationed there for a year.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

Just a port call.

It was a Med Cruise back in '91.

I was on the USS Dale, CG-19 out of Mayport, FL at the time.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Isgrimnur »

Brian wrote: Wed Mar 22, 2023 12:08 pm Most cruise lines allow you to bring one bottle of champaign/wine but if you drink it anywhere but in your cabin they will charge you a corkage fee.

Seeing as I don't like champaign and wine, that's not a problem.

As for hard liquor, as noted, we might buy four or five drinks total over the course of a cruise so pay-as-you-go is much cheaper for us.
Clear liquors in hand sanitizer bottles.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

A stove as our 20+ year old one freaked out and shorted out this weekend. Broiler turned on by itself and wouldn't turn off. Had to cut the power at the breaker. Even when you turn it back on it's still on. Woo... Control board looks like it's shot and that's not obtainable.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

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Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:59 am A stove as our 20+ year old one freaked out and shorted out this weekend. Broiler turned on by itself and wouldn't turn off. Had to cut the power at the breaker. Even when you turn it back on it's still on. Woo... Control board looks like it's shot and that's not obtainable.
Yikes.
Good thing you were home.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Lassr »

Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:59 am A stove as our 20+ year old one freaked out and shorted out this weekend. Broiler turned on by itself and wouldn't turn off. Had to cut the power at the breaker. Even when you turn it back on it's still on. Woo... Control board looks like it's shot and that's not obtainable.
Shit, that's scary. Luckily nothing sitting on the eye when it turned on.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by raydude »

raydude wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 10:23 am The girls have been playing and practicing their piano lessons on a Williams Allegro 3 Digital Piano since 2019. Up until recently it's been adequate and has been able to give a "good enough" dynamic range (louder when pressing the key faster/harder vs. quieter when pressing slower/softer). Now though it gives the same loudness no matter how hard or soft I hit the keys. This means dynamics are out the window, which means pieces where the bass clef is meant to be played softer than the treble clef cannot be played the way they are meant to be played.

I went online and looked at some piano reviews, and found some by ThePianoForever. Based on his reviews and comparisons to other digital pianos the wife and I decided to get the Kawaii ES110 for $699. Should be here by Friday; can't wait to try it out and see.
Our digital piano came in. We ordered the Snow White color per my wife's recommendation. It fits in with our living room furniture.

As for the sound, it's perfect! My daughters and I can play with dynamics and the action on the keys is great. My only negative is that the keys do feel lighter than normal piano keys, but I think that's fine given that the kids will only play on a real piano at recitals. Now we have to try and sell our other digital piano.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

Lassr wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:37 am
Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:59 am A stove as our 20+ year old one freaked out and shorted out this weekend. Broiler turned on by itself and wouldn't turn off. Had to cut the power at the breaker. Even when you turn it back on it's still on. Woo... Control board looks like it's shot and that's not obtainable.
Shit, that's scary. Luckily nothing sitting on the eye when it turned on.
We were reheating pizza. The pizza didn't make it. :P I'm just super glad it wasn't when my daughter was home by herself. She uses the oven a lot. She now knows how to throw the main breaker. I probably should have taught her that sooner. Better to turn that off if you don't know what to do. The stovetop luckily is separate from the oven, so tonight I get to crawl under a cabinet and unhook the oven from the junction box. *Should* be easy. But with my house they probably fused the wires together somehow. :lol:. It's never super easy like in the videos. Hell the box is in such a terrible place that I'm going to be a pretzel.
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Smoove_B »

I had that happen once too, it's scary stuff when you have food in there and the oven just wants to start a fire. :) I didn't think of the breaker; I just grabbed the stove and pulled it away from the wall and unplugged it. The breaker would have been easier. After it cooled the lock disengaged, but yeah, scary stuff.
Maybe next year, maybe no go
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Octavious
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

It's a wall oven so pulling it out wasn't an option.
The box is like five feet away so that made it easy. Would have been even easier if I knew which one it was. In hindsight it was pretty obvious as it was labeled on the panel door. ;)
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Brian
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Brian »

We have a burner on the stove that will run out of control no matter where you've got the dial set.
You could have it on the warm setting and if you are not paying attention, it might run loose and heat up to red hot so we try not to use that burner.
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em2nought
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by em2nought »

Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:48 pm In hindsight it was pretty obvious as it was labeled on the panel door. ;)
Often times those are labelled improperly, better to use the main breaker unless you're absolutely sure in this case. I recently found that my water heater and clothing dryer labels were incorrect.
Technically, he shouldn't be here.
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jztemple2
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by jztemple2 »

em2nought wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:59 pm
Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:48 pm In hindsight it was pretty obvious as it was labeled on the panel door. ;)
Often times those are labelled improperly, better to use the main breaker unless you're absolutely sure in this case. I recently found that my water heater and clothing dryer labels were incorrect.
Our house is 39 years old and even though we've been the only owners, we've had rewiring done and added new items requiring moving what attached to which circuit breaker. We've done it enough that last year I went through and did testing on each breaker to determine what is on what. I wrote up a multiple page report so I could figure out what breaker to turn off when, for instance, we had to change the wiring in a fixture. It's still not 100% correct :(. Happily our electrician isn't too picky and will do some rewiring even if the power is still on :shock:
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Octavious
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

I ordered power testers over the weekend just in case. I mean I know it's off, but nothing surprises me with this house. And I can annoy my wife running around testing everything in the house. I got one that plugs into the outlet and tells you if it's wired wrong and the probe. I was running around touching light bulbs. I'm easily amused.
Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

Shameless plug for my website: www.nettphoto.com
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Octavious
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Octavious »

Well it seems like I can never escape Best Buy 0 interest debt. We're going to replace the fridge and oven. With the 18 months financing and the weird membership deal they have it's not too bad. I was already going to replace the fridge so might as well take the pain all at once. And they come and install it. And they can come this week. Works for me. Both are 20+ years old so it was beyond time anyways. So now I'm kind of excited. :D
Capitalism tries for a delicate balance: It attempts to work things out so that everyone gets just enough stuff to keep them from getting violent and trying to take other people’s stuff.

Shameless plug for my website: www.nettphoto.com
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Re: What are your next major purchases?

Post by Zaxxon »

Octavious wrote: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:48 pm We're going to replace the fridge and oven.
Hey, us too! And the cabinets, and countertops, and island... Wish me luck; this process is gonna be a PITA.
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