Sanyo Eneloop XX Batteries Will Feed Your Hunger For Power

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

Sanyo Eneloop batteries don’t have to live in the charger all the time, which is a bad idea anyway, unless you have a charger like this one with a trickle function.

AA and AAA batteries power much of the gadget-obsessed Western (and Eastern) world. I was an early adopter of rechargeable batteries, back in the nickel-cadmium days. NiCd batteries would go strong until they ran out of power, then abrubtly drop dead. They were a huge improvement over throwaway batteries, though, just as alkalines were a huge improvement over carbon batteries. At least alkaline batteries didn’t get thrown away quite so fast. Modern nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries are great, except they are dead when you buy them and they lose a charge fairly quickly on their own, so they’re good for toys and cameras, that get used a lot; and bad for things like remote controls and flashlights. Flashlights in particular are supposed to work when you need them, like when the power goes out during a storm. Who is going to remember to charge their flashlight batteries (until the power’s out, and it’s too late . . .)?

About five years ago, Sanyo (and others) introduced low self-discharge batteries that held their charge and therefore could be sold holding a charge and used right out of the package. The initial trade-off was that they were not as powerful as the ordinary kind, only about 2000 mAh compared to more like 2700 mAh for their competition. The Sanyo Eneloop XXs are now perfect. You can buy them, stick them right into something (although you should top off the charge first), and use them immediately … or do the opposite: charge them up and wait until you need them. They will hold a charge basically as long as you want. The manufacturer suggests that you store them in a cool place, a really cool place like the refrigerator or freezer.

They feel solid in your hand and they look great, too, with an edgy, extreme sports design.

The one drawback is that they are expensive, but don’t rechargeable batteries pay for themselves?

Affordability: 6                  Luxury: 9

Available from Amazon

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Just An Electric Grill? Here’s How to Make the Best of It.

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

Sure, it’s nice to have your own backyard, but lots of us live in apartments, condos and other kinds of multiple unit dwellings. The fire code in most big cities prohibits the use of open flames on balconies or terraces in high-rises, so that means no charcoal or gas grills. It doesn’t say you can’t grill, it says you can’t barbecue with an open flame. So the good part is knowing that the lugging of charcoal bags or propane tanks is not part of the equation.

It’s summer in North America, and hot (the hottest summer ever, warns former VP Al Gore) so we need to keep the stove off in the kitchen and cook burgers, hot dogs and steaks (and bacon, chicken, corn and other vegetables …) outside. An electric grill is the only way to go. Just plug it in and wait for it to heat up. When the old grill finally stopped working, Max, who is not generally the authority figure in matters cooking-related, wanted a CookNumber:

He couldn’t say why, he just did. It looked good, and it cost a lot of money, so it just had to be the best. Not usually the Affordable Luxury approach, unfortunately. Daisy B., who has actually cooked before, went down to the local big box home improvement stores and looked at what they had. What they had, mostly, was the Char Broil Patio Bistro Infrared Electric Grill. Daisy patiently explained to Max that the Char Broil grill was bigger, hotter, cheaper and it didn’t need a stand. There was plenty of room inside to put hickory, mesquite or apple chips for a more authentic smoky grilled taste.

Some assembly is required. It’s sort of halfway between Ikea furniture (with the wordless comic book directions) and Lego toys, like putting a bike together to go under the tree at Christmas. Not hard, but it takes a little while to get everything screwed together. Then you plug it, wait 20 minutes until it gets really hot, and you’re ready to barbecue. It wouldn’t hurt to have a fire extinguisher around, but you probably won’t need it.

Affordability: 7                  Luxury: 9

Available from Amazon (and lots of other places)

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The Joos Orange Charger Brings Solar Energy Into the 21st Century

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

 The Joos Orange Solar Charger is about as green as technology can get. Everybody has a good feeling about green technology. Do you think there is anyone who has, let’s say, a Prius that doesn’t love it, admire its cool features and feel moral and virtuous for owning one? Many of them famous movie stars and other celebs who can afford to drive whatever they want? I don’t have a Prius, but I get the same feeling from recycling, remembering to take reusable shopping bags to the supermarket and from using rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. I have looked at other solar chargers and until the Joos came along, they just weren’t ready: either too slow, too unreliable or just generally low quality. The Joos Orange Solar Charger has that quality feel that involves good fit and finish and a little bit of heft without being actually heavy.

It’s a little smaller than I expected, which makes it more portable for outdoor and travel use.

It is not only water resistant, it’s waterproof. You can actually charge it underwater, if you plug the female microUSB jack with the built-in cover. You don’t even really have to, if you dry the jack out once in a while.

I’m not sure why you would need to submerge it, but if a good sunny charging day turns without warning into a not so good rainy charging day, there is no need to worry about the Joos Orange getting wet.

It comes with all the plugs and wires you are likely to need, and you can order unusual ones and reflector mirrors for even more efficiency here. The Joos tells you its status through red and green LEDs, but if you are a true geek, download the free software to your computer and communicate with your Joos to your heart’s content. The computer will also charge it up through the USB port.

The battery is lithium-ion, and if you end up using the Joos Orange so much that you need a whole new battery, you can order one from the manufacturer and change it yourself, always a convenient feature and green, too.

So while you sit outside and recharge your spiritual batteries, you can charge the batteries for your devices as well.

You can order one or arrange to be notified when they are back in stock here.

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A Cory Glass Filter Rod Makes the Vacuum Coffeemaker Perfect

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

The Cory glass filter is a major part of making good vacuum coffee. If you took my advice from a few months ago, and tried using a vacuum coffee maker, you might have been disappointed at the design of the so-called “filter,” a sorry afterthought that looks like it’s made from a spring, a keychain and a bent paperclip:

Stock Filter

I suggested using a vintage Cory glass filter rod with the Hario for more luxury; how about trying it with the Bodum for just a little more luxury? There are always plenty of Cory filters on eBay, so like an impatient fool I bid higher than I should have for one that was New In Box. OK, glass can be easily made clean and sterile, so what difference does it make whether it’s new and now what am I going to do with the box? Keep it forever in case I need to sell it back on eBay? But I want to keep it! Anyway, here’s the picture:

Cory Glass Filter Rod and Box

To install, you take the old one out and put it somewhere (in the trash, hopefully) and just place the Cory glass filter rod in the opening in the top globe. By the way, the Bodum glass vacuum coffeemaker is available from Amazon for about $99. Start heating the water in the lower globe by itself on the stove, and add the grounds around the filter. Nothing could be easier. Put the top globe on, wait for the water to expand into it and let it gurgle for a minute or two. The glass rod gives it even more of the desired mad chemist look:

Vacuum Coffee Maker With Cory Glass Filter Rod

Take it off the heat and the filter does its job of letting the freshly-brewed coffee surge back down, while keeping the grounds up where they belong. The special secret bonus advantage is in the ease of cleaning up. Put the top globe over the disposal (or the garbage or the compost pile), pull out the rod from the top and just rinse the grounds away.

Cleaning Up Coffee Grounds with the Cory Glass Filter Rod

No mess and you can’t do that with the cheap metal and plastic filter that came with it. All in all, the way to go and available on eBay for under ten bucks.

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Roger Arquer’s Mousetraps Are Open Source Hardware

Posted on March 24, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins



“Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” Who am I to disagree with famous nineteenth-century philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, you ask? Well, all I can say is that Spanish industrial designer Roger Arquer has come up with not one, but four better mousetraps that you can see at his Web site. Better in that they are humane and non-lethal – you need not decide right away to impose the death penalty for merely trespassing or committing petty theft. Although if you have small children in the household they may urge a sentence of life without parole in a hamster cage (they are cute little mammals, after all), they are wild animals that might be carrying diseases. Google “hantavirus” and you’ll see what I mean. They do not do well in captivity. Most likely you will choose exile; banishment to an undisclosed location at least several miles away. All four of his mousetraps are transparent, so even if you do not happen to be around to hear them when they are being disturbed, you will be able to tell at a glance whether you caught one. They are fine examples of modern open source hardware. Once you have seen the design, you can make one exactly the same way or any way you like it. My personal favorite is the Mouse in a Pint version. It seems like the easiest one to assemble the parts for and then set in a likely spot. You can make all four without too much difficulty and have your very own gallery before you even need them. The works were designed by a real industrial designer, after all, and they look like it. And of course, your home will stay rodent-free … 

Affordability: 10+ (free, in fact)   Luxury: 10

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The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker Makes Tea Easy

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Daisy B

Breville One Touch Tea Maker

Coffee.  Decaf. Half-caf. Cappuccino.  Espresso. Latte. Double Latte. Café con leche.  What is up with all the coffee?!!  At Starbucks alone you can choose from at least ten different flavors, styles, or mixes of coffee, and from shelves of merchandise dedicated to traveling with it, making single servings of it, keeping it warm, icing it down, frothing it with milk; and have you been to Target lately?  2/3 of an aisle, six shelves high of coffee varieties — and this is all supposed to be gourmet coffee, too.  Not just Maxwell House and Folgers, but Kona and Tierra del Sol,  Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts and New England . . . for heaven’s sake!  Max has an infinite supply of coffee toys:  the Krups, the French press, the Vacuum Coffee Maker.  I, the poor tea drinker?  Not so much.  Nearly anywhere we go, unless we sit down for two hours at a fancy restaurant and have it with finger sandwiches and scones, I am relegated to consume the dusty dregs of the tea leaf crop, crushed into mesh bags (if I’m lucky; paper if I’m not) and dunked into water of indifferent temperature,  sloshed into a paper cup and “off you go.”  This too-hot, flavorlessly bitter beverage is not tea.  Tea leaves have an aroma that, when properly steeped in water of an appropriate temperature, infuse their beverage with the delicate spice of bergamot, or the fragrant zest of oranges smoothed with creamy vanilla tones, or with any combination of the dozens of other flavors carefully harvested from tea plantations throughout the world.  Where can the tea-lover get THIS beverage?

I’m so glad you asked.  Now you can get such a beverage at home.  The Breville One-Touch Tea Maker levels the hot beverage playing field, finally, with a tea machine that brews your tea at the perfect temperature for the perfect length of time, customized by your selection of tea variety and your brew preference.  Just add enough water for the desired number of servings, follow the instructions to add the right amount of tea to the tea basket inside the pot, pop on the lid, select the tea variety (“black,” “green,” “herbal,” etc.) and the desired brew strength, and watch.  The One-Touch heats the water to the proper temperature, dips the tea basket into the heated water for the amount of time necessary to brew to your strength, elevates the basket from the water, and, “beep!”  Your tea is ready, more full-bodied and flavorful than any tea you’re likely to have had.  And the best part?  The One-Touch is programmable, so like your coffee-drinking cohabitant(s), you can set it to have your fresh-brewed tea at whatever hour of the next morning you’re ready for it.

The One-Touch is a little pricey – at least $249 at most retailers – but loose tea, believe it or not, is only about 9¢ per cup (1 teaspoon of loose tea = 1 cup), and at that price, you can drink many more cups and enjoy each of them a lot more.  Besides, if you’re going to drink tea, you should drink tea, not crop dust.  That, after all, is what drinking tea is all about.

Available from Amazon

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A Projector and a Screen Will Give You The Biggest TV On the Block

Posted on March 19, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

There have been some outrageously large plasma screen TVs created, but unless you are a Russian oligarch or perhaps a member of an oil rich nation’s royal family, it might be out of your price range. You would also need a very large living room or a dedicated home theater. Fortunately, there is a more economical way to get the same effect. If you tried borrowing or buying a projector as I described in my earlier post, you might have watched movies at night on a white wall, and enjoyed the experience. A screen is a huge improvement over a white wall. The image will be brighter, clearer and have a black frame around it the way it was intended to be viewed. I firmly believe that movies are made to front-projected, just like in real movie theaters, so they look their best with the light coming across the room. Also, since you have to be using an external sound system, hopefully a 5.1 or 7.1 receiver with a subwoofer, the sound is going to be much more realistic than the the two little speakers built into the regular TV. A 100″ diagonal screen is four times the area of a 50″ screen, so the effect is almost overwhelming at first; make sure you sit back far enough. Another important thing is having the room dark: watch at night, or in the cellar, or maybe you can hang the screen in front of a window in the room of your choice and block out the light, just like that. Pull it down, and the room gets dark.

Affordability: 9                  Luxury: 9

Available from Amazon

 

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Kaboom Scrub Free Toilet Cleaning System Does the Dirty Work

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

OK, let’s see a show of hands from those of you who like to scrub your toilets. Not very many, I see. With the Kaboom Scrub Free Toilet Cleaning system, you will rarely need to do it and you won’t need to waste money on the cleaning pucks that go in the tank. That tank water, after it dissolves the pucks, mostly goes through the bowl and out as it whooshes away the contents. The bowl fills up with untreated water and the tank fills up again to mostly just shrink your puck. The little Kaboom container, however, goes in between where the water comes in and the bowl, so it delivers the treated water right around the sides and directly down into the bowl. It’s a snap to install; you only have to connect two little hoses and when you need refills, they go right in after you unscrew the little plastic cap. The key is to get your bowl sparkling when you clean it for what should be the last time in a long while.

Affordability: 8                   Luxury: 9

Available from Amazon

Want more luxury? It’s not exactly the same thing, but any discussion of toilet luxury must include mention of the Toto line of toilets and washlets. They are heated, and do all the cleaning and drying that’s necessary after the process, and the more expensive ones, like all good hi-tech products, come with a remote control. They are everywhere in Japan, but have not caught on over here.

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Vacuum Coffee Makers Make Great Coffee, and They’re Fun to Watch

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

Vacuum coffee makers are definitely among the tools that coffee achievers say make the best coffee. Regular Mr. Coffee type drip coffeemakers with paper filters that you have to go out and buy in a store and then throw out after using just cannot be that good (and they’re not; the filters eliminate most of the essential oils that are preserved by most of the other methods). Plus they are just plain boring. French presses are a bit boring, too, but the metal mesh allows the oils to stay in the cup and add to the taste. It’s good but the remaining sediment makes them a bit sludgy. Vacuum coffee makers filter out the grounds and let the oils through for a great cup, and the spectacle of the dark, boiling liquid brewing has the drama of a science experiment seen for the first time by a grade school kid. Setup is easy: water in the bottom and coffee in the top. Heat the bottom and the expanding steam pushes the water miraculously up into the top chamber, where it mixes with the coffee and brews for only about a minute. Take it off the heat, set it down on a cold burner and as if performed by a magician, the process quickly reverses; the fresh coffee quickly drips down in the bottom leaving 100% of the sediment behind. An exciting dramatic event to watch first thing in the morning. The upper globe comes off, is easily rinsed out and you’re left with a pot of fresh brewed coffee. The Bodum Santos commonly sold today has a stand to hold the top part and a small lid to keep the coffee in the main pot warm. Easy to use, easy to clean, makes great coffee and great for spectators, too.

Luxury: 9                           Affordability: 6

Available from Amazon

Want more luxury? Hario, the Japanese company whose name means “King of Glass,” makes products that are in a class by themselves. They are expensive and hard to find, but they are gorgeous and extremely high quality. Get a Hario Nouveau and an old Cory glass filter rod from eBay to replace the paper filters and you will have the ultimate brewing machine.

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Mitchell’s Wool Fat Soap Helps With Winter Dry Skin

Posted on February 28, 2011 by Maxwell Perkins

I admit it freely – I am at any given moment almost always either too lazy or in too much of a hurry to moisturize when my face gets dry from the central heating in winter (or air conditioning in summer, for that matter). So especially in winter, I appreciate products like wool fat soap that moisturize while you are using them for other things, like shaving. Other factors, like the cool, refreshing menthol of Proraso become more important in warm weather. So when I lather up with Mitchell’s Wool Fat Shaving Soap, it’s nice to know that it is rich in the natural lanolin that English chemist Fred Mitchell discovered in sheep’s wool in the early 1930s. The same lanolin that kept the hands of farmers and sheepshearers inexplicably soft goes into the 21st century shaving soap that is made according to the exact same formula. No need to mess with success.

Other factors matter, of course. The smell, how well it lathers, how long it lasts in the bowl, how well it protects and lubricates the skin while the razor is sliding dangerously along your throat, how well is softens whiskers – it’s all highly subjective. There are many shaving creams and soaps out there, at varying price points, but the modern aerosol foams and gels in cans (that end up in landfills), that come out cold and are supposed to be spread on your face with your fingers, are my least favorite. Try something that is made to be brushed on your face with a brush dipped in hot water and see if it works for you as well as it works for me. MWF is my cold weather favorite. If you really like it, they offer a whole line of soaps for your body washing pleasure as well.

Affordability: 6                   Luxury: 8

Available from Amazon

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