Rinnai Tankless Water Heater Review
Posted by Patrick in Home Stuff on February 17, 2010
My electric water heater was very old so I decided to replace it with a new one. I had heard about tankless water heaters before and they sounded pretty good: unlimited hot water, no tank to break, energy efficient, space saving. With the recent tax credits I figured I’d try one out.
I ended up buying the Rinnai tankless water heater. The Rinnai is made in Japan and has a good reputation so I figured it would be a good choice. Brennan Heating had the best price of the companies that I contacted and seemed like a good company so I setup an install date with them.
The old electric heater was in the garage near the center of the house. Unfortunately Brennan said that the new Rinnai couldn’t be installed there because the vent to the outside was right next to the front door. So instead they installed the water heater on the other side of the garage to vent it and then ran water pipes back to the other side.
Unfortunately this extra pipe makes it take longer to get hot water to the faucets because the water has to travel through the longer pipe. I didn’t think it would add all that much time but it added a significant amount of time.
The second problem is that if you turn the hot water on and off frequently the water does not heat up consistently. Once the water starts flowing the burners cannot fire up fast enough, so cold water gets into the pipe. So for example, if you’re washing dishes and turn the hot water on for a few seconds at a time then the water will never get really hot. So you have to learn to wash dishes in a different manner by combining all your hot water in larger batches.
For things like showers the Rinnai has no problems. Since the hot water is used consistently during a shower the heater has no problem keeping the shower nice and warm. Plus since all the heating is done on demand it is handy when you have guests staying over. People can take showers back to back all day long and nobody has to worry about running out of hot water and being force to take a cold shower.
The Rinnai is a nice hot water heater, but there are some downsides to it. I’m not sure if the benefits outweight the drawbacks. If you are really into having the latest technology and energy efficiency then go ahead and get a tankless heater. If all you really want is just hot water then it might just make sense to stick with the old tank style.
Coleman Echelon Furnace Review
Posted by Patrick in Home Stuff on February 10, 2010
My 35 year old Ruud furnace had been working ok, but it was getting pretty old and was really inefficient compared to newer models. So I decided to look into getting a new high efficiency furnace with the $1500 tax credit that is available. Here is my review:
I ended up getting a Coleman Echelon Furnace with a 97.5% efficiency rating. I was somewhat unsure about getting a Coleman at first since I was only aware of them making low end camping equipment and coolers. But after more research I found that Coleman is actually the same furnace as the York brand, just with the Coleman badge attached.
The Echelon is Coleman’s top model. It has a fully modulating burner and blower which in theory should output the exact amount of heat required. Instead of being either off or 100% on, the Coleman can output only say 40% of the maximum heat if that is all that is needed. The Echelon costs more than their other models, but I plan on keeping it for 30 years like the old one so I may as well have a good one.
In theory Coleman’s modulation sounds great. Instead of a non-modulating furnace cycling on and off all the time, the Coleman is supposed to run more often at a lower setting. This should keep the temperature in the house at a more constant temperature. Unfortunately the furnace doesn’t really seem to do this. It might do it a little because I hear it come on at a lower speed and then ramp up after a few minutes. But it doesn’t really perform like their description says.
From what I have read the best furnace is the Rheem modulating furnace. The Rheem has a special thermostat which can tell the furnace the exact temperature of the house. If the house is at 65 degrees but the thermostat is set for 70 then the Rheem furnace knows that it will need to output a lot of heat so it outputs 100%. The Coleman only knows that it needs to be warmer so it doesn’t know how much heat to output. I probably would have gotten the Rheem, but the Rheem barely missed the efficiency cut off for the tax credit so I didn’t get it.
The Coleman furnace was installed by PPS Heating and Air Conditioning. Their install seems to be pretty good. But they couldn’t get a new thermostat wire run. They were supposed to go do some research and then call me back to get it fixed. But of course they never bothered to call back. I guess once they have their money they don’t care about doing the things that they said they would do.
Stainless Steel Rice Cooker Review
Posted by Patrick in Home Stuff on September 23, 2009
I’ve had an old rice cooker with an aluminum pot for a few years and it stopped working the other day. I’d been meaning to look for a new one with a stainless steel pot. With all the talk about plastics and aluminum leaching into food I’m trying to convert to an all stainless steel or glass cooking tools.
I thought there would be a better selection of rice cookers with stainless steel pots. Unfortunately there only seems to be one that is manufactured, the Miracle Exclusives ME81. I’d never heard of the Miracle Exclusives brand. It kind of sounds like some product that they would sell on TV but I went ahead and ordered it since it was the only stainless steel version I could find.
I got it in a week or so. The rice cooker seems to be fairly high quality. The stainless steel pot was amazingly shiny, I’m not sure if it will stay that way but it looks pretty nice. The cooker part seems of decent quality too. I tried cooking brown rice in the cooker and it came out fine, just as well as the old one. The cooker is also surprisingly big, a lot bigger than my old one. You could cook rice for a lot of people in this one.
The stainless steel pot seemed a lot easier to clean than the old aluminum one. With the old pot I had to let the pot soak overnight before I could get it fully clean. With the new steel pot I was able to clean the pot right after using it without too much effort. This is nice because I don’t have to leave a dirty pot sitting on the counter overnight.
I wish they would sell a stainless steel rice cooker with some of the advanced electronic features of some of the other cookers. But personally for me I’d rather have a safe steel pot that I don’t have to worry about, rather than a Teflon coated pot with fancy electronics. All in all I’d buy the Miracle Exclusives cooker again. Hopefully in the future as people become more aware of the problems with Teflon there will be more stainless steel options.
How to fix: error MSB6006: “aspnet_merge.exe” exited with code 1
One of the most annoying Visual Studio errors are the ones that don’t give you any details of what is wrong. This is one of those errors:
error MSB6006: "aspnet_merge.exe" exited with code 1
To fix it open a command line at the root of your project and enter this command:
msbuild /verbosity:detailed > output.txt
Now open output.txt and search for “MSB6006″. You’ll probably see the error right above the error line. This is the error that I usually get:
An error occurred when merging assemblies: ILMerge.Merge: ERROR!!: Duplicate type '<ClassName>' found in assembly 'App_Web_b6it0-k1'.
Usually when I get this error it is because I copied some files to create new pages but forgot to rename the classes. This causes naming conflicts because there are multiple classes with the same name. Just search your code for <ClassName> and you will probably find it defined in multiple places.
Fight spam email with Spam Bait PHP
One of the more annoying things about email is the amount of junk email that one receives. If you have a website consider adding spam bait to it so that spammers who are harvesting email addresses get junk email addresses instead of valid ones.
The quickest way to add spam bait is to use Spam Bait PHP. This PHP program creates the spam bait automatically for you. I put it here on my website.
Stainless Steel Metal Ice Cube Trays
Posted by Patrick in Home Stuff on July 9, 2009
For years I have used the cheap plastic ice cube trays in my freezer. Recently I’ve gotten tired of them because the ice is difficult to remove and the trays add a plastic taste to the ice. Also I switched to Klean Kanteen
After looking around I found that there are not very many manufacturers of metal ice cube trays. I only found one ice cube tray made out of stainless steel
I ordered it with the cheapest shipping on Sunday night. It was at my house in Washington state on Wednesday. Super fast shipping! The ice cube tray is stamped with the company name Onyx. The tray looks very nice and seems to be of high quality. It has a handle to release the ice which is so much easier to use than twisting the old plastic trays.
I only bought one because the price was on the higher side. I may eventually order a second one so that I can make more ice. In my search for a new ice cube tray I found that there are vintage aluminum ice cube trays that are available on the secondhand market. Personally I would avoid those because aluminum could possibly leach into the ice. Stick with stainless steel because it has been shown not to leach into water or ice.
Update 8/15/2009:
I’ve used the ice tray over the last few weeks. The only problem I’ve had is that it is sometimes hard to get the ice out (I have the same problem with plastic trays too). I think the key is too not overfill the tray. If you put too much water in then there is too much ice to crack when you use the handle to get the ice out. By putting less water in it takes less effort to get the ice out. Also running a little tap water over the frozen tray, top and bottom, seems to help get the ice out.
Sound Transit Wi-Fi on 545 bus
Posted by Patrick in Uncategorized on May 27, 2009
I recently started riding Sound Transit’s 545 bus from Redmond to Seattle. Out of four rides so far I’ve gotten three buses that had wi-fi and one that didn’t have it.
I tried wi-fi three different times and the result was the same each time: There was no problem connecting to the bus access point and getting an IP address. But no web pages would load. The browser would look like it was connecting but would just keep saying something like “Waiting for response from server” in the status bar. When doing a ping from the command line it seems like only10% of the packets were getting through.
According to the web pages I read the pilot wi-fi system was started in 2005. I would have thought that in four years they would have gotten things working but I guess not. It almost makes me think I am doing something wrong. Why would they keep a system for 4 years that doesn’t even work?
I tried emailing the wifi email address on the Sound Transit page but they never wrote back so I’m not sure where to go for tech support.
Flying Model Simulator (FMS) with Vista x64
I’ve recently tried running the freeware Flying Model Simulator in order to practice flying RC helicopters. It is supposed to be pretty decent for a free app. But one of the problems with the application is that it is difficult to get it to run on Vista. I took me a while but I finally got it running. Here are some tips if you are having problems getting it to work on Vista:
Problem: You get a message saying “D3DRM.DLL cannot be loaded”. This dll is and old file that was removed from Vista. You can download the file from here: http://www.dlldump.com/download-dll-files_new.php/dllfiles/D/d3drm.dll/5.1.2600.0/download.html. I’m always wary about downloading files from strange websites because of potential viruses, but that file has worked fine for me. Download the file and copy it to the directory where you installed FMS: Vista x64 default: C:\Program Files (x86)\FMS Vista 32bit: C:\Program Files\FMS.
Problem: You get a message saying “fms.exe has stopped working”. This is probably because FMS expects you to have a serial port installed on your computer. Modern computers usually don’t come with serial ports anymore. To work around the problem you can read this post: http://io.wz.cz/?p=7. Basically you need to create this registry entry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM and FMS will start working.
Problem: Your controller won’t work correctly. I have a gamepad plus this RC controller: http://www.xheli.com/e4chflsitrki.html. Somehow FMS has a problem with this and I wasn’t able to correctly configure the controller. To solve it go to the Windows start menu and type “Game Controllers”. Click the game controllers icon at the top of the menu. Now click the Advanced button and select the device you want to use. This will make that controller the default in FMS and it will be able to configure it correctly.
Problem: FMS runs but the screen has horrible flicker that makes FMS unusable. This is probably caused by modern nVidia graphics cards. To fix it in FMS go to the Graphics menu and uncheck Textures. The graphics don’t look very nice when you disable textures but at least it works. I’m not aware of any solution to running with textures in this case.
As you can tell FMS has a lot of problems. If you want a simulator that just works I recommend checking out Clearview which is available here: http://rcflightsim.com/. They have a demo you can try and if you like it you can buy it for $40. It actually works and is a better simulator that FMS anyway.
Cheap Glass Water Bottle
Posted by Patrick in Home Stuff on October 22, 2008
With all the news recently about the chemical BPA in plastic water bottles, I started looking for an alternative. I just want a water bottle that doesn’t leach chemicals that also has a lid so that if it falls over it doesn’t spill water everywhere. Some of the stainless steel bottles look nice but they are expensive and even metal could eventually leach chemicals.
The next alternative I looked into was glass. Glass seems to be the safest material for water storage. The strange thing is that there seem to be very few manufacturers of glass water containers with lids. The only one I can find is here
In reading the reviews of that water bottle I found an alternative. Voss water sells Norwegian water in what appears to be the exact same bottles. You can buy a 24 pack of Voss water here
Fix Broken Buttons on Harmony Remote
Logitech’s Harmony Remote is a really nice remote. I’ve had mine for a couple years but now the most commonly used buttons are wearing out. Since I have a Tivo the most used buttons are the forward buttons that I use for skipping commercials. These buttons are pretty much unusable now, they will work some of the time but only if you press really hard.
It seems stupid to buy a new Harmony remote every couple of years just because the buttons wore out. So here is how you can fix the buttons. These instructions are for the 676, but should work on most other versions too:
- Open the remote by removing the four screws at the bottom (two are under the battery compartment.
- Pry the remote open.
- Remove the two screws that are holding the circuit board on.
- Take the button piece out and flip it over too see the backs of the buttons.
- On my remote the buttons that were broken had some kind of shiny liquid on them. I’m not really sure what this is or where it comes from, all I know is you need to get rid of it.
- Take a Q-tip dipped in rubbing alcohol and scrub the keys and the contacts on the circuit board.
- Put the remote back together, it should now be working.
After I performed the above procedure the remote buttons started working perfectly.