Taking a shower today I realized that the recently installed Moen Magnetix Chrome 6-Spray Rain Shower Head Handheld Shower was much better than any previous models we had used.

Features I like:

thumb lever to reduce water flow while soaping up with a small drip to maintain water temperature.

easy switch to overhead full flow to rinse off and then back to hand held to finish up

Magnetic ' latch ' to hold hand held nozzle

The older I get the more it seems the simple things can bring a lot of enjoyment.

Is there something big or small that seems to be better than other things available that y'all appreciate?

My redneck, F-150 driving coworker used to ask "What's the big deal about a BMW?" The same question would apply to M-B's or Porsches. The best answer I could come up with is that most everything on a BMW (or M-B or Porsche) is better than on a normal car. Sometimes it's a little better. Sometimes it's a lot better.

A friend of mine from work was in town for a conference. We went out to dinner, and I let him drive my M3. Pulling out of the hotel parking lot, he applied the brakes when he came to the street. We were going less than 10 MPH. He said "Whoa! These brakes are... uhhh... umm... intuitive." What he was experiencing was linearity. Braking force and brake pedal travel were directly proportional to the force applied to the brake pedal.

Frau Putzer brought home some snack boxes from Starbucks this week: crackers, cheese, dried fruit, hard boiled eggs, peanut butter, and brie. They were stupid expensive, over $5 each. But, damn everything in them was perfect.

I'm amazed by my Honda lawnmower and string trimmer. They start on the second pull, and don't need oil mixed with the gasoline. My Stihl stuff need oil mixed with the gasoline, and they're finicky to start.

I'm with you on these, I'm always looking to use less water so shower heads and shut offs are a big deal to me .

Oddly I've really enjoyed the various Chinese made ones the best .

I think the magnetic holder is hands down the best idea yet, I'll have to go looking for that .

I always buy a simple shut off valve that fits between the open pipe end and shower head or hose/valve, once you learn to use it your water bill will drop sharply .

BMW's are very nice for about 5 years then they tend to become incredible money pits, I'm sure most up market cars are the same .

I love old BMW AirHead motocycles , with care they just last and last.....

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Yeah, maintenance on a 5+ year old BMW is expensive. But, it's trivial compared to the depreciation on a 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 year old BMW.

I closely track the expenses on my cars. At around 12k miles/year, the break-even point between leasing or owning a newer BMW is around five or six years. Six years is about how long the average new car buyer keeps a car. Almost 60% of new BMW's put on the road in the US are leased.

My 535i's almost eight years old. I have the itch for new one. But, my cost data tells me that the 9th, 10th, 11th... years will be really cheap. With the crazy used car prices, it looks like the eighth year's ownership cost (deprecation, maintenance, capital cost) will actually be negative.

Back in the days when life seemed to be more fun I owned 6 BMW's starting with a 1971 model 2002 really fun to drive, reliable except for water pumps
1971 Bavaria much more fun to drive with it's smooth engine, still had small bumpers and very reliable
3 other Bavaria's I'd make a good buy on a newer model one and sell my old one to acquaintances. My 71 Bavaria burnt up when the new owner ( co-worker ) put an incandescent bulb on the engine and covered it with a blanket to keep the engine warm on a cold Minnesota night. Burnt up the car and the standalone garage.
Favorite was a 1979 3.0CS low mileage I found in San Francisco and drove back to Mpls.
I would have liked to keep it but knew the salt would destroy the metal.

I quit buying BMW's after my first Mercedes diesel a 3 month old two door 78 300CD. The doctor that owned it didn't like the smell of diesel and sold it for about 2/3's of what he had paid. I could just drive it and only had one unexpected failure in 350,000 miles. The plastic housing of the heater flow control module cracked and was losing antifreeze. Luckily I stopped at Tobie's restaurant in Hinckley and noticed the antifreeze was leaking out.

Bought a 1979 BMW R100RT motorcycle to take a tour through Canada and the US national parks. While driving it on a Minneapolis freeway to gain some experience, a redneck type guy driving a pickup with flapping rusted out fenders, apparently was jealous of my bike. He slowed next to me for a while looking at my bike then pulled in front of me and immediately slammed on his brakes. Luckily I had gained enough experience to brake and swerve, just missed his rear bumper by inches. I sold it within two weeks.

We'll try the treats from Starbucks. We save so much from not going to restaurants that the cost will be negligible.

A couple of other simple things that have improved life,

Inkbird kitchen thermometer found on Amazon. Quick read, lights up, cheap, adjustable accuracy, folds to be shorter. Model IHT-1P about $20.

Nasal rinses with sterilized water, by boiling first, adding a bit of salt and a drop of iodine. Provides instant relief from sinus and nasal congestion. Just used the Inkbird last night and this morning to verify temperature had cooled down to about 104 degrees.

Reminds me of a comparison I make with driving on a freeway and raising teenagers. It doesn't matter how safe and right you are there is always the chance that something you can't control is going to make a mess of things.

Thanx guys .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

A couple of good tasting treats from Costco.

Fairly low sugar and salt. Peanuts are the best salted ones I've ever had.

A few other favorites but none on hand to take pictures.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Tankless water heater. Either gas or electric. I prefer electric but not everyone has the wiring to run one. They actually use less energy than a standard water heater, but they require an additional line/circuit breaker.

Why heat water you aren't using?

All the hot water you want and it frees up closet space. Win-win!

__________________
“Whatever story you're telling, it will be more interesting if, at the end you add, "and then everything burst into flames.”
― Brian P. Cleary, You Oughta Know By Now

And I'm still listening to Grateful Dead cassettes in the 98 E300.

__________________
Jim

Yep ;

I have many, many CD's and listen to them in my 240D and truck .

Sadly I wasn't able to specify a CD read/write in my new lap top....

I used to be able to make my own copies .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Modern tank water heaters are so well insulated that there's very little water heat loss or living space heat gain from them. There are advantages of tankless water heaters: unlimited hot water, more closet space, can be closer to the point where hot water is used.

We're having a new house built. The cost of the house warrants having tankless water heaters. There's still the problem of the water in the pipes between the water heaters and the use point getting cold. My plan it to have those pipes insulated and on a circuit with an electric water pump. Each use point (bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room) will have a button. When pushed, it will run the electric water pump just long enough to exchange the water in the pipes with hot water. A user of hot water would push the button a few seconds before actually using the hot water.

Good idea for the circulating pump.

Have you found the series of ' Matt Risinger ' videos on remodeling and new construction?

To me, he covers better ways to accomplish those tasks. A few cover tankless water heater considerations. One mentions how to plumb it to allow proper servicing in the future. This is important in hard water areas. Plus for servicing to drain water when an extended period of freezing might occur along with an extended power outage.

We'd like to have a new house built but fear the unexpected rise in cost of doing so.

For years we believed that using natural gas was best for energy cost, quick heat, and better control for cooking. Recently we've changed our opinion and will have an all electric home with an induction cooktop and convection oven. Induction appears to have quicker to temperature, more precise control, less wasted energy, no noxious gases, no explosion hazard, less chance of being burned, can be used as countertop space when needed, easy to cleanup due to flat surface and food spills that are burnt into the surface on resistive heat or on burners.

On electric tank heaters I use a few methods to extend the life and cost of operating.

1. Use aluminum anode rods and check every few years and replace if needed. Aluminum seems to reduce the chance of ' smelly water due to bacteria ' and the production of hydrogen gas that can occur from magnesium anodes.

2. Use the ' sand hog ' type heating elements that spread the heat over a larger surface area. This prolongs element life and significantly reduces sediment on the element that then flakes off and steadily buildups as mineral deposits on the bottom of the tank. I''ve never had to replace a burnt out sand hog element.

3. There are just two of us typically. I modified our electric tank water heater to have both elements on when heating and spreading the 240 volts across both elements. This will also greatly extend the life of the elements and further reduce the sediment buildup.
No problem with temperature of water since that is controlled by the same thermostat wired either way. Probably a significant reduction in ' back to temperature ' but she showers in the evening and I shower in the morning before shaving.

I expect doing these simple things will probably double the life of the water heater. Especially with most of the sediment buildup eliminated.

Appliances and heating are not all or nothing. My house has natural gas heat/water and electric stove. Natural gas is cheaper for all of the heating for us but I still like the electric cooking appliances. My only gripe is that a previous owner ripped out all of the old radiators and installed forced air heat. In an old brick house, those ducts are pretty inefficient. Old cast iron radiators do take up room space but damn if they dont work great. In the last place I lived (I was roommate with the owner/buddy who was doing full reno) we went out and got those big heavy units to replace the previously "updated" baseboard units.

__________________
TC
Current stable:
- 2004 Mazda RALLYWANKEL
- 2007 Saturn sky redline
- 2004 Explorer...under surgery.

Past: 135i, GTI, 300E, 300SD, 300SD, Stealth

When I lived in up north I loved the old cast iron radiators. Preferred hot water over steam ones. Only bad thing was most of the older ones were insulated with fairly thick asbestos. One home I lived in for a while was originally built with a wood log burning furnace in the basement. Large air gravity flow pipes feeding all the rooms above.

Found this brief history on home heating:

https://shiptons.ca/shiptons-blog/a-brief-history-of-home-heating/21

Surprised Korea has really good heat method 2000 years ago.

Building materials and contractor costs are delaying our new house, too. We're spending our "nursing home money" on the house... since if we go in a nursing home we won't need the house. I want to make sure I can get all the money I put in the house back out of it.

Friends are building a house now. It's one expensive PIA after another with costs and shortages.