For me, it’s an electric toothbrush. It doesn’t matter if you go with Sonicare or Oral-B, once you start using an electric toothbrush, regular toothbrushes don’t ever feel like they clean your teeth properly. The smooth plaque-free top layer of your teeth that you can feel after using an electric toothbrush can’t be replicated with a regular toothbrush.
Rada Quick sharp and a cheap hone
Yes we all know about people who obsessively talk about knife care and sharpening, but for the average person, just use this to get your knife sharp and get on with your life.
I disagree on the toothbrush. The problem is all the e waste. Everything else being equal I would love it and my wife won’t give it up but basically the manufacturers change and you can’t get heads that will work and you end up having to buy a new brush every few years which is almost worse with rechargeables.
But you could just go with Phillips? They have been using the same heads for a long time I believe. I buy mine from Costco in bulk.
Im not sure who I started with but initially there was no rechargeables and then like the first rechargeable I got had to be replaced because we could not get heads. I gave up at that point. I just don’t trust them to keep the things going. A few years is not enough for me its gotta last minimum a decade and preferably a few.
Wife and I have had our Sonicare toothbrushes for something like 15 years and never had trouble finding replacement heads. In the event Phillips stops making them I’m certain 3rd parties will still make them.
must depend on model because one was definately soniccare.
carbiners and keyrings. they are hella useful although while you don’t need to get climbing grade you don’t want the cheapest level of consumer crap. The spot bot is great if its still the same setup. basically it just automatically rotates a scrubbrush with soapy water and sucks it back up. It basically cleans a spot like you got on your hands and knees with a bucket and scrubbrush to clean it. Very small area but thoroughly cleaned. crappy unbrella hats. its nice to keep the rain off while being able to use both hands. folding kitchen step stool. the larger kind with two levels, a magna cart, thumb drives, steamdeck, man likely lots of other things.
Like five wireless chargers scattered through your home wherever it is you usually just drop and forget your phone
Also, a little frame-controller for your phone, you can play warframe on that thang
A dedicated portable audio player with support for high-res files (that’s NOT running Android).
You can’t just doom scroll all day, no one can call you, you won’t get any spam texts or emails on it. It’s just you and your music.
Honestly, my favorite purchase of the past years is the Steamdeck. Can take it to work, play in my lunch break. Can take it on trips, play in the plane or train. Also got a dock at home, where I play coop games with my kid. So I guess if you are a gamer not playing any not supported games (there aren’t that many), go for it.
I am currently in the process of making an arcade cabinet for my Steam Deck! I bought it for my wife, but she basically stopped gaming for now. So, I decided to turn it into an arcade cabinet instead. Love that thing
I bought a used one and it gave me the confidence I needed to move over to Linux. I tried Pop os and wasn’t really feeling it, and now I’m on Mint and I’m mostly happy. I want to build a desktop and do cachy os instead of getting a PS6.
Steam deck is an impressive little thing, but it’s not quite powerful enough for what I’d like to do with it. I would trade the portability for more power. But a handheld PS4 is absolutely nothing to sneeze at!
Digital bath thermometer. I love my baths and I can get to my exact desired temperature of 43.5 degrees c every time. Great 5 quid purchase.
A usb c mini dock. Those that fit in your hand and are pretty much an entire docking station (multiple ports, hdmi, Ethernet) minus the power supply. So many devices come with only 1-2 ports.
Robot vacuum. My floors are spotless except for some areas you’d never walk on and I only need to do some spot cleaning every month or two.
Dishwashers are awesome too, watch Technology Connections’ video on YouTube if you think your dishwasher doesn’t do a good job. It’s likely just how you’re using it. Priming the hot water before running, using powder detergent instead of liquid or packs (booo), and using the pre-wash and rinse aid will have even the gnarliest dishes coming out spotless.
I was so excited when first got a roomba 5 or 6 years ago, but that faded so fast after it turned into an endless stream of notifications that it was caught under furniture, stuck on a cliff (the edge of a rug), full of dirt, couldn’t find its base, or trapped under a maze of dining room table legs.
I love the idea, but man that was $500 wasted. I’m sure they are better now, but I cant bring myself to buy another one.
Love my robot vacuum! As someone who works 12+ hours a day, it’s such a life saver. We have had our Roborock for 4 years now and it has 0 issues. Any issues I had were easy fixed by just opening the thing up and cleaning inside.
Absolutely love watching Technology Connections. Dude improved my dishwasher game by 400%
My first roborock met the fate of dog poop and an idiotic husband who thought he could just hose it 🙃 my second one is doing great.
DNS filtering. I’m using NextDNS, because I can’t be bothered to be my own server admin.
Why? It does a great job at filtering out ads, tracking the rest of internet cancer on mobile devices. Works no matter where you are. With pihole, you get the filtering only when you’re at home, not when you’re scrolling funny cat videos while waiting for the train.
An analog watch. Nothing fancy, just a cheap Casio or Timex or whatever.
An analog watch is the one thing I can’t leave home without.
Ive had the same Timex for about 20 years now. Had to replace the strap a couple times and the battery, but the time keeping works like a charm and keeps perfect time. Mine is the leather strap with a white face and also shows day of the week and date. Not bad for a watch that cost me $20 a lifetime ago.
I do use a smart watch when im exercising though.
Stick blender! I delayed buying one because I thought the regular blender I had was enough, but this one is so convenient for sauces and soups.
e-reader: another item I delayed buying for too long because I believed paper books were better. I bought a Kobo and ended up reading more often.
I can FLY on an eReader. I bump the font up a bunch and just go, baby. Love reading ebooks (i read them on an ipad mini). I was also Mr. Physical Books Forever. Boy was I wrong about that.
I just install HomeAssistant. Seems like a good choice.
I had smartthings for YEARS but I left it all in place when I moved. Home assistant will be my next adventure.
This is more of a tool, but I have a set of 4” knipex cobra pliers that are perfect for around the house. Just small enough to fit into about any space, super grippy, and you can easily make minute adjustments to the plier spacing. I’ve used them more than any other tool I own.
Oh, and noise-canceling headphones (ideally over-the-ear). Instant quality of life upgrade.
Electric kettle. Fast at boiling water, especially if your stove heats slowly. Great for things like tea or instant noodles/lunches.
I think this must be an American thing, because I have actually never known anyone who doesn’t own an electric kettle. It’s just so much more efficient!
This is quite a strange comment to see as there isn’t a single house in the UK that doesn’t have an electric kettle in it.
Over here, you’ll find a pot of water on the stove more common. Our regular outlets are 120v, but our stoves are typically 240v. A water kettle here would be about half as fast as our stoves (generally speaking). Over there, yeah, with 240 being the standard, a kettle makes a lot of sense.
At least here in Finland a decent amout of stoves are 400v. Still, even at 120 a kettle is faster than an electroc stove. An induction stove is a different story
Are we both thinking the same kind of kettle or is it British/American English different? What I’m talking about is a pitcher with an electric heating unit in the bottom?
Yeah that’s the one. Literally every household.
I think they would be more popular in the US if they worked as quickly here. I have one, but it takes about 4 minutes to heat 2 cups to boiling. It’s still worth it to me, but it’s not much faster than the stovetop for us. There’s something about the electric service in the UK that allows electric kettles to heat much faster there.
240V vs 120V. For an equivalent amount of current, 240V supplies twice the amount of power to the heating element.
Is no one going to post the Technology Connections video???
Okay, then
Also https://youtu.be/RpoXFk-ixZc
And maybe channeling electro boom: https://youtu.be/INZybkX8tLI
I can confirm, pretty much every UK household has one of those, they’re just one of those things you have in the kitchen.
Not a fan of microplastics or extra unnecessary gadgetry…
Seems like silly waste to be the next lemming without any substantial difference to the age old system of boiling water, same with rice cookers.
Unless I don’t hav a stovetop they’re basically not needed, a waste of money and another point of plastic contamination.
They come in glass or metal aswell, rice cookers always have an aluminium basket, the lid might be plastic and rubber but those parts are usually not mechanically strained. The microplastic argument seems weird here
I don’t see how that it’s weird but to each their own. Every plastic and/or polymer based product sheds/leeches microplastics, especially heated or constant usage.
Aluminum is hardly better and health wise causes other harms and contaminants in the body.
Glass, stainless, cast iron is gtg…plastic and aluminum not so much.
Whats wrong with aluminium, like 80 of the earth’s surface is basically some aluminium oxid
Iirc there was something about aluminium in deodorant sprays a while ago that turned out to be not that bad, but what’s wrong with solid sheets of the stuff?
Not arguing, but I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a plastic one. Mine has a plastic lid, but the inside is still sheet metal. I can’t even imagine one with plastic parts that aren’t just cosmetic. Plus they’ve got to adhere to some kind of safety regulations lest they be penalized by some federal agency. 🤔
Most (though not all) in the UK since at least the 90s are plastic except for the heating element and electronics, microplastic concerns aside they’re considered more efficient since it’s a better insulator. Regardless of material every home has one I can tell you that.
