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It feels obligatory to reference Technology Connection in a thread about heat pumps. TC is a super fun YouTube channel that digs j to everyday technology and h
by ctur 4y ago
It feels obligatory to reference Technology Connection in a thread about heat pumps. TC is a super fun YouTube channel that digs j to everyday technology and has had a number of episodes on heat pumps and modern thermodynamic management challenges and technologies.
https://youtu.be/7J52mDjZzto https://youtu.be/7J52mDjZzto
- bcjordan 4y agoCame here to post this :D The TC channel is definitely a hacker's eye view in to all the technologies that we take for granted every day. Tons of fascinating tech history covered, too. Other fun ones: - a defense of the simple drip coffee maker https://youtu.be/Sp9H0MO-qS8 https://youtu.be/Sp9H0MO-qS8 - why do the turn signals not sync up when you're at a stop light? https://youtu.be/2z5A-COlDPk https://youtu.be/2z5A-COlDPk - how humidifiers work and ehy the simple swamp cooler style are pretty ideal https://youtu.be/oHeehYYgl28 https://youtu.be/oHeehYYgl28 - why dishwasher detergent packs are stupid (use powder/liquid) and why you should use the pre-wash slot and not bother pre rinsing your plates https://youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04 https://youtu.be/_rBO8neWw04 - why do light switches click? https://youtu.be/jrMiqEkSk48 https://youtu.be/jrMiqEkSk48
- oezi 4y ago> - why dishwasher detergent packs are stupid (use powder/liquid) ? I thought that powder and liquid for dishwashers have come out worse on any consumer reports test (at least here in Germany).
- mschild 4y agoDetergent packs in the US seem to be mostly gel packs. In Germany, most tabs are simply hard pressed powder. Gel packs did fail in their cleaning function and the recommendation generally goes for either tabs or powder, where powder can save you money because you set the dosage according to how full your dishwasher is.
- lupire 4y agoFine tuning powder per wash sounds like overoptimization. Just useing powder instead of tabs will save most of the money.
- Scoundreller 4y agoBut I save time by pouring in less when less is needed.
- oezi 4y agoPrepackaged tabs with self-disolving packaging is actually the cheapest if you assign a non-zero amount of money to your own time.
- kortex 4y agoHow much extra time does it take to dump out some powder? I don't actually measure precisely and just eyeball it. The advantage is I can dump some extra in the bay to act as pre-wash. The cost is 4-10x more for the self-dissolving packs.
- sokoloff 4y agoI looked on Amazon at Cascade powder ($0.22/oz in large packages) and the same name tablets ($0.30/tablet in large packages). A load with powder is typically 0.75 oz. ($0.165/load) or about 55% the cost, not 10-25% the cost. Being able to dump in extra for pre-wash is an advantage to powder for sure.
- WastingMyTime89 4y agoMost dishwashers are designed to do a pre-wash, change the water, then do a wash. Pre-wash requires detergent to work optimally, ideally one specifically designed for pre-washing. Even dishwashers which have no pre-wash detergent dispenser will typically tell you to add some detergent directly on the door in the instruction manual. Most packs are suboptimal for that. Technically they should be used in addition to pre-wash detergent but that kind of defeats the point of using a pack.
- oezi 4y agoPacks should be put in the dispenser so they don't act during prewash.
- Scoundreller 4y agoBest advice I learned from that channel was to run the sink faucet until it’s hot. Then run the dishwasher so it starts its cycle with actually hot water.
- oezi 4y agoA good dishwasher (based on testing) will never need some manual tinkering like this.
- blacksmith_tb 4y agoHmm, dishwashers I have had (including my current one) have a large heating element in the bottom, I would have thought that could heat the relatively small volume of water in there pretty quickly?
- zo1 4y agoMost (actually all) dishwashers that I've encountered are designed to not get hot water coming in. Where I live a high-pressure hot-water outlet is not the norm at all. And yet, we don't have a catastrophic country-wide problem with dirty dishes. I'd argue that something else it at play.
- 4y ago
- pottertheotter 4y agoI take his stuff with a grain of salt because I found the dishwasher detergent recommendation to be a bad idea. A while before the TC video came out, I had an appliance repair person working on my fridge and asked him what he thought the best detergent was and he said use powdered, not the packs. So we switched to that. Not long after our dishes were never getting cleaned. I thought it was a problem with the dishwasher so I took apart the filter, cleaned all the sprayers, etc. but nothing worked. Was thinking we needed a new dishwasher until one day we ran out of powdered detergent but had a couple packs left over so my wife used one. Bingo! Our dishes came out PERFECT. We haven’t had a single problem since.
- BoiledCabbage 4y agoDid you change brands or types when you switched to powder?
- pottertheotter 4y agoI used Cascade Platinum packs before and after trying powder. When using powder I primarily used Cascade Complete (there was a short time early in the pandemic when I had to grab whatever was available on the shelf).
- lupire 4y agoWhen you used powder, did you add detergent to the prewash cycle? TC did make an apology video after the first detergent video.
- pottertheotter 4y agoI usually put some in the prewash area.
- cromka 4y agoQuite the contrary for me. I suppose your powder detergent might be of lower quality than the packs one, or is not as concentrated and you need to use more of it?