The Grumble Thread - No energy for a full on rant.

[Diver300]

Our venerable Philips got downgraded in its latest incarnation.  More plasticy, and the addition of a ring of blue FRIKKIN LAZER light driven by a HALF BRIDGE RECTIFIER^[1] that gives barakta migraines, rather than the perfectly adequate little LED embedded in the switch of the previous model.

It still meets the important criteria of:
- 3kW
- 1.7 litres
- Cordless
- Gauge that works and doesn't leak
- Barakta-friendly handle and lid



_{[1] To be read in an ElectroBOOM voice.}

If you supply the kettle via a FULL BRIDGE RECTIFIER you can either halve the flicker rate or get the light to stay off all the time.

I was going to suggest adding some smoothing capacitors until I realised what would be needed to smooth 3kW, plus what effect it would have on the average power. Also the peak power and the inrush might be a little lively.

[Kim]

Ah, I hadn't considered doing it that way.  Eek.

I've been contemplating opening the base of the kettle and seeing if I could cram a rectifier/capacitor onto the LED side of things, or at least substitute a less obnoxious LED, but murphy's law suggests I'd break something important in the process, and this is barakta's TEA supply we're talking about.

[Mr Larrington]

Soft Welsh water here,  so this carbonate stuff is known only from memories of chemistry lessons.   I remember an American girlfriend being amused at kettles,   don't you have hot water dispensers ?  So that's why their tea & coffee are foul.

When my travel kettle died on its arse deep in the heart of Texas I visited a branch of Target in El Paso, whose electrical department was well-stocked with kettles in a variety of pleasing colours and designs.  Unfortunately they were all huge – it being Texas – so I departed in a state of continuing kettlessness.  Cheap-donkey no-name travel kettle from Mr Sainsbury’s House of Toothy Comestibles subsequently replaced with pukka Russell Hobbs and Proper Tea while travelling in Leftpondia resumed.

Canuckistani hotel rooms do occasionally have kettles, but I ent never had one in USAnia.

[Diver300]

Ah, I hadn't considered doing it that way.  Eek.

I've been contemplating opening the base of the kettle and seeing if I could cram a rectifier/capacitor onto the LED side of things, or at least substitute a less obnoxious LED, but murphy's law suggests I'd break something important in the process, and this is barakta's TEA supply we're talking about.

I've also had to deal with 50 Hz half wave rectified LED indicator lights. I found it easier to add a bigger capacitor (which still wasn't big) than to rearrange the circuit to a full bridge.

Also putting some resistance between the capacitor and the LED can reduce ripple with smaller components than just increasing capacitance.

There are one or two LED lightbulbs and indicators here that now take several seconds to get to zero brightness after turn off. I may not be sorry about not minimising capacitor sizes.

[ian]

Electric kettles are viewed with suspicion in the US, I've seen them in shops but never met anyone who owned one. Like most US appliances, they're big enough to climb inside (I think there's a law that demands this) and given the weedy nature of US electricity, probably take about two months to boil.

Stove-top kettles are the thing and, tbh, I find them quite pleasing.

The water is often rank though, use bottled (I had the benefit of living near a spring, which used to have a queue, or rather a line of patient cheapskates with large bottles – it was probably toxic nuclear reactor runoff, but it tasted better than Satan's enema from the faucet).

[Cudzoziemiec]

The water is often rank though, use bottled (I had the benefit of living near a spring, which used to have a queue, or rather a line of patient cheapskates with large bottles – it was probably toxic nuclear reactor runoff, but it tasted better than Satan's enema from the faucet).

This is also true of Warsaw. The tap water is safe but foul. However, there are dotted around the city "oligocene wells", which look like a cross between a public toilet and the entrance to an underground station, where you can fill up the container of your choice with free and tasty oligocene water. Every other place I've been to in Poland, the water tastes fine. And they have kettles of sensible sense and voles. This doesn't mean you'll get a decent cup of tea though.

[Mr Larrington]

Electric kettles are viewed with suspicion in the US, I've seen them in shops but never met anyone who owned one. Like most US appliances, they're big enough to climb inside (I think there's a law that demands this) and given the weedy nature of US electricity, probably take about two months to boil.

Canuckistan shares USAnia's weak and feeble vole delivery practices yet their kettles are capable of delivering water at a temperature suitable for Proper Tea in no more time than those in the civilised world, where anbarism is a servant rather than a bogeyman.

Some heathens over there advocate the use of a microwave oven for heating water, which is the kind of behaviour that causes immorality, paedophilia and suicide bombing.  If I want radioactive tea I'll go camping on Three Mile Island.

[ian]

That's true. It's a thing about the US, but their kitchens are like portals back to 1955. Anything more modern is witchery.

[rafletcher]

Royal Mail, I'd like to support you in preference to MyHerpes, I really would.  SO I do a comparison of costs, and see that Tracked48 is comparable, money-wise.  And I can print the label at home. So far, so good. Then I clock the permitted drop off methods allowed. The one I most use, the most useful one, you know, a Post Office? No, can't do that - parcel box, delivery office, yeah, PO no.  So Herpes it is, again.

[Mr Larrington]

That's true. It's a thing about the US, but their kitchens are like portals back to 1955. Anything more modern is witchery.

That’s also true, in my limited experience of USAnian domestic kitchens.  Though the last one I was in also contained BEER.  And the owner of said kitchen was happy to keep the bottles coming

[Kim]

That's true. It's a thing about the US, but their kitchens are like portals back to 1955. Anything more modern is witchery.

That’s also true, in my limited experience of USAnian domestic kitchens.

That explains the refusal to embrace electric kettles: They're waiting for one of those new atomic ones they've been promised to become available.

[Basil]

Make kitchens great again!

[hellymedic]

Royal Mail, I'd like to support you in preference to MyHerpes, I really would.  SO I do a comparison of costs, and see that Tracked48 is comparable, money-wise.  And I can print the label at home. So far, so good. Then I clock the permitted drop off methods allowed. The one I most use, the most useful one, you know, a Post Office? No, can't do that - parcel box, delivery office, yeah, PO no.  So Herpes it is, again.

Can't you arrange a Royal Mail collection from your home or work place?

RM have collected parcels from us...

[andrewc]

Rampantly overgrown ivy, wisteria & 40 year old rose bushes in my parents garden.  Having trimmed the bastards back I'll now have to drag the stuff to the recycling centre.  That can be next weekends job.   

[Beardy]

Rampantly overgrown ivy, wisteria & 40 year old rose bushes in my parents garden.  Having trimmed the bastards back I'll now have to drag the stuff to the recycling centre.  That can be next weekends job.   

Don’t forget to make an appointment at the recycling centre.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Rampantly overgrown ivy, wisteria & 40 year old rose bushes in my parents garden.  Having trimmed the bastards back I'll now have to drag the stuff to the recycling centre.  That can be next weekends job.   

Where's your inner YACFite arsonist? Burn it!

[rafletcher]

Royal Mail, I'd like to support you in preference to MyHerpes, I really would.  SO I do a comparison of costs, and see that Tracked48 is comparable, money-wise.  And I can print the label at home. So far, so good. Then I clock the permitted drop off methods allowed. The one I most use, the most useful one, you know, a Post Office? No, can't do that - parcel box, delivery office, yeah, PO no.  So Herpes it is, again.

Can't you arrange a Royal Mail collection from your home or work place?

RM have collected parcels from us...

Parcelforce certainly do home collections (as do Hermes if you pay), not sure about RM. But I don’t see why all of their options can’t be dropped off at a PO, as opposed to just the more expensive (like Special Delivery) ones.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Post Office®
If you need proof of postage, or your item's* too large for a postbox or Parcel Postbox, you can take it to a Post Office® branch. (*If you're using our Royal Mail Tracked 24 or 48 service you'll need to take it to one of our Customer Service Points.)

Customer Service Point (CSP)
You can post your items at our Customer Service Points (usually located in a Delivery Office), as well as collecting items we’ve attempted to deliver.

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/138/

Surprised at that. Pretty sure you can get other tracking services at the PO so perhaps it's to do with the guaranteed delivery time limit; easier to hit it if starts off at the DO.

[rafletcher]

Well, if the 24 or 48 were guaranteed maybe, but the small print has it as “an aim, not a promise”. And SD, which is guaranteed by 1pm next day IS available at a PO. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Dunno then.

[rafletcher]

Dunno then.

Having looked a bit more, perhaps I do. The tracked 24 and 48 options seem to be sub-contracted out to the Collect+ organisation, and Parcelforce are also using them for some options, hence no availability to drop at a PO.

[ian]

Over the last couple of days, a car has taken to passing that had the music so loud that things actually vibrate in my house. Then it goes and sits up the road for a bit making a racket and eventually drives off (I assume visiting someone on the street behind us). This happens a couple of times a day. I did see it go past and it's the stereotypical blacked-out chavmobile. Seriously, with that sound-system and heavily (and I'm sure illegally) tinted windows, it's effectively a sensory deprivation chamber on wheels. I may go set fire to it.

[tiermat]

Today seems to be the day for annoying phones calls (see earlier for the "UK Debt Advice" call).

Now it's AO, calling to let me know that the delivery will be here tomorrow (as the text and email both told me!) but also to try and sell me an extended warranty.

No, I don't want an extra warranty, thank you.  Mainly because we self insure.  The previous machine has lasted >7 years, which at their extended warranty costs would have cost me £504 for absolutely nothing.  That £500 is better put towards a new machine.  This is what we do with the washing machine and the dish washer.

Think I might have pissed him off a little bit as I allowed him to go through all the speil before I said "No thanks"

[Marco Stefano]

...
No, I don't want an extra warranty, thank you.  Mainly because we self insure.  The previous machine has lasted >7 years, which at their extended warranty costs would have cost me £504 for absolutely nothing.  That £500 is better put towards a new machine.  This is what we do with the washing machine and the dish washer.

Think I might have pissed him off a little bit as I allowed him to go through all the speil before I said "No thanks"

I recall trying to buy a chosen washing machine with Mrs Marco some decades ago from Comet. She and I became increasingly pissed off with having to say no to repeated entreaties to buy extended warranties and she told the salesman she would buy one, but don't ask about warranties again otherwise we'll leave. We got to the desk to pay, and guess what the salesman said? Oh yes he did.    We walked straight out and went elsewhere.

[Ashaman42]

The same day we find out the council tax has gone up we find that the normal bin is moving from a weekly to a fortnightly collection.

Now luckily we only tend to generate a small bin liner a week so we'll be fine but a lot of the houses round here have a bin that'll barely close every week.

I'm sure this won't result in more littering and fly tipping.