Minor rant thread. Post your rants o' the day here!

Peabody said:

1988RedT2 said:

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you must, but I've used enough light bulbs in my life to recognize that the whole "LED light bulbs last a long time" is just a big fat lie intended to make people feel better about making Big Light Bulb rich.

I will not.

I ranted a few years ago about the high price of light bulbs these days. The costs used to be inconsequential, then came compact fluorescents, though they did last longer, now LED's which are even more expensive, but don't have any of the promised long life. I've had both cheap and expensive ones, and noticed no difference in the time they last, and it's never the 7-9 years they advertise. I still have predominantly CFL's in my shop, and probably have enough extras to last a lifetime. When they were being phased out, the ones I like showed up at the dollar store in 6 pack form and I bought them all.

I have 4 15W LED floods in my backyard lights that are 10-12 years old. They have been burning 2-4 hours a day since installed and use 60 watts instead of 600. They are Sylvania bulbs IIRC. 

The LEDs conversion bulbs in my shop have been around for 5-6 years as have the ones in my warehouse. The warehouse runs 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. They have lasted better than the fluorescent bulbs they replaced. IIRC they are GE. 

I have also bought some cheap no-name bulbs that didn't last a year and some that are still going strong. 

Usually, you get what you pay for, but not always. 

In reply to Toyman! :

When we bought our house, I replaced all the bulbs with Philips LEDs. That was 8.5 years ago. All of them are still going strong. 

Something to bear in mind is that Edison-base LED retrofit "bulbs", as discussed here, are almost always consumer-grade products, built down to a price. And they're stuffed into a form factor not well suited to LEDs. They are not optimized for longevity. 

That said, I have a house full of them and have had very few failures. Certainly they fail much less frequently than CFLs, or even incandescents. Most of ours are Philips, purchased in a plain box from a local lighting supply house. No doubt they last significantly longer than the retail packaged consumer stuff at Hammerbarn.

Real LEDs, in real LED fixtures, from a real lighting manufacturer (not a big box consumer brand), are superbly reliable. But that is not what we are talking about. 

LED lights are a boon for off-grid people like me, I replaced all mine as soon as possible.

I did just have one of the original Feit ones fail but it's been at least a decade since I put them in.

In reply to 1988RedT2 :

In general, all the LED screw-base A-lamps I have - probably 30 or more - have been far more reliable than incandescents.

I've got buck-apiece cheapies from the box store in the basement and outdoor fixtures, plus my drop cord lights in the garage. They're bright and durable.  I don't like the higher K, bluer light, but you get more lumens per watt with the higher K lamps.

I've got $5 each (expensive...?), 3000K high-CRI versions in all my lamps in living spaces. They're reliable as anything.  They give great, warm light that's as bright and comfortable as incandescent but use about 10% as much power per lumen.  I'm very particular about light so I insist on 90+ CRI and I like warmer light so I get 3000K because they most replicate the look of incandescent.  Even at that, they're like 6 / $20 at that big online retailer with the jungle theme.

Honestly I can't remember ever having an LED screw-in replacement fail. Compact fluorescents, yeah, but not LEDs, in my experience.

We've had a couple of the original LED screw-base 'bulbs' fail over the years, but they've definitely lasted solidly longer than I remember incandescents lasting. About the only thing that I've had worse luck with LEDs vs. non-LED is in our two pendant lights over our island- they use small specialty bulbs that are I think originally Halogen but I picked up a box of like 10 LED replacements for them early on. I think I've gone through the entire box at this point- after a while they either stop working of turn into strobe lights. Otherwise though the LEDs have been pretty reliable.

I'm my experience, I've had more LED bulb failures of these style:

Versus this style:

In our last house, I bought some nice Feit bulbs that had a clear glass globe like the style above. I could not source them locally as they were 100w, 5k temp bulbs but I found them on the jungle website for like $10 a bulb :(. But they were exactly what I needed and they burned for 8+ hours a day for about 3 years before we sold the house.

Many years ago when I had a small studio apartment, I had a cheap little Haier brand washer. It did what it was supposed to do without any worries. The one thing it did that I wish all washers would do, was let you know when it was done washing. It would play jingle bells, for some odd reason, when it finished up. I want to know why all washers can't make a sound to let us know when they are done and loads need to be transferred to dryer or hung up?

In reply to mad_machine :

The Electrolux I bought last year beeps a lot when the load is done.  Something like 5-6 notes.  Then it repeats multiple times in the next several minutes if you haven't gone and opened the door.

In reply to mad_machine :

I think appliances with an app are dumb, but having a washer and dryer that sends an alert to my phone when done, is an exception. It's very helpful  

Being sick sucks.  Getting sick the day before you need to make a 2 day, 1370 mile drive home really sucks.  Ugh.

In reply to mad_machine :

My 15 year old Whirlpools ding when they're done. You can choose the sound level, including "off". Any chance your current set isn't just turned down all the way?

On the led bulb debate, I think either the naysayers have too small of a sample size or just buy super cheap bulbs. I have in active use hundreds if not a thousand led bulbs. They are amazing. Our utility costs have plummeted from the days of 300 watt incandescent and t12 fluorescent fixtures. And the spaces are so much more comfortable without the little space heaters running all summer. And the bulbs last an order of magnitude longer these days. You might have a bad experience here or there but believe me there is no world in which the move to leds was in any way a bad thing. They are better in almost every single way. Even cost if you're an adult that can do math and includes more than just the initial purchase price.

Hell we have a pair of 1000 watt equivalent led fixtures that alone save us hundreds of dollars a year. Yes they were really expensive to buy but they've saved us a dozen bulb changes at $500 per time (have to rent a lift!) and at least $25/mo for about ten years now. I'm aware of drawbacks but all told the move to LEDs was a godsend. Love them. 

One of my new coworkers at my deployed site is a legitimate flat earther and hardcore conspiracy theorist.

He watches videos on his phone without headphones because he believes that Bluetooth causes cancer, so everybody gets to hear his crackpot videos.

I can't. I just can't.

They're better than compact fluorescent but still don't really survive in all environments. Survive ability is partially the quality of the bulb but more so the fixture and location.  I have some that are 5-10 years old and others that have to replaced ~yearly. The short lived ones are mostly in enclosed fixtures. 

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Well, dang. I was going to post a "woe is me" but now I feel ok, lol

In reply to stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) :

Now that's a grievance. 

I miss the days when crazies couldn't immediately find another crazy ready to validate each other's craziness. 

Well I'm a dumbass, was just reading another thread here and then launched into my minor rant (served below) thinking I was in this thread. Deleted the comment but the listing still shows "last post by dan0" We'll let's try this again...

Went out for lunch yesterday with my Mom. Both ordered the NY Strip. Reading the menu, when I ordered I asked for no onion. 
 

Steaks come, no onion for either. Mom asks and waiter says no that's just for the regular menu choice not the early bird. I chime in no it's on the menu which is why I said no onion. He's firm in there's no onion included, but finally asks would you like some onion? Yes. 
 

He eventually brings out a bowl full of onions for her. 
 

Through the night and this morning she's thrown up twice, coincidence? 
 

A very minor rant to start the day...  I stopped for fuel.  It's a regular gas station arrangement with two pumps per island but only the far pumps have diesel.  I pull around, facing towards the exit and stop at the far pump and fill up.  As I'm getting back into the car, a woman pulls up to the first pump that's in the front and pulls basically to the nose of my car.  Kind of irritating, but I am a little farther forward than I absolutely needed to be because of the turn around I had to do and I get that she's probably just trying to get herself lined up with the pump.  No big deal.  I put my vehicle in reverse so I have some room to clear her bumper and proceed forward to the exit.  I back up a couple feet, stop, drop the car into drive, swivel my head around to look forward before I go anywhere and HOLY CRAP!  She's matched my movement and is still right on my front bumper!  Actually, she's done more than match my movement, she's gotten closer to me.  I guess she thought I was just going to reverse all the way to the fence?  And her vehicle was absolutely not a diesel, so there was no reason for her to be moving forward towards the pump I was trying to leave.  Good Lord, people.  Have just fifteen seconds' worth of patience, will ya?

Time zones, while admittedly necessary, suck. 

Especially 17hr time difference

In reply to wae :

Not to call you out, I know your situation was different, but I'm the guy in the car trying to get gas when 4dr long bed truckasauras guy pulls too far ahead, or even in line with the pump. If I pull right up, that gives me just enough room in my subcompact, and only because the hose travels in either direction. This happens to me frequently, and more often than not truck bro gives me a face because he now has to back out.

Regarding lights, LED and otherwise. I'm getting, on average no more than a couple years out of LED's. I've paid for the good ones, I've had the cheap ones. The only difference between them, I've never had a pricey one fail really quickly. It's happened a few times with the cheap bulbs. I've had the best luck with CFL's, the 45W outside my shop lasted almost 10 years, running dusk to dawn every night. I have an LED in there now, we'll see. I currently have both 4' and 8' fl tubes in the main barn and shop that have been going for over 30 years. As the 4' fl started to fail in the shop I replaced each one with 3 screw in CFL's which are between 5 and 10 years old at this point. 

There is a dollar store near me that has cheap LED's that have been decently reliable. $1.50 for one, or a package of two for $1.25. Go figure.

In reply to wae :

Another benefit to the Costco one way gas stations. Slightly annoying at first, slightly annoying that there is almost always a line... But I save between $80 and $160 a year on gas compared to any other gas station, they have extra long hoses, and you never have to deal with people like that. Plus they usually have 2 attendants on duty walking around the pumps!

Rant: While I appreciate their commitment to the $1.50 pop and hotdog, it is time to either shrink the hot dog or raise the price and give us a better tasting link. The current hot dog tastes like nothing. Texture is fine, but talk about a bland piece of meat. 

In reply to wae :

Do you remember a lot ago when I came to a rallycross at Bitzer's with a broken axle and Ed stuck me in his WRX for the day?

That was because someone parked very close to me at the pump and I had to back up.  With a stubby trailer.  And a welded diff.

I didn't HEAR anything as I very gingerly tried to maneuver away from the gas pump, but as soon as I got on the road and felt the torque steer, I knew I broke another axle...

I've really liked my doctor. The practice has my doc and her father. I really like the way they do things - much more about preventative health. For example, they only have 1 RN but 3 RDs on staff.

And they've now joined a national concierge group that requires $3k+ annually to join. I'm sure that the care will be even better - it seems like you'd get more visits covered, they'd have less patients, they guarantee same day appointments, there would be phone docs available... But I'm not paying another $3k for my medical care that can't be used against the deductible and out of pocket. 

Damnit. 

stanger_mussle (Supported by GRM undergarments) said:

One of my new coworkers at my deployed site is a legitimate flat earther and hardcore conspiracy theorist.

He watches videos on his phone without headphones because he believes that Bluetooth causes cancer, so everybody gets to hear his crackpot videos.

I can't. I just can't.

Oh God, I've worked with That Guy too. I seriously feel for you.

Is he also one of those people who doesnt think gravity exists? Mine thought that gravity was a myth and there was just "down".

Dinosaurs didn't exist either, along with The Moon and political enemies were lizard people.