Best products from r/phoenix

We moved from Switzerland a few years ago. Prepare for a bit of a culture shock. Here are some perspectives and tips after living here a few years.

It'll take some time to get your head around the scale of things and the vast open spaces. Germany is roughly the same size as Arizona but most of it is totally empty.

Except for the summer, weather is generally wonderful – but that's a good time to visit Europe. Get ready for things like this once in a while: http://imgur.com/a/QDQUO

I think Germany might be one of the few countries that Arizona recognizes as having a valid driver licenses. We had to redo our written and practical driving test to get ours. It's as if we had never driven.

Unlike Germany, it is very common for people to buy houses instead of renting and the choices are huge in the valley.

'Patriotism' is a big deal here. If you try to discuss things like Jeff Daniels says here and suggest things could be better, prepare for some folks to get aggressive with you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zqOYBabXmA It's best to avoid it except amongst close friends.

Cars and gas are very cheap compared to Europe. So is eating out except for wine which is expensive (but the American practice of happy hours softens that pain).

The service industry is generally fantastic compared to Europe. Want your garage door repaired on a Sunday? No problem. Need somebody to make your huge outdoor barbecue look like new? Yep, lots of folks can do that for you. Maintain your pool or garden or ???? The choice of service providers and the low prices compared to Europe will spoil you.

Be very careful about what's in the food you buy. Products that look like products you bought in Germany will have a lot more sugar or other stuff added to them for the US markets. It's very easy to put on weight here because of the gigantic portions and what's in the food.

Most banking is about 10 years behind Europe. They don't use IBAN's.

The US health care system is broken. If you are paying yourself, learn to utter the magic words "self-pay" which will get you a big discount (this is related to the practice of jacking up prices with the knowledge that insurance companies will only pay a percentage of that). If you need any health care that is optional or not time sensitive, go to Europe. It'll be a lot of cheaper (sometimes by a factor of 10) and the care will likely be much better.

Massive amount of advertisements direct to the public of drugs for diseases you probably never heard of is rampant. The American Medical Association also thinks it's nonsense. In the world, only the US and New Zealand allow direct marketing of drugs to consumers. Drug prices are super high compared to the rest of the world and US pharma lobbies hard to prevent imports from places like Canada.

The US does not seem to be able to properly regulate telemarketing so spam telephone calls will drive you crazy. Consider getting one of these: https://www.amazon.com/CPR-Call-Blocker-Telemarketer-Solicitor/dp/B00JG02ZEY

Cox is probably the best ISP and their Gigabit is now rolling out (we're getting about 950 Megabits per second on a wired connection).

Have fun! It's a great place to live and you'll realize how much blue skies improve your mood.

Evaporative coolers require more maintenance then an A/C unit due to the water involved. Period. But the maintenance is easy. The best design is the MasterCool with the large 8" or 12" cell deck. With proper maintenance the cell decks will last for years if not the entire life if the unit itself. The following is applied to all evap units but mainly non MasterCool brands.

The only difference between a three panel and four panel unit is the discharge location, and one panel obviously. It is mainly for the 'type' of install required and can be sized properly for either configuration. CFM is key! The unit must be able to flush the air in the home at an approximate rate of 30 times per hour. (depending on wet bulb temp, home insulation, etc.) Sounds like a lot and is much more than the A/C unit does, but google it, its true.

Evap cooling is a 'once in-once out' type of cooling. Unlike mechanical cooling that recirculates the air. The home should have a window or two open to release the air from the space. Some homes have 'flopper vents' or relief vents in the ceiling of each room to allow the air to vent to the attic. The attic needs to be vented too. This also keeps attic temps down when its running and is the best way to do it.

For the multi panel units I prefer the 'expanded paper' media over the poly or aspen pads. This link below shows a thin poly pad glued to one side of the paper pad. The poly pad removes more dirt and keeps the inside of the unit and duct work cleaner. I always installed a 1/2" poly pad behind my expanded paper pads before I found these. (Poly pad on the inside!) It also helps keep the skeeters out when its not running! Again, with proper maintenance I got three years on a set of pads. You can buy rolls of the expanded paper at HD & lowes when in season or these precut pads here. https://www.amazon.com/Standard-Plumbing-Supply-7214-Evaporative/dp/B000BOKMKS

If your spider rack or PVC header tubes are plugging up its because you do not have a screen/basket on the pump inlet for debris, or you are not bleeding enough water from the basin to get rid of the calcium. Or the panels are not sealed up and allowing debris to enter around them. You need a small constant bleed when its running or a complete pan rain once a day or two. There are controllers that do this. During the off season wasps like to build nest in them too.

On new installs I would spray or brush "Cooler Coat" (HD/Lowes) in the basin and up the sides a few inches. If not a new install then very thorough cleaning is required before applying the cooler coat. It will peal of if all the calcium and dirt is not removed first. Just like paint. When done properly a quick touch up when needed will allow keep it from rusting out. I had a unit on my first house that ran for 10+ yrs. Draining the unit at the end of the season does more for the life of the unit than anything. Remove the belt from the blower too, to save flat spotting the brass sleeve bearings.

The units with spiders do need some adjusting to maintain proper water flow. This is done by slightly opening or 'partially' blocking the slots in the top of the panels. Usually only needs to be done once at install. but sometimes a little tweak is needed during its life.

If the pads are entirely wet, no dry spots, its doing what its designed to do. Pushing more water does not increase the cooling rate. If its 'evenly' wet down the entire pad, inside and out, that is all that's needed.

There is a myth of adding ice the the basin to help the cooling affect is completely & utterly false. In truth warm water is better because its closer to the evaporation temp of the water on a given day. But its not worth messing with unless you want to play with it. There are DIY kits that put a coil of copper tubing on the top of the unit (paint it black), after the pump, before the spider or header, to heat the water before pouring over the pads.

The best unit, for the longest life, ease of maintenance, and best performance when sized correctly, (relief vents installed) is the MasterCool. Go stainless if the pocketbook will allow and you are going to stay in the home for many, many years.

Source: 25+yrs in HVAC&R. Installed, repaired, maintained and replaced more Evap units than I like to remember.

3 options, in order of what is most likely to be most cost effective and least time consuming:

1. If you do more than change your own oil you can rebuild the cylinder in less than an hour or 2 (assuming disassembly is smooth because it's not rusted to shit). Very unlikely anything is actually damaged and you just need to replace a few seals and put new fluid in it.
   
   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4LZC4larTs
   
   A model specific rebuild kit for a regular floor jack will be $20-$40, https://www.hcrcnow.com/shop/seal-kits, over priced, but worth it because you don't want to be spend time searching for the right pieces individually.
   If it's a nice heavy duty jack, that's probably what I'd try first. If you can't fix it, then, whatever, you tried, and learned something along the way.
   
   
2. As already stated, buy a new jack at harbor freight (or amazon). I got a 3.5 ton, low profile (for ex gf's car) that also lifts a few inches higher (my slightly lifted truck) for $145 a few years ago on amazon, free shipping. At the time, harbor freight had not started carrying the extra low profile or they heavy duty daytona one yet, they just had a couple, neither of which would work for both her car and my truck.
   The one I bought, https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004SVQVBY/
   I will say that it is definitely a quality item and it's capable of anything I will ever need it for, but if I had to pay for shipping I would have bought at harbor freight and made her pay for the smaller jack her car needed (I saved her $$$$ after an accident).
   
   Now HF as some pretty sweet ones:
   $190, HD, low pro, high lift similar to mine: https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-Long-Reach-Low-Profile-Steel-Heavy-Duty-Floor-Jack-with-Rapid-Pump-Orange-64241.html
   
   I don't know what kind of vehicles your friends and family have, but if you don't need that high of a lift capability or quite as heavy duty:
   
   $130 and would be fine for trucks that are not lifted:
   https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-Steel-Heavy-Duty-Low-Profile-Floor-Jack-with-Rapid-Pump-Orange-64240.html
   
   $80 (coupon this week), wouldn't be great for lower car nor ideal for trucks, but just fine for most coupes and sedans: https://www.harborfreight.com/3-ton-Steel-Heavy-Duty-Floor-Jack-with-Rapid-Pump-64260.html?ccdenc=eyJjb2RlIjoiMjQyNzQ5NTMiLCJza3UiOiI2NDI2MCIsImlzIjoiNzkuOTkiLCJwcm9kdWN0X2lk%0D%0AIjoiMTI5ODAifQ%3D%3D%0D%0A
   
   Consider what kind of vehicle you have, and what kind of vehicle you might be likely to buy next, those sporty side skirts are becoming more common because they are cheap to add on and look nice but will limit your access with standard height jack. Then consider how much you actually do at home, for yourself and/or friends family.
   
   
   
   
3. Call one of these guys:
   
   https://www.google.com/search?tbm=lcl&ei=0ex1XJrTGdbt-gTj7Kq4BA&q=hydraulic+cylinder+repair+phoenix
   
   Problem is, most hydraulic repair shops are focusing on heavy duty construction, farm or industrial equipment, because that's where most of the business and the best money is going to be. I really have no clue, but I'd bet labor is probably at least %10-20 more than an average auto mechanic, just like heavy diesel labor is more expensive. Most of them will probably also have a one hour minimum charge, so you are looking at at least $100-$120. If you were going to to take it to a shop, I would see if you can buy the right rebuild kit first, take the kit and the jack in together, because if you buy the parts from them, they will either not have them in stock and have to order them because they don't usually work on small jobs like this, or they will have them in stock, and charge you about %30-50 more than what you can get it for, because that's how that goes. Some shops won't let you bring in your parts because it cuts into their profit margin (or because they have had a customer bring in the wrong parts one too many times and it causes more hassle for everyone), a good shop should allow it though and just charge labor. If you get really really lucky you will find the most honest guy in town who happens to not be busy and he'll say he can do it in a half hour and you'll pay $80-100 for parts & labor. Very, very unlikely.
   
   If it's a real nice heavy duty, high quality jack, fix it yourself. If it's a regular 2-2.5 ton nothing special from the local auto parts store, fix it yourself or buy a new one.
   
   For what it's worth though, if you don't want to do it yourself, I bet you could find a regular old handy man on craigslist or fiver or angie's list who's more than capable of doing it and would do it for $40 labor and it would be totally fine. However, you rely on it to keep you from crushed in extreme pain with serious injury or until you die.
   
   But you never ever trust a floor jack anyway, jack stands go under the car before your body does, always.

Ingress player and Pokemon Go Beta tester here:

Want to catch pokemon and not die of the heat? Easy! Get on the lightrail. (Or in Tempe get on a free Orbit shuttle)
It's great for hacking Pokestops and for encountering pokemon in the wild but you won't be able to do gym battles unless you get off the lightrail but that's ok. You want to level up and get some good pokemon for the gym first anyways. You will want to use the gym later though. It's the only way to earn coins in game by "defending" gyms. You can also strengthen a teammates gym by leaving pokemon at it too. C ordinate with your nearby friends and choose the same color if you'll be traveling together or playing in the same area alot.

The higher your level the better Pokemon you will see.

Oh and don't start upgrading your low end pokemon yet. It wastes stardust. As you gain levels you find ones that are maxed out or almost maxed out. Just sell or "transfer" you lowest CP duplicates to get candies for that pokemon.

If you're gonna spend money on the game start with buying a few egg incubators. You only start with one.

You will most likely need an external battery pack as the game sucks up more juice than ingress did by far. There is a battery saver box in the options and you can turn the camera mode off which helps some but still sucks down the juice like crazy.

Got a bike? Makes catching em all easier! Put one of these on it to keep from dropping your phone, wrecking, or both.

WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING.

PUT A CASE ON YOUR PHONE.

BE NICE TO PEOPLE ON PRIVATE PROPERTY. If they ask you to leave, leave. A gym on property doesn't give you the right to be there.

Get a buddy and go indoor rock climbing first, second and third. I love PRG. There you will learn several important things like the basic tie in knot, how to trust the rope and how to belay with a grigri. You will learn to use your whole body without trying to do pull ups. Its really pretty easy to get people to go indoor climbing vs outdoor, and then you can find the people who like climbing and you trust with your life.


If you are the kind of person who likes to read about things before going out and trying them, try this and if you want to do trad (not pre anchored sport routes) this.


When I first started climbing, I almost took a class here. If you don't have a bunch of indoor climbing experience, some experienced friend, or just a mind for detail and a crap load of overconfidence - take the class. I learned as I went with a few good friends, but there were a few lessons that we almost learned the hard way. Have fun up there!

Hello, I'm selling some network equipment to come up with my half of rent for this month. I'll take $300 for all of it. It's in used but good condition. I'll link to Amazon/Newegg so you guys can check out specs and stuff, and I have pictures saved of my phone if you'd like some sent to you.


Firewall

Router

Switch


I don't really know a lot about this stuff, my friend gave me some old office equipment to help me come up with financials until I get a job. I'm not sure how to add flair, but I'm near Cave Creek and Bell.

If you're embarrassed about your feet I'd check out the [TONYMOLY Shiny Foot Super Peeling Liquid.] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BCHME3G/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_yKU2xbGHFC9GN) You can get it from Amazon, you sit with your feet in these plastic bags for two hours with the solution inside. Then about a week later your feet start to peel like crazy. At that point I recommend doing a foot soak and before you take your feet out rubbing them in the water to get more skin off.

After doing that you can get Amopé Pedi Foot File , on Amazon, to help maintain your smooth skin. Also make sure to lotion.

Now if you just want the experience and the enjoyment of a professional pedicure as others said just go to any local place. They don't care what your feet look like they just want to make some money.

I’ve been partial to the Netgear CM series (I’d recommend CM600 and up for future proofing).

Saw you wanted a combo. I would never recommend an all in one because I don't like putting all of my technological eggs in one basket, per se. Keep in mind that combo units capable of supporting the latest wireless technologies and supporting higher near future internet speeds are quite pricey.

Personally, I have a separate modem, router, and wireless access point. That way, if a year from now some hot new WiFi technology comes out that I want, or my modem dies, I'm not paying to replace all of that technology just to upgrade or replace one component. At the minimum, I'd separate the modem and router/WAP. For those, I'd recommend Netgear CM600 and up for the modem and I found the TP-Link Archer C7 a reasonably priced router/WAP that functioned well.

If you absolutely must have an all in one unit, it looks like this Netgear is fairly solid in terms of both supported internet speed and WiFi technology.

Selling a portable washer and dryer. No hookups needed, both work great and were the best I could find in all my research. I've used them both just a few times and then I moved to an apartment with W/D included.

Bought dryer for $250, selling for $150: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00EAY540S?pc_redir=1407394406&robot_redir=1

Bought washer for $110, selling for $75: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007PAPD50?pc_redir=1407223944&robot_redir=1

I'd be willing to part with both for $200.

Great for taking to college or studio apartments. I have the original box for the washer and wall mount for the dryer.

I would recommend Cisco over Motorola, given my networking experiences. I just got new service last week and I picked up the DPC3010 from Amazon. It was $25 used from CQ Deals. Any seller will do, so long as the condition is "Very Good" or "Like New" - networking hardware is pretty long lived.

Make sure that whatever you get that it's on Cox's list of compatible equipment.

Love that stuff, the chipotle flavor :)

dirty dicks and aardvark are great too!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00PZ6B080/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AIR3Q38/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's a great ritual that I do when the weather is warm and they are out. Go on Amazon and get the 12" tweezers if you want to capture them for the thunderdome. No matter what, don't pay the ridiculous costs of 'Scorpion Proofing' your home. It doesn't work any better than owning cats and using Cy-Kick pest spray monthly on your baseboards and doorways (http://www.amazon.com/Cy-Kick-Controlled-Release-Cyfluthrin-Insecticide/dp/B002ACMKV8). BTW, I heard chickens are the best at catching & eating scorpions.

https://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-SURFboard-SB6190-DOCSIS-Cable/dp/B016PE1X5K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1498755031&sr=8-1&keywords=sb6190

Buy this modem. It's $99 on Amazon Prime delivered today. Supports up to 1.4Gbps throughput for the coming 1GoFiber service they will be offering in the fall.

Cheaper than renting. As to the business plan im curious why you didn't opt to go with the 300/100 plan instead? It's only $200 versus the $100, gives you more speed and its dedicated. On a residential plan you share your access with the neighborhood. On the business plan you do not.

I think it's this one, maybe this one, but I'll have to check when I get home. Definitely a Motorola Surfboard series docsis modem at the very least though.

Now that you mention it, I also had Rocket League issues on Comcast with that modem back in new mexico so it could very well be a modem issue. Looking up the surfboard chipset, it seems like it is likely a puma 6 chipset so that would make sense. Could be the wifi router too, idk, haven't messed with that myself.

For the best modem, get this one:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B016PE1X5K

And in combination with this router, you will get every bit of speed you pay for:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S9SGNNS

I regularlly get ~180Mbps down. Good luck! (I only pay for the 150 down plan)

Nice! To help your problem along, I'm pretty sure this is the AZ 4x4 bible. Might be worth ordering or at least checking out from a library.

definitely will help you not feel dried out. also consider leaving 1-2 inches of water in your bathtub, can help w/ household humidity.

you want a cool mist humidifier, not the hot mist (unless you want to use it for head colds w/ Vicks).

all humidifiers get nasty if you dont clean them. use purified/filtered or distilled water whenever possible. Clean the thing out once a week.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HCM350W-Germ-Humidifier-White/dp/B002QAYJPO

Yep. Crown King and pretty much everywhere. I really recommend this trail guide

I have Cox, didn't want to be a moron using their subpar equipment for ridiculous prices so I bought my own modem.

Went with the Arris Surfboard and ended up going with Google Wi-Fi for ease of use as I'm not a hardcore tech guy and wanted a mesh network that was easy to use.

I actually bought the 3-pack for the Google WiFi and I love it. I actually had my own router prior to buying the Google Wifi and used that with the modem and got OK speeds, but switching gave me better speeds than what I was paying for. I pay for 100 down/10 (I think) up but I was getting sometimes 130 down/20 up.

I want to switch to gigabit internet but I'd need to upgrade the modem to the DOCSIS 3.1 version so I'm kind of mad I didn't just do that in the first place. Otherwise though, love the setup.

This book:
https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Guide-Pool-Maintenance-Third/dp/0071470174/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519766394&sr=8-1&keywords=ultimate+guide+to+pool+maintenance

600+ pages of great pool info. I would have gone crazy without this book when I had my pool. The author is "the pool guy to the stars" in LA, and each chapter starts with a funny story about how he fixed some stars pool issue. Can't recommend enough.

Check this one out - https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Arizona-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Trails/dp/1934838195

I have it on my desk, its really quite good.

You can get a docsis 3 modem for under $70. I don't see the point in renting one for $7/month, even if the first 6 months are free.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004XC6GJ0?cache=b381875842707f8ea6aa73ccf592ba8e&pi=SX200_QL40&qid=1407179278&sr=8-1#ref=mp_s_a_1_1

honest question, besides termites, what is your opinion on this DIY solution

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002ACMKV8

rotate every other application with:

http://www.amazon.com/Talstar-Insecticide-Termiticide-Bifenthrin-Mosquitoes/dp/B00409QKRY/

+
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004HD42E6
+
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Y2GNVM
+
http://www.amazon.com/HomeRight-C800909-Deck-Sprayer-1-Gallon/dp/B00C10E80A/
+
http://www.amazon.com/Scotts-71133-Hand-Held-Broadcast-Spreader/dp/B0000BYCP7

If you like back roads, you should grab this book.

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Arizona-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Trails/dp/1934838195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1520959174&sr=8-1&keywords=arizona+off+road+trails+book

You can't buy the "good" stuff at Home Depot. You either wanna hit up a Bug & Weed Mart type place in town, or just do what I did and order from Amazon.

One of those Cy-Kick bottles lasts me like 8 sprayings on a 3k sq ft house. Well worth the $40.

Edit: also -- if you buy Cyfluthrin, you won't need anything else. It kills everything under the sun.

I picked up the Motorola SB6121 at Walmart about two weeks ago. I have had no problems with it at all. I'm currently at the 50MB tier of service from COX, and it has been very smooth.
It was about a dollar less than what Amazon is charging for the same device. [Here:] (http://www.amazon.com/ARRIS-Motorola-SB6121-SURFboard-DOCSIS/dp/B004XC6GJ0/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1412811119&sr=1-2&keywords=SB6141)

Yes, it's an older model, and it maxes out at 150Mb/s, but since that is the very top speed that COX is offering right now, it's not bad. The SB6141, has a higher top speed, and will cost about $10-$15 more, and that will get you to about 300Mb/s.

I had been renting a modem from COX, but got sick of getting disconnect errors while playing Destiny, so I went out and bought the new modem. I've had 2 disconnects in a two week period, whereas with the old one, I could get 3-4 disconnects per hour.

join every group/ club you can. Forums, facebook, whatever. it'll take a while to find a group of guys that are into the same style/difficulty as you. wheel with all of them.


I don't recommend going out alone, but if you must this book has solid trails and will keep ya out of trouble

https://www.amazon.com/Guide-Arizona-Backroads-4-Wheel-Drive-Trails/dp/1934838195