Life – Core Dump

Clever batteries

We have a few EGO batteries lying around and I found two of the 7Ah batteries on the shelf today with their indicator rings red and fully lit. It wasn’t necessarily the lights alone that worried me although red usually means bad, it was that the tops of the batteries were a little warm. Oh no I thought, there’s something wrong with the batteries! It took a bit of googling to find that this was normal behavior for EGO batteries. They apparently self discharge when they detect long term storage of a fully charged battery. So I dug into the …

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Stealthmount for the Makita DC18RC charger

I reached out to Stealmounts to find out if their mounting brackets for the Makita dual charger (DC18RD) fit the single charger (DC18RC). Their answer was that it does not, although they tell me that there’ll be one out in the next couple of months.

My thoughts on the myCOOLMAN 69L Dual Zone fridge

So recently we came back from a camping trip and unpacked as we always do, but this time to find a lot of the leftovers waterlogged with melted ice. Now i’ve been hinting to the wife that having a fridge would be great for some time but it wasn’t until that last trip that she agreed to it. Woo! Time to go shopping. There are quite a few options around, the Engels, Waeco/Dometics, Snomaster, Evakool, ARB etc, but newest kid on the block was myCOOLMAN. Yeah i’ve never liked the way they capitalise the name but anyways. I guess you …

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My quick GME TX6160 review

First up this is by no means meant to be a comprehensive review, just some quick thoughts around how I found it. I bought the radio in November 2018 and have been using it for just over a year and a half. Mainly used at camping for keeping in touch with base camp, it does it’s job and has a decent range. It’s used out on the water on the kayak, given to the kids so they stay in touch when they roam around, and i’ve even swam in the river with it (intentionally I might add to test out …

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Smelly glass tabletop

We’ve had a dining room set for many years and the glass tabletop had recently started to smell bad, kinda like an old fish tank. Over the last few months we’ve tried anti-bacterial wipes, surface cleaner, and vinegar. Nothing worked. We eventually found a solution. I’ve learned that despite the smooth appearance, glass is actually porous. Over the years it absorbed all manner of scents and smells. We first sprayed a fine layer of vinegar on the tabletop, then sprinkled bicarb soda all over the surface until there were no exposed glass showing. This was then left for a number …

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