Thursday, May 09, 2013
Installation pictures of Pergo XP Highland Hickory
Here are some pictures of the finished floor. Don't mind the cats, they like to insert themselves into every picture. These are crappy cell phone pics, better quality pics coming.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Pergo XP (Highland Hickory)
Here is my honest, un-paid for, un-free material, un-sponsored by Pergo, review of the Pergo XP Highland Hickory laminate flooring "Available only at The Home Depot!" . In other words, no one paid me or gave me free supplies to write this.
I'm in the midst of installing around 800 square feet of Pergo XP in my two story home. It's going in the living room, dining room, kitchen, foyer, mud room, two hallways and a powder room. Pergo manufactures different lines of flooring for Home Depot and Lowes. This works great for each store because they avoid having to price match against each other. I was disappointed that we liked the Highland Hickory (available at Home Depot) better than the Richland Hickory (available at Lowes) because I could have gotten the Richland cheaper than the Highland even though Richland currently retails for $0.20 more per square foot than the Hickory. Lowes gives away 10% coupons and $10 off $50 coupons like they're candy. At Lowes you can pretty much walk up to any store associate and ask for 10% off. Getting a 10% off discount at Home Depot is like pulling teeth. I managed to get 10% off my purchase from Home Depot by going to the pro-desk. The manager at another store wasn't happy when I forced them to price match it. They were upset that I wasn't a contractor. Really? I'm buying almost $2500 worth of flooring from you along with the over priced transition pieces that are complete garbage. The least you can do is give me 10% off.
I had to special order the Highland Hickory because I needed 68 boxes of the flooring. That works out to about 2.25 pallets. Our area got slammed by Sandy so as soon as flooring gets delivered it goes right out the door. If you're wondering, each box weighs a little over 24 pounds and has 8 planks. Special ordering it was the way to go because they all come from the same lot, stay on the pallet, and don't have people digging through them damaging the contents.
Palleting: If memory serves, each pallet is shipped with 30 boxes stacked 6 high and 5 wide. Pergo uses plastic band straps to hold it together but when they tighten the straps down it crushes the planks that are unfortunate enough to be on the top sides of each pallet. I've had 4 planks damaged this way. At around $4 per plank it can get costly. Good thing I ordered 10% more than I needed right? A few small pieces of thick cardboard would protect against this. I still managed to use most of the planks later by cutting out the bad sections.
Packaging: The way Pergo packages their laminate flooring is stupid. The box is a lightweight corrugated cardboard wrapped in plastic with tiny holes in it so the laminate can breathe. The box is sufficiently strong but the major flaw is that the box has no bottom! The bottom plank covered in clear plastic serves as the bottom of the box. Of course, the bottom is what takes the most abuse from being tossed around. This is another reason to special order instead of buying what is already on the floor. People toss these boxes around like their footballs. The flooring has 2mm of underlayment pre-attached. One out of every 3 boxes I opened the underlayment was separating from the plank because as you gently pull away the plastic wrapping it still manages to adhere to the plastic. Here again, a little bit of cardboard goes a LONG way.
Plank Design: The wife and I really like the pattern of the wood grain on the planks. The hand-scraping should help to hide future damage and adds a little depth to the plank. There are 15 different wood grain patterns, however, the randomness that they are packed into boxes at the factory is poor. I might open 5 boxes in a row that only have 8 variations in their patterns. The next 5 boxes would only have 7 variations. I opened all of the boxes and organized the planks based on their grain pattern and I could look at the first plank in the box and now which piles I would be adding planks too. It looks like they come off of two different assembly lines because half of the planks have dark edges where the paint or dye or stain bled onto it and the others are a light tan color. If Pergo could figure out a way to mix the planks from these two assembly lines together that would be ideal. There is also one particular plank pattern that Pergo seems to be obsessed with. I have twice as many of that one as any of the others. As we've gotten to the last 15 or so boxes my wife and I have started examining the pattern through the clear plastic window in the box so we can have a good mixture of patterns and then return the rest. I'd hate to wind up with a bunch of planks that are only 5 or 6 different patterns. She is much better at recognizing the matching pattern than I am. We have since learned that we can probably look at the bottom of the last plank to see what date code is stamped on the padding. It looks like the printing is different between the two.
Here are some pictures of the floor now that it is finished.
http://forcedfx.blogspot.com/2013/05/installation-pictures-of-pergo-xp.html
Fitment: I can't tell you how well the planks will stay locked together over time with wear and tear, but I can tell you how the locking system works. First, you can work with the long tongue side toward the wall or the long groove side. Either one will allow you to snap the pieces together. However, you should work with the long tongue side toward the wall. That's what Pergo recommends and the short tongue side has a chamfer on one corner of it so you can slide the next plank against it more easily. Also, when using the tapping block you have to be more gentle when tapping against the long tongue side. The short tongue side has a plastic lip placed in it that acts as the locking mechanism. If you are laying a plank and force the short groove side against the short tongue side you will snap the lip off of it and ruin the edge of that plank. It takes some practice but when I lay a new plank in, I slide it until the edges are touching or about 1/64" apart. Due to differences in manufacturing tolerances this seems to be about the ideal spacing that allows the locking mechanism to grab but prevents the already laid plank from pressing against the new plank and causing it to break away and lift up. I then take my tapping block and very very gently tap the two pieces together to close any gap. Then I use the tapping block to tap the new piece against the previous row. Another nice trick that seems to work if two pieces won't lock at the edges is to use a very thin wooden shim under the edge of the previously laid plank. This will lift and support the tongue enough that when you press the next plank down it will lock in. A nice but seemingly riskier option is that a new plank can be slid into place by aligning the short tongue and groove ends and then pushing the plank toward the previous row. Using a tapping block you can then tap the plank into place. I don't like doing this if I don't have to because it seems to damage a little bit of the tongue on the long side. However, it is a useful trick near doorways and openings where you can't put the long side tongue in and then press down. Another neat trick I accidentally learned (and haven't seen documented) is that a new plank can be fitted into the previous row and then slide toward the existing plank. Once you get to the existing plank you can press the plastic lock in so it recesses inside its plank using a thin putty knife or maybe a razor blade. This will probably only work on short planks because a long plank is difficult to slide when it is fitted to the previous row.
Dis-assembly: Okay, this is the part that sucks royally if you have a long room and lay down a damaged or incorrect plank. Once a plank is laid down it can only be removed by lifting up on the long groove side and rotating upwards to separate it from the previous row of planks. My room is about 30ft long (I'm supposed to use a transition piece because I'm over the limit specified by Pergo but they're hideous in the middle of a room) and each plank is around 4ft long. This means when I get to the end of this 30ft row I have laid down 7 planks already. If I lock my last plank into place and find that it has damage or it is wrong, I have to lift and rotate upwards that ENTIRE row of 7 planks at the same time and at the same height in order to unlock them from the previous row. Think about that. You would need about 4 or 5 people to lift at the same time in order to avoid damaging the short groove ends. Two planks laid end-to-end must be slid apart. They cannot be lifted or pivoted apart without destroying one of them. The one that gets destroyed will most likely be the short groove side. Here's a neat little trick I came up with after having laid down 7 planks and going to start my new row, finding damage to the very first plank of the previous row. Where the two planks meet on the long groove side you can see a hole where the plastic locking tab is recessed. If you can find the appropriate diameter metal wire you can slide it into the hole and it will push the locking tab in. Then you can very carefully lift the last plank away from the one previous. I used the wire stem from a utilities mark out flag (you can find these at home depot) with a little bit of masking tape on it and it worked perfect. I was able to get all 7 planks apart without damaging them.
Transition Pieces: One word here; garbage. I am really not pleased with the quality of these pieces considering they sell for almost $30. The laminate surface is very thin and easily peeled off. The pieces themselves do not match the instructions. The main flat piece is supposed to have a tongue in it that slides into a groove on one of the adapter pieces. Well, mine doesn't have that tongue so it's never going to hold. I may have to resort to just building my own out of oak or finding another brand. I have 3 more that I will have to return.
Overall: I can't comment on the longevity of the floor as I haven't even finished it yet but so far I like the way it feels underfoot. Getting used to that 2mm of padding still as with hardwood there is zero cushion when you walk. So far, I don't hear any squeaking or rubbing between planks but the floor is still brand new so who knows what happen in a few years. Pergo brags about their locking tongue system but I'm not sure I buy it just yet. The piece that the plastic locking mechanism locks into seems weak and the most likely part to fail. I hope the surface is as scratch resistant as they claim because it is super thin.
My Tips:
1) You will definitely want to buy a laminate installation kit. I bought the Blue Hawk kit from Lowes and the plastic tapping block and bar work pretty well. The wall spacers are garbage. Unless your drywall goes to within a half inch of the sub-floor they won't work. And in most homes that's rare. You're better off buying some 3/8" plywood and cutting it into strips. You'll also need a rubber mallet or dead blow hammer. Harbor Freight sells an all rubber one that you can drop onto the floor without worrying about scratching or denting it.
2) If you are going to go between rooms and have the tongue side of the planks exposed to foot traffic lock some scrap pieces onto the exposed tongues to protect them from being kicked or hit by tools and broken.
3) Let the boards acclimate! Pergo recommends 72 hours. Mine acclimated for a week and a half but that was only because I had other stuff to do. No need to take them out of the box until you start work. The box gives them a little extra protection.
4) Save your planks that were in the box and damaged. From what I hear Home Depot is pretty good about replacing damaged planks. I bought mine so long ago there isn't much I can do now about mine.
5) When you first start (if the wall is short enough) before sliding the planks against the wall assemble 3 rows of planks together so you know you have a straight line. The more rows you can assemble but still slide and then dis-assemble later, the better. My walls ended up being more parallel than I would have thought.
6) Anywhere near a source of water (ex, sink, dishwasher, stove, fridge) you are supposed to fill the 3/8" expansion gap with silicone. This way if you spill a large volume of water, it will not run down underneath the planks and destroy them. It is mentioned in the directions but rarely executed. I'm not really sure how this doesn't negate the required expansion gap, but that's what is recommended. In our downstairs bathroom I used the silicone around the toilet flange and along the edges of the wall. Hopefully, if the toilet ever leaks it won't be able to easily find it's way under the floor.
7) Put the felt sliders on everything that sits on the laminate. Couches, end tables, lamps, and bookcases. I even put them on the adjustable feet for the oven and dishwasher so when I slide them out they don't gouge anything. If water ever dumps behind the oven I can quickly and easily slide it out to mop up the water. Make sure your dishwasher will still fit under your counter with the added height. Mine just barely fit after the 12mm of laminate and the 1/4" tall felt pad.
8) I have a super heavy fridge so I put 1/8" tempered hardboard on the floor under its wheels. This is to keep them from sinking into the laminate and scratching it. If I need to roll the fridge out I just butt a piece of 1/8" hardboard against the ones that are there and roll it on to that.
9) After the planks are locked in, use the tapping block to fit them tightly against the previous row. The tighter the seams are the more resistant they will be to water getting between them. Nothing will prevent it though.
10) Pergo specifies that the seams between planks should be spaced no less than 8" apart. For added strength I decided to space my seams at least 12" apart. Plus, I think close seams are more noticeable.
11) Per Pergo, the minimum plank length is 12". In areas with zero foot traffic (under stove, dishwasher, back of pantry) I cheated and have some that are only 8" long.
12) Under-cutting door jambs is the way to go! I've seen some terrible hack jobs where people used a jig-saw to try and carefully cut around the jambs or molding. This looks hideous and negates your required 3/8" expansion gap. These are the same people that complain when their Pergo floor bows in the summer time. Treat yourself to the $40 Harbor Freight Oscillating Multifunction Tool. It is a worthwhile investment that has hundreds of uses. Now that I have one I don't know how I survived without it.
13) I HIGHLY recommend opening ALL of the boxes you have, inspecting for damage, and laying them out based on their patterns. It makes the job of not having matching patterns near each other much easier. Inspect the entire plank because some of mine were in the middle of the box but still had surface damage that could only have occurred at the factory. Some of the damage I found was very minor but enough that I didn't feel comfortable installing the plank.
14) Scribing the last wall is super easy thanks to the tip shown in this video. However, the technique shown here is a little flawed. First, the tongue on the Pergo XP is only 3/16" wide and you need a 3/8" expansion gap. So, if you just use a piece of scrap plank you'll wind up being too tight to the wall when you install it. The Pergo XP Highland Hickory planks are 4 7/8" wide, so add the 3/8" expansion gap and you need a tracer board that is 5 1/4" long. In my opinion the length of the board he is using in the video is too long to get an accurate contour of the wall if it has significant bowing (like the walls in my house).
I cut a scrap piece of wood 3" wide and 5 1/4" long and that worked much better.
15) Have plenty of saw blades on hand. You'll know the blade is getting dull when you start smelling the laminate burning and it starts to chip at the edge. For 800 square feet I will probably go through 3 10" saw blades. More teeth are supposed to reduce chipping but I haven't had too much of a problem with a 60 tooth blade versus a 200 tooth blade. A dull blade is what will cause the most chipping.
I'm in the midst of installing around 800 square feet of Pergo XP in my two story home. It's going in the living room, dining room, kitchen, foyer, mud room, two hallways and a powder room. Pergo manufactures different lines of flooring for Home Depot and Lowes. This works great for each store because they avoid having to price match against each other. I was disappointed that we liked the Highland Hickory (available at Home Depot) better than the Richland Hickory (available at Lowes) because I could have gotten the Richland cheaper than the Highland even though Richland currently retails for $0.20 more per square foot than the Hickory. Lowes gives away 10% coupons and $10 off $50 coupons like they're candy. At Lowes you can pretty much walk up to any store associate and ask for 10% off. Getting a 10% off discount at Home Depot is like pulling teeth. I managed to get 10% off my purchase from Home Depot by going to the pro-desk. The manager at another store wasn't happy when I forced them to price match it. They were upset that I wasn't a contractor. Really? I'm buying almost $2500 worth of flooring from you along with the over priced transition pieces that are complete garbage. The least you can do is give me 10% off.
I had to special order the Highland Hickory because I needed 68 boxes of the flooring. That works out to about 2.25 pallets. Our area got slammed by Sandy so as soon as flooring gets delivered it goes right out the door. If you're wondering, each box weighs a little over 24 pounds and has 8 planks. Special ordering it was the way to go because they all come from the same lot, stay on the pallet, and don't have people digging through them damaging the contents.
Palleting: If memory serves, each pallet is shipped with 30 boxes stacked 6 high and 5 wide. Pergo uses plastic band straps to hold it together but when they tighten the straps down it crushes the planks that are unfortunate enough to be on the top sides of each pallet. I've had 4 planks damaged this way. At around $4 per plank it can get costly. Good thing I ordered 10% more than I needed right? A few small pieces of thick cardboard would protect against this. I still managed to use most of the planks later by cutting out the bad sections.
Packaging: The way Pergo packages their laminate flooring is stupid. The box is a lightweight corrugated cardboard wrapped in plastic with tiny holes in it so the laminate can breathe. The box is sufficiently strong but the major flaw is that the box has no bottom! The bottom plank covered in clear plastic serves as the bottom of the box. Of course, the bottom is what takes the most abuse from being tossed around. This is another reason to special order instead of buying what is already on the floor. People toss these boxes around like their footballs. The flooring has 2mm of underlayment pre-attached. One out of every 3 boxes I opened the underlayment was separating from the plank because as you gently pull away the plastic wrapping it still manages to adhere to the plastic. Here again, a little bit of cardboard goes a LONG way.
Plank Design: The wife and I really like the pattern of the wood grain on the planks. The hand-scraping should help to hide future damage and adds a little depth to the plank. There are 15 different wood grain patterns, however, the randomness that they are packed into boxes at the factory is poor. I might open 5 boxes in a row that only have 8 variations in their patterns. The next 5 boxes would only have 7 variations. I opened all of the boxes and organized the planks based on their grain pattern and I could look at the first plank in the box and now which piles I would be adding planks too. It looks like they come off of two different assembly lines because half of the planks have dark edges where the paint or dye or stain bled onto it and the others are a light tan color. If Pergo could figure out a way to mix the planks from these two assembly lines together that would be ideal. There is also one particular plank pattern that Pergo seems to be obsessed with. I have twice as many of that one as any of the others. As we've gotten to the last 15 or so boxes my wife and I have started examining the pattern through the clear plastic window in the box so we can have a good mixture of patterns and then return the rest. I'd hate to wind up with a bunch of planks that are only 5 or 6 different patterns. She is much better at recognizing the matching pattern than I am. We have since learned that we can probably look at the bottom of the last plank to see what date code is stamped on the padding. It looks like the printing is different between the two.
Here are some pictures of the floor now that it is finished.
http://forcedfx.blogspot.com/2013/05/installation-pictures-of-pergo-xp.html
Fitment: I can't tell you how well the planks will stay locked together over time with wear and tear, but I can tell you how the locking system works. First, you can work with the long tongue side toward the wall or the long groove side. Either one will allow you to snap the pieces together. However, you should work with the long tongue side toward the wall. That's what Pergo recommends and the short tongue side has a chamfer on one corner of it so you can slide the next plank against it more easily. Also, when using the tapping block you have to be more gentle when tapping against the long tongue side. The short tongue side has a plastic lip placed in it that acts as the locking mechanism. If you are laying a plank and force the short groove side against the short tongue side you will snap the lip off of it and ruin the edge of that plank. It takes some practice but when I lay a new plank in, I slide it until the edges are touching or about 1/64" apart. Due to differences in manufacturing tolerances this seems to be about the ideal spacing that allows the locking mechanism to grab but prevents the already laid plank from pressing against the new plank and causing it to break away and lift up. I then take my tapping block and very very gently tap the two pieces together to close any gap. Then I use the tapping block to tap the new piece against the previous row. Another nice trick that seems to work if two pieces won't lock at the edges is to use a very thin wooden shim under the edge of the previously laid plank. This will lift and support the tongue enough that when you press the next plank down it will lock in. A nice but seemingly riskier option is that a new plank can be slid into place by aligning the short tongue and groove ends and then pushing the plank toward the previous row. Using a tapping block you can then tap the plank into place. I don't like doing this if I don't have to because it seems to damage a little bit of the tongue on the long side. However, it is a useful trick near doorways and openings where you can't put the long side tongue in and then press down. Another neat trick I accidentally learned (and haven't seen documented) is that a new plank can be fitted into the previous row and then slide toward the existing plank. Once you get to the existing plank you can press the plastic lock in so it recesses inside its plank using a thin putty knife or maybe a razor blade. This will probably only work on short planks because a long plank is difficult to slide when it is fitted to the previous row.
Dis-assembly: Okay, this is the part that sucks royally if you have a long room and lay down a damaged or incorrect plank. Once a plank is laid down it can only be removed by lifting up on the long groove side and rotating upwards to separate it from the previous row of planks. My room is about 30ft long (I'm supposed to use a transition piece because I'm over the limit specified by Pergo but they're hideous in the middle of a room) and each plank is around 4ft long. This means when I get to the end of this 30ft row I have laid down 7 planks already. If I lock my last plank into place and find that it has damage or it is wrong, I have to lift and rotate upwards that ENTIRE row of 7 planks at the same time and at the same height in order to unlock them from the previous row. Think about that. You would need about 4 or 5 people to lift at the same time in order to avoid damaging the short groove ends. Two planks laid end-to-end must be slid apart. They cannot be lifted or pivoted apart without destroying one of them. The one that gets destroyed will most likely be the short groove side. Here's a neat little trick I came up with after having laid down 7 planks and going to start my new row, finding damage to the very first plank of the previous row. Where the two planks meet on the long groove side you can see a hole where the plastic locking tab is recessed. If you can find the appropriate diameter metal wire you can slide it into the hole and it will push the locking tab in. Then you can very carefully lift the last plank away from the one previous. I used the wire stem from a utilities mark out flag (you can find these at home depot) with a little bit of masking tape on it and it worked perfect. I was able to get all 7 planks apart without damaging them.
Transition Pieces: One word here; garbage. I am really not pleased with the quality of these pieces considering they sell for almost $30. The laminate surface is very thin and easily peeled off. The pieces themselves do not match the instructions. The main flat piece is supposed to have a tongue in it that slides into a groove on one of the adapter pieces. Well, mine doesn't have that tongue so it's never going to hold. I may have to resort to just building my own out of oak or finding another brand. I have 3 more that I will have to return.
Overall: I can't comment on the longevity of the floor as I haven't even finished it yet but so far I like the way it feels underfoot. Getting used to that 2mm of padding still as with hardwood there is zero cushion when you walk. So far, I don't hear any squeaking or rubbing between planks but the floor is still brand new so who knows what happen in a few years. Pergo brags about their locking tongue system but I'm not sure I buy it just yet. The piece that the plastic locking mechanism locks into seems weak and the most likely part to fail. I hope the surface is as scratch resistant as they claim because it is super thin.
My Tips:
1) You will definitely want to buy a laminate installation kit. I bought the Blue Hawk kit from Lowes and the plastic tapping block and bar work pretty well. The wall spacers are garbage. Unless your drywall goes to within a half inch of the sub-floor they won't work. And in most homes that's rare. You're better off buying some 3/8" plywood and cutting it into strips. You'll also need a rubber mallet or dead blow hammer. Harbor Freight sells an all rubber one that you can drop onto the floor without worrying about scratching or denting it.
2) If you are going to go between rooms and have the tongue side of the planks exposed to foot traffic lock some scrap pieces onto the exposed tongues to protect them from being kicked or hit by tools and broken.
3) Let the boards acclimate! Pergo recommends 72 hours. Mine acclimated for a week and a half but that was only because I had other stuff to do. No need to take them out of the box until you start work. The box gives them a little extra protection.
4) Save your planks that were in the box and damaged. From what I hear Home Depot is pretty good about replacing damaged planks. I bought mine so long ago there isn't much I can do now about mine.
5) When you first start (if the wall is short enough) before sliding the planks against the wall assemble 3 rows of planks together so you know you have a straight line. The more rows you can assemble but still slide and then dis-assemble later, the better. My walls ended up being more parallel than I would have thought.
6) Anywhere near a source of water (ex, sink, dishwasher, stove, fridge) you are supposed to fill the 3/8" expansion gap with silicone. This way if you spill a large volume of water, it will not run down underneath the planks and destroy them. It is mentioned in the directions but rarely executed. I'm not really sure how this doesn't negate the required expansion gap, but that's what is recommended. In our downstairs bathroom I used the silicone around the toilet flange and along the edges of the wall. Hopefully, if the toilet ever leaks it won't be able to easily find it's way under the floor.
7) Put the felt sliders on everything that sits on the laminate. Couches, end tables, lamps, and bookcases. I even put them on the adjustable feet for the oven and dishwasher so when I slide them out they don't gouge anything. If water ever dumps behind the oven I can quickly and easily slide it out to mop up the water. Make sure your dishwasher will still fit under your counter with the added height. Mine just barely fit after the 12mm of laminate and the 1/4" tall felt pad.
8) I have a super heavy fridge so I put 1/8" tempered hardboard on the floor under its wheels. This is to keep them from sinking into the laminate and scratching it. If I need to roll the fridge out I just butt a piece of 1/8" hardboard against the ones that are there and roll it on to that.
9) After the planks are locked in, use the tapping block to fit them tightly against the previous row. The tighter the seams are the more resistant they will be to water getting between them. Nothing will prevent it though.
10) Pergo specifies that the seams between planks should be spaced no less than 8" apart. For added strength I decided to space my seams at least 12" apart. Plus, I think close seams are more noticeable.
11) Per Pergo, the minimum plank length is 12". In areas with zero foot traffic (under stove, dishwasher, back of pantry) I cheated and have some that are only 8" long.
12) Under-cutting door jambs is the way to go! I've seen some terrible hack jobs where people used a jig-saw to try and carefully cut around the jambs or molding. This looks hideous and negates your required 3/8" expansion gap. These are the same people that complain when their Pergo floor bows in the summer time. Treat yourself to the $40 Harbor Freight Oscillating Multifunction Tool. It is a worthwhile investment that has hundreds of uses. Now that I have one I don't know how I survived without it.
13) I HIGHLY recommend opening ALL of the boxes you have, inspecting for damage, and laying them out based on their patterns. It makes the job of not having matching patterns near each other much easier. Inspect the entire plank because some of mine were in the middle of the box but still had surface damage that could only have occurred at the factory. Some of the damage I found was very minor but enough that I didn't feel comfortable installing the plank.
14) Scribing the last wall is super easy thanks to the tip shown in this video. However, the technique shown here is a little flawed. First, the tongue on the Pergo XP is only 3/16" wide and you need a 3/8" expansion gap. So, if you just use a piece of scrap plank you'll wind up being too tight to the wall when you install it. The Pergo XP Highland Hickory planks are 4 7/8" wide, so add the 3/8" expansion gap and you need a tracer board that is 5 1/4" long. In my opinion the length of the board he is using in the video is too long to get an accurate contour of the wall if it has significant bowing (like the walls in my house).
I cut a scrap piece of wood 3" wide and 5 1/4" long and that worked much better.
15) Have plenty of saw blades on hand. You'll know the blade is getting dull when you start smelling the laminate burning and it starts to chip at the edge. For 800 square feet I will probably go through 3 10" saw blades. More teeth are supposed to reduce chipping but I haven't had too much of a problem with a 60 tooth blade versus a 200 tooth blade. A dull blade is what will cause the most chipping.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
My nightmare of flattening an OSB subfloor
This is my experience of preparing our floor for the installation of Pergo flooring. I will update it as things pop into my head.
The wife and I are installing Pergo XP Highland Hickory laminate flooring from Home Depot. We have cats and they have destroyed our carpets. We plan on having kids also, so carpet is just a losing proposition no matter what. Engineered hardwood would have been our first choice but with animals and children on the way it just isn't going to happen.
Our house was built in 2009 and we purchased it brand new. We have an open floor plan where our kitchen and living room are completely undivided by a wall. Nowadays this is all the rage and it's great for parties. Picture a large rectangular room with a smallish standard kitchen at one end. The living room area was covered in the cheapest carpet and padding they offered and the kitchen had the cheapest vinyl flooring. We always intended to replace both once they had worn out their welcome so why waste the money plus have it on our home loan.
About a month or two after moving in I swore I could feel a dip in the kitchen floor between the refrigerator and dishwasher. One day I put a 4ft straight edge across it and I was able to spin it like a top. While it looks neat, it's a BAD thing. However, when I envisioned what would happen to our house if I complained and had it all ripped up I decided I could live with it. As it turns out this dip is about 3ft wide and 10ft long. It coincides with the direction that the floor joists run. Someone got really lazy when they were installing this particular joist I thought.
Fast forward to present day and we are installing new floating flooring in nearly the entire house. The carpeting was easy to tear up (no surprise there) and only covered about half the square footage. The vinyl flooring was glued to 4 x 8 sheets of 3/16" birch plywood, which was in turn stapled to the OSB subflooring. Before tearing up the vinyl flooring I decided to start checking the subfloor under the carpet using a 4ft straight edge. As I worked my way across the floor parallel with the floor joists it seemed to be incredibly flat. I was super happy and figured this install would go quickly. I slapped down one or two layers of 30# roofing felt (which is about 1/24" thick) where it was low. As I thought about it, it just seemed to good to be true. How could my floor be THIS flat? In reality, it wasn't.
One often overlooked but critically important detail is how flat your floors are. Pergo has some pretty strict requirements in their warranty terms that guarantee almost no one will be able to meet them if they are not a on a concrete slab. Even people on concrete slabs probably need to do some bit of leveling to meet them. Picture a 10ft diameter circle in the center of your floor. From one side of that circle to the other, your floor cannot dip or rise more than 3/16". This is such a small change in height that you won't see it without a straight edge or a tight string. If the circle were 8ft in diameter then you would only be allowed to have 1/8" of up or down change. And if the circle were only 3ft in diameter then you can't have it change by more than 1/16". Get a ruler and see just how small a measurement were talking about. I would imagine 99% of the floors in today's homes do not meet this requirement. I know there is a zero percent chance that I will get the floor to meet this standard but I want to get it as close as possible.
Here's an example of a 10ft diameter circle plotted in my living room. Rather large isn't it?
What are the symptoms of a floor that isn't flat? One of them is separation of the ends of the planks. The rise and fall of the floor as you walk across it, or just the floor having to "bend" across the floor weakens the tongues and they separate. It's so common that Pergo has a recommended repair for their installers. I'd call it more of a band-aid.
Another symptom would be floors that feel soft, spongy or hollow. The XP laminate has 2mm of pre-attached padding so there will always be just a little bit of cushion. However, if you can feel the floor flex as you walk across it, it's because your weight is pushing down on the planks until they contact the subfloor below. According to Pergo nothing but a vapor barrier should ever go underneath laminate with pre-attached padding. Too much padding means too much flex which means damaged planks.
Back to the floor, out of (morbid) curiosity I grabbed some twine and stapled it at one end where the vinyl flooring stopped and ran it across the room to the wall. This was a distance of around 16ft. To my horror I discovered that as the floor approached the wall (and the supporting foundation wall) it made a very steep upward climb. I would say the 12 inches of flooring closest to the wall rose by about 3/16". I soon discovered that what I thought was only a few minor low spots was actually spots that were as low as 3/8" in an 8ft span. It makes sense when you think about the mentality of a housing builder. Why invest time in flattening the floors if you're just putting carpet and vinyl flooring down? Odds are, by the time the owner discovers it you'll be out of business or the warranty has expired.
I stopped what I was doing and turned my attention to the vinyl flooring. The only way to get a true picture of what the floor looked like was to rip it all up and run a masonry line from one end of the room to the other. The 3/16" birch plywood that the vinyl was glued to was held down with 10's of thousands of 1.5" crown staples. To get it pulled up required a sharp crowbar and a flat shovel. The crowbar was to try to lift up a corner and the shovel to pry up the sheet of birch. At the edges of each 4 x 8 sheet they placed a staple roughly every 2 inches. It was kind of crazy. Most of the 4 x 8 sheets did not come up all in one piece and I had to cut them down to 1 x 4 strips before Waste Management would collect them. Because of my OCD the wife and I pulled every single one of those staples out of the floor. I own a heavy duty adjustable seal puller which made it a much easier job. The ends are nice and pointy and the rounded head makes for a nice fulcrum. We could have just hammered the staples into the subfloor but a good number of them had birch wood still lodged underneath and they would have made measuring the low spots difficult.
Ok, so now the flooring is completely ripped up and I'm staring at a nice ugly subfloor made of OSB. If you're wondering, OSB sucks. It flakes apart and is very rough. The recesses make vacuuming it a PITA too. I figured I would create a sort of topographical map of the floor. I hammered finishing nails at the edges of the room into the subfloor and then bent them over toward the wall so they would pinch the masonry line tight against the floor when pulled tight. I put nails in every 4 inches along the kitchen cabinet and the opposite wall. Using two small pieces of 3/16" and 1/8" tempered hardboard I slid them underneath the line until they just started to touch it. I would then stick masking tape underneath the string and mark the depth. I did this for the entire area and started leveling it out using roofing shingles and my #30 roofing felt. (I detail the process more below)
After I got about halfway done I opened the pantry door and got another nice shock of horror. Just like the opposite wall, the floor of the pantry sloped upwards drastically as it approached the basement wall. In this case it was clearly visible to the naked eye but I had never really looked at it closely. So, now how do I fix this? No matter what I need to bring the rest of the floor up to flatten it. I decided to try and "feather" this change in elevation out into the rest of the floor hoping it wouldn't be too bad. And so I spent days working on that. THEN I pulled away the oven (the back of the oven is against the wall) and it too had a sharp incline! In fact, the cabinet installers had to shim the front edge of the kitchen cabinets about 1/4" in order to make them level. I made sure to show it to the wife so she didn't think I was crazy because at this point she is getting antsy.
It was quickly becoming apparent that the sides of the subfloor supported by the basement wall were about 1/4" higher than the rest of the floor. An outer basement wall poured just a 1/4" too high and a lazy builder is all it takes.
So, how did I fix it?
The first thing I did was string a masonry line (available at HD or Lowes) from the wall behind the oven to the opposite wall and tighten it as much as possible. You want it tight because if there is slack the string will sag and give you false measurements. Make sure there isn't any kind of debris underneath the string and nothing resting on top of it. Either one of them will cause you headaches. I usually snap it like a chalk string just to make sure. Using my scrap pieces of 3/16" and 1/8" hardboard I slowly slid them underneath the masonry line. At the same time I would wiggle them side to side so that once they contacted the string it vibrated. The tightness of the string makes it easy to spot the movement. The best way to do it is to visually find the lowest spot and start there (a bright light from the side casting a shadow helps spot them). I worked my way from the middle of the depression to the right until the 3/16" no longer fit under the string. I took a piece of masking tape and stuck it to the floor along the side of 3/16" scrap that touches the string. I wrote 3/16" with an arrow pointing toward the center of the depression. Then I went back to the low spot and worked my way to the left. I now had two pieces of masking tape on the floor and the arrows pointing toward each other. The arrows will indicate where I needed a minimum of 3/16" of material to bring the floor up even with the rest of it. This is what my pieces of masking tape looked like at this point.
I repeated the process with the 1/8" piece of scrap but started where the 3/16" pieces of masking tape left off. I worked my way to the right and then to the left. I now had 4 pieces of tape (you can just write on the previous two pieces). I now knew where I needed a minimum 3/16" of material and 1/8" of material.
You can repeat this process to whatever degree of accuracy you desire, the sacrifice being time and a lot of masking tape. I have some spots as deep as 3/8" so I go in increments of 3/8", 5/16", 1/4", 3/16", 1/8", 2 layers of #30 roofing felt, and then finally 1 layer of #30 roof felt. Stacking 1/8" on top of 3/16" makes 5/16" and two pieces of 3/16" makes 3/8", etc.
Once I finished that line, I moved the string 4 inches on both ends and repeated. Eventually, I worked my way across the entire room and had a whole bunch of masking tape pieces. These were my "plot points" that I used to "connect the dots". Here is a simple example of what your lines might look like.
After performing this procedure about 6 times, I could now visualize just how terrible that dip in the floor I always felt was. Using a 6 ft straight edge I set it across some scrap pieces of hardboard so I could extrapolate that height across the front of my kitchen cabinets. An 8 or 10ft straight edge would have been even better. Home Depot sells metal stock in various lengths and widths. While I don't need the floor to be level, I do need it to be flat. As it turns out the floor in the pantry had about the same amount of incline as behind the oven. That isn't too surprising since the back of the panty and the wall behind my kitchen cabinets is supported by the basement wall. So while the floor isn't consistent going in one direction, at least it is when going in the other.
Long story short, I had to nail down 1/4" worth of hardboard across the front of the kitchen cabinets so the height would be "true" to what was required coming out of the pantry, and from behind the oven. Since I had effectively "raised" the height of my floor this meant my topographical map was way off. All the work I had done was nearly futile. While I didn't rip it all up, working around it to adapt to the new height requirements was a royal PITA and doubled the amount of time it would have taken.
Lessons learned for me:
1) Get the entire room emptied and stripped before starting.
2) Find high spots and nail heads and get rid of them.
3) Get appliances out of the way.
4) Use hardboard instead of shingles. Even though shingles are easy to work with I will never use the roofing shingles for flattening again. First, they make a hell of a mess. Second, they are lumpy and not of a consistent thickness. Third, for the square footage they cover and their price I think you get a better deal out of using 1/8" tempered hardboard. Fourth, they take a ton of staples to hold them flat to the floor. Fifth, they crunch when you walk on them.
5) Make sure the wife knows how much work is involved.
6) The $400 install package from Home Depot or Lowes won't buy you this kind of labor.
7) If you get a measurement that seems out of whack when compared to the previous row figure out why. A change from 5/16" to 3/16" in the span of 4 inches is worrisome.
8) Don't start filling depressions until you've finished measuring.
9) Put refrigerator on 1/8" hardboard after installing flooring so as not to damage it.
10) Laying down 1/8" hardboard across the entire floor before creating the topograph would have smoothed out all of those annoying little bumps.
11) Wives will be impatient no matter what. Some recommended videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-5S6buKfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlL8AID5Lg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuUbUxDmqNE
The wife and I are installing Pergo XP Highland Hickory laminate flooring from Home Depot. We have cats and they have destroyed our carpets. We plan on having kids also, so carpet is just a losing proposition no matter what. Engineered hardwood would have been our first choice but with animals and children on the way it just isn't going to happen.
Our house was built in 2009 and we purchased it brand new. We have an open floor plan where our kitchen and living room are completely undivided by a wall. Nowadays this is all the rage and it's great for parties. Picture a large rectangular room with a smallish standard kitchen at one end. The living room area was covered in the cheapest carpet and padding they offered and the kitchen had the cheapest vinyl flooring. We always intended to replace both once they had worn out their welcome so why waste the money plus have it on our home loan.
About a month or two after moving in I swore I could feel a dip in the kitchen floor between the refrigerator and dishwasher. One day I put a 4ft straight edge across it and I was able to spin it like a top. While it looks neat, it's a BAD thing. However, when I envisioned what would happen to our house if I complained and had it all ripped up I decided I could live with it. As it turns out this dip is about 3ft wide and 10ft long. It coincides with the direction that the floor joists run. Someone got really lazy when they were installing this particular joist I thought.
Fast forward to present day and we are installing new floating flooring in nearly the entire house. The carpeting was easy to tear up (no surprise there) and only covered about half the square footage. The vinyl flooring was glued to 4 x 8 sheets of 3/16" birch plywood, which was in turn stapled to the OSB subflooring. Before tearing up the vinyl flooring I decided to start checking the subfloor under the carpet using a 4ft straight edge. As I worked my way across the floor parallel with the floor joists it seemed to be incredibly flat. I was super happy and figured this install would go quickly. I slapped down one or two layers of 30# roofing felt (which is about 1/24" thick) where it was low. As I thought about it, it just seemed to good to be true. How could my floor be THIS flat? In reality, it wasn't.
One often overlooked but critically important detail is how flat your floors are. Pergo has some pretty strict requirements in their warranty terms that guarantee almost no one will be able to meet them if they are not a on a concrete slab. Even people on concrete slabs probably need to do some bit of leveling to meet them. Picture a 10ft diameter circle in the center of your floor. From one side of that circle to the other, your floor cannot dip or rise more than 3/16". This is such a small change in height that you won't see it without a straight edge or a tight string. If the circle were 8ft in diameter then you would only be allowed to have 1/8" of up or down change. And if the circle were only 3ft in diameter then you can't have it change by more than 1/16". Get a ruler and see just how small a measurement were talking about. I would imagine 99% of the floors in today's homes do not meet this requirement. I know there is a zero percent chance that I will get the floor to meet this standard but I want to get it as close as possible.
Here's an example of a 10ft diameter circle plotted in my living room. Rather large isn't it?
What are the symptoms of a floor that isn't flat? One of them is separation of the ends of the planks. The rise and fall of the floor as you walk across it, or just the floor having to "bend" across the floor weakens the tongues and they separate. It's so common that Pergo has a recommended repair for their installers. I'd call it more of a band-aid.
Another symptom would be floors that feel soft, spongy or hollow. The XP laminate has 2mm of pre-attached padding so there will always be just a little bit of cushion. However, if you can feel the floor flex as you walk across it, it's because your weight is pushing down on the planks until they contact the subfloor below. According to Pergo nothing but a vapor barrier should ever go underneath laminate with pre-attached padding. Too much padding means too much flex which means damaged planks.
Back to the floor, out of (morbid) curiosity I grabbed some twine and stapled it at one end where the vinyl flooring stopped and ran it across the room to the wall. This was a distance of around 16ft. To my horror I discovered that as the floor approached the wall (and the supporting foundation wall) it made a very steep upward climb. I would say the 12 inches of flooring closest to the wall rose by about 3/16". I soon discovered that what I thought was only a few minor low spots was actually spots that were as low as 3/8" in an 8ft span. It makes sense when you think about the mentality of a housing builder. Why invest time in flattening the floors if you're just putting carpet and vinyl flooring down? Odds are, by the time the owner discovers it you'll be out of business or the warranty has expired.
I stopped what I was doing and turned my attention to the vinyl flooring. The only way to get a true picture of what the floor looked like was to rip it all up and run a masonry line from one end of the room to the other. The 3/16" birch plywood that the vinyl was glued to was held down with 10's of thousands of 1.5" crown staples. To get it pulled up required a sharp crowbar and a flat shovel. The crowbar was to try to lift up a corner and the shovel to pry up the sheet of birch. At the edges of each 4 x 8 sheet they placed a staple roughly every 2 inches. It was kind of crazy. Most of the 4 x 8 sheets did not come up all in one piece and I had to cut them down to 1 x 4 strips before Waste Management would collect them. Because of my OCD the wife and I pulled every single one of those staples out of the floor. I own a heavy duty adjustable seal puller which made it a much easier job. The ends are nice and pointy and the rounded head makes for a nice fulcrum. We could have just hammered the staples into the subfloor but a good number of them had birch wood still lodged underneath and they would have made measuring the low spots difficult.
Ok, so now the flooring is completely ripped up and I'm staring at a nice ugly subfloor made of OSB. If you're wondering, OSB sucks. It flakes apart and is very rough. The recesses make vacuuming it a PITA too. I figured I would create a sort of topographical map of the floor. I hammered finishing nails at the edges of the room into the subfloor and then bent them over toward the wall so they would pinch the masonry line tight against the floor when pulled tight. I put nails in every 4 inches along the kitchen cabinet and the opposite wall. Using two small pieces of 3/16" and 1/8" tempered hardboard I slid them underneath the line until they just started to touch it. I would then stick masking tape underneath the string and mark the depth. I did this for the entire area and started leveling it out using roofing shingles and my #30 roofing felt. (I detail the process more below)
After I got about halfway done I opened the pantry door and got another nice shock of horror. Just like the opposite wall, the floor of the pantry sloped upwards drastically as it approached the basement wall. In this case it was clearly visible to the naked eye but I had never really looked at it closely. So, now how do I fix this? No matter what I need to bring the rest of the floor up to flatten it. I decided to try and "feather" this change in elevation out into the rest of the floor hoping it wouldn't be too bad. And so I spent days working on that. THEN I pulled away the oven (the back of the oven is against the wall) and it too had a sharp incline! In fact, the cabinet installers had to shim the front edge of the kitchen cabinets about 1/4" in order to make them level. I made sure to show it to the wife so she didn't think I was crazy because at this point she is getting antsy.
It was quickly becoming apparent that the sides of the subfloor supported by the basement wall were about 1/4" higher than the rest of the floor. An outer basement wall poured just a 1/4" too high and a lazy builder is all it takes.
So, how did I fix it?
The first thing I did was string a masonry line (available at HD or Lowes) from the wall behind the oven to the opposite wall and tighten it as much as possible. You want it tight because if there is slack the string will sag and give you false measurements. Make sure there isn't any kind of debris underneath the string and nothing resting on top of it. Either one of them will cause you headaches. I usually snap it like a chalk string just to make sure. Using my scrap pieces of 3/16" and 1/8" hardboard I slowly slid them underneath the masonry line. At the same time I would wiggle them side to side so that once they contacted the string it vibrated. The tightness of the string makes it easy to spot the movement. The best way to do it is to visually find the lowest spot and start there (a bright light from the side casting a shadow helps spot them). I worked my way from the middle of the depression to the right until the 3/16" no longer fit under the string. I took a piece of masking tape and stuck it to the floor along the side of 3/16" scrap that touches the string. I wrote 3/16" with an arrow pointing toward the center of the depression. Then I went back to the low spot and worked my way to the left. I now had two pieces of masking tape on the floor and the arrows pointing toward each other. The arrows will indicate where I needed a minimum of 3/16" of material to bring the floor up even with the rest of it. This is what my pieces of masking tape looked like at this point.
I repeated the process with the 1/8" piece of scrap but started where the 3/16" pieces of masking tape left off. I worked my way to the right and then to the left. I now had 4 pieces of tape (you can just write on the previous two pieces). I now knew where I needed a minimum 3/16" of material and 1/8" of material.
You can repeat this process to whatever degree of accuracy you desire, the sacrifice being time and a lot of masking tape. I have some spots as deep as 3/8" so I go in increments of 3/8", 5/16", 1/4", 3/16", 1/8", 2 layers of #30 roofing felt, and then finally 1 layer of #30 roof felt. Stacking 1/8" on top of 3/16" makes 5/16" and two pieces of 3/16" makes 3/8", etc.
Once I finished that line, I moved the string 4 inches on both ends and repeated. Eventually, I worked my way across the entire room and had a whole bunch of masking tape pieces. These were my "plot points" that I used to "connect the dots". Here is a simple example of what your lines might look like.
After performing this procedure about 6 times, I could now visualize just how terrible that dip in the floor I always felt was. Using a 6 ft straight edge I set it across some scrap pieces of hardboard so I could extrapolate that height across the front of my kitchen cabinets. An 8 or 10ft straight edge would have been even better. Home Depot sells metal stock in various lengths and widths. While I don't need the floor to be level, I do need it to be flat. As it turns out the floor in the pantry had about the same amount of incline as behind the oven. That isn't too surprising since the back of the panty and the wall behind my kitchen cabinets is supported by the basement wall. So while the floor isn't consistent going in one direction, at least it is when going in the other.
Long story short, I had to nail down 1/4" worth of hardboard across the front of the kitchen cabinets so the height would be "true" to what was required coming out of the pantry, and from behind the oven. Since I had effectively "raised" the height of my floor this meant my topographical map was way off. All the work I had done was nearly futile. While I didn't rip it all up, working around it to adapt to the new height requirements was a royal PITA and doubled the amount of time it would have taken.
Lessons learned for me:
1) Get the entire room emptied and stripped before starting.
2) Find high spots and nail heads and get rid of them.
3) Get appliances out of the way.
4) Use hardboard instead of shingles. Even though shingles are easy to work with I will never use the roofing shingles for flattening again. First, they make a hell of a mess. Second, they are lumpy and not of a consistent thickness. Third, for the square footage they cover and their price I think you get a better deal out of using 1/8" tempered hardboard. Fourth, they take a ton of staples to hold them flat to the floor. Fifth, they crunch when you walk on them.
5) Make sure the wife knows how much work is involved.
6) The $400 install package from Home Depot or Lowes won't buy you this kind of labor.
7) If you get a measurement that seems out of whack when compared to the previous row figure out why. A change from 5/16" to 3/16" in the span of 4 inches is worrisome.
8) Don't start filling depressions until you've finished measuring.
9) Put refrigerator on 1/8" hardboard after installing flooring so as not to damage it.
10) Laying down 1/8" hardboard across the entire floor before creating the topograph would have smoothed out all of those annoying little bumps.
11) Wives will be impatient no matter what. Some recommended videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4-5S6buKfg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVlL8AID5Lg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NuUbUxDmqNE
Monday, January 09, 2012
Review of the ineo I-NA316N1-R Poseidon 3.5" SATA NAS enclosure
First of all, you have to remember that this is a low budget NAS. You can't buy it and expect it to do everything a multi-hundred dollar unit would do.
Out of the box I could not connect to the NAS. Since I bought it refurbished, the previous owner must have set a static IP address in the unit. This prevented it from getting an IP address from my router. After about a half hour of frustration I hit the reset button and it immediately hopped on my network and grabbed an IP. If you buy a new one out of the box you should be able to plug it into your network at home and have it pull an IP address from your DHCP server. If you bought it used, you may need to do a reset on it.
I bought this strictly to use as an offsite backup solution over FTP. Being a budget unit it is very limited on what control you have over the FTP settings. You can change the port number to 21 OR 1025 through 65500. When plopping it behind a TrendNet TEW-631BRP all I needed to do was setup a virtual server that forwarded a port that I chose to port 21 of the NAS. The TrendNet is smart enough to recognize the FTP packets and lets the unit run in PASV mode (it translates the IP address of the server but I won't get into the details here). When I was trying to run it behind a Linksys WRT-54G running Tomato firmware I had to put it in the DMZ of the router. The firmware just refused to translate the FTP packets properly.
The web interface is very basic and uses simple HTTP GET requests. If you are the developer type you should be able to easily use this to your advantage to remotely enable/disable features and change settings. This is nice as some companies like to use complex AJAX which makes life more difficult for the homebrew types.
As far as user accounts go you can only give a user write access or read-only access to individual directories. Also, passwords and usernames can only be 12 characters long which is kind of perplexing and disappointing. At least usernames and passwords are case-sensitive. It seems the unit runs a stripped down version of Linux.
Reading the reviews from some other people it seems as though the unit will freeze up after a period of time. I have not had mine in service very long so I don't know if this will happen or not. Power cycling it seems to resolve the issue. If this starts happening I will update my review, and then possibly reboot it on a weekly basis and see what happens.
During setup the quick format did not take long. I would be gentle when installing the hard drive as the circuit board that it plugs in to does not have much structural support.
I can't comment on the SMB, BitTorrent or media server features since I will never use them.
As far as noise goes it is non-existent. There are no fans. Everything is cooled by natural air flow and the metal case. I think I'd prefer a tighter fit between the hard drive chassis and the case to improve the cooling. The only noise comes from the hard drive you install.
Power consumption is always a factor when it comes to hardware that will be running 24/7. Especially, if it is running at someone elses house. The wall wart is rated for 3amps at 12VDC but that is not a good gauge of power use. I used a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure power consumption of the unit under a few different conditions.
While copying a 750MB file over 100 mbps Ethernet using the SMB server feature the power consumption was only 8 watts and occasionally bounced up to 9 watts. This INCLUDES the power draw from the hard drive I installed which is a 2TB Western Digital WD20EARS Green Caviar. With the hard drive turned off (this can be set to occur after 10, 20, 30 or 60 minutes of inactivity, or never) the power draw was ONLY 3 watts. This unit is way more power efficient than I would have expected. If you run a Torrent or media server 24/7 this could pay for itself in a short period of time. As someone else mentioned I unhooked the two wires that plug into the circuit board for the indicator LED's. This made very little difference in power draw (maybe a half watt?) but it makes it less annoying at night as the lights are kind of bright.
For the money, this unit can't be beat.
Out of the box I could not connect to the NAS. Since I bought it refurbished, the previous owner must have set a static IP address in the unit. This prevented it from getting an IP address from my router. After about a half hour of frustration I hit the reset button and it immediately hopped on my network and grabbed an IP. If you buy a new one out of the box you should be able to plug it into your network at home and have it pull an IP address from your DHCP server. If you bought it used, you may need to do a reset on it.
I bought this strictly to use as an offsite backup solution over FTP. Being a budget unit it is very limited on what control you have over the FTP settings. You can change the port number to 21 OR 1025 through 65500. When plopping it behind a TrendNet TEW-631BRP all I needed to do was setup a virtual server that forwarded a port that I chose to port 21 of the NAS. The TrendNet is smart enough to recognize the FTP packets and lets the unit run in PASV mode (it translates the IP address of the server but I won't get into the details here). When I was trying to run it behind a Linksys WRT-54G running Tomato firmware I had to put it in the DMZ of the router. The firmware just refused to translate the FTP packets properly.
The web interface is very basic and uses simple HTTP GET requests. If you are the developer type you should be able to easily use this to your advantage to remotely enable/disable features and change settings. This is nice as some companies like to use complex AJAX which makes life more difficult for the homebrew types.
As far as user accounts go you can only give a user write access or read-only access to individual directories. Also, passwords and usernames can only be 12 characters long which is kind of perplexing and disappointing. At least usernames and passwords are case-sensitive. It seems the unit runs a stripped down version of Linux.
Reading the reviews from some other people it seems as though the unit will freeze up after a period of time. I have not had mine in service very long so I don't know if this will happen or not. Power cycling it seems to resolve the issue. If this starts happening I will update my review, and then possibly reboot it on a weekly basis and see what happens.
During setup the quick format did not take long. I would be gentle when installing the hard drive as the circuit board that it plugs in to does not have much structural support.
I can't comment on the SMB, BitTorrent or media server features since I will never use them.
As far as noise goes it is non-existent. There are no fans. Everything is cooled by natural air flow and the metal case. I think I'd prefer a tighter fit between the hard drive chassis and the case to improve the cooling. The only noise comes from the hard drive you install.
Power consumption is always a factor when it comes to hardware that will be running 24/7. Especially, if it is running at someone elses house. The wall wart is rated for 3amps at 12VDC but that is not a good gauge of power use. I used a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure power consumption of the unit under a few different conditions.
While copying a 750MB file over 100 mbps Ethernet using the SMB server feature the power consumption was only 8 watts and occasionally bounced up to 9 watts. This INCLUDES the power draw from the hard drive I installed which is a 2TB Western Digital WD20EARS Green Caviar. With the hard drive turned off (this can be set to occur after 10, 20, 30 or 60 minutes of inactivity, or never) the power draw was ONLY 3 watts. This unit is way more power efficient than I would have expected. If you run a Torrent or media server 24/7 this could pay for itself in a short period of time. As someone else mentioned I unhooked the two wires that plug into the circuit board for the indicator LED's. This made very little difference in power draw (maybe a half watt?) but it makes it less annoying at night as the lights are kind of bright.
For the money, this unit can't be beat.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Review of the 3M Filtrete Wifi thermostat CT-50
I bought this today from Home Depot for $99. Installation was easy, but in order for the Wifi to work you need to supply a 24 VAC Common to the "C" terminal of the thermostat. Even though my house was built fairly recently, the HVAC installers didn't bother to connect the 5th wire (Blue one) in the thermostat harness to the "C" terminal of my furnace. The Blue wire was left disconnected, so I connected it to the "C" terminal of the furnace and then to the thermostat and I had the 24VAC I needed to power the Wifi card. If your furnace doesn't have the "C" terminal you can use a 24VAC transformer.
Installation of the thermostat was fairly straightforward but I don't like that the thermostat doesn't split in half like my Honeywell one did. It made installation a PITA. Also, the batteries are kind of awkward to install. A little bit of thought by the designers would have made this easier.
I had a hard time connecting to the thermostat over the Ad-Hoc wireless network it creates. I tried two different Windows XP laptops and neither one would connect. Fortunately, my desktop PC has a Linksys PCI Wireles card and I was able to connect to it that way in order to do the initial configuration and attach it to my WPA secured wireless network. I've read that it will not work with WEP which seems strange. From what I've seen the iPhone is the best tool for the job. My HTC Incredible didn't recognize the thermostat's Ad-Hoc network so it wasn't suitable for the initial configuration. Of note, is that the thermostat will reset itself after about 10 minutes and the 5 digit code will change. You'll need to enter this pin when attaching it to your home's wireless network.
One down fall is that there is no direct access to the unit VIA web interface to program it. Everything is done on the radiothermostat.com website. This works fine, but if you're Internet is down you won't be able to change any of the settings through Wifi. Judging by the times that the thermostat checks in with the cloud it seems as though the cycle is every 5 minutes. So, any changes you make shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes to take effect.
That being said the radio thermostat company is very "home brew" friendly and has released the API's for the controller to the public. This means that using simple HTTP GET and POST requests you can re-program the thermostat and query its settings. For instance, to set the target temperature of the thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and put it into HEAT mode using the cURL command line tool you would use (Thermostat IP address is 10.0.0.6):
curl.exe -d {\"tmode\":1,\"t_heat\":68} http://10.0.0.6
There are a ton of other API's you can access, here is a link to the API PDF document. API Document V1_0R3. This document is uodated often so the link might die. I have this copy shadowed here.
Changes you make directly to the thermostat using the API's take effect immediately unlike the cloud changes. You also do not need to authenticate when connecting to the thermostat.
There is an Android control app which is pretty cool. You can set the thermostat to Away mode, and adjust the temperature, as well as, view the current temp. There are also a couple of other features I probably won't use very often Being able to tweak the schedule with the Android app would be nice.
Overall, this is a really nifty gadget and should help on those days I leave the house and forget to turn the heat/AC down. It will probably take some time to pay for itself, but I love electronic toys.
Installation of the thermostat was fairly straightforward but I don't like that the thermostat doesn't split in half like my Honeywell one did. It made installation a PITA. Also, the batteries are kind of awkward to install. A little bit of thought by the designers would have made this easier.
I had a hard time connecting to the thermostat over the Ad-Hoc wireless network it creates. I tried two different Windows XP laptops and neither one would connect. Fortunately, my desktop PC has a Linksys PCI Wireles card and I was able to connect to it that way in order to do the initial configuration and attach it to my WPA secured wireless network. I've read that it will not work with WEP which seems strange. From what I've seen the iPhone is the best tool for the job. My HTC Incredible didn't recognize the thermostat's Ad-Hoc network so it wasn't suitable for the initial configuration. Of note, is that the thermostat will reset itself after about 10 minutes and the 5 digit code will change. You'll need to enter this pin when attaching it to your home's wireless network.
One down fall is that there is no direct access to the unit VIA web interface to program it. Everything is done on the radiothermostat.com website. This works fine, but if you're Internet is down you won't be able to change any of the settings through Wifi. Judging by the times that the thermostat checks in with the cloud it seems as though the cycle is every 5 minutes. So, any changes you make shouldn't take longer than 5 minutes to take effect.
That being said the radio thermostat company is very "home brew" friendly and has released the API's for the controller to the public. This means that using simple HTTP GET and POST requests you can re-program the thermostat and query its settings. For instance, to set the target temperature of the thermostat to 68 degrees Fahrenheit and put it into HEAT mode using the cURL command line tool you would use (Thermostat IP address is 10.0.0.6):
curl.exe -d {\"tmode\":1,\"t_heat\":68} http://10.0.0.6
There are a ton of other API's you can access, here is a link to the API PDF document. API Document V1_0R3. This document is uodated often so the link might die. I have this copy shadowed here.
Changes you make directly to the thermostat using the API's take effect immediately unlike the cloud changes. You also do not need to authenticate when connecting to the thermostat.
There is an Android control app which is pretty cool. You can set the thermostat to Away mode, and adjust the temperature, as well as, view the current temp. There are also a couple of other features I probably won't use very often Being able to tweak the schedule with the Android app would be nice.
Overall, this is a really nifty gadget and should help on those days I leave the house and forget to turn the heat/AC down. It will probably take some time to pay for itself, but I love electronic toys.
Thursday, December 29, 2011
Menu for New China Garden in Barnegat, NJ
Since I can never find their menu online when I want to order Chinese food on the go.
Here it is in PDF format.
New China Garden
Here it is in PDF format.
New China Garden
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Police Radio Scanner Feed for Barnegat , Waretown and Stafford (Manahawkin)
Stuck in traffic in Barnegat, Stafford or Waretown? Cops creeping around your neighborhood looking for someone? I put up a scanner feed for Barnegat, Stafford (Manahawkin) and Waretown (Ocean) police. Anyone can listen for FREE to all the action by visiting http://www.radioreference.com/apps/audio/?feedId=9772 in their web browser.
Have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android? There is an awesome app called Scanner Radio available for the Droid and Blackberry. There are also apps for the iPhone.
Have any suggestions or comments? Let me know!
Have an iPhone, Blackberry or Android? There is an awesome app called Scanner Radio available for the Droid and Blackberry. There are also apps for the iPhone.
Have any suggestions or comments? Let me know!
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Menu for China King in Barnegat NJ
Since I can never find their menu online when I want to order Chinese food on the go.
Here it is in PDF format.
China King Menu
Here it is in PDF format.
China King Menu
Friday, September 02, 2011
eBay scammer
Just warning everyone of an eBay scammer Kevin Stevens with email address kkstevens72@comcast.net He took my money and then cut off contact. He also scammed other eBay users. His eBay name was corkythespoiledcat but I'm sure he is no longer using it.
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Running sprinkler pipe under a sidewalk.
Over this past weekend I had the joy of needing to run 3/4" poly sprinkler pipe under my 4ft wide sidewalk on each side of my driveway. I considered buying the Sidewalk Sleever, which is a $100 piece of steel that you slide inside of a PVC pipe and then pound underneath the sidewalk with a sledgehammer. Once through, you slide the metal rod out of the PVC pipe.
$100 seemed a little steep for such a simple tool. My solution was to buy a 5ft long piece of 1" Schedule 40 natural gas pipe from Home Depot. I left the end of the pipe open so it could fill with dirt. I gave it a couple of taps with a 16oz hammer and then used a sledge hammer on it. It worked perfectly.
Once the pipe popped out the other side of the sidewalk I could twist it by hand and pull it back out of the hole. I now had a nice 1" hole going under the sidewalk and I could easily slide my 3/4" poly pipe through it.
I have seen people recommend using a garden hose attached to the other end of the pipe but I worried about washing too much sand out from under the sidewalk and having it crack on my many years down the road.
$100 seemed a little steep for such a simple tool. My solution was to buy a 5ft long piece of 1" Schedule 40 natural gas pipe from Home Depot. I left the end of the pipe open so it could fill with dirt. I gave it a couple of taps with a 16oz hammer and then used a sledge hammer on it. It worked perfectly.
Once the pipe popped out the other side of the sidewalk I could twist it by hand and pull it back out of the hole. I now had a nice 1" hole going under the sidewalk and I could easily slide my 3/4" poly pipe through it.
I have seen people recommend using a garden hose attached to the other end of the pipe but I worried about washing too much sand out from under the sidewalk and having it crack on my many years down the road.
Sunday, January 09, 2011
GreenWorks 26032 vs Snow Joe 622U1
I bought this unit to replace my Snow Joe 622U1 that blew apart and would not be warrantied by Snow Joe. I just used it to remove 6" of snow this past weekend so I will do a first impression review.
The GreenWorks 26032 carries a 4 year warranty as opposed to the Snow Joe 622U1 which has only a 2 year warranty. Reading the manual of the 26032 I was not able to find any exclusions other than damage due to wear and tear. As stated above Snow Joe informed me that the black housing plastic is not covered under the warranty for the 622U1. Whether this applies to Snow Joe's newer models I'm not sure.
Some people were complaining that the factory wrapped the handles in plastic and then assembled everything. This makes it impossible to remove the plastic unless you unscrew everything. This isn't really a big deal and is merely an aesthetic complaint. I tend to be picky so I loosened a few nuts and screws so I could remove all the plastic wrap.
Others complained about the smell of the snow blower. The smell is actually coming from the rubber wheels and is not unusual. It dissipates after a while and within a few minutes our cats were playfully jumping in and out of the empty box.
The unit appeared to be packaged very well and nothing was damaged during shipping. It was shipped to me in the factory packaging.
Out of the box the entire unit appears to be very sturdy for what it is.
The handle assembly on the GreenWorks is MUCH beefier than the Snow Joe 622U1. It also feels like it is just a tad bit longer which is good for someone 6ft like me. There is a foam grip and time will tell how long this will last. The thing I love most about the handle on the GreenWorks is that all I need to do is loosen the handle bolts and un-clip the auger rod and the entire assembly can be folded forward for transportation. I take the snow blower to my Mother's house in the trunk of my car so this is a big feature to me.
The on/off controls are pretty simple. Someone complained that they wouldn't be able to easily manipulate the handle when wearing gloves. I tried it with winter gloves and didn't have an issue whatsoever. Basically, the way it works is that you slide a switch left and it pushes the handle out of the switch housing so you can squeeze it and activate the auger. When using the blower I tend to keep the handle halfway depressed to save time. My electric lawn mower uses the same type of switch.
The auger is a bit smaller than the 622U1 but it is also combination of steel and rubber so it should be very strong. Like the 622U1 the GreenWorks uses nylock nuts to hold everything together so I would STRONGLY suggest you check them before each and EVERY use. If those bolts let loose the auger will surely punch a hole through the case of the unit. Nylock nuts are notorious for loosening when exposed to freezing temps.
The discharge chute on the GreenWorks isn't quite as good as the 622U1 but seems to be a bit stronger. On the 622U1 you can adjust the angle that snow leaves the chute. The GreenWorks has this ability as well but as soon as snow hits the deflector it goes to the fully upright position. The 622U1 was a little bit better at not doing this. The 622U1 would eventually deflect but not as easy as the GreenWorks. Also out of the box it was very difficult to turn the rod that rotates the discharge chute. I put some petroleum jelly on the mechanism and now it rotates very smoothly. GreenWorks could stand to do a little further R&D on their discharge chute. With the chute facing forward I was easily throwing snow 30ft. However, when turned to either the left or right a lot of the distance is lost. Turned full left or right snow was only throwing about 12ft or so. This is still plenty to clear a driveway.
The GreenWorks has a pigtail for the electrical connection which is critical when you're dealing with heavy gauge extension cords and vibration. On one occasion my extension cord caught fire while using the Snow Joe because the plug is molded into the handle. Combine a heavy cord, cold temps, and vibration and the cord is guaranteed to vibrate itself loose. This causes a voltage drop/current increase which makes things get really hot. The pigtail helps negate the vibration. As long as the cord is tied around the handle you shouldn't have any problems. Also on the handle is the reset button. If the unit overheats you can push the button to reset it. I'd recommend using a heavy gauge extension cord for the snow blower. I use a 10ga 100ft cord. The more you can keep the voltage from dropping, the more power you'll get out of the unit. I run mine off of a 20 amp circuit in my garage.
The wheels on the GreenWorks are very sturdy and much larger than the 622U1. This makes the unit quite a bit more stable and lets me not worry about breaking a wheel. The 622U1 wheels are only about 4" tall and are made of pretty thin plastic. Due to their size as soon as I would run them through heavy snow it would build up on the wheels and keep them from spinning. This makes it more difficult to push the unit. The GreenWorks wheels are a combination of plastic and rubber. I don't expect them to give me any problems.
I find the scraper on the GreenWorks to be a bit better than the 622U1. The GreenWorks unit does a much better job of scraping down to the pavement. Use this thing on rocks or dirt and you will certainly suck a lot of it up.
I took off the access panel and the auger drive pulley is built a lot thicker than on the 622U1. On my 622U1 this pulley shattered into dozens of pieces when the auger blade let loose. Also, the belt tensioner pulley is steel unlike the 622U1 which uses plastic.
The GreenWorks is definitely heavier than the 622U1. Some people might not like this fact but I am of the opposite opinion. The heavier weight is due to the more robust construction.
After my experience with the Snow Joe I will definitely not be buying another one of their products. The GreenWorks 26032 is just a much better built product.
The GreenWorks 26032 carries a 4 year warranty as opposed to the Snow Joe 622U1 which has only a 2 year warranty. Reading the manual of the 26032 I was not able to find any exclusions other than damage due to wear and tear. As stated above Snow Joe informed me that the black housing plastic is not covered under the warranty for the 622U1. Whether this applies to Snow Joe's newer models I'm not sure.
Some people were complaining that the factory wrapped the handles in plastic and then assembled everything. This makes it impossible to remove the plastic unless you unscrew everything. This isn't really a big deal and is merely an aesthetic complaint. I tend to be picky so I loosened a few nuts and screws so I could remove all the plastic wrap.
Others complained about the smell of the snow blower. The smell is actually coming from the rubber wheels and is not unusual. It dissipates after a while and within a few minutes our cats were playfully jumping in and out of the empty box.
The unit appeared to be packaged very well and nothing was damaged during shipping. It was shipped to me in the factory packaging.
Out of the box the entire unit appears to be very sturdy for what it is.
The handle assembly on the GreenWorks is MUCH beefier than the Snow Joe 622U1. It also feels like it is just a tad bit longer which is good for someone 6ft like me. There is a foam grip and time will tell how long this will last. The thing I love most about the handle on the GreenWorks is that all I need to do is loosen the handle bolts and un-clip the auger rod and the entire assembly can be folded forward for transportation. I take the snow blower to my Mother's house in the trunk of my car so this is a big feature to me.
The on/off controls are pretty simple. Someone complained that they wouldn't be able to easily manipulate the handle when wearing gloves. I tried it with winter gloves and didn't have an issue whatsoever. Basically, the way it works is that you slide a switch left and it pushes the handle out of the switch housing so you can squeeze it and activate the auger. When using the blower I tend to keep the handle halfway depressed to save time. My electric lawn mower uses the same type of switch.
The auger is a bit smaller than the 622U1 but it is also combination of steel and rubber so it should be very strong. Like the 622U1 the GreenWorks uses nylock nuts to hold everything together so I would STRONGLY suggest you check them before each and EVERY use. If those bolts let loose the auger will surely punch a hole through the case of the unit. Nylock nuts are notorious for loosening when exposed to freezing temps.
The discharge chute on the GreenWorks isn't quite as good as the 622U1 but seems to be a bit stronger. On the 622U1 you can adjust the angle that snow leaves the chute. The GreenWorks has this ability as well but as soon as snow hits the deflector it goes to the fully upright position. The 622U1 was a little bit better at not doing this. The 622U1 would eventually deflect but not as easy as the GreenWorks. Also out of the box it was very difficult to turn the rod that rotates the discharge chute. I put some petroleum jelly on the mechanism and now it rotates very smoothly. GreenWorks could stand to do a little further R&D on their discharge chute. With the chute facing forward I was easily throwing snow 30ft. However, when turned to either the left or right a lot of the distance is lost. Turned full left or right snow was only throwing about 12ft or so. This is still plenty to clear a driveway.
The GreenWorks has a pigtail for the electrical connection which is critical when you're dealing with heavy gauge extension cords and vibration. On one occasion my extension cord caught fire while using the Snow Joe because the plug is molded into the handle. Combine a heavy cord, cold temps, and vibration and the cord is guaranteed to vibrate itself loose. This causes a voltage drop/current increase which makes things get really hot. The pigtail helps negate the vibration. As long as the cord is tied around the handle you shouldn't have any problems. Also on the handle is the reset button. If the unit overheats you can push the button to reset it. I'd recommend using a heavy gauge extension cord for the snow blower. I use a 10ga 100ft cord. The more you can keep the voltage from dropping, the more power you'll get out of the unit. I run mine off of a 20 amp circuit in my garage.
The wheels on the GreenWorks are very sturdy and much larger than the 622U1. This makes the unit quite a bit more stable and lets me not worry about breaking a wheel. The 622U1 wheels are only about 4" tall and are made of pretty thin plastic. Due to their size as soon as I would run them through heavy snow it would build up on the wheels and keep them from spinning. This makes it more difficult to push the unit. The GreenWorks wheels are a combination of plastic and rubber. I don't expect them to give me any problems.
I find the scraper on the GreenWorks to be a bit better than the 622U1. The GreenWorks unit does a much better job of scraping down to the pavement. Use this thing on rocks or dirt and you will certainly suck a lot of it up.
I took off the access panel and the auger drive pulley is built a lot thicker than on the 622U1. On my 622U1 this pulley shattered into dozens of pieces when the auger blade let loose. Also, the belt tensioner pulley is steel unlike the 622U1 which uses plastic.
The GreenWorks is definitely heavier than the 622U1. Some people might not like this fact but I am of the opposite opinion. The heavier weight is due to the more robust construction.
After my experience with the Snow Joe I will definitely not be buying another one of their products. The GreenWorks 26032 is just a much better built product.
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Snow Joe 622U1 review
This is my informal review of the Snow Joe 622U1 snow thrower/blower.
Last year I bought the Snow Joe 622U1 snow thrower for about $228 shipped. Out of the box assembly was very simple using hand tools. Construction wise the 622U1 seems to be ok for the price. The plug for the electrical cord does not have any sort of retention mechanism to keep the cord from backing off due to vibration. This actually caused my extension cord to briefly catch fire while I was using it. Kind of scary. Wrapping the cord around the handle and tieing it off didn't help too much. Snow Joe should have either provided a clamping cord mechanism like most electric leaf blowers have or used a pigtail for the electrical connection. The best I was able to do was to slightly bend the plugs on the snow blower so they held on to the cord tighter.
After the 3rd use one of the bolts for the auger blade loosened and fell out. This caused the blade to spin around wildly and punch a large 4" hole in the main case of the snow blower (the main black plastic core that holds the unit together). It also shattered the white auger drive pulley inside the housing into hundreds of pieces. When I called Snow Joe to get it covered under warranty I was told that the housing is not covered but the white drive pulley and belt were. So Be careful! While they advertised a 2 year warranty, obviously, this does not include the entire snow blower and this may be true for their newer models as well. Had I known that I would have stayed away. The housing is very thin and apparently very fragile. In the back of the owner's manual there is a short blurb that the auger bolts should be checked for tightness after every 5 uses or so. Even though I read the entire manual front to back I still missed it. This warning should have been written on a large red tag in bold letters and strapped to the snow blower. What Snow Joe did was to use nylock nuts on the auger bolts. They work great when they're warm, but get them cold enough and they loose their grip and spin right off the bolts. From the other complaints I've read I'm not the only one this has happened to. I'd recommend checking them EVERY time you use the snow blower.
The wheels on the snow blower are plastic and very small. They are only about 4" in diameter. They're pretty much useless for anything other than wheeling it through your garage. As soon as they hit snow or slush they get frozen and lock up.
When it was operational the 622U1 moved snow very well. Even the deep stuff could be chugged through if you took your time and didn't force it. The unit is very light but I'm a big guy so my definition of light may be different from everyone elses. As far as noise goes it is definitely quite enough. I used mine without fear of bothering the neighbors.
The unit does have a decent amount of power. The motor is advertised as being 13 amps. I used it with a 12ga 100ft extension cord on a 15 amp circuit and it would trip my breaker pretty often when pushing it through deep snow. I'd definitely recommend running it off of a 20 amp circuit or higher if possible.
I'm 6ft and I would like for the handle to be a bit higher. As it is now I feel like I have to bend over a little.
Throwing distance will never be as good as with a 2 stage snow blower but it is sufficient and even under heavy load will throw it about 6 to 7 ft. One problem I had with the discharge chute is that it was impossible to adjust the angle. No matter how low I set it, as soon as the snow hit it, it would knock it back up into the 45 degree position. This happened no matter how tight I turned the lock knobs.
Since my Snow Joe is basically dead I ordered a GreenWorks 12 amp snow blower and will be trying it out once it arrives and we get some snow. This model has a 4 year warranty and looks like it is quite a bit sturdier than the Snow Joe.
Last year I bought the Snow Joe 622U1 snow thrower for about $228 shipped. Out of the box assembly was very simple using hand tools. Construction wise the 622U1 seems to be ok for the price. The plug for the electrical cord does not have any sort of retention mechanism to keep the cord from backing off due to vibration. This actually caused my extension cord to briefly catch fire while I was using it. Kind of scary. Wrapping the cord around the handle and tieing it off didn't help too much. Snow Joe should have either provided a clamping cord mechanism like most electric leaf blowers have or used a pigtail for the electrical connection. The best I was able to do was to slightly bend the plugs on the snow blower so they held on to the cord tighter.
After the 3rd use one of the bolts for the auger blade loosened and fell out. This caused the blade to spin around wildly and punch a large 4" hole in the main case of the snow blower (the main black plastic core that holds the unit together). It also shattered the white auger drive pulley inside the housing into hundreds of pieces. When I called Snow Joe to get it covered under warranty I was told that the housing is not covered but the white drive pulley and belt were. So Be careful! While they advertised a 2 year warranty, obviously, this does not include the entire snow blower and this may be true for their newer models as well. Had I known that I would have stayed away. The housing is very thin and apparently very fragile. In the back of the owner's manual there is a short blurb that the auger bolts should be checked for tightness after every 5 uses or so. Even though I read the entire manual front to back I still missed it. This warning should have been written on a large red tag in bold letters and strapped to the snow blower. What Snow Joe did was to use nylock nuts on the auger bolts. They work great when they're warm, but get them cold enough and they loose their grip and spin right off the bolts. From the other complaints I've read I'm not the only one this has happened to. I'd recommend checking them EVERY time you use the snow blower.
The wheels on the snow blower are plastic and very small. They are only about 4" in diameter. They're pretty much useless for anything other than wheeling it through your garage. As soon as they hit snow or slush they get frozen and lock up.
When it was operational the 622U1 moved snow very well. Even the deep stuff could be chugged through if you took your time and didn't force it. The unit is very light but I'm a big guy so my definition of light may be different from everyone elses. As far as noise goes it is definitely quite enough. I used mine without fear of bothering the neighbors.
The unit does have a decent amount of power. The motor is advertised as being 13 amps. I used it with a 12ga 100ft extension cord on a 15 amp circuit and it would trip my breaker pretty often when pushing it through deep snow. I'd definitely recommend running it off of a 20 amp circuit or higher if possible.
I'm 6ft and I would like for the handle to be a bit higher. As it is now I feel like I have to bend over a little.
Throwing distance will never be as good as with a 2 stage snow blower but it is sufficient and even under heavy load will throw it about 6 to 7 ft. One problem I had with the discharge chute is that it was impossible to adjust the angle. No matter how low I set it, as soon as the snow hit it, it would knock it back up into the 45 degree position. This happened no matter how tight I turned the lock knobs.
Since my Snow Joe is basically dead I ordered a GreenWorks 12 amp snow blower and will be trying it out once it arrives and we get some snow. This model has a 4 year warranty and looks like it is quite a bit sturdier than the Snow Joe.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
My review of the Curt hitch for the 06 Hyundai Elantra
I bought the Curt 11220 hitch for my 2006 Hyundai Elantra. The hitch was shipped in a rather weak cardboard box that took a pretty bad beating from UPS. There were two large holes punched through it. Luckily none of the hardware fell out.
The hitch seems to work OK however I had to modify the large carriage bolt that secures the hitch to the car's tow hook. On my car the rear tow hook is bent downward. No amount of pounding with a 16 pound sledge hammer would bend it back to.its normal position. I had to buy a longer carriage bolt from Home Depot and spend a fair.amount of time grinding the steel plate down in order to finish the install. From what I have read elsewhere I'm not the only one that had to do this. The manufacturer needs to take this into account for their design. I'm sure a lot of cars have their hook bent downward from being on the transport carrier. This turned a 5 minute job into an hour job.
The hitch seems to work OK however I had to modify the large carriage bolt that secures the hitch to the car's tow hook. On my car the rear tow hook is bent downward. No amount of pounding with a 16 pound sledge hammer would bend it back to.its normal position. I had to buy a longer carriage bolt from Home Depot and spend a fair.amount of time grinding the steel plate down in order to finish the install. From what I have read elsewhere I'm not the only one that had to do this. The manufacturer needs to take this into account for their design. I'm sure a lot of cars have their hook bent downward from being on the transport carrier. This turned a 5 minute job into an hour job.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Dry fitting Sched 40 PVC
I've seen a lot of people asking how to dry fit PVC. Because PVC uses an interference fit it isn't truly possible to dry fit the fitting and the pipe. The pipe is designed to be a very tight fit as it bottoms out in the fitting. This creates a very strong bond between the fitting and the pipe once everything cures.
The easiest way I have found to measure out how long of a piece of PVC I need is to follow the steps below.
1) Cut the pipe nice and square and chamfer the edge to 10-15 degrees on one end and measure the overall length of the pipe.
2) Clean the end of the pipe and fitting with rubbing alcohol and make sure it is dry. At this point I put vinyl gloves on to keep everything nice and clean. Make sure the end of the pipe is free of gouges, grooves, etc.
3) Prime the fitting and the pipe.
4) Apply solvent to the fitting and the pipe.
5) Insert the pipe into the fitting and turn 1/4 turn and hold it tight together for 30 seconds. This is necessary to prevent the solvent from pushing the pipe out of the fitting.
6) Measure the pipe from the unfinished end to the edge of the PVC fitting. Subtract this length from the original length of the pipe and that should give you an idea of how deep the fitting's socket is.
In one case, I was using Dura (commonly sold at Home Depot) 1" Sched 40 fittings and the elbow and tee fittings were 1 1/8" deep. However, the couplers weren't as deep. Only about an inch or so.
Pretty simple.
The easiest way I have found to measure out how long of a piece of PVC I need is to follow the steps below.
1) Cut the pipe nice and square and chamfer the edge to 10-15 degrees on one end and measure the overall length of the pipe.
2) Clean the end of the pipe and fitting with rubbing alcohol and make sure it is dry. At this point I put vinyl gloves on to keep everything nice and clean. Make sure the end of the pipe is free of gouges, grooves, etc.
3) Prime the fitting and the pipe.
4) Apply solvent to the fitting and the pipe.
5) Insert the pipe into the fitting and turn 1/4 turn and hold it tight together for 30 seconds. This is necessary to prevent the solvent from pushing the pipe out of the fitting.
6) Measure the pipe from the unfinished end to the edge of the PVC fitting. Subtract this length from the original length of the pipe and that should give you an idea of how deep the fitting's socket is.
In one case, I was using Dura (commonly sold at Home Depot) 1" Sched 40 fittings and the elbow and tee fittings were 1 1/8" deep. However, the couplers weren't as deep. Only about an inch or so.
Pretty simple.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Ber encoding an SNMP Oid
The following steps will let you encode numbers that are greater than 127 in your SNMP Oid string. For instance in the Oid 1.3.6.1.4.1.19865.1.2.1.6.0 the value 19865 is greater than 127 so it must be Ber encoded. Please refer to this PDF document when following the steps below. Why you need to encode values greater than 127 in this way is beyond the scope of this post. I had a hard time finding information for a dummy like me to understand. I found plenty of RFC's but none of them got it to click in my head. Now that I feel I have a firm grasp on to calculate these values properly I am sharing my knowledge.
For this example I am using the value 19865. You may find it easier to have the flowchart PDF I linked to above open next to your browser window when following the steps below. In my opinion, it's much easier to visualize what is happening.
Step 1. Convert the decimal value into its Hexadecimal format of 4D99
Step 2. Split the value 4D99 "in half" in to two separate values of 4D and 99
Step 3. Convert the Hexadecimal value of 99 into its equivalent binary string format of "10011001"
Step 4. Convert the Hexadecimal value of 4D into its equivalent binary string format of “01001101”
Step 5. Combine these two binary strings into one long 16 character binary string of “0100110110011001”
Step 6. Starting from the far right of the string take 7 characters. You now have a 7 digit string “0011001”
Step 7. Add a “0” to this new string. You now have an 8 digit string “00011001”. This will be the last number of the encoded value.
Step 8. Starting from the 8th number from the right take 7 characters. You now have a 7 digit string “0011011”.
Step 9. Add a “1” to this new string. You now have an 8 digit string “10011011”. This will be the middle number of the encoded value. The 1 at the beginning of the number indicates that more numbers will follow it. This is referred to as the "high bit".
Step 10. Take the remaining 2 numbers from the string. Add five zeros to the front of these two numbers and then a “1” to the front of that. This will now give you the string “10000001”.
Step 11. Convert all three of these new binary strings into their Hexadecimal values of 81 9B 19. These three Hex values are what you will use to represent numbers of more than 127 in your oid string.
The fully encoded Oid that would be sent to the SNMP host would be 2B 06 01 04 01 81 9B 19 01 02 01 06 00
You may have noticed that the start of the Oid is "2B" instead of "01 03". This is because the first two values of the Oid are encoded differently than the rest. Right now I won’t go into the reason why it works this way. I will explain this later.
If this information helps you please take a second to give me a shout out. It'd be nice to know that I didn't waste my time documenting this. If I made a mistake or typo please let me know.
For this example I am using the value 19865. You may find it easier to have the flowchart PDF I linked to above open next to your browser window when following the steps below. In my opinion, it's much easier to visualize what is happening.
Step 1. Convert the decimal value into its Hexadecimal format of 4D99
Step 2. Split the value 4D99 "in half" in to two separate values of 4D and 99
Step 3. Convert the Hexadecimal value of 99 into its equivalent binary string format of "10011001"
Step 4. Convert the Hexadecimal value of 4D into its equivalent binary string format of “01001101”
Step 5. Combine these two binary strings into one long 16 character binary string of “0100110110011001”
Step 6. Starting from the far right of the string take 7 characters. You now have a 7 digit string “0011001”
Step 7. Add a “0” to this new string. You now have an 8 digit string “00011001”. This will be the last number of the encoded value.
Step 8. Starting from the 8th number from the right take 7 characters. You now have a 7 digit string “0011011”.
Step 9. Add a “1” to this new string. You now have an 8 digit string “10011011”. This will be the middle number of the encoded value. The 1 at the beginning of the number indicates that more numbers will follow it. This is referred to as the "high bit".
Step 10. Take the remaining 2 numbers from the string. Add five zeros to the front of these two numbers and then a “1” to the front of that. This will now give you the string “10000001”.
Step 11. Convert all three of these new binary strings into their Hexadecimal values of 81 9B 19. These three Hex values are what you will use to represent numbers of more than 127 in your oid string.
The fully encoded Oid that would be sent to the SNMP host would be 2B 06 01 04 01 81 9B 19 01 02 01 06 00
You may have noticed that the start of the Oid is "2B" instead of "01 03". This is because the first two values of the Oid are encoded differently than the rest. Right now I won’t go into the reason why it works this way. I will explain this later.
If this information helps you please take a second to give me a shout out. It'd be nice to know that I didn't waste my time documenting this. If I made a mistake or typo please let me know.
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Structure of an SNMP UDP datagram packet
So, I was searching the web trying to find a good example of how an SNMP datagram is encoded. I found plenty of RFC's but none of it really helped me wrap my brain around it. Then I stumbled upon this site. http://www.rane.com/note161.html
The most helpful bit was a flash graphic you could enlarge for easier reading. A screen capture of it is below.
It gives you a great graphical representation of how the SNMP is really an assortment of objects wrapped up inside of a parent object. I should be able to use this to write code that will let me decode simple SNMP get-responses for the information I need.
I still don't understand 100% how to encode the integer number 2680 in the OID into the correct byte values but at least now I have a grasp of how the SNMP information is encoded. If anyone can show me an example of how to "programmatically" encode the 2680 in the example shown I'd be much appreciative. For now, I use Wireshark to find out what the encoded value should be.
The most helpful bit was a flash graphic you could enlarge for easier reading. A screen capture of it is below.
It gives you a great graphical representation of how the SNMP is really an assortment of objects wrapped up inside of a parent object. I should be able to use this to write code that will let me decode simple SNMP get-responses for the information I need.
I still don't understand 100% how to encode the integer number 2680 in the OID into the correct byte values but at least now I have a grasp of how the SNMP information is encoded. If anyone can show me an example of how to "programmatically" encode the 2680 in the example shown I'd be much appreciative. For now, I use Wireshark to find out what the encoded value should be.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
My Carbonite Online Backup thoughts
So, I'm on about my 2nd week of having the Carbonite online backup service. The concept of the service is great. Backup your important files over the Internet to their servers. Your files are now protected from being lost due to flood, fire, hard disk crashes, etc.
That being said, I'm a bit disappointed in what I'm now discovering. During my initial backup I was seeing upload speeds of around 350KB/sec which is the max that my Comcast connection can muster on the upload side. I got an email from Carbonite congratulating me that my initial backup was complete. In reality it wasn't complete, but because I only back up certain files and I didn't back anything up for a couple of days it assumed I was done. My upload speed has now dropped to a consistent 100KB/sec. I am now trying to backup several gigs of files and it is taking quite a while. After reading their FAQ I found out that once you hit the 35Gb mark it will throttle you back to 512kbps, once you reach the 200GB mark they will again throttle back your upload speed to only 100kbps. If you don't feel like doing the math that roughly translates to twice the speed of dial up, or a bit slower than my AT&T cell phone can download on EDGE. You can read it for yourself here http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1440/kw/speed
I'm REALLY hoping, this is just a misprint. I can understand the need to balance bandwidth between customers but 100kbps makes it almost useless.
The second annoyance is that Carbonite will only backup your files while you are idle at the computer. Not moving the mouse or typing. Since I use my PC quite a bit it takes even longer to backup my files.
I was going to sign up for the 3 year plan since it was a better discount but I decided to only go for the 1 year plan. Kind of glad I did as another company may come along and offer something better. For now this will do but a 100kbps upload limit will never keep up with my file changes on a daily basis.
EDIT: I'm now on day 40 with Carbonite and about a week ago I started receiving emails from Carbonite saying that their list of files did not match what my client software had. I had to reinstall the software. Hopefully, that fixes the problem. if I lose anything I'll be super pissed.
Please ensure that your files are protected.
Dear ******,
We've noticed that in the past week, the files you have been backing up on your computer ****** do not match our records. In order to keep your backup up-to-date, please follow the steps below.
These steps will only take a few minutes and you won't need to restart your computer.
1. Is Carbonite paused or disabled?
If your Carbonite lock icon looks like one pictured here, you wil need to right-click on the lock icon and uncheck "Paused" or "Disable Carbonite". This will ensure your backup is up to date. images of Carbonite Lock in the systems tray
If Carbonite is not paused or disabled, you must complete steps two and three.
2. Uninstall Carbonite
To uninstall Carbonite on a computer running Windows XP, click the Windows Start menu and select Control Panel.
In the Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs to display a list of programs installed on your computer. Select Carbonite and click on the Remove button. Windows XP Control Panel Add or Remove Programs screenshot
For instructions on uninstalling Carbonite from a computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7, please visit our Knowledge Base.
3. Reinstall Carbonite
To reinstall Carbonite, simply click on the button below and log in to your account.
Reinstall Carbonite Now
Please be aware that until your backup is completely refreshed, we may not have an accurate copy of every one of your files. In the meantime, if you’re concerned about particular files, please make a temporary copy of them on a flash drive or external drive.
After you’ve reinstalled Carbonite, you’ll know that your backup is up-to-date when the backup progress indicator on the Carbonite InfoCenter reads 100%. (To open the InfoCenter, just click on the Carbonite lock icon in your system tray.)
If you have any questions, please contact customer support.
Sincerely,
The Carbonite Team
That being said, I'm a bit disappointed in what I'm now discovering. During my initial backup I was seeing upload speeds of around 350KB/sec which is the max that my Comcast connection can muster on the upload side. I got an email from Carbonite congratulating me that my initial backup was complete. In reality it wasn't complete, but because I only back up certain files and I didn't back anything up for a couple of days it assumed I was done. My upload speed has now dropped to a consistent 100KB/sec. I am now trying to backup several gigs of files and it is taking quite a while. After reading their FAQ I found out that once you hit the 35Gb mark it will throttle you back to 512kbps, once you reach the 200GB mark they will again throttle back your upload speed to only 100kbps. If you don't feel like doing the math that roughly translates to twice the speed of dial up, or a bit slower than my AT&T cell phone can download on EDGE. You can read it for yourself here http://carbonite.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1440/kw/speed
I'm REALLY hoping, this is just a misprint. I can understand the need to balance bandwidth between customers but 100kbps makes it almost useless.
The second annoyance is that Carbonite will only backup your files while you are idle at the computer. Not moving the mouse or typing. Since I use my PC quite a bit it takes even longer to backup my files.
I was going to sign up for the 3 year plan since it was a better discount but I decided to only go for the 1 year plan. Kind of glad I did as another company may come along and offer something better. For now this will do but a 100kbps upload limit will never keep up with my file changes on a daily basis.
EDIT: I'm now on day 40 with Carbonite and about a week ago I started receiving emails from Carbonite saying that their list of files did not match what my client software had. I had to reinstall the software. Hopefully, that fixes the problem. if I lose anything I'll be super pissed.
Please ensure that your files are protected.
Dear ******,
We've noticed that in the past week, the files you have been backing up on your computer ****** do not match our records. In order to keep your backup up-to-date, please follow the steps below.
These steps will only take a few minutes and you won't need to restart your computer.
1. Is Carbonite paused or disabled?
If your Carbonite lock icon looks like one pictured here, you wil need to right-click on the lock icon and uncheck "Paused" or "Disable Carbonite". This will ensure your backup is up to date. images of Carbonite Lock in the systems tray
If Carbonite is not paused or disabled, you must complete steps two and three.
2. Uninstall Carbonite
To uninstall Carbonite on a computer running Windows XP, click the Windows Start menu and select Control Panel.
In the Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs to display a list of programs installed on your computer. Select Carbonite and click on the Remove button. Windows XP Control Panel Add or Remove Programs screenshot
For instructions on uninstalling Carbonite from a computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7, please visit our Knowledge Base.
3. Reinstall Carbonite
To reinstall Carbonite, simply click on the button below and log in to your account.
Reinstall Carbonite Now
Please be aware that until your backup is completely refreshed, we may not have an accurate copy of every one of your files. In the meantime, if you’re concerned about particular files, please make a temporary copy of them on a flash drive or external drive.
After you’ve reinstalled Carbonite, you’ll know that your backup is up-to-date when the backup progress indicator on the Carbonite InfoCenter reads 100%. (To open the InfoCenter, just click on the Carbonite lock icon in your system tray.)
If you have any questions, please contact customer support.
Sincerely,
The Carbonite Team
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Sharp XE-A41S XEA41S Programming Software
I needed this programming software and couldn't find it anywhere on Sharp's website. If you need it I uploaded it here This is technically the manual for the XE-A40S but the programming procedures are identical as far as I can tell.
If you need the programming software so you can plug it into a PC I have that here This is the right software for this register, as this is the CD that came with it.
If you need the programming software so you can plug it into a PC I have that here This is the right software for this register, as this is the CD that came with it.
Friday, October 06, 2006
How to convert text to proper case in an excel sheet
I was doing a form letter mailing here at work and when we run queries against our database, the result set is pulled into an Excel spreadsheet in all upper case. So, a customer's address would look like this:
JOHN SMITH
1313 MOCKINGBIRD LN
TRANSYLVANIA, PA 11111
Obviously, in a professional letter to a customer addressing them by their full name in upper case just clashes with a letter that is properly puncuated and capitalized. What I needed to do was convert it to this:
John Smith
1313 Mockingbird Ln
Transylvania, PA 11111
Each field is laid out separately in the Excel sheet, so the data was a bit easier to work with. To put it simply the customer's first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code were all in their own column. I couldn't quite find a simple VBA routine on Google that would do this for me so I wrote my own.
The code below will run against the text that is actively selected in Excel.
'--------------------------Begin Code--------------------------------'
Option Explicit
Private Sub ProperCase()
Dim thisCell As Range
Dim strSoFar As String
Dim strTmp As String
Dim x As Long
Dim tmpArr() As String
For Each thisCell In Selection.Cells
tmpArr = Split(thisCell, " ")
For x = 0 To UBound(tmpArr)
If x = 0 Then
thisCell = UCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 1, 1)) & LCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 2, Len(tmpArr(x))))
Else
thisCell = thisCell & " " & UCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 1, 1)) & LCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 2, Len(tmpArr(x))))
End If
Next x
Next thisCell
End Sub
'--------------------------End Code--------------------------------'
When run the code will take all of the text in each cell and separate it where this a space. It will then capitalize the first letter of each word and lower case the rest of it. Then each word is rejoined with a space. If you have double spaces in your text it will probably add an extra space or two.
So, anything that looks like jOHN sMITH or JOHN SMITH or john smith will end up looking like John Smith after the macro is run.
JOHN SMITH
1313 MOCKINGBIRD LN
TRANSYLVANIA, PA 11111
Obviously, in a professional letter to a customer addressing them by their full name in upper case just clashes with a letter that is properly puncuated and capitalized. What I needed to do was convert it to this:
John Smith
1313 Mockingbird Ln
Transylvania, PA 11111
Each field is laid out separately in the Excel sheet, so the data was a bit easier to work with. To put it simply the customer's first name, last name, address, city, state, and zip code were all in their own column. I couldn't quite find a simple VBA routine on Google that would do this for me so I wrote my own.
The code below will run against the text that is actively selected in Excel.
'--------------------------Begin Code--------------------------------'
Option Explicit
Private Sub ProperCase()
Dim thisCell As Range
Dim strSoFar As String
Dim strTmp As String
Dim x As Long
Dim tmpArr() As String
For Each thisCell In Selection.Cells
tmpArr = Split(thisCell, " ")
For x = 0 To UBound(tmpArr)
If x = 0 Then
thisCell = UCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 1, 1)) & LCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 2, Len(tmpArr(x))))
Else
thisCell = thisCell & " " & UCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 1, 1)) & LCase(Mid(tmpArr(x), 2, Len(tmpArr(x))))
End If
Next x
Next thisCell
End Sub
'--------------------------End Code--------------------------------'
When run the code will take all of the text in each cell and separate it where this a space. It will then capitalize the first letter of each word and lower case the rest of it. Then each word is rejoined with a space. If you have double spaces in your text it will probably add an extra space or two.
So, anything that looks like jOHN sMITH or JOHN SMITH or john smith will end up looking like John Smith after the macro is run.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Is the CIA scanning Craigslist.org?
So, I'm an IS Manager with a rather large corporation and in my spare time to try and earn a couple extra bucks I fix PC's on the side. Most of the time I wind up working for friends and family and don't have the heart to demand money since most of them have very little and I'm not destitute. Anyway on to the meat of the story.
To try and ramp up business I posted an ad on Craigslist.org for PC repair. It's just a basic ad to advertise that I do mobile PC repair and tutoring. To find out how effective my advertising is I inserted a small tracking image into the ad that links back to my own personal webserver. So, by viewing my web logs I can see who looked at the ad, when they looked at, and where they came from. Obviously, the few hits I do get come from Verizon or Comcast users. But one of them looked "different". That IP was 198.81.129.194. I did a reverse DNS lookup and it came out to relay2.cia.gov The CIA? What's going on? I can only speculate. As far as I know I'm not near any of the CIA offices so I can't imagine it would be an employee surfing while at work for someone to fix their PC.
Does the CIA think terrorists and spies are advertising on Craigslist?
To try and ramp up business I posted an ad on Craigslist.org for PC repair. It's just a basic ad to advertise that I do mobile PC repair and tutoring. To find out how effective my advertising is I inserted a small tracking image into the ad that links back to my own personal webserver. So, by viewing my web logs I can see who looked at the ad, when they looked at, and where they came from. Obviously, the few hits I do get come from Verizon or Comcast users. But one of them looked "different". That IP was 198.81.129.194. I did a reverse DNS lookup and it came out to relay2.cia.gov The CIA? What's going on? I can only speculate. As far as I know I'm not near any of the CIA offices so I can't imagine it would be an employee surfing while at work for someone to fix their PC.
Does the CIA think terrorists and spies are advertising on Craigslist?
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