u/doejohnblowjoe

I was with Cox, now Spectrum & I have a Docsis 3.1 modem and I've been getting 1 gig speeds just fine with it but I was told Spectrum is upgrading equipment and so my modem may not work anymore? I was asking the tech about it and said he wasn't sure if there was a delay in this being rolled out for Cox customers since we didn't have much warning. Then today I get an email saying.

"Update your internet equipment. Unlock your speed.

Your internet equipment is outdated, which could be keeping you from getting your fastest speeds. But you have options.‌

You can either buy your own compatible equipment or rent our whole-home Panoramic Wifi Gateway."

So I looked up the information about the upgrade and says older Docsis 3.0 modems are being discontinued, not 3.1. I'm confused. Why would I be told to upgrade if my equipment will work? Or am I misunderstanding the upgrade?

I have Motorola MB8600 if it matters.

I have a Razr 2025, not the plus, or ultra, just the regular (Also called the 60 or XT2553). Well right as my 1 year warranty ran out I started having bad battery drain, I thought it was just some update/app using too much battery but accubattery says my battery health is 70% and it was 72% 2 days ago. It seems like it's getting worse by the day and drains really fast just calling/texting. I wanted to replace the battery but it looks like they are hard to come by. I can't find any online in the US and even the local repair shops I contacted have to place orders for them and I was told one of the batteries (this phone has two) is out of stock from all the repair shop's suppliers. They said try back in a few weeks. What's a guy gotta do to get a new battery? Why is there such a shortage? I would think there should be some non-oem at the very least but I'm not seeing them either.

I've installed 3 mini splits. I have a rental that needs a 2 ton package unit and I was considering replacing with 3 mini splits but location would be a challenge and I'm thinking I'd probably just like to keep the existing ductwork and I'm considering just swapping the unit myself. Local AC companies want almost 11,000 when I know I can buy units online for under 3,000. It seems like getting it in place with the right stand and sheet metal would be the hardest parts. Suggestions or advice is appreciated.

I was able to access the site with a VPN until today.

I was responding to this post here. https://www.reddit.com/r/DIYHeatPumps/comments/1uqjbq4/looking_to_buy_this_for_a_ridiculously_low_price/ and I found this Amazon listing for the same unit it seems. https://www.amazon.com/Upstreman-Required-Pre-Charged-Ductless-IY12-230/dp/B0H5BZCT1Q and the unit itself looked a little sketchy with the plastic fan but take a look at how they attach the lineset in the video at the bottom of the page. It looks like someone came up with an alternative to Mr. Cool where the linesets are under vacuum and already attached to the head unit and you release the vacuum when you release the refrigerant. Pretty clever and would require no vacuum and no precharged lines and it's dirt cheap, unlike Mr. Cool. The more expensive units from the same brand don't seem like they have the same connection.

*Edit. I'm not entirely sure if the lineset is vacuum or precharged but it said vacuum in the video. The listing says precharged but I'm guessing that just refers to the refrigerant in the external unit. Either way it's clever and cheap.

I know that after a vacuum, you should release the refrigerant before reinstalling the valve core as to not bring air back into the line. I've recently also heard that valve core removal tools aren't rated for super high pressures. The last installs I did, I was surprised by how much pressure was in the system and how difficult it was to press the stem back in. The youtube videos make it look like a breeze but it wasn't nearly that easy for me. In fact, a small amount of refrigerant escaped from the stem because the seal didn't hold up to that much pressure as I pushed it back in. I recently heard it might be wise to release only enough refrigerant to get a positive pressure, then install the core, then release the rest. Does anybody who works with these regularly have any advice on this?

I have 3 brands of mini split, A Senville, a Garvee, and a Yitahome. The Garvee and Yitahome are aux rebrands and louder than the Senville. I have them in bedrooms and until I discovered silent mode they were louder than I preferred when trying to sleep. One is right above my head and so I hear it more than one across the room. My Senville, which doesn't have a "silent mode" is the mini split I bought first and it seems even quieter on low than the other two. I heard Costway might be quieter but since it looks like an aux brand I'm skeptical. I looked it up and the Yitahome says 50db & the Garvee says 41db but I don't know what mode these refer to. The Senville says 27db on low, 41.5 on medium, 45 on high, and 54 on Turbo. I didn't pay much attention to the noise rating when I bought them but I will be looking for a quieter unit upon replacement for the bedroom units. Anybody have any experience with other brands? I notice they don't seem to give db ratings for each mode like the more expensive units do so I'm not sure what mode the db rating being advertised is for. Is it for low, it it for silent? Or is it whatever they want to put down? What brands do you recommend for quiet operation that also are affordable or is there always going to be a tradeoff for that?

*edit* After further inspection, the Yitahome is barely quieter on silent/mute mode than my Senville is on low. Senville doesn't have a silent mode though. Turns out my Garvee is very quiet on silent/mute mode but it's a 9k unit so I wonder if it's quieter because of it's size compared to the 24k Senville and 18k Yitahome.

I realized I was eating too many calories on a keto diet & too much saturated fat so I decided I needed to try something different. I've switched to eating a lot of soups, & leaner cuts of meat. I've calculated that I'm eating about 900 to 1000 calories per day with some days being higher when I go out, visit friends, or eat an additional meal. My regular days I'm eating about 100 to 110 grams of protein and overall I feel pretty good. I'm in my mid 40s and sedentary for the most part with minimal exercise each day (just to get the blood flowing). I don't feel bad and I take an electrolyte drink on occasion because I think I'm still pretty low on carbs and I know that is typically needed with ketosis. I've been dropping weight but I was worried I was getting too little protein initially. After calculating it out, I think I'm in an okay range with that but now I'm wondering I'm eating too little calories with AI telling me I should be eating 1500 calories per day. I don't feel bad or anything and I'm not sure I want to eat more just to eat more but if it's stalling my metabolism or something, perhaps I should. Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

I had an outage that started about 30 minutes ago. I knew it was an outage but when I went to the website from my phone it said everything was fine. I went through the troubleshooting steps, even though I knew it wasn't going to work, and then I got on a live chat and talked to a tech who told me there was no outage. While he was trying to reset my modem (which he couldn't because of the outage) he tried to upsell me on a different internet service for double the price of my current service and acted like it was a special deal. After telling him no he wanted me to schedule a tech to come out. I didn't because I knew it was an outage and said I'd call in the morning if my internet was still down. After I exited the chat, I saw the outage had updated on the website and wanted to ask why I was going through all these steps with this guy for 15 minutes and was being told there wasn't an outage when there obviously was one. But during an outage you can't get through to tech support, you are completely blocked from live chat and from getting through on the phone. If I had scheduled a tech to come out I wouldn't have been able to cancel it. God forbid you ever need to call during an outage for any other tech support reason because you'll have to wait for the outage to be resolved however many hours later and then you can call for the actual issue you have.

TLDR: I knew there was an outage, Cox lied to me about the outage, then tried to upsell me on a service for double the price, tried to get me to schedule an unnecessary tech visit, then blocked me from reaching tech support (through chat & phone) during the outage.

I wanted to replace my old hardwired alarm and make it smart. It looks like I can use this board and I've been watching some youtube videos on it. I see there is a v3 version of the board which is supposed to be better but the original looks like it would do all that I need (door window sensors, motion detectors, sirens, along with keypads/remotes) but I'm wondering about reliability. Is there any reason I should get the more expensive v3 version?

So I called Rheem because my water heater failed early. It was a total replacement. Rheem told me I should be able to get the full price I paid but if the new water heater was more, I'd have to pay the difference. They emailed me this:

>Thank you for contacting Rheem. According to the information provided to us, your water heater is recommended for replacement. Please have your unit drained, disconnected, and returned to the point of purchase, for a like-model replacement. We also recommend you review their return policies and bring your receipt. 

>Should there be a price difference between the failed and replacement unit, you will be responsible for paying the difference; however, you will receive a new warranty. 

>If you have any questions, please reply to this email for assistance.

>Thank You,
Rheem Customer Support

So I took the water heater back to Home Depot & they told me that they would only give me a prorated credit for the water heater ($350) instead of the original purchase price ($419). That didn't sound right to me so I held off on doing that and called Rheem again. They transferred me to the Home Depot Customer Service Team and they told me that if Home Depot doesn't give me the original purchase price they would reimburse the rest but I'd have to send them quite a few documents. This seems shady because why would they wait for me to call back and make it seem like they are doing me a favor instead of it being the terms of warranty?

>We apologize for the inconvenience you experienced because your unit had to be replaced in-warranty. We would like to maintain your brand loyalty and goodwill; therefore, we would like to offer you a reimbursement based on the difference between the original sales price and the Prorated credit that Home Depot offered.

>To obtain a credit for the prorated difference, you must return the following information to us and ensure that the name and address above are correct so that we can issue a reimbursement check. If any of this information is missing, we will need to hold the reimbursement until received. Please note that this reimbursement will not include the difference in price between the failed unit and new purchase.

>A copy of your receipt for the failed unit so we can verify ownership and amount.
A copy of the receipt from the purchase of the replacement unit showing the cost of the new unit and the reimbursement of the failed unit (there may be two receipts for this transaction).
A copy of the store credit receipt with description of product and credit amount.
A picture of the rating plate, verifying the new serial number.

>Retain a copy of all the above information for your records.

>Email this information to WHDWarrantypriority@rheem.com or physical mail to:

>Rheem Manufacturing Co.
800 Interstate Park Drive
Montgomery, AL 36109

>ATTN: WHD Warranty

>Upon receipt of this information, please allow 6-12 weeks for us to process your claim. If you have any questions. please e-mail WHDWarrantypriority@rheem.com.

So basically if you are on here searching on how to get your full original cost back, Home Depot will give you store credit (it doesn't sound like they'll do a straight exchange even with the same model, which mine is) and then you have to contact Rheem, talk to the Home Depot Customer Service team and request the difference. Additionally, I read in this post here, that you can also request the difference in cost between the new water heater & your original if you want to keep the original warranty term (instead of the new warranty) but nothing in either of my emails said anything about that so I don't know if that's still valid or not. That post has more info about installation. I do my own installs so I can't speak to that at all.