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Bought one of these for a trip last year and the seal held fine through about a dozen snorkel sessions, so the case does work if it’s closed right. What got me was the latch on the side. I snapped it shut, felt the click, and figured that was that. Then on maybe the fourth day I noticed one corner of the gasket had a tiny bit of sand stuck under it from the beach. Not enough to flood anything, but enough that I started checking the rubber ring after every single use. Wiped it down, ran a finger along the groove, closed it, done. That routine took ten seconds and saved me a lot of second guessing in the water. The one thing I’d say is the case itself is the weak point on a camera at this price, not the camera. Mine came out dry every time, but I did drop it once on the sand and the hinge felt a little looser after that. It still sealed, but I could tell it wasn’t brand new anymore. For the ocean I’d just give the gasket a quick look before you clip it shut and call it good.
I went the other way and picked a feeder that works fine without any app at all. The app stuff sounds nice until it isn’t there, and I’d rather not have my cat’s dinner depending on someone else’s server staying up. A basic timer does the job for me.
Mine started feeling like a nag after maybe six weeks, and I realized the anxiety came from the timing, not the number of pings. Getting a nudge mid-morning when I was already busy just made me feel behind. Does yours tend to land at a bad time of day?
I’ve seen the dot drift off on the map in a couple of longer tunnels, but it usually snaps back once I’m out. Mine also seems worse if I’m using an older phone, which makes me wonder if a newer one would hold on a bit better.
Putting it next to the light switch is actually one of the better spots if the hallway is where people already walk through. We did something similar at our old place, not a wall mount, just a cheap tablet sitting on a narrow shelf right above the switch plate. It was tight, but it worked because everyone passed it constantly. The bigger issue for us wasn’t space, it was that nobody wanted to stop and poke at a screen while walking by. So we made it show only the next day or two, nothing more. Once it was that simple, even my dad started glancing at it.
The one thing I’d watch is glare and height. Ours was a bit low, so people looked down at it and kind of ignored it. When we moved it up a few inches it got way more use. Also, if the hallway is dark, a bright screen can be annoying at night. Not a dealbreaker, just something to notice.
I don’t think a tiny screen is a problem by itself. The problem is when it tries to do too much. If it just shows the basics, a small wall tablet in a cramped spot can honestly beat a bigger one in a room nobody sits in.
It won’t feel like passing a device back and forth, that part is real. But you still end up doing a bit of the awkward pause while the translation catches up. Basic stuff like food or directions is probably fine.
Two weeks is the number I’d go with. Anything under that and you’re mostly just feeling the newness of the shape, not whether it actually helps.
Not buying the “no interference at all” line. Mine is on a mesh node and I did get a brief dropout once, though it came back on its own. Could’ve been unrelated, but I’m not convinced it’s 100% invisible to Wi-Fi.
I only used mine on a shower door and some tile, and the steam was hot enough that I didn’t want my hand in it. Whether that actually kills germs I couldn’t say. I still spray stuff after if it matters.
Rooms with more open space seem to work better in my experience. I had mine tucked behind a couch for a while and it did basically nothing, then moved it to an open hallway and noticed way less activity within a week. Kitchen might be worth a shot if that’s where you’re seeing them.
I’d skip the cereal containers. A big bag usually lasts my cat a couple months and the food near the bottom gets noticeably less appealing to her by then. Smaller bags more often beats one giant bag for freshness, even if the price per pound is worse.
I wouldn’t assume the kill switch means it handles every tip over. On a lot of these little heaters the tip function only works at a certain angle, so a slow slide onto a rug might not trip it the same way a full knockover would. That seems to be what some people in here ran into. Mine hasn’t given me a reason to doubt it yet, but I also haven’t watched it go down in slow motion. If it’s a dealbreaker for you, that’s fair. I just wouldn’t buy one expecting it to be foolproof. Cheap safety switches are cheap for a reason.
I get why you would ask since most of the talk around these boards is about meat. But the smell thing is not really just a meat problem. Onion and garlic residue on a wood board is a real thing, and I have had a board that smelled like old alliums even after washing it. So the easy rinse and no lingering smell part does apply to veg prep too, that is not only a raw chicken concern.
That said, I am not sure the antibacterial angle matters much for what you are doing. Vegetables get cooked or eaten fresh, and you are not dealing with the same cross contamination worry as raw meat. So if that is the main selling point for you, it is kind of wasted.
The part that would actually matter for your use is whether you care about the board looking clean and not staining. Carrot and beet juice can leave marks on lighter boards. A non porous surface handles that better. But if you already have a board you like and it is only veg, the upgrade is more of a convenience thing than a need. I am on the fence about whether it is worth it just for chopping onions.
I actually disagree that the app requirement is the issue here. I’ve used a couple of these translation gadgets and the app on both phones thing gets way overblown. What actually matters is the mode you’re in.
I borrowed a pair from a coworker for a trip to Japan last year. She had the app, I didn’t. We tested it out and honestly the two-way mode worked fine with just her phone handling everything. I’d talk, she’d hold her phone up, it translated. She’d talk back, same thing. It was basically her phone doing all the work and the earbuds just being speakers and mics.
The thing nobody mentions is how awkward it feels making someone wait while you fiddle with a phone between every sentence. That’s the real hassle, not whether they have an app installed. In an actual conversation with a stranger at a market or something, pulling out a phone kills the flow way more than asking them to download something would. I ended up just using the earbuds for music most of the trip and pointing at things.
So no, I don’t think the other person needs the app based on what I saw. But I’d argue the bigger question isn’t app setup at all, it’s whether you’re okay with the phone being part of every exchange. If you want something where you both just talk naturally with no device in between, this category of gadget might not be it. For quick stuff it’s fine. For actual back and forth chatting, the phone thing got old fast for me.
I’ve only had mine a few weeks but yeah, you do need to adjust. Wood I just go at it, but on glass I slow way down and barely touch it. Metal is the one that surprised me, takes a lot more patience than I expected.
For basic travel phrases it does the job, but don’t expect it to handle a real conversation offline. I mostly use it for quick stuff and it’s been fine. Online is where it actually shines.
Carpet is a no-go for me. I had a similar scale on a rug and the weight alone was off by a few pounds every time. Hard floor or nothing.
I’ve been running mine plugged in every night since around November and it’s been fine. I know that’s not the answer everyone wants, but it’s what I actually do. It sits on the nightstand, I turn it on before bed, and it shuts off on its own once the room warms up. In the morning I just leave it alone. The plug stays in the whole time.
What changed my mind was actually a dumb accident. I knocked it off the nightstand one night reaching for my phone. It cut off immediately when it tipped. That was the thing I was most worried about, more than the overnight part. After that I stopped treating it like it was going to burn the house down.
The one thing I do pay attention to is the outlet itself. I had it in a loose old outlet in my last apartment and it felt warm around the plug, so I moved it to a different wall. That was probably the outlet more than the heater, but it stuck with me.
So for me, plugged in overnight is normal now. Not saying everyone has to do it, but it’s what I do and I haven’t had a reason to change it.
Socks on is fine, it still works. I’ve used mine with thick socks plenty of times and never noticed a difference. The cord is the only thing that actually annoys me, it always ends up under my chair wheel.
The learning curve is the part I’d think about most. It’s not hard to get a line, but getting a *good* line takes a bit. I messed around with wood scraps for an evening before anything looked intentional. My preference is to practice on scrap leather first because it’s more forgiving and the tip glides easier than on harder stuff. Wood takes more patience since you have to go slower and the pen wants to wander if you rush. If you’re doing small projects like keychains or tags, you’ll probably get the hang of it faster than you expect. Just don’t judge it by your first few minutes. That said, I still think it’s more of a light hobby tool than something for serious detail work, so keep your expectations realistic there.
Putting it on a shelf worked for me but the picture was way less consistent than near glass. I’d rather deal with a cord running to the kitchen than have channels cutting out mid show.
Position really doesn’t matter. Mine is in a spot where it’s jammed at an angle behind the kick panel and I’ve never had an issue with it learning or staying put. It just reads the data it needs through the port, so orientation is irrelevant.
The battery backup isn’t just for the alarm noise, it keeps the sensors running. I had mine through a couple of outages and the unit kept monitoring the whole time. The screen does cut off pretty much right away, so you won’t be seeing any numbers, but that’s fine with me.
The way I see it, if the power’s out, I’m not sitting there staring at a CO reading anyway. What matters is whether the thing will still scream at me if there’s a problem while the electricity is down. Mine did what it was supposed to do. I think it lasted through a solid six or seven hour outage without any issue and never gave me a low battery warning afterward.
I wouldn’t expect it to run for days on end, but for the usual blackout where you’re just waiting for the power to come back, it does the job.
The beeps are just the end of cycle signal. Mine does the same thing every time it finishes and it’s been working fine for months now. I’d be more annoyed if it was silent and I had to keep checking on it.
