Why your dishes are dirty
Same reason your home lighting now sucks, your showers don’t feel as clean, and you have to flush your toilet twice. And the Paper of Making Up The Record apparently employs retards:
Yet now, with the content reduced, many consumers are finding the new formulas as appealing as low-flow showers, underscoring the tradeoffs that people often face today in a more environmentally conscious marketplace.
Federal mandates = environmentally conscious marketplace? Idiots.
September 28th, 2010 at 8:52 am
Its pretty easy to remove the low flow washer from your shower head.
September 28th, 2010 at 9:37 am
Low Flow Shower Head = 10 minute shower instead of 5 minute shower. Total water “saved” = 0. Change in price to me = 0.
September 28th, 2010 at 9:54 am
I find that the Arm&Hammer brand of laundry detergents seem to be as efficient as ever. And Dawn dishwashing detergent is still the choice of the boat washers.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:09 am
One of the first things I did after moving into my house was to remove the flow restrictors from all the faucets and the shower-head. I’m using about the same amount of water, because everything takes less time.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Preban toilet.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:10 am
Lake Erie died because of phosphates when I was a kid, and it took thirty years to bring it back. EPA regs should be made intelligently but they are not all automatically bad.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:13 am
I have a few boxes of pre-ban light bulbs.
September 28th, 2010 at 10:42 am
It is indeed easy to drill out shower heads. It’s like they were designed that way. The other trend seems to be multiple heads. As long as each head in the shower is low-flow, the building inspectors are happy with that.
Oddly enough, the re-sale value of used “pre-ban” toilets is virtually nothing. That means they can be curb-shopped for free + one bottle of beach.
I’m a bit ticked about the pre-ban light bulbs. A compact florescent is just as susceptible to damage as an incandescent bulb, and there are many places like the attic where the savings in power will never pay back the higher price of the bulbs. Plus, lightbulbs are a cheap and easy to get heater and non-linear current regulating resister. I have a simple trickle charger made out of a lightbulb.
As for the dishwasher, has anyone ever tried adding a heaping tablespoon of Trisodium phosphate? It’s easy to get around here as a prep before painting. Home Despot around here has it in the paint department, though it’s probably on the list to be banned next.
September 28th, 2010 at 12:03 pm
Why can’t we scare up the environmentalists to get angry about the mercury in the new bulbs? I mean, surely a consistent environmentalist would be just as upset about all this mercury as they would about lead bullets, yes?
September 28th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
I have preban toilets, and I’ll take them with me if I ever move. In fact, I had to replace one bowl, and I kept the old tank.
No, they’re not automatically bad, but so many of them are so profoundly stupid they give the rest a bad name.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
As for the dishwasher, has anyone ever tried adding a heaping tablespoon of Trisodium phosphate? It’s easy to get around here as a prep before painting. Home Despot around here has it in the paint department, though it’s probably on the list to be banned next.
Last time I went to Home Depot to get some TSP, I was told they could not sell it any more. In WA and I have not tried again but Home Depot does list it on their web site as “available at the local store”. I’ll have to check again.
September 28th, 2010 at 1:38 pm
Check out the smaller hardware stores for TSP, its where I located mine.
September 28th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
Wolfwood:
Too soon to worry about the mercury in the new bulbs. You must wait until all the old bulbs are gone from the marketplace. Then all the people who demanded we use the new bulbs will discover that it contains mercury and all the bulbs are just being thrown in the trash. Then you can raise the price of the new bulbs to pay for the government mandated recycling program.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:26 pm
Gunstar1,
Why stop there? The “epidemic” of mercury in trashcans and landfills will justify the federal government monitoring and regulating household rubbish via an intrusive and fine-heavy scheme.
Just wait.
September 28th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Standard Mischief,
Your battery charger is insane, insane, insane. Have you priced the cheapest chargers at your local auto parts or hardware? Why on earth would you want to electrocute somebody just to save $10 or $15?
September 28th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I have a standard automated “smart” booster/charger, I built this because:
1. I needed to trickle charge a 6 volt lead acid battery.
2. I wanted to trickle charge three auto-type batteries wired in series (I actually weld with three lead acid batteries at 36 volts and some 6013 rod)
I like it because it’s the minimal battery charger possible. You can make it with nothing more than a diode and a few bucks worth of stuff available at every wal-mart and bigbox hardware nationwide. It’s absolutely safe with an expert in charge. Keep it away from idiots.
I also made a few changes from the linked article. I use a plastic box to house the wiring and drill a 1″ hole to fit a standard knockout clamp thingy. I use a drywall screw or two to hold the box to a scrap piece of wood. I spend the extra 30 cents to get the type of light socket that has a pull switch (which I can pull or unplug before fooling with the wires). I buy a 6 foot, two wire polarized extension cord and cut it up for the wiring. I run the hot end to the center of the lightbulb socket, according to code.
If you didn’t understand all that, don’t make this device.
Here’s the URL again, as I screwed up the link:
http://www.alpharubicon.com/elect/3dollarbattggn.htm
September 28th, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Yes, I understand all that, still insane.
September 28th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
I had to install a new shower head this summer, because the old one (made of chrome coloured plastic?) broke.
I recall telling my wife that I fully expected to have to remove the new one again to deal with the flow restrictor, but I wanted to try it out to verify that before performing surgery.
Much to my surprise, the flow is fine. I have to trouble wetting and rinsing in a quick efficient manner.
It’s a funny thing about markets. yes, this is a disruption. But given the new regime someone will come up with a way to make something that works now that the incentive to do so is (artificially) there.
It’s only a matter of time before incandescent lamps that meet the 45 lumens-per-watt standard will be on the market, and if they don’t it will only be because “60- and 100-watt equivalent” lamps with a mix of white and yellow LEDs have become cheap enough to produce that no-one cares anymore.