Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-HFS641P-16-Inch-Remote-Control/dp/B0001YM06C/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1241732334&sr=8-4

I had intended to buy a whole bunch of stuff from Amazon.com and having Prime deliver the stuff on the Tuesday that I was taking as an extra vacation day to sleep off Penguicon (though it wasn't necessary to sleep it off, because I had slept better than I can remember during the con).

But, I forgot all about this plan until it was too late to get free 2nd day shipping on my shopping cart. So, I pared it down to just this fan, because I wanted to have something different than the Lasko fan I had mentioned earlier.

Other than that, there isn't really a whole lot that I feel mentioning about this. The tilt adjust of the fan isn't wide enough to direct the air where I want. And, its annoying in that it defaults to off after loss of power. At least turns on at low and steps up, and it uses a 2 prong plug.

Because of the lack of adjust, it wasn't really suited for where I have the fan now....perhaps I will need to stop procrastinating on rearranging the bedroom. Alternatively, it might make a good fan for the living room...though I also need to do some rearranging in there....

Link: http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-3540-Cyclone-20-Inch-Pivoting/dp/B001DNGRYG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1240443537&sr=8-1

On the weekend, I started finding it uncomfortably warm at night....particularly in the area under the headgear of my CPAP mask. I was resorting to turning the thermostat down.

It isn't that warm and humid yet....could get really expensive if I'm going to need to do this all summer. Temporarily I have inverted the sleep time temperature range on my set-back thermostat. Normally, its not as cool when I'm sleeping. Now its cooler than any other time.

While I was laying there waiting for the A/C to have its effect, the air purifier kicked itself to high and it made a slight improvement in comfort. Years ago when I lived in Medicine Hat, and didn't have air conditioning...I had floor fans (TurboAire) that I pointed at the ceiling to circulate air and make things tolerable. I had given them away a few moves ago....

But, I thought that maybe I should get something like it ASAP. I had been looking previously, but it wasn't a rush then...so I had put it off, because I wanted to find the same brand as I used to have....but it wasn't coming up in my internet searches (partly because I couldn't remember the brand name).....and because I was looking for a fan, rather than an 'air circulator'

However, now that I was in a hurry to get one....I looked to Amazon Prime to have it come my way on a particular day when I was going to be home for other reasons.

It was hard trying to find out if the fan would tilt to the full blow into ceiling orientation (a video review of the Lasko 3540 didn't show it tilting more than a few clicks up) But, after narrowing down the choices that were sold by Amazon.com and in stock, so that I would get it today. I settled on this one.

Part of the reason was the remote control and another part was that it seemed to have only a two-prong plug. And, I crossed my fingers that it would go to the straight up orientation.

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On cpaptalk.com, it was mentioned using an ultrasonic cleaner to clean masks. So, that got me looking around for an ultrasonic cleaner.

Since the OP got his off of Australian eBay, I decided to get one from a US eBay seller.

It arrived today. I got a bigger unit than the OP, but it isn't too big. In fact when I picked up the package from the UPS store, it was smaller than I expected.

Though for the mask I have now, it'll probably be way too big. Though I have other masks around, and they might need the extra room.

I did a quick test of the machine and then put my glasses in for a short cycle. It sure was interesting watching what seemed like smoke streaming from the rims, hinge and nose pieces. I probably needed to have it in there longer to really get all the gunk out. But, I think my glasses are the cleanest they've ever been....

It'll be Sunday before I get around to run mask parts through it. Want to allow sufficient time for the parts to air dry afterwards....and Saturday I'm helping with communications for the Cabin Fever bike run. Plus I need to brew up some more distilled water....

Yesterday morning, I heard a strange click behind me. Scanning the room behind me, I eventually saw that there was a flashing red light on my Surround Air XJ-3800. Closer inspection showed it was for "Clean Metal Grid", not sure what I would do if it had been for "Replace Filter" (since its too soon, and I wasn't planning to buy one until close to its first anniversary).

Not realizing that the Surround Air was going to need special maintenance, more complicated than my other (2) EnviroSense Air Purifiers. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do for this 'message'.

Locating the manual, I found there was quite a procedure to extracting the metal grid and cleaning it and the wires. And, then putting it back and doing a reset.

Had I known, I probably wouldn't have gotten this unit and stuck to either getting another EnviroSense or like device. Also the lack of a remote on this unit is something I miss, especially for its location in my living room.

If only the Multi-Tech S5000 Air Purifier were available then....perhaps this Surround Air model would've been more desirable. Though its not available through Amazon Prime....OTOH, the Multi-Tech A4000 Air Purifier is. And, it is cheaper than the XJ-3800...and seems to be more along in the like EnviroSense classification.

But, no plans to add additional Air Purifiers to my condo....any time soon. Plus I'd still be stuck with this one somewhere....

Yeah....I finally have a UPS for what I ordered last Wednesday. I was kind of surprised when I checked the order status at Staples.com, and found that they had sent the reordered UPS also by UPS. Guess they were trusting that the lost one was a fluke, and wasn't going to happen again.

Fortunately, it arrived.

Also among the UPS deliveries today, was my Amazon Kindle 2.

I haven't opened the box for the UPS yet, but I did open the Kindle package. Kind of neat that the quick setup 'sheet' isn't on the plastic that protects the screen but saved into the screen itself.

However, the USB power cord was kind of annoying. First its yet another unique USB plug that I have to deal with, guess I'll put another one in my Amazon.com shopping cart for future purchase. Second the orientation was backwards from what I expected. There's an AmazonKindle logo on what appeared to be the top, and the curved corners were opposite this side...so it seemed that this was the top for plugging it in. But, it wasn't.

I thumbed part way through the user's guide, and then added some stickers to it (a StuffBak label) and put it into its cover and then left it to continue charging.

This is an update to "UPS Hell", where it now involves both kinds of UPS.

I mentioned that I first looked at free shipping by Amazon.com to get me the UPS, they were estimating that I would get it on Wednesday (Feb 25)....and that seemed too far away to get a UPS sent to me. So, I turned to Staples.com. And, they had some UPSs that could be shipping in (as few as) 1 Business Day. The first one I picked projected an estimated delivery of Feb 23, so I went with my second choice which had a delivery date of Friday (Feb 20).

Well, eventually order status reported that the order would be coming by UPS with an expected delivery date of Friday (Feb 20). I waited for UPS to show up, and he did...but no UPS among his deliveries that day. But, the tracking showed it was out for delivery on the 20th.

I then waited this morning (Monday - Feb 23) for UPS to show up, and he did....but still no UPS among his deliveries. UPS tracking still shows the "Out For Delivery" status at 7:26am of Feb 20th. I called UPS and Staples trying to find out where my UPS was. Finally sent of an email to Staples. Eventually that resulted in a message being left for me saying that if I didn't get it by 5pm, to give them another call.

I came home, and no sign of attempted delivery and no update in UPS tracking, etc. So, I called Staples. They said there was a note on my order that if I hadn't received order by 3pm that they would resend the order.

Eventually, I decided to have them go ahead and do this. Now my new estimated delivery of the UPS is between 9 and 10am on Wednesday (Feb 25).

Hmmm, so much for being in a hurry for the new UPS, I guess.

Though this just annoys me that much more...since Amazon.com would've been for an APC BR1500LCD, while I ordered a CyberPower CP1285AVRLCD from Staples.com based on the expectation that I would have it before last weekend. My first choice from Staples.com for an APC BX1300LCD.

The refurbished Oreck XL Professional Air Purifier that I purchased from Oreck, had been getting noisier and noisier. It is down to the 'silence' setting, and making way too much noise.

OTOH, the same model Oreck that I purchased on Woot.com, has been working fine. But, with the Surround Air unit in the laundry being bigger than I had thought it would be, and that it has the advantage of remembering its state when it looses power...I felt that it might be better suited in another location. Especially since I had purchased the APC BE550R for the laundry area, and to keep the Air Purifier in the on state was a consideration.

So, what I did was retire the noisy Oreck XL Professional Air Purifier in my 'computer' room. And, replace it with the quiet Oreck XL Professional Air Purifier that was in my living room.

I then moved the Surround Air purifier from the laundry area to the living room.

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Today, I came home and found my Staples delivery waiting by my front door. It was the APC Back-UPS ES Series 550VA UPS (BE550R), along with 3 cases of water (which I had added to pad the order to be over $50).

But, when I came in...things were strangely quiet, or rather I was hearing sounds that I wasn't accustom to hearing. My main computer wasn't on....its UPS, a Belkin F6C1500-TW-RK, was off with a red light. Strange.... I wouldn't expect this UPS to be down. Sure its out of warranty now, but I had replaced its battery back in August.

I restarted the UPS and waited for everything to be working again, etc. And, then I triggered a 10-second self-test. Wham....it went down instantly. Guess the UPS is bad and needs to be replaced.

Of course, now the President's Day sale is over....and that 1500VA UPS that I was on the fence on getting....that was $30 off and free shipping. Wasn't on sale now. So, I went looking around on line to see what UPS I could get quickly, of sufficient VA's. The load meter on the Belkin is around 33%, so the replacement I got didn't have to be the full 1500VAs. Though it was still preferable.

At first I looked at Amazon.com, but Amazon Prime was only going to get me free ground shipping on the UPS. And, they put ETA at Feb 25th. I didn't really want to wait that long....so it occurred to me that I should check Staples again.

Amazon.com had a 1500VA UPS for under $200, while with Staples I would be looking at 1285/1300 VA UPS for under $200. And, while the Amazon.com one would be APC, and the Staples would be CyberPower. I opted to get a 1285VA Cyberpower from Staples, since they said I could get it on February 20th.

And, just as I was about to finalize the order, I remembered that I had a $10 off >$100 coupon that I looked at using on Monday...but didn't think of what I had that much to use it on....but now I did. So, now I'm waiting for a Cyberpower 1285VA UPS to appear.

Haven't decided when I'll put the 550VA UPS into service. The thing I want to put on it, isn't in place yet and I don't feel like dealing with that right now.

I guess I forgot that a big sales event was coming up....but, I happened to look at Sears and that air purifier that I wanted was on sale. The idea for another air purifier shuffle is forming.

But, then I was thinking of a UPS to filter out the small power glitches....and once again, sales this weekend. I first went to best buy, to find a cheap UPS...and saw that the 1500VA Geek Squad UPS was on sale. So, I started trying to map where that UPS would go, and it it free up a small UPS. Then somebody mentioned that Staples featured a small UPS for cheaper and better than the the one I was looking at from Best Buy.

So, after some though, I decided to go with that UPS (APC 550VA BE550R)...$20 off for $40 before $10 rebate. Decided to pad the order with 3 cases of bottled water to get free shipping.

The Sears EnviroSense Air Purifier has the problem in that it defaults to off after the slightest power interruption. While the Surround Air that I recently got, seems to have no such hangups.

So a small UPS to keep the EnviroSense Air Purifier happy seemed the fix to that. Though not sure I want the noise of UPS in the bedroom. Of course, the laundry right by the bedroom door...so it isn't really a big fix. Nobody said I had thought this through extensively. But, I do plan to get a big UPS eventually, and it'll be a refurbed SmartUPS to back up the other half of HT setup. But, I guess that will have to wait to later in the year.

Though I suppose what I could do for it being a small cheap UPS...is remove the noise maker.

Hmmm....we'll see...

Link: http://www.surroundair.com/intellipro.htm

Back on July 1st, I wrote about a new air purifier I had acquired -- LINK.

That new air purifier has been great, and I've been wanting to get 2 or 3 more similar units to scatter around my condo. Namely in that it has been very effective at dealing with odors, and its odor sensor to make it come up when needed.

Yes, it is interesting how during the night, the air purifier will rev up now and then. Especially lately, where Aerophagia is a known side-effect of CPAP therapy. Though disturbing is that when I take a shower (and the bathroom exhaust fan is going, its on the same switch as the bathroom light....though I'm thinking that someday I'll see about separating the two)....I will come out and find it rev'd up.

Anyways...I original got it to help combat the odors that come up in my condo from my neighbors. Before it was like food odors, and the neighbor seemed a good cook....though sometimes the smell was something being burnt. But, the new neighbors seem to like excessive strong scents on stuff, and other neighbors like using gallons of lighter fluid when the grill.

One of the problem areas is near where there's a hole in my floor into the unit below....by the dryer. So, I've been thinking of getting another unit to put here.

After months of wanting to get one, I finally decided I couldn't put it off any longer and pulled the trigger on one. But, size is a factor for this location (and so was price) So, I went looking for possibly a smaller unit for this location. There was a smaller version of the same or similar air purifier, but it was almost as expensive as the size I had gotten....especially since the larger size is often on sale (as it was at this particular moment). The smaller one was on sale around black friday, but Sears didn't actually have any in stock (for online purchase)...and when Sears sent me the email that it was back in stock...the sale was over.

So, I expanded my search to include other models with similar features available through Amazon Prime. And, this was one of the units that seemed to fit the bill. Though it turned out to be much bigger than I expected. But, I set it up there and it seems to do the job.

Though so far no strong odors for it to deal with. Though it did react when I was making shake and bake.

It was interesting to note that it didn't react when I was taking my shower this morning, though the bedroom air purifier still did.

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