Bosch vs KitchenAid

This is perhaps the most competitive segment outside laundry with two very good, marquee brands.

Bosch....starting at $499 after rebates. USP (unique selling proposition): Quiet, water and energy efficient.

KitchenAid: Fairly quiet, eviscerator (fancy term for grinder) and heated dry.

I like Bosch's efficiency and KitchenAid's grinder (although Bosch's mesh filter is more than adequate). Heated dry uses way too much energy and is only 1.4% more efficient.

Have Some Control

Ah..JennAir. JennAir carved its niche with downdrafts in the 70s and 80s. In the 90s, it was french door shallow depth refrigeration and then...nothing (except rebates on older designs).

The parent company, Whirlpool, actually retooled and spent some dough. The centerpiece of the new line is this wall oven...



Frankly, I am impressed.

Best controls on the market...BTW, sorry Mom.

Filter It

Why are you still drinking bottled water? If you are drinking one per day, your habit will cost $474 per year. This does not include the effect packaging does to the environment. Why not filter your own? Most bottled water companies are actually just filtering municipal water, which is the same idea.

The difference is the same money will allow you to filter 4,000 Gallons of water rather than 45.63. That's a 1,000 time premium for bottled water.

Here are two to consider:

Everpure PBS400 (I have this one): Filters 4,000 gallons right through the main faucet. Simple, easy filtering for drinking water.

Parallel 202 Whole house Filter: Try buying a water filter for your home. It's worse than insurance. Everpure has a number of cartridge options and filter replacement is easy.

Fluorescent vs Incandescent

Look at this curious installation in my closet...

You never see both lamp types in a closet. If you everinstall this for a client request, place them at least on separate switches

But it begs the question: Which is better in a closet? Closets are different from kitchens and baths as I will explain in a moment. Let's review the lamps.

Incandescent: 7 month lamp life is short lived, 300 degree heat is derived from only 10% efficiency. However, its color rendition or Kelvins is superb at 2500 degrees, which casts a soft yellow glow.

Fluorescent: 7 year lamp life and 70% efficiency ranks second to LED in terms of bulb characteristics. However, 5000 degree Kelvins casts a harsh, unflattering light in kitchens and bath (unless you buy it color rendering, which this bulb isn't).

Fluorescent is a better light for a closet. 5000 degree Kelvin is unflattering, but it is better for distinguishing blues and blacks or the opposite of the color spectrum from wood tones...