3rd Times the Charm

We have a robo vacuum.  Actually we have 2, one the main floor and an older model in the basement.  The basement one was the first one I bought about 5 yrs ago.  It was a Black Friday special, pre-COVID.  I thought I'd try it out.  I called my cousin first if she had one.  And she said she's had 5.  She loves them!

It was good, picks up a lot of dust and crumbs.  Our house is all hardwood.  But these things were designed to go over multi-surface areas.  Carpet, tile, hardwood, rugs, cables, socks.  You name it.  It'll go over it.  And likely it'll get caught in the sweeper or the brushes.  What's really cool is that it goes under our stove and cleans up there too.  It works well, it picks up a lot of dust bunnies.  When I empty this the hopper of this unit after about 2 weeks, it's filled. 

This is the iRobot Roomba 671.  And I'd have it scheduled to clean 3x a week.

It's on its back cuz it wasn't working.   And I had to take photos to send to iRobot support.

This is the 3rd thing in our house to malfunction.  That's 3 appliances in our house in retirement mode.

This model used to be on our main floor.  We don't have a large foot print house so it would nearly clean the entire main floor, before it needed to go back to its base to recharge.

It's not an advanced robot.  In fact when I saw how it did its pattern.  I thought it was dumb, it would clean in this is a random star pattern.  It's not very efficient, but it does cover everything.  When it finds a wall though, it'll follow it.  And when it comes to a stair, it'll detect it and not go over.  These are 2 of the smart things it does.  Well a third is when it gets low on battery, it makes its way back to its base to recharge.

One Boxing Day a few years later, I ended up replacing this one on the main floor with another iRobot i3 model that maps the room and does a more linear pattern.  This unit has a hepa filter and is quieter and better suction.  I love it!  What an improvement.  I can schedule the various parts of the main floor to different schedules.  Hallway and Kitchen every day.  Living Room and Dining Room - M, W, Fr.

So I moved the less advanced 671 to the basement.  It's an easier room for it to clean.  It's rectangular and doesn't have many challenges to work around.   And it was effective there.

Recently I noticed it stopped executing it's cleaning schedule.  I checked and it was dead.  Battery wasn't charged.  I put it on the base and the light on the base would flash.  Great.  What did that code mean?

As a test, I put the unit on the upstairs base and it charged.  I put it back downstairs and let it run.  90mins it ran.  Battery was okay.  Turns out the unit itself is good,  It's the base.  Basically the non-robotic part was faulty. 

Not sure if my phone was listening to me.  But I found an i4 model on a really great sale.  So I bought it and if I couldn't get a replacement base 2nd hand, then I'd set up this one in the basement. 

We work out down there and for some reason dust seems to settle in the basement.  So eventually, I put this one on a cleaning schedule for the basement.  It's nice.  HEPA filter, and also a little tower that you activate and it tells the robot to keep away from this spot (2ft radius).  I didn't realize it would be included.

I'm not sure what to do with the 671, it just needs a base.  So I packed up and stored it in the garage and saved it from the rubbish bin for now.

 

There's no 'X' in Espresso

We have had to do something things that we hadn't done in nearly 20yrs.  A few weeks ago.  It was ironically the week leading up to Super Bowl.  I went to the basement to turn on the TV, and I didn't hear that regular 'click-click'.  There was nothing.  I did it again and same thing.  Just a blinking RED LED that usually stays solid and indicates it's on.

I unplugged it for some time and then plugged it back in.  Same silence and blinking RED LED.

I Google "panasonic viera plasma not turning on".  
I see search results that are related to the blinking LED - "7 blinks of death error code".  Great, now how do I fix this?  I see the one YouTube video is from 11 years ago.  I'm watching it, and the error code is indicating a board failure.  Awesome.  I have a 16 year old plasma television, that is not just discontinued.  Plasma TVs aren't manufactured by anyone any more!

Even if I were to get a new board somehow, how long will it take and will it even resolve the issue.  I figured after 16 years, it's probably a better bet to buy whatever is current. Now I'm shopping for a new TV and checking what's on sale.  Everything is LCD nowadays.  Should be straightforward.

Nope. There's more types than before.  Everything is all LCD, LED LCDs, OLEDs, QLEDS, QD OLED, micro-OLED, MLA OLED.  Great.  I'm now in research project mode for figuring out what TV to replace our old plasma.  I was hoping to just go through a flyer and see what was on sale and make my decision based on the best percentage off a name brand.

Even the leading brands weren't the same as they were when we purchased our plasmas way back when they were the standard by which all screens were measured.  Back then it was Sony, Panasonic or Sharp, just choose the size of your panel to fit your budget.

Now it's Samsung, LG and Sony.  And then there's different categories of flat panels at varying price points.  So size was just 1 parameter in determining cost of a panel.  It's starts with the type of panel, and then build quality, and size. 

Wait it doesn't stop there! All TVs are smart TVs, with AIs for sound and image, detecting the type of content you are watching - movie, 1080P, 4K, 8K or gaming - So Cray-gee!  You can install apps like Netflix or Amazon Prime, other apps may or may not be available on that TV's OS / App Store.

When we got our original Panasonic Viera plasma for the basement it was a 55 inch.  That was a bit of a compromise on size vs cost.  As the 65 inch would have fit, and looked nicer in the room (maybe it also has to do with our eyes getting older), but it was also a big jump in price.  So this time around I went for the 65 inch as well as an OLED as that is a superior panel to the lower end LED LCDs panel TVs.  OLEDs also cost more.

The only remaining debate was which brand was the best quality.  My short list I had Samsung, LG & Sony.  Not necessarily in that order.  What I found out that OLEDs were invented by LG.  And Samsung although arguably the standard in TVs today, buys their OLED panels from LG, so does Sony.  To make a long story short.  We got a new LG C3 OLED TV and it's brilliant!  I love it.  At the end of the day, you could have flipped a coin and it would have been a good choice.  The fact LG makes the panels and they have a cool magic remote.  And the interface was nice looking.  I'm not a fan of the Samsung UI.  Sony uses Google so that was a +1 for Sony.  But I eventually went for the LG.

We were sad to see this TV go, mostly cuz I was reluctant to shell out the bills for a new TV, that I was unsure of its performance and reliability.  The Panny had a great run, and had been performing terrific.  No issues until this fatal one.  

Disposing of it, can be a challenge as the plasma TV is quite heavy (requiring 2 people to remove it from the wall) in comparison to the newer flat panels.   Mounting the new TV on the wall was a piece of cake, this new TV was 14kg, easily a 1 person job.

Hopefully we get 10+years out of this new TV.  And BTW the image from it is beautiful.

Bringing us to our other appliance that was looking like it was going to follow the plasma to the rubbish bin.  Our Breville espresso machine has been with us since we renmodeled the kitchen almost 10 years ago.  It's been a used multiple times daily.  And it has been old reliable.  

But I noticed that the pressure needle was not moving.  I thought it might've been the gauge was broke.  But on occasion I'd see the needle jump to the 'espresso zone'.  So ruled out a malfunctioning gauge and that it wasn't ready for pasture just yet.

In any case, the other day, I couldn't even produce a double shot of espresso.  No matter how many times I pressed the double shot button, it would not flow.  The Breville had been acting this way for about a month now, and I'd been shopping online for a replacement, and they are more than 70 inch LED TVs.  Even on sale, it's more than double the reg price when we bought it in 2015.

But as I was googling the low pressure flow issue of the Breville, search results returned how to replace the pump, and how to troubleshoot and clean the unit.  A new pump was about $50.00.  Which wasn't a whole lot, and I figured I would give it a try and replace the pump.  Beats the price of a brand new unit.   And it was the same mfg.

The work was purely effort.  It's not hard to open up the unit and as long as there wasn't any other issues like melted tubes or o-rings, it's basically cleaning and descaling.  There are many videos that show how to do a complete cleaning job.  It's regular maintenance.  But more than the running of the clean cycle with the tablets.

The Breville espresso machines are high quality and reliable units.  Ours has been going for 10 yrs before we began having issues and made the decision to replace the pump.   I'd buy another in a heartbeat.

The reason I felt the pump was needing to be replaced was sometimes, I wouldn't hear the pump working at all.  And the hot water spout would sputter like it wasn't getting any water.  It used to come out like a stream. So I think it was a combination of clogged tubes and a worn out pump.

Replacing the pump was surprisingly easy.  A few screws, zip ties and tubes to disconnect and reconnect.  It went with only 1 hitch.  The pump sounded like it was brand new.  It's almost 10 yrs newer.  But the flow was the same.  A trickle.  Hmm.  So off came the back cover again, and I began checking all the hoses and connections before and after the pump.  I made sure they were clear of obstructions and weren't clogged.  Blowing air through it as a test.

The tube from the pump to the boiler was especially difficult to blow air through.  One video showed how to remove the head where the portafilter locks into.  Underneath ours was caked with coffee.  It was clogging up the port where the water flows out.  I managed to scrape it off and clean as best as I could. 

I gave it a try.  I was hopeful that this would work.   I was thrilled to see the water flowing like it was Niagara Falls.  It was working like the day we first got it and started making espresso coffees at home.  Two Thumbs UP!

I didn't want to see this old friend go to landfill, and very glad that tomorrow morning I'll be enjoying my regular espresso.  I'm very glad to save at least 1 old appliance from the bin. I was able to give it a new heart that hopefully extends its lifespan many more years.