I never thought Id be excited for a garbage can, but after going through multiple plastic cans and having the lid mechanism fail on cheaper metal cans, I broke down and got a more expensive one from Simple Human. I feel the quality everytime I use the step to toss something. It sounds so dumb, but I’m really blown away after years of crappy cans.
Aside from that, my python water changer for aquariums. That thing has been the goat for years at this point.
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I’m usually not a brand loyalist, but when it comes to tools, this is a Makita family.
No other tool company publishes open schematics for all of their tools, so they can be repaired with generic parts instead of expensive “replacement parts kits.” Every other tool company is traded publicly on the stock market and vulnerable to enshittification. Makita is a large, but still family-owned, union company in Japan.
Lots of companies focus on ergonomics & power, but only Makita is focused on low vibrations while still making tools that are just as powerful.
But most of all? They’ve stated that destroying two-stroke motors in yard equipment is one of their main corporate goals, and so for both environmental and noise reasons, this company has my loyalty forever. Makita corporate? Hit me up! I will sell the fuck out of your tools.
Thanks for this. I always waffled on brands and never knew this about them. I was always support non publicly traded companies wherever possible.
I did not know that about Makita. I will have to pay closer attention their offerings!
I am fully kitted out with DeWalt battery powered hand tools, but I have been adding more heavy duty corded tools lately as well.
DeWalt is good, imo them, Milwaukee, and Makita all make great tools. Bosch and Festool are also good. But Makita is my favorite for the reasons mentioned above. Btw, you can get adapters to use different brands’ batteries with different brands’ tools…
Yeah we’re firmly committed to the DeWalt ecosystem at this point. The lawnmower is even a DeWalt.
Any good reasons why? I own some Dewalt tools and have been satisfied, but will be switching to Makita after reading the review given here tbh. Ive never noticed a notable difference between the performance of Dewalt, Milwaukee, etc.
Good to know, thanks! My default is just using Kobalt out of cost and convenience. In my opinion best bang for buck. For premium tools I’ll consider Bosch (apparently another great reputation as a company) and now Makita.
Bosch is very good too. Festool is great, but crazy expensive. Milwaukee & DeWalt are good too. But Makita is the best, especially the ones actually made in Japan
Thanks for the info. I’m thinking of buying an electric lawn mower to stop paying for gardeners but didn’t know which brand to go with. I’ll definitely give their offerings a look.
I can swear just fine without any products, thank you very fucking much.
Thanks, dad
Cast iron pans when you learn how to season them well. As an unrelated note, anyone know of any good mice brands for universal gaming?
Or my favorite pan right now: nitrided carbon steel.
What brand?
Mine is the Misen 12", and their branding for it is Carbon Nonstick ™.
I think a lot of people make them, and I don’t know if Misen is considered one of the best or not. It was a gift back when I got it, so I asked for a well regarded brand.
Thank you! Thinking of getting one for xmas
Not a brand, but natural fibers. 100% cotton sweats and t-shirts, cotton/hemp blend shirts, wool sweaters. I can’t deal with plastic against my skin anymore, at least not when I’m trying to be comfortable.
I recently fell in love with linen button-up shirts for summer-wear. Nothing is as cool and breezy, while still looking good.
Linen in summer! Rock on
Merino wool socks!
Personally my preference is like 85-95% cotton, but with some kind elastane in them.
I can’t go back to non stretchy clothes, they just feel so much more limiting, but I’d take 100% cotton over 100% polyester every day of the week.
Yusssss, natural fibers all the way. I can’t stand polyester, never have been able to. The only synthetic fabrics I can bear to feel against my skin are nylon or maybe a blend with a small amount of spandex or elastane.
But yeah I’ll add to your list of natural fibers: linen is my absolute favorite, but various kinds of viscose can be nice too such as rayon, modal, bamboo, or lyocell.
And if you ever want to overheat in the freezing cold, try yak’s wool!
Same thing for bedding. I have bad night sweats at times and it really has helped using cotton sheets and blankets, at least for the layers closest to my skin. I still sometimes wake up drenched but it is less unbearable than synthetic
You may want to consider something like a BedJet. It cycles air between your sheets at a pre-set temperature, which has the added benefit of helping evaporate any night-sweats before it can become a full blown puddle.
They even make dual-area top-sheets, so you can sleep at one temperature and your partner can have a completely different temperature on their side of the bed. Perfect for when one of you sleeps hot and the other sleeps cold.
My wife was initially against the idea, until it was the dead of winter and I pre-heated her side of the bed. The first time she slid into the pre-heated sheets was a watershed moment for her, and now she hates sleeping without it (like when we travel).
Me with canvas pants specifically. Always thought I hated anything but cotton sweats, but they suck to work in. Jeans are either so elastic they don’t feel protective, or they feel protective at the cost of feeling restrictive (The good jeans are ridiculously expensive). Canvas work pants feel sturdy and they don’t limit movement. Plus they wash out super easily
Red Boat fish sauce.
I’m more a fan of red fish boat sauce myself.
You know how long it takes to ferment a whole boat?!
Antique furniture.
It’s heavy, it’s durable, it’s actual wood, it’s over 100 years old and will still be here in another 100 years.
It’s also extremely inexpensive and readily available in antique shops, goodwill, second hand stores, estate sales, etc…
It’s log, it’s log It’s big, it’s heavy, it’s wood…
Better than bad?
It’s good!
I was blown away when I started looking around at used furniture. It’s functionally the same as the new stuff, but a digit or two cheaper. Nothing else depreciates quite the same way, and for so frivolous a reason.
When you’re talking antiques, it probably goes up again, but still.
I need to find better goodwill and second-hand stores! Anything I’ve seen made of Real Wood is stupid-expensive.
Habitat for Humanity’s restore has great stuff I bought a giant china cabinet that I use as a pantry in the basement for $35. My entire kitchen table, chairs, 3 hutches and another china cabinet set was $700.
Most of my furniture other than my couches are from there.
Hmm, that seems like it might have something to do with where you’re looking. Thrift stores seem to focus more on small things. Or, maybe, people just don’t like donating decent furniture. Look online, or ask around through any connections, if you have them.
If we assume you’re in Canada, based on your domain, there’s older people downsizing everywhere who just want to get rid of their vintage (quality) furniture. Some have kids that will take it, some don’t. The other reply mentioned china cabinets; those and upright pianos are sometimes free, so long as you’ll do the moving yourself, because most of the young generation doesn’t want them.
You are lucky, antique anything is not cheap near where I live. Estate sales are the closest things, but people can be vicious there.
Don’t forget older electronics. Dumb TVs, older cd/dvd players that still fucking work, hell appliances too.
Thinkpads are probably one of the least garbage of laptops out there
And work as a hammer, too!
I miss them so bad, I should buy an old project thinkpad
I have an espresso machine - so far 15 yrs of daily use.
I have the cheapest steam iron from Walmart, not as much use - but going strong.
I have a Casio scientific calculator going strong ~30 yrs.
Ikea blue bag for shopping and avoiding single use plastic.
Stainless steel straws.
Reusable pads and diva cup.But my swear by thing: a lot of dollar store or store brand snacks are as good as the big name. You just have to wade through them to see which one you like.
Moondrop headphones. Their quality is really good. I’m not an audiophile by any means but they have a good audio range and a pair typically lasts me around 2 years if I don’t forget to take them out of my clothes before they’re washed. They still survive a few trips through the laundry despite that though.
Beyerdynamic makes good wired headphones. Are they too expensive? Absolutely. Their headphone stand costs 60 USD. The drawstring bag costs 25 USD. Some of the headphones cost up to 700 USD when not on sale.
But here’s where they’re better than competition. This is compared to the JBL 720BT, not to any other brand or model.
- They do not fall apart after a few months.
- They do not require weird audio adapters. They work with multiple standard audio jack sizes, in stereo.
- They do not require a proprietary application to use weird Bluetooth features. They are just wired headphones. There is no enshittification.
- Is their customer service line god-awful? Honestly, I don’t know: I’ve never had to put up with their customer service. But JBL made me wait on the line for an hour on multiple occasions, on their crackly phone line to a call center outsourced to India. It took me three calls and much waiting to get a person who spoke fluent English. Even that person took the better part of an hour to resolve the records issue on their end (related to purchase history).
Maybe you knew this already, but Beyerdynamic was sold for cheap to a Chinese conglomerate earlier last year. I wouldn’t count on the quality remaining the same.
Oh, that’s unfortunate. Do you have any good recommendations for other wired-only closed-ear headphones of similar quality? If you suggest JBL, I’m going to put my head through the wall.
Audio quality and headphone durability matter a lot to me.
Sennheiser. I’ve been using a Sennheiser HDR175 every day for the last 10 years and they hold up extremely well. I’ve replaced the cushions a couple of times but the build quality is excellent, I’d buy them again in a heartbeat. Mine is wireless but they offer a number of wired models too. The original batteries still last all day, I can’t even remember the last time I got a low battery warning.
For what it’s worth, Beyerdynamic still mostly produce in Germany – at least for the time being.
Thank you for the recommendation!
Please tell me more about the cushion replacements. Did the cushions fall off, or did you replace them for some other reason? How easy are the cushions to replace?
You’re welcome! I mostly use ear pads made from artificial leather. The surface material gets small cracks from wear and tear over time, they typically last a couple of years though. You can also get ones made from Velours, they supposedly last forever but I personally don’t like wearing them.
Replacing the ear pads is pretty easy on most Sennheiser models, you can clip them on and off without any tool needed. The smaller pads at the top are attached with adhesive film. It takes maybe 2 minutes to replace all cushions with new ones. Sennheiser no longer sells spares for mine, but there are fortunately plenty of third party manufacturers that still do.
With JBL (ugh), the only thing holding the pads on is the surface material, whichis attached with cheap glue that lasts a year at most, under minimal wear.
So this is much better. Thank you—I will look into Sennheiser.
Some of their models come with a dettachable cable. If the cable breaks or you prefer a shorter/longer cable you can swap it easily.
Haix boots.
They’re expensive AF, and they’re super heavy, but they’re super comfortable and they’re designed to protect your feet from basically everything, be worn for long durations, and last forever. My first pair lasted me almost 7 years of heavy use and kept my feet safe in the most disgusting situations (I finally had to buy a second pair after they tore up the side). They were covered in mud, snow, blood, vomit, feces, and took me through homes infested in cock roaches and bed bugs and all I ever needed to do was hose them off. I replaced countless broken laces and a zipper once (the laces hold the zipper in place and it’s designed to be easily swapped). They’re rated for electric shock, are wildland fire approved, are waterproof, have a composite toe, and a steel shank in the sole to protect from sharp objects.
I won’t buy any other boots for work. It’s a classic case of the boots problem, I used to go through a $150 pair of boots every 8 months and always had foot pain, but these cost $450 and lasted me almost 7 years so I definitely saved money and my feet are happy and protected.
If you like cannabis, the Pax 2 vaporizer is amazing. Bought one 12 years ago, used it nearly daily til the button died. Recently purchased another one exactly like it, looking forward to another decade of use.
I am generally anti-corporate anti-capitalist, but I will happily endorse this one specific product cuz it performs one function extremely well for years.
I didn’t go with a Pax but I have Mighty and Crafty+ that are great. It allows for less herb to be used which kinda helps pay for the device but my favorite part is the flavor is nicer.
Got both second-hand with new mouthpieces as I hate spending money but they’re dope. Irony is I’m trying to smoke less or just stop but it’s 2026.
Bone conduction headphones, specifically Aftershokz.
Running, cycling, walking whatever activity I’m doing outside I can listen to music or audiobooks and still be aware of my surroundings.
Taking an acid trip? Now I can hear the birds and have a nice background soundtrack to the day whilst I trip in the woods!
Working with heavy machinery, I can wear ear protection and also listen to what ever I want to pass the time. No more blasting headphones in an attempt to drown out the machine noise and fucking my ears up.
Fucking love these things!
Aftershokz were my first headphones of that type, and I loved them. A big bonus point was that they were the only type of headphones that were watertight enough for running in Irish weather.
Then they died on me a month out of warranty. I did some research and found many others with the same experience. Since then I’m buying no-name brands of bone conducting headphones. Even if they last only half as long, their cost is much lower.
That is fair enough. I use mine in all weathers and have been so drenched many times I may as well have jumped in the sea and never had issues with water ingress.
I haven’t really looked at what others have said about them so only have my own experiences. My first pair did eventually stop charging but that was when they were still using micro USB for their charging ports, I have never had an issue with charging since they started using the magnetic charging connection.
I am now on my 6th pair in the last 12 years but the reason I change them is due to battery life. I use them 10 - 12 hours 6 days a week and then usually 3 or 4 on the 7th day. That amount of constant charging is bound to degrade the battery so I’m never annoyed and think that is worth the money for me. They usually still have plenty of life left in them when I switch but I like being able to have 12 hours of use on a charge ans not have to worry about charging them during the day.
How’s the quality, audio wise, of such devices?
I personally only listen to audiobooks, from an mp3 player. The files themselves have quality issues that are expected from their compression, so I can’t really evaluate the quality of the headphones. For spoken word, however, the sound is perfectly fine.
The shokz openrun pro 2 sound really good because they added a mini speaker for bass frequencies
For your last one, I use just regular ANC earbuds with over ear hearing protection and it works great without cranking the piss out if them. Never tried bone induction or whatever. What’s the big difference? Also sometimes I do like the block out the noise so I can hear the audio book or whatever I’m listening to…
I personally find those over ear hearing protection uncomfortable and sweaty, especially trying to wear them for a full shift but I have tried that method in the past.
I can’t say I have any experience with ear buds as they have never fit my ears well so even before bone conduction I would gravitate more towards headphones that hooked onto my ears or more often than not just closed back headphones. That being said I know that you would be sacrificing bass primarily in terms of audio quality when comparing the two.
The bone conduction does give you a weird sensation of bass in the way they vibrate against the side of your head but it is no substitute for actual bass, so your main sacrifice in the comparison will always be audio quality. That being said all the points I said outweigh the loss in quality for me.
I can wear these for a whole day and they are never uncomfortable like I would get with any other headphones. On top of that they excel at audiobooks which is what probably 70% of my listening is. The tech was originally developed for military comms so as to keep the ears open to surrounding noises and as such they were designed to be used for speech initially.
The sensation is a bit different to regular headphones too. Regular headphones are using your ear drum like you would usually where as bone conduction is vibrating through your bones directly to the three little bones in your ear that you use to hear, bypassing the ear drum entirely. Because of this it sounds like the audio is coming more from the center of your head rather than from outside of it as it would with regulars. In combination with in ear ear defence I can block out outside noise so well that you don’t need the bone conduction up loud it just feels like the audio is comfortably coming from inside my head in a weird way.
On top of all of that it is no where near as fatiguing to listen to things for extended periods of time like if you use regular ones, regardless of how loud you have them.
Ultimately it is a different experience and particularly for audiobooks they absolutely excel. I was skeptical at first and it took me nearly 2 years of reading about then and questioning if they would even work before I bit the bullet. Since I first got them though they barely ever left my head and I use then for nearly everything, and I’m a guy who use to carry around closed back headphones with an external amplifier and everything but these just win in so many other respects for day to day use.
Bone conduction headphones don’t touch your ears directly. They transmit sound vibrations through your skull, so it sounds like the music is inside your head. It also leaves your ears open to hearing outside sounds normally instead of muted… There’s no noise cancellation, but it allows you to use earplugs or other ear protection and still have music.
What in the hell, I’ve never heard of that. That sounds crazy. Learned something new, huzzah!
My family still uses the Miele vacuum cleaner my grandma bought around 2000. Sucks just as much as it did new.
Not sure where Miele is at now, but most of the machine I’ve used from them are great quality. I used a Miele dryer at student housing on a weekly basis and it just worked and my clothes came out like ironed.
Damn that really sucks
My Rainbow is a little older than that and has at least another 20 years on it.
8bitdo controllers & PC accessories
These guys can make really good electronics, while maintaining that retro aesthetic
Was having connection issues with the 8bitdo Pro 2 for the switch.I though that they followed enshitification practices and stopped supporting it, but was surprised that they still had firmware updates and it worked again after updating.
