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Wow, those percentages sound very low to me. Surely you need to love what you do most of the time. I’ve been struggling with my job for a while and am determined to write as soon as I can find something better, but even I love about 10% to 15% off the current gig.

Good explanation, thanks.

We should have done this. Our utility room door is literally NEXT TO the tower of integrated appliances.

So we have been living in our newly renovated, partly newly built, house for almost 8 months and are starting to relax into it and all its benefits. There is still a lot to be done, but it feels more finished than unfinished, which is good. One disappointment however is the set of zanussi integrated cooking appliances. We have three: an oven, a combination oven/microwave and a warming drawer. The microwave is ridiculous. Unlike most microwaves that have a quick start button that gets the thing going for 20 or 30 seconds, and can then be incrementally increased by 30 sec, all with the same button, this one has a default duration of 4 minutes (and even that requires turning a knob two clicks and pressing a button) which needs to be manually changed each time to the required time. It also heats unevenly, probably on account of the lack of turntable. The oven cooks unevenly and takes ages to preheat. By ages, I mean about 15min to get to 160C and almost 20min to get to 200C. That may sound like I’m being impatient but our last oven, a basic (but quite new) model Bosch could preheat to 200C in 8 minutes. The warming drawer doesn’t really heat plates unless it is on the maximum setting (one setting higher than the actual “plate heating” setting). It’s not really a big problem, but just adds to the picture of general crappiness. I reckon the three appliances came to about £1200 in total. Although we’ve only used them since moving in in May, the oven and warming drawer were delivered in November 2021 and the microwave in Jan 2022. They all came with at least 1 year warranty. I didn’t register with the manufacturer within the required 28 days, so it’s possible I don’t even qualify for the longer warranty anyway. That probably means only the microwave is technically still within warranty (and only for another 3 weeks). My question is though, are these issues likely to be covered by the warranty? The language in the warranty talks about “faults”. But these don’t seem like faults in that sense. These just seem like it’s crap.

Yeah, that’s not too bad. We have similar hatch in the ceiling of our utility room to access a bath water waste pipe.

Genius idea. Thank you!

And here is one more:

part of the problem is that the Jack at the end of the power supply is off the stiff type, so it adds quite a bit to the depth.

Very funny. As I mentioned, the type of door we have won’t take a peep hole.

Can you provide a link to the sensor please, this sounds interesting

For about £70 I can get a Fire 8 HD Plus which is a tablet, but can be put into “Show Mode” to effectively work like an Echo Show. Only problem is that I lose the loud speaker on the Echo Show which we use as the chime in the ring, and I also have to build a slim cradle/charging dock for it - as the Amazon branded dock is 15cm deep, defeating the whole exercise (as well as costing another £45 or so). It’s an option, but I think a transformer that is separate to the plug, such that the transformer can be hidden under the shelf, might work well. Just need to find the transformer. Hopefully somebody will answer the question I had about the transformer @Temp posted.

It’s a cavity wall. I didn’t specify the details for this particular wall, but it will be breeze block and then plasterboard for the inside skin, then insulation in the cavity. Are you suggesting I basically sink the back box of the socket into the wall further?

Sure, but if I’m going to do that, I might as well move the socket and redecorate. Really rather not redecorate.

It’sa very first world “problem”, I accept, but I seem to spend (waste?) all my free time on such niggles these days. The cupboard and the shelf has not been built yet, but this drawing should give you an idea; we have a Ring doorbell linked to an Echo Show that we would like to place on the wall, on a shelf, in such a way that the Echo Show will neatly conceal the 13A socket (which cannot now be moved without redecorating): The deeper the shelf, the more restricted the opening of one of the cupboard doors. The Echo Show is already quite bulky at almost 15cm deep. With the 44mm deep transformer it becomes rather silly.

The unit you’ve linked to has an output of 18v at 3.25A, whereas the one that came with the Alexa Echo Show I have is 18v at 1.67A. Does that matter?

We are trying to use an Alexa Echo Show as a video intercom screen. It works perfectly, except that it sticks out a bit more than it’s comfortable for opening an adjacent cupboard. The profile of the plug it came with (which I believe is a transformer) is 44mm. Do shallower transformers exist? here are the specs:

Re-looking at this thread, I see that it f digressed slightly into a discussion of matter, which was partly my fault. Could I invite non-matter related responses to the original question please?

I agree with this. I’m not knowledgeable enough about sound to tell the difference. This I’m not so sure about. One of the reasons I singled out the ARC over the cheaper Sonos soundbars, is that the atmos is meant to be very good. Granted, it won’t be as good as ceiling mounted speakers, but apparently it is almost as good.

I like my tv. It is a Sony KDL W905 which I think was manufactured in 2013. I bought it in 2014 for that year’s World Cup. The only thing that has been bad about it is that over the years the app support has dwindled, such that the Amazon app and bbc iplayer no longer work on it, however this was easily fixed by buying an Amazon firestick. I have been excited about getting a Sonos ARC sound bar and a couple of Sonos Ones to get improved sound as well as surround sound. We would probably use the Sonos Ones elsewhere in the house and move them to the TV room only when we watch a movie (which is maybe once a fortnight). I was also looking forward to experiencing the Dolby Atmos that is provided by the Sonoc Arc. However, I’ve just realised that my a Sony TV only has one HDMI ARC port and no eARC ports. Just wondering how much this matters. sonos says this: The main difference appearing to be that with ARC only, it will output Dolby Atmos when the content is playing Dolby Digital Plus, but not when the content is Dolby TrueHD. So the first query I have is whether this difference in content is significant. Second query I have is if I’m playing content from the firestick HD and that is just plugged into a regular HDMI port (not even HDMI ARC) will that content have a very basic sound output?

Dimming is not required for this lamp. I went cheap. 7 months later we have near constant flickering. Have now ordered a cheap G9 bulb from IKEA, reduced from £3 to £2.

Got back from a period away from the house today, and apart from discovering Santa stuck in my chimney breast, I noticed that a light fixture we have in our bathroom was flickering. The kids have knocked this fixture a bit, but it’s pretty sturdy, made by Astro, and I didn’t expect a couple of gentle knocks to have damaged it, but I guess it’s possible. Other possibility is that the G9 LED bulb has developed a fault. But it’s been working fine since May, and although it gets used at least twice a day I expected more longevity than this. I suppose no other solution other than to test it with a new bulb?

Plus 1

Or you could level with a self levelling compound. Much thinner than screed.

When you say “wood floor” what exactly do you mean? Engineered wooden flooring? Solid wooden flooring? Laminate? Typically, you would have a solid flat layer under the finished flooring. Laying directly onto joists is not a good idea.

Hopefully somebody can help me as we have something stuck in our chimney breast and I can’t light the fireplace until we remove it. Not helping the Christmas spirit not having a fire. It’s big, red with a white border, although there are two dangly bits that look covered in what appear to be red and white stripey stockings. Leather bits at the end of the dangly bits.