I have a similar experience as the OP. I got a vacuum robot (Roborock) and it does work like advertised. Vacuum and mop works so well that I almost never to mob my house manually anymore.
Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
71–80 of 205 posts
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#72Electric Unicycle. For short trips and errands, it's a super fast and effective way to zip around my area. For more recreational trips, off-roading on local trails and ravines is super fun. It feels like snowboarding around the city, and has a learning curve of a few days (like skiing). Initially, I borrowed an old one from a friend and decided to stick with it by getting my own (a fairly good one). Next up was the v…
Yeah, I got a powerful escooter and have really enjoyed it. It's fun zipping through town, and it makes it much faster to get to some places since I can go through parks/campuses no problem.
A couple safety tips though, for anyone considering an escooter versus ebike. On an escooter, the wheels have a very small diameter, which means that they are much less stable when you go over bumps. If you're going 15 MPH it's not a huge deal, but if you're going much faster than that things can get dicey.
On an escooter, the thrust that pulls you is coming from your hands (not seat/feet), and that's where the throttle is. As a result, if you hit a bump or divot, your hand will often end up jerking on the accelerator by accident. This can cause problems. As I have ridden more, I've learned to try to only have my hand on the throttle when I'm on obviously clear pavement, and disengage when going over any sort of bump or pavement transition. It makes things much safer.
If I had to do it again, I might get an ebike. They're much more expensive, and I'd feel like it's lazy to choose that instead of my regular bike to go most places. But it might be safer than an escooter (though the latter is more fun IMO!).
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#73The Steam Deck 512GB. It gave me a realistic pathway to replay classic games I love, while bringing AAA titles to a playable state on the go. As someone who travels pretty regularly both for work and personally, having a portable way to play games like Cyberpunk 2077, Stray, etc. as well as run emulators for Skies of Arcadia, Chrono Trigger, et al was a huge step up. The ergonomics are great, it gets fair battery lif…
I bought the cheapest steam deck and a 512GB SD card.
Turns out I use my steam deck for watching movies and as a portable linux handheld. I do play some games, but it's such a great form factor for a small beefy, uh, pocketop?
What's smaller than a laptop, larger than a handheld? Is that a pocket-top?
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#74Ubiquiti Dream Router and a couple of WiFi 6 Access Points. Excellent WiFi is so underrated and not as common as we might think. It has allowed me to work comfortably in all corners of the house as well as outside when the weather is nice, all without skipping a beat during calls. Highly recommend setting up a proper WiFi network and looking into this more prosumer level hardware which has been rock-solid for me.
I am literally researching now for a home network upgrade. Been running Dr-wrt on a linksys for years and WiFi is starting to get super unreliable. Can you say more about your ubiquiti experience?
I am looking at ubiquiti, meraki go, and aruba instant but am open to ideas.
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#75I bought an Ecovacs DEEBOT X1 Omni.
I no longer have to care about vacuuming or mopping. It auto cleans, auto water refills and has hot air drying. It runs on a schedule and I only have to clean the dirty water tank about once a week. It never gets stuck and does a good job so overall it has been a huge time saver.
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#76I have a similar experience as the OP. I got a vacuum robot (Roborock) and it does work like advertised. Vacuum and mop works so well that I almost never to mob my house manually anymore.
3rding the recommendation. I have an S6 and it actually cleans unlike my old shark. It sucks up all the cat hair and does a decent job at maintenance mopping. It's much smarter too. It doesn't just battering ram everything until it finishes a floor. It can operate in the dark so I have it clean the living room at night when we're all asleep. It's an incredible machine.
For privacy conscious people, you can mod these things with firmware that keeps everything local.
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#77This was technically the end of 2021, but I got a new gaming/workstation desktop. I have an RTX 3080 which I can make AI images with, as well as learn more about deep learning since I have a GPU handy. It also has 16 cores that come in very handy for compiling programs, I don't have to wait anymore. Along with that, I bought an LG OLED 48 inch TV that I use as a monitor, the screen space is amazing. Along with that,…
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Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#78A weight set.
I browsed Facebook Marketplace for a bit and was able to piece together a set consisting of a power rack, bench, and a couple hundred pounds of free weights for probably $600. We're in a post-pandemic glut of home fitness equipment, so with some patience you can find gently used equipment for a fraction of the new cost.
I run pretty regularly, and used to swim pretty regularly, but since having kids the latter has fallen by the wayside because it's just too difficult to coordinate between the pool's schedule, my work schedule, and my kid's daycare schedule.
While I've done a good job avoiding any parental and pandemic weight gain, I definitely noticed my body composition changing without regularly swimming anymore. It's been great to start reversing that, and I forgot how much I enjoyed the post-weight lifting endorphin rush.
It's been a bit humbling, though - I used to weight lift pretty regularly when I was in high school/college and I'm a lot weaker now than I was then!
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#79I'm going to cheat because I actually bought this in late 2021, but: my own ski equipment and a weekday season pass. I used to go maybe two or three times a year with rented equipment, which was a whole production that required extra hours to go rent and return it, and I had to plan ahead. Now I can just decide last minute to head up to the mountain for the day, so last year I went about 15 times, on track for 15-20…
Any suggestions for a good brand?
I bought the boots from a local ski shop, after trying on several brands I landed on the Dalbello Panterra, which I like a lot, but everyone has different feet. I've learned my lesson not to buy footwear online over and over again :)
If you wear eyeglasses, Revision Optical Snowhawk are the best integrated glasses + goggles I've used so far (but I'd be willing to believe that there are better ones out there - plus they are a PITA to order)
Re: Ask HN: What $500-2500 product improved your 2022
#80A really, really good coffee machine for home. Price: about $1k. You can spend more but the coffee doesn’t get better - you just get more automation.
> You can spend more but the coffee doesn’t get better - you just get more automation.
Not always. I was going to restore a Faema E61 and discovered that the basic model is almost identical to the original. Parts are interchangeable. It’s manual, it’s beautiful and it’s expensive.