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Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

buyforlife.com

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Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#81

Post by steverb »

bombcar wrote: post #79
jonwest wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the tools they’re listing, Milwaukee Hammer Drill, for example, offers no warranty at all and wouldn’t be what I would consider to be “high end” either. Just seems like a purposely placed product rather than a legitimate BIFL item.

Milwaukee does offer a warranty and will repair out of warranty but any battery tool is by definition not a buy-it-for-life as the battery will wear out (and better tools will come). My rule is buy so that when it dies I’m not sad. That varies for different pieces of equipment.

The thing to remember with battery powered tools is that you are not just buying a tool. You are buying into a battery ecosystem. Plan accordingly.

Fortunately, you can buy batteries for most popular tool brands long after the brand stops supporting them, and in a pinch you can buy adapters to make brand a batteries work on brand b tools

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#82

Post by gumby »

chakerb wrote: post #22

I genuinely dont understand the reason behind hijacking right-click (long press on phone). I'm using a slow internet, and I'm used to open multiple tabs so I can only wait for one and then go through all of them. So I'm eager to understand if this is done to stop people from copying from the site or there's another reason behind it.

Tricks like this scream "low quality" to me and I often just close the window because the site is hard to navigate the way I want to.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#83

Post by gumby »

varenc wrote: post #69
chakerb wrote: post #22

I genuinely dont understand the reason behind hijacking right-click (long press on phone). I'm using a slow internet, and I'm used to open multiple tabs so I can only wait for one and then go through all of them. So I'm eager to understand if this is done to stop people from copying from the site or there's another reason behind it.

I don't think right click is disabled? It's just that a bunch of the "links" aren't semantic tags so you can't open them in a new window. (they're just tags with onclick handlers) I think this happens often in single-page-apps just because developer don't care or don't think about this use case. It's frustratingly common. For example, Apple's online store does it too: https://www.apple.com/shop/accessories/all/cases-…

Works if you click the name of the case. I'm on Mac Safari FWIW.

Doesn't work on the image because they want that to click through the carousel. I think they are wrong (a regular clic can do that, plus they have navigation arrows).

But at least you can shop in the normal fashion, if you click on the text

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#84

Post by rsfern »

colanderman wrote: post #47
bushbaba wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always amazed me that high carbon steel / cast iron / stainless steel pans aren’t more commonly used. You literally are buying it for life. They cook the food way better. And a small amount of oil is all that’s needed for eggs and other non stick applications

I tried a cast iron skillet and could not for the life of me get it to heat evenly. I'm talking like French toast burnt near the middle and uncooked at the edges. Stainless steel triple-ply (copper + aluminum) pans though have been fantastic. Even heating and nothing sticks with a bit of oil. I haven't figured out how to cook pancakes on them yet though, without relying on the Leidenfrost effect, at which point they…

What kind of range do you have? Resistive heating can be a bit tricky with cast iron, but I’ve found that preheating the pan in the oven can help. Cast iron has really high thermal mass compared to clad cookware, and lower thermal conductivity

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#85

Post by bushbaba »

rolleiflex wrote: post #28
bushbaba wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s always amazed me that high carbon steel / cast iron / stainless steel pans aren’t more commonly used. You literally are buying it for life. They cook the food way better. And a small amount of oil is all that’s needed for eggs and other non stick applications

I’ve bought into the cast iron hype a few years ago, and I have found it a little overhyped. There are several reasons why cast iron is not a common component of the average kitchen today. Here are mine: - The non-stickiness of cast iron has probably been best in class in its age. Today, we have Teflon. Teflon is so non-stick we have trouble having it stick to the pan when making pans. My understanding is that nothin…

For cleaning cast iron just get metal chain mesh. Use it like a sponge but without soap everything easily comes off. [1]

As for eggs. Stainless steel with some butter. Way better tasting than teflon. And either way the oil absorbed is minimal.

Sure if my day job was making French omelettes all day, I’d use a Teflon pan. But really on a day to day it’s not necessary.

[1] doesn’t have to be this model. But something like this - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B084VJG9VN/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_...

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#86

Post by bushbaba »

rconti wrote: post #67
lupinglade wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Properly seasoned it will be as non-stick as Teflon or better. Especially carbon steel, which is also lighter - the main down side of cast iron is weight. Teflon flakes are much worse for you than a bit of iron ever will be (not really an issue in these amounts).

I've spent an incredible amount of time trying to season my cast iron, and it just never works right. You'll hear various tips. Cook lots of bacon on it. Do this. Do that. "old cast iron is better than the new stuff". Etc. But, so far, that advice hasn't really gotten me anywhere.

A lot of cheaper cast iron is roughly finished and doesn’t have a smooth cook surface.

Try getting a wire brush for a drill and smoothing it down.

This is generally only an issue for cheaper cast iron pans.

That or just get high carbon steel.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#87

Post by kaiby »

lupinglade wrote: post #31
rolleiflex wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve bought into the cast iron hype a few years ago, and I have found it a little overhyped. There are several reasons why cast iron is not a common component of the average kitchen today. Here are mine: - The non-stickiness of cast iron has probably been best in class in its age. Today, we have Teflon. Teflon is so non-stick we have trouble having it stick to the pan when making pans. My understanding is that nothin…

Properly seasoned it will be as non-stick as Teflon or better. Especially carbon steel, which is also lighter - the main down side of cast iron is weight. Teflon flakes are much worse for you than a bit of iron ever will be (not really an issue in these amounts).

I've seasoned my cast iron pan many times. I don't think it ever beats teflon, though it gets to a point where things wash off of it pretty easy with just water and a chainmail ringer.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#88

Post by colanderman »

rsfern wrote: post #84
colanderman wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried a cast iron skillet and could not for the life of me get it to heat evenly. I'm talking like French toast burnt near the middle and uncooked at the edges. Stainless steel triple-ply (copper + aluminum) pans though have been fantastic. Even heating and nothing sticks with a bit of oil. I haven't figured out how to cook pancakes on them yet though, without relying on the Leidenfrost effect, at which point they…

What kind of range do you have? Resistive heating can be a bit tricky with cast iron, but I’ve found that preheating the pan in the oven can help. Cast iron has really high thermal mass compared to clad cookware, and lower thermal conductivity

This was with gas. I think I did try preheating once, but it was just too much prep work for regular use.

Re: Buy it for life: Durable, Quality, Practical

#90

Post by jay_kyburz »

Scene_Cast2 wrote: post #59

I like BIFL-type items for some categories of products, but not others. Some of the recommended items are great. I love high-quality skillets, knives, rice cookers, etc. For other items, I've seen an overly high focus on "specs" in the BIFL community, where the durability comes at the price of being uncomfortable and bulky. With shoes, it would be using X leather here, using Y sole stitching there, etc. By comparison…

I'm a video game guy, so I tend to see things in video game terms. Some things are consumables and some things are permanent upgrades.

Some clothes are consumable, underwear, t-shirts. jeans. I buy conformable, well fitting and cheap, with no expectation that it will last. I don't think too much about it. (A $5 t-shirt will not last as long as a $50 t-shirt, but there is not _that_much difference)

Other clothes, I now know, if I choose carefully can last 20-30 years. My winter jacket that I only wear 2 months of the year is at least 20 years old. My belt that I wear almost every day is at least 15 years old.

Sometimes I find myself doing an insane amount of research trying to find the perfect product, but its a kind of procrastination because I don't actually really need any more stuff. The backpack I take to work everyday is a little ratty, and I have spend a lot of time looking at backpacks on the web while watching TV.

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