Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Summer. Show all posts

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Pocket Chain Saw Survival Gear Cool Outdoor Camping Tools



This pocket chain saw is a 25" long chain saw blade attached to two nylon handles. The length of the saw with the handles is 40 inches. It comes in a handy pouch which keeps the package neat and compact. It weighs only 4.7 oz on my digital postal scare.



To test the saw I enlisted the help of my husband to do the sawing while I held the end of the branch he was working on in place. The video shows the cutting of 1/2 inch branch. The entire process took slightly over 5 minutes. The attached video includes two short snippets in the beginning and the end of the sawing session.



Observations:

1. The saw worked but required a lot of energy and a good amount of time

2. The blade did not flip while it was in use, no adjustments were required

3. The blade came out pretty clean and no time consuming cleaning was required



The chain saw is most effective for cutting old trees or stumps still standing upright. Limbs on the ground require stepping on the tree limb to give it enough weight to counter the sawing motion. To cut a horizontal branch on a tree it helps to have two people, as the second person can hold the branch steady.



I received this saw from Stunning Gadgets with a request for an honest review, be it good or bad. This is a useful gadget to have in emergency, its small size and light weight are its biggest assets. Putting it to use does require effort and time, which is not unexpected, of course.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★☆



Friday, June 14, 2013

Gurin Electric Compact Dehumidifier




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Gurin Dehumidifier is 9" tall and 5.75" wide at the base. Its best feature is that it very quiet because it does not have a compressor, the worst feature is that it is not very effective in removing humidity. Both are not surprising and stem from the technology used in this unit. More on the technology itself at the end of the review, but first a few examples of what I observed in my use of this unit.



1. I originally hoped to use it in the bathroom while it is used for showers to keep the air dry, and to prevent fogging of mirrors. For several day, I turned on the unit each time the shower was taken, and turned off the unit when the shower was over. In that use the humidifier tank remained empty. Thinking back to how the Peltier method works as well to our Koolatron cooler (which also uses Peltier technology) I realized that short periods of usage do not work because the unit requires some time before it becomes effective. When we go on summer trips we pre-cool the cooler in the house for it to work well during the trips.



2. Then I took the dehumidifier to the basement, where we have a standard 50 Pint dehumidifier which fills its entire bucket in several days. I turned off the large dehumidifier, and left Gurin Dehumidifier there for 24 hours. After 24 hours the reservoir of the unit had 1 oz of water. I am attaching a photo of how much water it collected. After 24 hour of use the big electric plug of the unit got rather warm to touch, so I suspect it uses a significant amount of electricity.



Gurin dehumidifier is quiet and light because it uses thermoelectric method called Peltier. This method is most commonly used in cooling. In 1834 Jean Peltier noticed that when electrical current is applied to the junction of two different metals the heat is removed from one of the metals and transferred to the other. This is the main principal of thermoelectric cooling (and known as Peltier effect). The dehumidifier has cooling unit which is constructed from tiny metal cubes made from different metals. As electricity passes through the junctions between the cubes the heat is transferred and a fan vents the heat outside, a small amount of moisture is removed from the air in this process and condensed and this is the water we see in the reservoir of the unit.



So for this unit to work, it has to be turn on continuously, and it removes a fairly small amount of moisture from the air. It is very quiet, and if you need to remove only a small amount of humidity it will do an ok job.



I was provided this unit for a review and honest evaluation.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★☆☆



Sunday, April 7, 2013

Instapark YT1008 Solar-powered Dusk-to-Dawn Outdoor Motion Sensor LED Light, Weather-proof, Color Black Instapark YT1008 Solar-powered Dusk-to-Dawn Outdoor Motion Sensor LED Light



Instapark YT1008 solar light is 5" x 3.35" in size. When it is mounted on a vertical surface the top part of the light that faces up and the entire surface facing up is the solar panel. This light is both motion and photo sensitive. The light turn on at dusk and shines dimly when noone is around. When the light detects motion it turns on the brighter setting. At the brightest setting Instapark Solar light is not very bright but sufficient to light the area so you can see. After a full day of charging in the sun the light stay on for approximately 6 hours.



To activate the light you need to turn on it with a provided pin by inserting into small hole on the under side (white) of the light. You only need to activate the light once. I suggest you do it before installation as to find a spot where to push inside the light is a little tricky. Just keep poking inside at different angle until it clicks and turns off. The light is water tight and this on/off mechanism provides a way to save the battery when you don't need it operating without compromising the water proof aspect of the light.

  

The attached video shows a close-up of the light, how to turn it on with a pin, then I turn off the lights so you can see the amount of light it generates after a full charge.





I am also attaching a collage of three photos.

Photo #1: show both sides of the light: the top with the solar panel, and the bottom with the light.

Photo #2: shows the lights in the two states: the left light shows the bright state (when motion is detected), and the left light shows the dim state (no motion detected).

Photo #3: shows both lights on bright setting in total darkness. All the light you see is generated by the two solar lights.



I mounted the light on the deck near the rear entrance of the house. The light detected me approaching from any direction (180 degrees) from about 10 feet away. After the movement stopped it went back to dim setting in about 2 minutes.



I received this solar light from Intapark for providing an honest review be it positive or negative. I have no financial interest or business relationship with the manufacturer, and this review represents my independent opinion of the product.



Overall, the light worked well. It detected motion in a good range and turned on to the brighter setting. However it does not light a large area so I recommend using at least a couple of these lights together.



You can find it on Amazon by following this link.





AshopZones review ★★★★☆