Consumer Research

We need a new water heater. The current one was installed in 2005. Have there been big changes in water heater technology since then. We don't want to go the tankless route as it is just my wife and I and don't need that expense for just the two of us.

The net ones have more insulation around them which increased the diameter. Sometimes this makes it hard to fit in the existing space. Other than that you're still heading water the same way

Right. Things are a bit more efficient, but overall they remain a big Sterno.

We just had a new one put in, it is shorter and fatter than the previous one. This was not only because of more insulation, though. Our old one was too tall for the space to be vented properly, so it wasn't. Basically melted the seals on the top of it.

Something also to consider looking into is if your local electric or gas company has incentives for putting in a new water heater. When we built our house 2 years ago, our electric company had a great deal on the one we got. They installed a meter on it that allows them to turn it off if there is a peak power emergency. It has never happened to us, and it holds enough hot water that for the 2 of us that we would not ever notice it.

I have a slightly different problem: the water softener (Kenmore Elite) is running continuously, or at least is sounding like it is running continuously. No leaks, no water in the tank, and salt level appears to be holding steady. Might need a new one, or maybe just repairs. I'm going to run its regeneration mode overnight and see if it might reset itself. If it still is running tomorrow morning then I'll probably look for a new one.

You can replace the resin in the cylinder, or have it replaced for you. I have never done this myself but I watched a video on how to do it about 10 years ago. Doesn’t appear too difficult if you’re a handy person.

The problem is that if it’s working too hard it will eventually wearing out the primary control board in it. This is exactly what happened to our last one and I didn’t realize the problem until I found the water shooting over the drain and into a low spot in my utility room. The resin is only a short term fix too based on what I heard given where D2D and I live

Plymouth water is a nightmare for water softeners and you’re lucky if you get 7 years out of a softener here. We are on our 3rd one and this last one is more industrial strength version. The guy who replaced it said 60% of his business is in Plymouth and Maple Grove because of how hard the water is

Thanks so much, davescharf, for your very helpful reply. Ours is at least 15 years old, so I guess it's time to move on and get a new one. May I ask which brand and model of the "industrial strength version" you last purchased, and who installed it for you?

Thanks for any info you can share.

We bought it from a place called Water Conditioning Inc. I was intending to call Surge since they put in the previous 2 but they were acquired in by this company.

I’ll see if I can find the brand and model info for you. 15 years where we live is a good run since we have replaced 2 of them and we will be in our house 16 years later this summer

Thanks again for your help, Dave. I left a message in the company's mailbox and hope to hear back soon!

I’ve spoken to two companies now about windows (Sela and Builders&Remodelers). Sela came two weeks ago and I still don’t have a quote from them. I finally emailed them and was told I’ll have it in a couple days. It’s weird given that they talked to us for 5 minutes and then left about 20 minutes of measurements they took without us

Builders and Remodelers have us a very in depth walk through of what they sell and different things we should know when looking. It was geared to “this is why our product is better” but you need to expect that. It was longer than I wanted it to be but mostly informative and I have a much better idea of what I should be asking others.

What I didn’t really like was that we got a quote from them and then a semi hard sell about buying today. I was pretty clear when I called them we are looking and thinking about buying but wouldn’t make decisions on. It’s also pretty amazing they would drop the price 20% right on the spot and then have the audacity to tel us that price may not be available even in a few weeks. It’s stuff like that which makes me really hate dealing with contractors even though I think the quote isn’t terrible

There’s a reason they don’t want to to have time to research.

If you ever go for a time share presentation, check out the prices of those bailing on their timeshare vs what you were presented. LOL

I don’t ever want to sit in a timeshare presentation. We have no interest in a second house unless we buy a place purely as a rental.

The biggest challenge I’m finding is that we have brown exterior trim and 80s oak everywhere. We could repaint the trim of the house to make white windows work on the exterior but we will have to swallow the cost of an upgraded internal option I guess if we decide to do it

We booked a rental car for our upcoming trip through Expedia. We have used them many times before when booking flights, hotels and cars with zero issues. Now the car rental company that we will get our car from charged us as well. So we have been double charged. We called the rental car company and they said we need to talk to Expedia. We called Expedia and they said we need to call the rental car company. We have spent way too much time on the phone with this so far (hours on hold). I guess an option is to dispute one of the charges with my CC company. Has anyone ever experienced this situation with Expedia or priceline etc and any tips to get things moving along faster? Thanks.

We had the exact same (dark brown house and oak trim interior) and chose the Sela fiberglass windows for bedrooms and bathroom) which come in brown. The brown window went well with the oak trim.

The fiberglass windows are very sturdy (better than vinyl) and don’t rot. They’re an excellent option. Only down side is they were comparable in price to wood.

I’ve had this happen with a hotel room.

First ? Are you positive you’ve been double charged? Do you have a CC statement showing 2 charges? I ask because you may have booked and appeared to pay Expedia, but the invoice actually comes from the rental car. If you are sure it’s a double charge, go back to Expedia, the ORIGINAL booking site. Ask them why you’re being double charged as they are the ones who had to pass on the customer information.

Do you read Elliott Advocacy? They have an entire section on car rental companies. I don’t know who you’ve rented from but several of them are in bankruptcy.

They are pulling every trick in the book to bring in money, hoping most people will give up.

One word of warning, don’t fill a claim with your CC until you’ve exhausted ALL other choices. If the CC decides against you, you have no one to help after that. CC disputes should only be used as a very last resort and you need to know you will probably lose.

And my biggest tip, never use a secondary booking agent. Always book direct. Yes, you can often find slightly cheaper rooms or flights, and it works “most” times. But when it doesn’t you end up in exactly your situation. Everyone passes the buck back and forth and you end up wasting time and money. If I have a flight problem I want a Delta agent dealing with it, not Expedia or Booking.com.

We’ve had great luck using Costco to book our rental vehicles. Easy to rebook if prices change. For what it’s worth.

That’s all well and good when it goes smoothly. Let me throw this out, you’ve booked a car through Costco. You show up and CarRental says sorry, we don’t have a car booked for you. Who do you want to deal with? The person standing right in front of you or Costco on a phone call? Because I guarantee CarRental will say “ you didn’t reserve through us”, go deal with Costco as they made the mistake.

I will admit to being overly cautious, partly because I travel ALOT. I’ve had many different things go wonky, both in the US and overseas. I’ve been burned by secondary booking twice and I’m now smart enough to avoid a third. It’s difficult enough trying to deal with one place, make it TWO, with competing agendas and it’s a nightmare as F4Champs posted.

We may end up looking at that way. We may go with white exterior and the wood grain interior too. I actually really like the white on the exterior (and I’m ok redoing the trim to match it)but at least we know the ballpark of what we are looking at from a cost perspective. The white/white vinyl we got quoted yesterday was a little north of $50k before the “if you get it now we can drop it another nearby $10k.

Google “window replacement scams” if you haven’t already. Dropping the price that much is a classic.

Windows are a HUGE investment as I’m sure you’re aware, don’t fall for this crap. We talked to at least 6 places when we did ours and hit the trifecta of scammy sellers. But we finally found what we wanted, yes they were expensive, we ended up doing one story at a time to help with the expense and spread it over 3 years. 100+ year house with a :censored: ton of windows, every fricking one a different size! Our house isn’t your house but spend as much time as you need finding what you want. IGNORE the sales pressure.

We went with Anderson Renovation windows. Ours are wood only because we were trying to stay true to the house and we wanted to preserve the interior woodwork. They are now 17 years old and except for one double pane fail, which they fixed, still look and work great.

In this case disputing with the CC company should not be difficult if you're only disputing 1 charge and if you were double billed. You will have at the very least confirmation of the booking from Expedia. Your CC company will be able to verify 2 charges likely closely made in timing for the same amount. It's easy to surmise the Expedia charge spurred the Rental Co charge since your Expedia confirmation will validate which rental company you booked.

As for using online agencies I always get confirmation in writing from the hotel/car agency in addition to something from Agoda, airbnb, whatever. That way when you show up you have their validation of the reservation. If you don't get one within 1 hour of completing your reservation contact the merchant and get it.

Thanks for the info and advice. I check my credit card/bank accounts almost daily. ( drives wife crazy during Christmas when she is trying to buy me gifts) After the Expedia charge hit my account, the car company then had a pending, and now actual charge for the same amount. Like I said, we have had zero problems before, but as they say, it just takes one. Once this mess is straightened out, rest assured we will not use those sights again.

Yeah - the way I looked at it is that I could use it to further negotiate something if we want to buy. I only had a general idea of what they’d cost so seeing some real numbers and how the process works is really good.

The more the pressure, the bigger the markup/scam. A good company will let you come to them when YOU are ready, no matter what product you are buying.

While it is probably the "buy now and save" pitch more than anything else, could it also be a question of the rising prices of materials?

One of my buddies works construction and said last October his aunt had them out to quote a new/remodeled garage. In October it was $8,000. She had them quote again in March and it was $10,750. She's finally ready to get it done now and had them out for a final quote and with the increase in material prices the exact same quote that was $8,000 like 8 months ago was like $12,500. And I assume since it's his aunt's house and his dad's company they aren't trying to scam for more money. Not sure if window materials are rising in cost like that either but it may be a factor.

When they start dropping prices "if you buy NOW" like that....that's the red flag. It's not the cost itself. It's the wiggle room that suddenly has a lot of wiggle.

It would be wise to say so. Unfortunately pressure scams are far more common than skyrocketing prices of raw materials.

I’m sure prices have gone up and will more but it was definitely a buy right now tactic. I’d already read about it on a few sites even if it wasn’t as aggressive as it could have been

Does anyone own a newer Jeep Wrangler? My wife really wants to get one, but I'm less enthusiastic about the idea. I admit that they look cool and fun, but I just picture an uncomfortably rough ride, clunky steering, costly to maintain, etc... I've never driven one, so I could be completely wrong?

Just for context, this would be our secondary vehicle, which we use mostly to run errands around town. We would rarely drive it more than 30 miles from home. It would be replacing our Nissan Rogue.

Any insight would be appreciated.

My brother has a 2017, not sure how much they’ve changed since. It is fun but he’s complained about a few issues that would bug the :censored: out of me.

1) It’s a loud ride! Not very well insulated, so every road noise is heard.

2) It’s a cold ride in the winter! Same reason.

3) The whole thing sort of rattles.

4) He’s had maintenance issues, his local place takes forever to get parts. He had some sort of recall and waited almost a year to get it fixed.

He’s looking to get rid of it and just go with a sportier SUV.

Does anyone have a Yeti cooler? Or one of the "knockoff" brands?

We are looking to get one and just want one that works well for the weekend camping or at the cabin without having to continuously add more ice.

We bought the Lifetime brand cooler from Walmart. Holds ice really well. How it compares to a name brand I'm not sure but it can't be that far off and given the thing is half the cost I'm glad we bought it.

I’ve heard a lot of former Jeep owners state that Jeep stands for ‘Just Empty Every Pocket’. Lots of them seem to have reliability issues.

I can’t speak to it myself but the number of people who own them that have told me that has kept me from seriously considering any Jeep

Yes. But mine only has 800 miles on it so I can’t speak to longevity issues. It’s the 3.0 liter 6 cylinder eco diesel so it will cost more to maintain over the vehicle life, but it should get good mileage. So far it rides and drives great, no worse than my car. It’s roomy enough my 6’3 hubby fits comfortably. We don’t have the liner to deaden sound on the roof panels yet but even without it’s not bad at all. This is my first one so I don’t really have a frame of reference on all the things that can go wrong, but I think the 2018+ models have been much more reliable.

If you’re just looking for a grocery getter, check out the electric model.

Yes, they are money pits, you can by an unimaginable amount of accessories.

Whatever you do, don’t go to Palmen motors in Kenosha WI. ???

Go to Park Jeep and ask for a test drive….and if your wife comes with, bring your checkbook.

Jeeps: Their heaters are insane, don't worry about winters, even with a soft-top.

They handle well, but you need to balance the tires every 6-8 months, or you might get the "death wobble" (most common complaint for Wranglers).

The shorter wheelbase on 2-doors cause one to watch it in winter, even with 4WD. You are not invincible.

As far as knockoffs of Yeti, I have an Rtic tumbler (30oz) that has kept ice for 2 days in July. I imagine the coolers are the same. That being said, I also have an Ozark Trail 54qt Stainless Steel cooler (Wal-Mart, I had little choice at the time) that is rock solid for keeping ice. About $100.

My wife's sister and her husband from Florida came here to visit in their brand new Jeep Cherokee. On the way home the car stalled in Illinois. They got towed to the nearest dealer. They stayed in a hotel while the dealer worked on it. After a week they still hadn't figured out what was wrong so the dealer gave them a loaner and told them to go home (1,000 miles) Two weeks later the dealer called and said the car was done so they had to drive 1,000 miles to come and get it, and another 1,000 miles to get back home. What a shit show!!!

Cherokees are sh*, that's the first problem. The only Jeep worth owning is a Wrangler, by many accounts.

My wife was also interested in one also. I will add that our car seat would not fit in the back of 3 different ones we tired and gave up...

The rear seats are more like jump seats, and are very 90* with little adjustment. So the strap on the car seat was barely long enough, but the front edge of the car seat overhung the actual seat by too much for us to be comfortable with it. (Infant, rear facing carrier at the time). Just something to consider. If you factor into car seats, bring one along to make sure it fits. She took 2 different ones for test drives and also commented how uncomfortable the ride was in both of them.

On another, related note, we went and looked at a Ford Bronco recently... I think there is less rear leg room than in my VW Golf GTI with not that much more cargo space either...

Jeep backseat? lolololol

I know who won’t be coming along for a drive off roading next month. ??

That's right, you got a 4-door. I technically had a back seat, by pure definition only.

Rtic will give you comparable ice retention at a better price (as will many other brands). If yeti is built to last a lifetime, rtic is built for a couple decades (good but not quite as good). There are lots of videos on YouTube with people comparing and yeti rarely wins the ice retention tests over other brands that are the same price, but is a strong performer.

One thing to keep in mind, if you’re getting anything over 20-30 quarts, it will be HEAVY when loaded up. If you want one with wheels, your options are more limited (Yeti, pelican, rovr, Kong, maybe a few others).

I wanted a Wrangler since I was 15. Bought a 2 door a few years back and loved it. The “death wobble” is worse with older, worn and unbalanced tires. I put on a set of Rubicon take-offs and the problem was eliminated. The hard top is loud but a good (Bestop) soft top will seal itself going down the highway and like Rube said the heaters are ridiculous.

I no longer have it, would love another one and both my older kids now have a pipe dream for one now, but I would have to have some serious “F-you money” to buy another one because I wouldn’t want it as a daily driver. In fact, I am looking into a side-by-side currently that would take the place of what I would want a Jeep for.

I got a Pelican 30Q cooler and have been using it a couple years. The Youtube testers seem to rank it as high as Yeti. I use it at the lake on the deck, and it holds ice or ice water for 3 or 4 days in the sun.

If I want the ice to last as long as possible, I usually "prime" the cooler the night before with frozen food from the freezer. When I'm ready to use it, I return the food to the freezer and load it with what I want, including ice. One more tip: always keep a cooler in the shade and throw a wool blanket over it for max ice retention.

The Ozark cooler I mentioned earlier, I bought on a Houghton trip. It was in the back seat of my Camaro (won't fit in the trunk). Full of beer and iced up on Thu morn. Topped off on Sat afternoon (about 20lbs ice). The car sat in about 90 degree weather all four days (Thu-Sun) that I was up in the UP. I never took the cooler out of the car (the cooler was for muling).

My dad, brother and I all had Cherokees/Grand Cherokees and between the three of us probably put 675,000 miles on them with minimal issues. I traded mine in with 180k miles, my dad had at least 270k on his like 2002 Cherokee before he traded it, and my brother was right around 200k when he traded his.

Only reason I traded mine is because I found a car I really wanted that had AWD at the dealership I trust that was right in my price range and with the interest rates where they were it made sense to jump in it.

It gets to 90 degrees in the UP?

Yep. The swimming in the lake was quite pleasant (and needed to cool down)

I leased a 2002 Grand Cherokee and loved every minute of it. The only reason I didn't keep it was because my wife wanted a mini-van and I wanted to have 1 car so I switched to an Altima. AWD, every bell and whistle, handled like a sports car. No idea if current models are the same but if they're anywhere close I'd look at them again.