dingus

I used to drink a fair amount of pop. I mean, not excessive amounts, but more than I do now. In all my years on earth, I've absolutely never ever able to enjoy diet soft drinks. The aftertaste is just absolutely disgusting and the entire flavor of the drink is ruined.

I actually like artificial sweetener in my coffee because coffee already has a very bitter and strong aftertaste. So artificial sweeteners are not as noticeable. But with soft drinks it just completely takes over and makes everything absolutely disgusting.

I didn't like sparkling water at first, but over the years I've come to really enjoy it and I drink it far more than I do soft drinks. I'd pick a sparkling water over a diet soft drink 1000000%.

I used to love it as a teen. But now as an adult, I don't really care for it much anymore...like it's ok but it's like maybe my 5th pick. I moved to within walking distance of two fast food joints...one of them being Taco Bell. I frequent the other fast food joint all the time (don't feel like saying which at the risk of being accused of being a corporate shill), but rarely ever go to the Taco Bell. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it from time to time, but it seems like all the menu items are literally just meat, cheese, and tortilla. And then they get your order wrong 90% of the time even when you only order like 2 things.

With a lot (but obviously not all) other fast food establishments, it either feels like there is more variety or I can actually get something like a vegetable with my stuff. The other fast food joint near me makes a decent salad which is one of the reasons I like to go there instead.

So idk.

Thanks for the reassurance in finding out that it shouldn't be harming the tank/elements/etc and for not being an asshole about it. When I had initially researched it, I was also reading about legionella and I found it incredibly odd how the tank wanted me to have it set to a level which wouldn't destroy the pathogen. Incredibly bizarre how it's like that here in the States. I guess people are more concerned with potential scald risk of unsupervised children (of which I have none) over controlling a deadly pathogen.

Some others suggested I test my water as well which is definitely worth considering.

But you know...one of the things I'm remembering is that upon initial install of the heater, the techs had a hell of a time with the thing. They were struggling with both the tank and the main water shutoff for some time and eventually the shutoff broke, stuck in the "off" position and had to be repaired at a later date.

It was the upper element that failed, which from reading online can occur if the elements are turned on prior to the tank being filled all the way. I'm wondering if that's maybe what happened due to the whole debacle that ensues.

Thing is that is that if it were a "dry fire", I would think that the element would have failed immediately and not 1.5 years later. Idk.

???

Not sure why you're telling me to "Google it". I said that the heater was by default set to a very low temp, something like 120F, and the manual actually encouraged you to set it even lower.

I am the one who turned it up to 145F to kill pathogens after "googling it" and because the water had a bit of a smell to it at the time. I'm comfortable with the tech turning it down to 140F. Didn't say that I wasn't.

I'm just wondering if it's still going to somehow break prematurely again because a 5 degree difference doesn't seem that huge to me.

If setting the temp "too high" wasn't what killed the water heater, then I'd like to know what did actually kill it so that I can help prevent it in the future.

The tech repaired it under warranty. I didn't pay anything for them to fix it.

Part of the reason the Z Flip 4 and 5 sold so well is that Samsung gave absolutely insane trade in deals to Americans. I think I paid something crazy like $50 or $100 for my Flip 5. I'm not entirely sure why they did this. I guess it was to help generate popularity, but it wasn't exactly a sustainable business model. They did NOT do the crazy deals for the Flip 6, so it obviously sold significantly worse.

Hi. You seem knowledgeable so I hope you don't mind if I ask a couple of questions.

I purchased a new electric water heater a little over 1 year ago. The temp by default was set bizarrely low to me...I think like 120-125F. The water was simply lukewarm to me and I read online that the temp it was set to was not high enough to kill certain pathogens, so I turned it up a bunch. I think initially I decided to go with 150F but then turned it down to 145F after a while. The heater also encourages you to turn down the temp to a crazy low level if you know you will be away for a while...I decided to never use such a feature because I am not interested in breeding pathogens.

Anyway, after only a little over one year, one of the heating elements failed in it. Luckily, the company agreed that this would be covered under warranty. A tech came out and replaced it for me and showed me how corroded the component looked.

I asked him why it failed so prematurely and he gave two reasons for me.

1. Yearly maintenance had not yet been performed which supposedly caused excessive sediment buildup. I didn't like this answer because it's not like I had been running it for 5 years when this happened. It was only 1.5 years old. I have never heard of a water heater failing for not following the exact one yearly maintenance schedule to the exact date. This sounded odd to me... especially since I've lived in apartment complexes who fail to do any maintenance on them for years and this doesn't occur. Does this theory make sense?

2. The temp was set too high. When the tech arrived, he said 145F was way too hot which I thought was bizarre to me. He set the temp to 140F and said it should prob be ok now. I don't get how a difference in only 5 degrees would cause such a catastrophy premature failure of the heating element. Are some modern water heaters just build like shit and not actually meant to be run at temps that destroy pathogens?

Do you think there's anything else I can do to prevent component failure like that? I'm not sure if maybe I have hard water and if that might have contributed? If I do, how would I fix that? Thanks!

As an adult, I never expect someone will get something I want or that I can really figure out what someone else wants. It's not like when we were kids. You generally have your own money to get what you want now or the items are too expensive to be a gift anyway. The gift giving is just supposed to be something fun to do, not necessarily the content of the gifts themselves.

I wonder if maybe you could set up some sort of white elephant exchange some time in the future? I've wanted to do something like that with my family, but my mom doesn't seem to be entirely on board. If you have enough people, it's fun to do and then you don't really have to worry about what someone may or may not like.

The fact that you were so distressed that you had to leave the room is a bit concerning to hear though tbh. Feels very entitled.

😔😔😔

I'm honestly really surprised that your mortgage is about half the cost of renting. That has not been my experience in recent years at all. That's how things used to be, but in post 2020 times, monthly mortgage payments often seem to surpass rent payments in my area, making the whole thing kind of a hard pill to swallow. Idk. Maybe I was looking at things wrong. I'm not a real estate expert. I just know that buying my place increased my monthly bills a bit instead of decreasing them like that. It seemed that would have happened with any property I looked at.

No trauma or anything like that here. Some of us have just always had it without a cause!

It's a bit comforting to know how many others in this thread have also had it as long as they can remember. I'm the same...can't remember there ever being a time where I didn't have it. It also isn't the stereotypical classical single tone "ringing" noise for me, so I didn't ever connect the dots as it being tinnitus until into young adulthood.

Still makes me a bit concerned that I'll lose my hearing some day. Both my mom and maternal grandfather experienced significant hearing loss over time.

Yeah I think I've had it my entire life, tbh. I think it likely significantly contributed to my fear of the dark as a child (and even sometimes now as an adult).

I don't hear a single tone. It's a kind of subtle noise that seems to have a lack of tone. It reminds me of a CRT whine, but a bit different. Most notably, it constantly warbles in quality and directionality, which is why I think it contributes to said fear. It can make it hear or really simply "feel" like an entity is there when it isn't.

In general I don't really pay too much attention it. Only when there's a lack of noise or stimulation...as when you're trying to sleep.

When people described silence as being "deafening" metaphorically, I always assumed they meant literally because they were talking about the noise lol.