The Smell of Molten Projects in the Morning

Ed Nisley's Blog: Shop notes, electronics, firmware, machinery, 3D printing, laser cuttery, and curiosities. Contents: 100% human thinking, 0% AI slop.

Tag: Rants

And kvetching, too

Kenmore 362.75581890 Oven Igniter: That Didn’t Take Long

So the oven igniter I installed in January failed to ignite the oven when its current draw fell far enough below the valve’s 3.3 A minimum:

Oven Igniter – 2.3 A current

Of course, the seller no longer offers that particular igniter.

I described the problem:

The igniter just failed. The oven gas valve requires 3.3 to 3.6 amps to open, but this igniter now draws only 2.3 amps, as shown by the clamp-on current meter.

Because of the low current, the valve does not open and the oven does not heat.

The igniter should last more than five months!
How do I go about getting a replacement or a refund?
Thanks …

Which generated pretty much the reply you’d expect:

We are very sorry, because your product is 5 months from the date of purchase, we cannot offer you a refund.
Please purchase another replacement.

Which made me a bit salty:

” the best quality for greater power connection, higher load and longer service life “

” We stand by our products, and our customers are our focus as a business. If you have any quality problem, please contact Funmit customer service team in time, and we will try our best to solve your problems “

So five months is “longer service life” with “the best quality”.

Bonus: now I understand what “try our best” means, too.

But to no avail:

Have a nice day! We are glad to serve you.
We are very sorry that you are not satisfied with our products.
Amazon.com Return Policy:Amazon.com Voluntary 30-Day Return Guarantee: You can return many items you have purchased within 30 days following delivery of the item to you. Our Voluntary 30-Day Return Guarantee does not affect your legal right of withdrawal in any way.
However, the product has passed the return and exchange period, so it cannot provide you with a warranty.
If you have other questions, please contact us in time, we will serve you wholeheartedly. Thank you.
Sincere wishes,
–By Funmit

So I bought a slightly more expensive igniter from a different randomly named seller that draws a slightly under-spec but entirely typical 3 A:

Oven Igniter – 3.0 A initial current

This one, however, allegedly comes with a one year warranty:

Quality you can Trust – All Snap Products are made with premium materials and are tested so they last
Buy with Confidence – Snap Supply Parts always come with a 1 Year Warranty

Which surely requires the seller remaining in business until then.

We shall see how this works out.

2023-06-30
LED and CFL Bulb Reliability: Another Data Point

Spotted in a soon-to-be-rebuilt rest area on I-87 north of Kingston NY, a chandelier stuffed with old-school CFL bulbs of various vintages:

NYS I-87 Rest Area – CFL chandelier

The yellowish dome on the far right might still house an incandescent bulb, but I can’t tell from here.

Judging from the high color temperature and even illumination, the chandelier next to it has 16 newish LED bulbs:

NYS I-87 Rest Area – LED chandelier

What’s of interest: both chandeliers have two dead bulbs and, perhaps, the center floodlight of the LED fixture had died, too. We don’t know how long they’ve been in place, other than that the LEDs are certainly more recent, but a 6% failure rate is nothing to brag about.

From what I’ve seen, the reliability of both CFL and LED bulbs is greatly overstated and certainly do not justify preemptive replacement of a working bulb of any vintage.

2023-05-25
They’re Paying for This?

Another problem with the same monitor as before:

Broken image link

This one looks like an ordinary broken link:

Broken image link – detail

Mary has some opinions on their software testing process, but AFAICT that entire department is missing in action.

Having spent entirely too much time on the road and not nearly enough time in the shop, things will be quiet around here for a few days.

Drive to stay alive …

2023-05-17
New Jeep, Reckless Driver

Some drivers give us absurd amounts of clearance, which is what we thought the driver of the white Jeep was doing:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – Jeep passing

Some drivers give us very little clearance, either deliberately or though negligence, which is what I thought the driver of the silver Subaru was doing:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – Subaru close pass

Reviewing the videos revealed a different story that could have ended very badly for everyone involved.

Moving back in time, we crossed the bridge over the Wappingers creek, which has two southbound lanes. The left lane is dedicated to left turns onto Red Oaks Mill Road and the right lane is for through traffic southbound on Rt 376:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – Red Oaks Mill bridge

I had noticed oncoming drivers in the northbound lane were moving far over to the fog line, but (unseen by me) they were definitely swerving off the road:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 1

It seems the Jeep driver crossed the bridge in the left lane and continued straight through, passing the solid line of vehicles in the right lane behind us. You can see the top of the Jeep’s windshield peeking out behind the Subaru, with minimal clearance to the black car swerving out of the way:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 1 clearance

There’s not much shoulder on that side of the road, but the driver of the white Honda is using it all:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – swerve 2

With all the oncoming traffic out of the way, the Jeep driver now accelerates in the wrong lane:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – passing 1

And passes the Subaru just behind us:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – passing 2

The license plate looks like JAE-7751, early in the “J” plate series, so that’s a shiny new Jeep.

Being passed at close range in an obviously no-passing zone caused the Subaru driver to flinch in our direction:

New Jeep Reckless Driving – Subaru clearance

Unsurprisingly, the Jeep driver ran the red light at the top of the hill, presumably to avoid being stopped directly in front of us.

Never a dull moment out there on the road …

2023-05-16
Signs of the Times

One of the problems of a kiosk display using a browser is having things on the far end of the connection go sideways:

Your connection is not private

A closer look:

Your connection is not private – detail

The base URL seems gone from consensus reality, although they might be using a private DNS to resolve in-house servers. In any event, a casual search suggests Osborn VS is an ad-tech company recently Borged by (or into) something else.

Sometimes the connection itself goes sideways:

Missing Internet Connection

Just like the sign-in kiosks in the lobby, I soooo wanted to tap that big button, but this was not a touch-screen display.

Yes, that’s the same display. Apparently Lifeshare is another part of the same Borganism.

I read these reassuring instructions in the elevator of a different building:

Elevator power failure instructions

I’d be mildly unsurprised to discover the elevator controls also handle the interior lighting, invariably putting me in the dark while the thing reboots. At least the paper would remain readable, because phones can become flashlights under duress.

At least we were not riding a rocket …

2023-05-10
Provide Drivers License Info

You know how we’re constantly reminded not to click on links in emails from “people we don’t know” and never provide personal information?

I’m certain this email came from a physician I’m about to see, but, with a concealed URL like that, somehow I just can’t bring myself to Get started like this:

Provide Drivers License

Remember, I’m in the US and *.co links are typically “foreign”, so they are going out of their way to look sketchy. I replaced several characters in the URL to make it invalid, but it closely resembles the original.

Of course, everything is outsourced these days, so the physician and her staff have nothing to do with the scheduling and patient information group, so they will have no idea what’s going on or be able to do anything about it.

2023-04-28
Techie Temptations

I walked up to a sign-in kiosk with an interesting difference:

Kiosk app update

If they ask a question on a public-facing device, they must expect a response. Right?

This interesting assembly sprouted from an upstairs wall:

Wash hose valve

The brass fitting seems intended for a braided hose leading to a nozzle, but there was no corresponding floor drain in the room. I’m sure the shutoff valve in the bottom elbow was turned off.

Back in the motel, I attempted to plug in my charger:

USB sockets vs AC plug

The currently trendy black-on-black design scheme doesn’t work well in the low-light environment of a motel room. The white plastic tabs in those USB sockets were the only visible parts of that whole assembly.

As the saying goes, “Without temptation, there can be no virtue.”

Sometimes I am sooo tempted …

2023-04-20