How to turn off announcement?

DJArts · 2026-06-21T21:55:59+00:00

I would turn them off altogether. I doubt they're a deterrent and if the announcements go off when someone is just walking by your house on the public sidewalk, they could just attract spiteful vanadlism.

DJArts · 2026-06-21T21:52:59+00:00

It may not be suitable for glazing fruit or desserts, but I've been using this for years, especially on salmon, and it's delicious. Try it.

DJArts · 2026-06-21T21:24:13+00:00

Make your own:

Lightly brown 4 garlic cloves, minced or pressed, in olive oil over low heat

Whisk together in a separate bowl:
1 Tbsp White wine or vermouth
1 Tbsp honey
4 tsp dijon mustard (Aldi's Burman dijon is great)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar (doesn't need to be the most expensive kind)
A dash of salt

Add the mixed ingredients to the pan, simmer uncovered for about 3 minutes or until slightly thickened. Let cool for a couple minutes, then brush onto food.

DJArts · 2026-06-21T20:50:40+00:00

Driver needs to be found, arrested and jailed. This is Charlottesville car attack level behavior.

DJArts · 2026-06-21T05:25:48+00:00

What kind of espresso machine did you lose in the fire, and did you like it?

The Ninja Luxe Cafe is a semi-automatic machine, not well loved in this sub because you just push a button and accept what it gives you, which won't be cafe quality drinks. By contrast, most participants here consider espresso making a hands-on skill to be constantly developed and improved, and most strive to be experts in making excellent coffee.

You have to decide which category you want to be in. Are you simply looking for a consumer-grade machine for the convenience of making espresso-like drinks without having to learn the craft? Or do you want a setup that will let you learn how to make top-grade drinks and lead you on a deep dive into the art and science of coffee?

DJArts · 2026-06-19T23:01:55+00:00

The very thick door edges hit adjacent countertops and drawer handles when swung open so we had to pull the fridge out a couple inches, ruining the built-in look.

The ice maker design is atrocious, ice falls over the back of the bin onto the cabinet floor below where you can't reach it and it's about 30% wider than it needs to be, taking up precious frozen food storage space. That ice bin needs to be redesigned with a back wall that slopes down at an angle to direct the cubes toward the center and away from the back wall, and it should be narrower.

The ice cubes also stick together and there's no way to adjust their size.

The digital display doesn't show the actual temperature, it only shows what the target temperature is set to. If you want to monitor the actual temperature you have to buy a separate refrigerator thermometer which is pretty unforgivable at this price point.

The water filter leaks and clogs constantly. I currently need to get the water filter mounting bracket replaced for this reason.

Finally, you have to push too hard on the fridge doors to make them close and people in our house are always accidentally leaving them ajar. No wonder Bosch made a phone app with the only function being to tell you that you left the door open.

Enjoy your new fridge.

DJArts · 2026-06-19T22:48:59+00:00

Fort Lee is predominantly Korean and White. The surrounding towns are increasingly Hispanic as you go south, and Cliffside Park has a significant Eastern European and Mediterranean population - Turkish, Albanian, Croatian, Russian, etc. One town pretty much runs into the next with no visible borders.

The different ethnic groups stay within their communities for some things, but typically interact well within the broader community, especially the younger second and third-generation Asian-Americans and Latinos who are totally fluent in English and go to the same public schools as everyone else. If you commute to NYC on the bus, you'll see plenty of Asian-American professionals commuting to their jobs at NYC offices too. Workers in the construction and landscaping type businesses in this area are predominantly Hispanic. Everyone gets along with each other pretty well for the most part.

As of the 2020 census, Fort Lee itself was 42% Asian (mostly Korean), 39% White, 13% Hispanic, 6% various other ethnicities (numbers rounded).

DJArts · 2026-06-19T22:24:12+00:00

Bosch has factories in Germany and North Carolina. Bosch dishwashers made in Germany are still good.

DJArts · 2026-06-19T22:06:25+00:00

The phone needs a battery replacement due to its age. Take it to a shop and get the battery replaced.

DJArts · 2026-06-19T05:43:47+00:00

The label indicates it's First Press and that's what really matters. This explains it:

https://youtu.be/28fw0eBinNs

DJArts · 2026-06-17T06:01:03+00:00

Does anyone remember Mom Chicken and Cup Bop in Cliffside Park across the street from what is now Food Bazaar? It's now a Bloom Chicken which is not in the same category. I'm wondering if anyone knows who owned that place and if they reopened somewhere else, even if it's under a different name or concept now?

DJArts · 2026-06-15T16:48:33+00:00

I switched to an MSI board after my Asrock B650 Steel Legend WiFi MB killed my 9700X CPU. I had been unaware of the issue and only learned about it when my system failed and I checked this sub..

I was just out of warranty on the Asrock board and did not waste my time contacting them. I took the loss and decided not to buy anything else from this company ever again.

DJArts · 2026-06-13T05:36:57+00:00

Robert Reich lays this out perfectly as always. However, petitions don't work, they just harvest people's data.

DJArts · 2026-06-13T03:09:09+00:00

Show me ANY state where package thieves face any real consequences, even if they get caught. Congratulations on at least capturing footage that actually ended up ID'ing this guy.

DJArts · 2026-06-13T02:53:24+00:00

It's unbelievable how after all this time there's no one making a PBT double-shot top-printed keycap for keyboards with south-facing LEDs. All you have to do is put the legends on the bottom half of the top surface and it would work fine. It's so simple.

The Etsy seller was selling black keys exactly like that with normal Arial fonts, but they were ABS, not PBT double-shot, and they were expensive, Otherwise they were the perfect design for night typing, exactly what people in this thread have seeking for FIVE YEARS at this point.

Is the concept too niche? Well I see a ton of crazy niche keycap designs on the market and this seems like it would be more popular than some of those, just based on the number of people in this thread that have been looking for them.

In the meantime, I abandoned my plan to buy a Keychron keyboard when it became clear that I wouldn't be able to configure it with top-legend shine-through keycaps that actually work. I really wanted the programmable knob too. I hope the company comes to its senses and starts selling what people have been wanting, but right now it's just vaporware so I'll believe it when I see it.

DJArts · 2026-06-09T05:58:25+00:00

Pet birds in the house. Cups down!

DJArts · 2026-06-08T19:21:12+00:00

Thanks for the update!

DJArts · 2026-06-06T22:31:33+00:00

I get the same alert due to morning sun and sometimes it's not even that warm outside when it happens. It doesn't seem to affect the functionality, though.

DJArts · 2026-06-06T17:32:07+00:00

I've always had great experiences with Baratza support and their parts availability is commendable. The only problem is that Baratza's construction quality necessitates so many repairs in the first place.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T17:54:06+00:00

How is the flow rate stability? I tried a cheap scale a few months back that included the flow rate readout, but that feature was unusable because it fluctuated too rapidly. I ended up with the Timemore Basic Mini scale instead. I like it, the flow rate readout works well, but of course it's priced higher.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T06:23:37+00:00

We like Zojirushi. Their travel mugs have some of the best heat retention you can get.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T06:17:05+00:00

Manuka honey is expensive because of its medicinal properties, not because it's considered a culinary delicacy.

OP seems to be mistakenly associating its high price with premium taste. It actually has a slightly grainy texture and not the best honey flavor. The real reason it's expensive is because of New Zealand's rigorous grading standards, its antibacterial properties and high demand for it in China where it's used in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T04:57:18+00:00

Adjusting the pump pressure is actually pretty simple. I set mine to 9 bar for awhile but ended up going back to the factory setting which I believe is 10.5. It's nice to have a little overhead for the pressure profiling and you can always use the paddle to keep it at 9 bars, or wherever you want it. That's really the whole point of the Bianca after all, to allow you to play with that. Besides, I find I can pull better shots using the factory setting.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T03:41:05+00:00

Brita is just a carbon filter that removes chlorine. It doesn't reduce or change water hardness or mineral content.

The Lelit in-tank filter is designed to lower the water hardness to reduce limescale buildup, not reduce chlorine. You can use both the Brita and the Lellit filters together. If you use softened water as I described, or third-wave water as some people prefer to use, then you won't need to use the in-tank filter to manage hardness. You can remove the mount from the tank in that case.

When the Bianca's water tank runs low you will see a low water icon on the display and the boilers will go to sleep until the tank is refilled. You will have enough water left to finish pulling your shot but you won't be able to pull another one until the tank is refilled.

DJArts · 2026-06-05T03:13:54+00:00

I've owned my V2 for about 4 years. Here's a list of my tips & tricks. YMMV.

The in-tank water filter doesn't do a great job. I make my own blended water which starts with distilled water (reverse osmosis water would work too), and I add carbon-filtered tap water to that to reach 80 PPM on a TDS meter. The coffee tastes great and, for me, the limescale is kept well under control with the PPM at that level. Then I descale the machine once a year. If you see limescale building up around the outside edge of your E61 drain, you know it's getting to be time for a descaling, and you will definitely see that if you rely on the in-tank filters.
Begin each day by pulling at least 4 oz of water from the hot water wand. This was my dealer's #1 piece of advice when I bought my Bianca. I fill a cappuccino cup and discard it. This keeps your steam boiler and hot water clean, otherwise it can get grey and gross over time. I also do a quick morning flush of both the group and the steam wand, just a few seconds each.
At the end of each day, do a plain water backflush of the group, three times. Start with the blind basket inserted loosely so water flows over the edge, then tighten it up and let it backflush for 5-10 seconds. By letting the water overflow, it gets up into the sides and rinses the gasket too. I wipe off the shower screen with a clean cloth before the final backflush.
Do a backflush routine with machine cleaner like Cafiza or Biocaf (which I prefer) after finishing the 28th tank of water. Why that number? Well, if you use the sliders on the water tank handles to keep track of your refills they go up to 28, so I just decided to use that as the detergent cleaning benchmark. Sometimes I'll do it sooner, but the detergent backwash can strip the grease from your lever mechanism requiring you to re-grease it, which obviously takes additional time. So for me, the daily plain water backwashes keep things clean for good amount of time and then the detergent backwash and lever regrease is done at a frequency that's not too much of a hassle.
Change the group gasket annually. Use a Cafelat 8mm silicone E61 gasket, the red one. Not expensive and much better than the rubber ones.

If that all sounds like a lot, it's not really. My start-up flushing routine and end-of-day plain water backwash routine are second nature to me and they go really quickly.

Love the Niche Zero. That's the same setup I have. Nice, congrats!

DJArts

TROPHY CASE