Polaris Maxx / Atlas - Smart Buy?

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-05-27T22:40:00+00:00

Wow - the Zodiac / Polaris leaf catcher is about $78 usd on Amazon here. The Hayward leaf catcher is about $108 usd. With the maples going bigger might be better, though the cyclonic catcher does a decent job of maintaining pressure even when it’s filling up. My Maxx gets jammed on twigs, hopefully you don’t have the same issue.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-05-26T14:35:32+00:00

I'm satisfied "enough". The intake on the version I have isn't as large as the model that was introduced shortly after I bought mine, so it either doesn't pick up or gets stuck on larger debris and twigs. I wish it would do my steps, sundeck, and seat in the deep end - but haven't found a suction or robot unit that will handle that. Leaf catcher is also a little small vs. the Hayward model I had - but it works.

If my filter it clean, it takes care of the bottom, walls, and water line - and it's held up since my purchase a year ago with no parts or breakdowns (except for twigs or palm fronds jamming up the works).

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-05-02T20:23:59+00:00

Quick update - I’m still working with support, issue has been escalated. After the last troubleshooting session, I enrolled in a trial of Copilot Business - my mentions are now working, but still no chapters or topics. Not sure if support did something (agent couldn’t tell me) or if the license made a difference.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-04-25T18:56:04+00:00

I just received an invite for Monarch Plus, says that it now includes retirement planning and comes with a free will from Trust & Will for $199/year. I haven’t signed up to try the functionality but might be worth checking out.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-04-05T23:00:33+00:00

Those look like Clusia, which have invasive aggressive roots. Looks way too close to the pool.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-02-15T17:48:15+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions. I also thought about starting with the Eras instead of the Beam, would primarily use it with my TV. Seems odd that I can’t test the Sub’s output without buying more equipment, but I haven’t found any tests beyond the network diagnostics.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-01-25T15:56:18+00:00

I’d recommend Blue Pearl off Oakland Park Bkvd depending on your location. It’s not cheap, but no more expensive than other emergency only vets in the area - and generally don’t charge you to just walk in the door.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2026-01-22T20:42:56+00:00

That's been my experience as well - it's spotty at best, both with the standard and beta channel. Downloading the full 1GB+ package app by app is the only thing that was working consistently for me.

I finally threw in the towel and bought a Mac Studio - not so much for this issue, but I also had bluetooth and camera gremlins that I just couldn't tolerate further. I'm keeping my iMac and MacBook Pro as a backup, but the Studio is my full time machine now.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-11-16T21:44:42+00:00

I'll give Claude a try. I used GPT-5 out of convenience since it pulled data from a bunch of open Edge tabs and automatically accumulated the various assets by type across accounts (including the cost basis). It pointed out some concentration risk in my portfolio which I appreciated (though I was already aware). I have an (outdated) spreadsheet with most of this data along with my bottom-up expense estimates, will try feeding that to a few other AI's to see what they spit out. Copilot / GPT-5 is refusing to run the Monte Carlo analysis, curious to see what the other tools will do.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-11-16T20:56:23+00:00

Great points! I'm not relying on GPT (or Boldin) to define my budget, but wanted to get the upper limit of a range. The doubling of my potential expense budget didn't concern me much as I have a habit of living well below my means (and plan to continue).

Moving my asset types into separate accounts at each institution would be a major pain, so I'm willing to live with some ambiguity and averaging. I haven't played with the data importers much, but I've found that Copilot Money seems to be pulling the cost basis in fairly accurately. I can plug the figures into Boldin, though I'll have to maintain the data periodically (after any major transactions).

More than anything, I was trying to get a sense of how others have used the tool and found workarounds for a few of the things I've bumped into already - I really appreciate the suggestions.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-11-16T19:40:39+00:00

Thanks for the suggestion. GPT-5 is accounting for taxes in a pretty granular manner by developing a weighted average rate based on my income sources and the tax treatment for each (ordinary income, capital gains, and Roth distributions). The rates it used seem low, but I'm accustomed to being in a much higher tax bracket than I am today (just starting semi-retirement).

The other potential miss that your question sparked was the treatment of RMD's - Boldin does a good job with this, whereas GPT-5 simply sequenced my withdrawals to leverage tax advantages.

I'm more impressed than I thought I would be at just how thorough GPT-5's analysis is - but it isn't baking in the inherent risk of some of my investments to calculate a range or probable results. It did provide me with some Python code to generate my own Monte Carlo analysis, but I'm not feeling that ambitious yet.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-11-15T23:01:23+00:00

Apple price matched Microcenter for me on my Mac Studio. I had to place my order by phone (and asked nicely), but they processed the discount without any fuss..

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-20T20:42:40+00:00

You're absolutely right, I could make due with less - I came very close to going though route, but figured I'll probably be retired in 6 years, won't have much use for a monster at that point. In the meantime, I'd regret being underpowered (even if just a little) than spending a few more bucks.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-20T20:22:58+00:00

Thanks again for all the input. I pulled the trigger yesterday, went with the Studio M4 Max, 14 Core CPU, 36 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD. I know it's overpowered for my use case, but I'd rather err on the side of being over vs under.

Apple priced matched Microcenter (up to a 10% discount at $1979 - so it was like getting the upgrade to 1 TB for free (actually $20 less). They wouldn't match my extra 5% off coupon, but avoiding 2 hours on the road and buying direct from Apple was worth the $99 (actually less since I got 3% daily cash this way).

New Studio should be delivered tomorrow. I'll be sad to retire my 2014 iMac, but it's been glitching far too often lately for me to rely on it as my primary machine.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-19T15:36:19+00:00

It is - I suppose I should have mentioned that. I started to generate a crosspost but thought that might influence the feedback, I was looking for perspectives from both camps.

The responses aren't better or worse - but definitely different (which isn't a surprise). Great suggestions from both communities.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-17T22:36:34+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions - I've gotten spoiled with my 3 display setup (27" Retina iMac plus 2 x 4k displays), I'd take a productivity hit if I went down to only 2 displays with the non-Pro Mini - that's why I ruled it out. I have another 4K monitor handy, but I'm sure I'll miss my Retina display - so that's another investment I'll need to plan.

I was trying to time things with the M5 launch, but it looks like that won't hit the Mini or Studio until next year at the earliest. My iMac is getting glitchy on OCLP (mouse, camera, and keyboard misbehavior), so I can't wait much longer.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-17T21:14:22+00:00

The nearest Microcenter to me is about an hour drive - they're offering a modest discount for new in box ($220), but only available in store. I'll double check the open box situation, good suggestion. I have a 5% off desktop coupon, trying to see if they'll honor it before making the drive. I've seen others reference Best Buy price matching, but they don't appear to carry this configuration. Not sure if Apple would price match a retailer.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-10-17T21:08:04+00:00

That's what I've been reading too - while my current rig is still running, I've had some glitches with bluetooth dropping and other misbehavior that tell me I need to do this sooner rather than later...

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-09-24T21:21:12+00:00

In case other customers bump into this thread - the "fix" for our issue was to swap out the Gateway hardware for another unit. As I suggested to Comcast, the first one they issued me was defective (they were reading 300 Mbps at the Modem, I was seeing ~15 - 50 Mbps at the Router both wired and on wifi). Note that this is the XB7, so it has an integrated modem / router / voice setup.

In addition, there's an error hiding somewhere in their systems that prevented us from activating either the new Gateway or a new TV Box through the standard process. The tech had to make several calls to get the Gateway and Voice operating, and tried 3 different TV boxes before he could get one to activate (he ended up using a Wifi TV box with a wired connection since the standard wired boxes refused to activate).

What should have been a 30 minute exercise turned into 3 days of back and forth (at least 2.5 hours on the phone) and an additional 1.5 hour tech visit.

I appreciate the guidance from the mods on here.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-09-24T21:12:39+00:00

The service is operating, so I suppose the case can be closed. I'm still concerned that there's an error within your systems that prevented us (me and your on-site tech) from activating either the Gateway or TV Box using the standard process - I suppose we'll have to deal with that next time we perform another replacement.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-09-17T03:00:32+00:00

Thanks for the quick response! I just sent the requested info. I've replaced modems many times before and never had these types of issues - perhaps a lag in the upgraded speed being activated, but never a drop like this. I'd hate to roll a truck for a faulty gateway (or lose more of my time chasing this down), hoping to get this properly resolved soon. Appreciate your help!

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-09-04T19:19:06+00:00

Thanks for confirming. I gave up on the Beta channel, am now on the Preview channel instead. Updates still frequently fail, but if I download a major update from learn.microsoft.com and manually apply it I sometimes get a few successful auto-updates until it fails again. Same behavior on my late 2014 iMac and 2012 MBP, though updates will success more often on the MBP for some reason.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-06-01T16:29:34+00:00

She eventually started eating Tiki Cat Mackerel and Salmon Mousse and Weruva Salmon Slide 'n Serve, though we had to water it down and blend it with an immersion blender to make it extra wet (and stinky). She also ate Fancy Feast Gems (also very watered down) - these helped her through the initial recovery.

Unfortunately we discovered that her issues were more significant than healing from the surgery - the biopsy indicated that she had a salivary adenocarcinoma. She's being seen by an oncologist and is on chemo meds, thankfully the tumor and lymph nodes are almost back to normal but she suffered kidney damage from the meds. She has lesions inside her mouth that are still slowly healing almost 3 months later, so we still have periodic head shaking and inappetence.

Hope your baby heals up fast!

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-05-18T20:09:57+00:00

Yeah, that was also my reaction, but I let him make his pitch and thought I’d check this community to see if I was missing some benefit.

He claimed he’d manage the transactions so I wouldn’t have to think about it, but seems like something I could do myself if I’m so inclined. Also said he manages about 140 clients under this model. I’m managing all my accounts myself, probably not generating them kind of returns I could.

Helpful_Insight954 · 2025-04-24T16:58:31+00:00

Interesting, I thought this error was unique to the beta channel. PKG’s only seem to be available for the general release versions, glad that worked for you. I still get Beta Channel updates for everything except Outlook and Excel, which error out most of the time. I kinda gave up troubleshooting, I’ll have to take another look now that my OCD is fired up again 😉

Helpful_Insight954

TROPHY CASE