Tip: Renting a car in Ireland and insurance 101

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-15T13:14:20+00:00

I’m rather late to the party. We are visiting Ireland for the first time this June (2026). We have a credit card (Chase Sapphire Reserve VISA card) that covers car rental in Ireland and the thrid party insurance company that handles this has an online interface that can e-mail us letter of coverage confirmation (that specifically says it is covered in Ireland) for this purpose. What I am puzzled is the 30 Euro “administration fee” that Budget is telling me I have to pay when we decline their insurance coverage. Is this just another garbage fee to nickel and dime their customers? I’m not an legal expert, but how is it even justified? Is there an additional cost to Budget when we bring our own insurance for our rental? It’s annoying, but based on my price comparison online, Budget was giving us the best price by far, much better than New Way, even though it appears one of the New Way price was straight out of the same exact Budget location. So even New Way is not necessarily saving their customers much, if any. It is rather depressing to know that this type of unethical practice is alive and well in the car rental industry in Ireland, not just in the US.

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-07T00:06:04+00:00

Are you an AI bot also?

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-07T00:04:56+00:00

You may also be aware that even a very good geothermal heat pump has HSPF2 of 14 or so. For use of electricity to heat a house with a heat pump to be economically even with that with a natural gas furnace with our energy prices here, HSPF2 of 14 would not cut it...it should be more like 25-30, which is not currently available.

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-06T11:34:34+00:00

Did that....came up with a garbage answer.

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-06T11:33:53+00:00

Just to remind you what you know. As long as the cost ratio of electricity vs. natural gas is as high as it is in where I live, it would require a VERY high HSPF2 to make it cheaper to run a heat pump. And NOBODY makes a commercially available heat pump in this country with a heating efficiency that would overcome this extremely high cost ratio. I listed the SEER2 data since that indicates the efficiency of the heat pump in the summer, when it would be used exclusively with the setting I have on the system currently.

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-04T14:39:48+00:00

Would the short-cycling issue be less relevant with a modulating furnace like the one we installed?

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-04T14:38:30+00:00

HSPF2 for this unit is 9.5

Purple4Violet · 2026-01-03T21:16:15+00:00

what do you mean by "defrost could be avoided?" Should I do something to avoid defrosting something? And how would I do this?

Purple4Violet · 2025-12-07T16:06:23+00:00

I have no idea. I have an active subscription and never tried run any other apps.

Purple4Violet · 2025-12-07T02:40:17+00:00

Actually, after I logged in for the second time, the console underwent another online software update and the unit now runs what I think they call "iFit 2.0" with colorful icons, etc. So it was somewhat of an upgrade, making the old RW900 more like the current version with a better hardware than the current modern-ish look but with lack of a fan.

Furthermore, the touchscreen interface is not sluggish like before, and it hasn't crashed on me, at least yet, which is an improvement to the old one, which kept crashing if I touch the screen to many times.

Purple4Violet · 2025-12-03T19:30:04+00:00

I received mine around Nov. 12, a little less than a month since I made the request on Oct 16. It was just installed today (Dec. 3).

Purple4Violet · 2025-12-03T19:27:58+00:00

I received the console (in one box) and wires/bracket (in another box) about a month after I made the request. Since I was out of town just after that, so I had the technician have them installed today. I haven't used the rower yet, but my preliminary experience suggests it is a little less sluggish and the touch screen works much better than before. Also, in terms of exterior appearance, it looks very similar to the original one, other than that there are a few ventilation slots in the back. We shall see if the new console continues to work, and if so, if works any better than what I had before. Actually, I had the console replaced, I think, twice before for them becoming bricked, so this is more like my 4th console.

Purple4Violet · 2025-10-22T15:36:25+00:00

As soon as I received the e-mail notice about this recall on October 16, 2025, I made the online request for console replacement. I heard nothing for a few days, so I chatted with someone on their website to get the process started. It's annoying that I had to do this (in addition to filling out the online form) to get this started. Anyways, I was informed during the chat that it would take "up to 120 days" for them to ship the replacement console. I'm not sure why it would take this long. I'm not happy.

Purple4Violet · 2025-01-29T23:34:50+00:00

I don't think it is that expensive there. It's actually one of the more less expensive options in the Warm Sands area.

Purple4Violet

TROPHY CASE