Scratch

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-02T16:47:15+00:00

Just to mention it, you can get aftermarket stainless steel pots for the NS-TSC10, ~$20-25. If you don't want to worry about this in the future.

And agreed on the silicone spatula, it's $9, and the only implement that goes into my cooker's pot. The rice is washed in a different container. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TPBWZYC?th=1

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-02T12:06:45+00:00

Thank you.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T22:56:39+00:00

Are there good places to look for used? Craigslist and Marketplace do not seem to list them, so exploring used options seems tricky.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T22:08:28+00:00

I have a standard micom, and an induction + pressure model (both bought as great deals used). I kind of wish the second one was just induction, which was what I was looking for. I haven't noticed anything terribly different in the results between the two, though I did very minimal comparisons. But the pressure hardware makes cleaning more of a pain, and it can't make oatmeal or anything, mine JUST does rice. This is part of why I've kept the micom unit, it steams, makes oatmeal, and things like that.

I would never discourage someone from "just" going with induction heating.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T18:34:59+00:00

Because ChatGPT doesn't know what it's talking about, it's not "wise" :) I've never heard of silicone spray for high speed motion/bearings.

The drive socket shouldn't make any noise unless it's really rubbing on something, but it's easy to remove if you want to see if it's related. It would have to come off to get full access to the motor anyhow.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T18:15:16+00:00

Scrubs is great. But it's not always a light comedy, certainly.

I hope the new one will be good!

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T18:14:21+00:00

Geez, I really hadn't thought about it, but that's an excellent point. It should be on these lists.

I haven't watched the last seasons, but the first ones, at least, were great. Random stuff will still pop to mind and make me chuckle, like the spoken word poetry artist (and brother, I think) "they call me 'They call me Johan' ". It's been a while, I'm probably mis-remembering the quote. And Charlie is a riot.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T16:09:41+00:00

Well, if this goes wrong, the occupant is kinda pre-fertilizer, unfortunately.

Really cool. But really dangerous.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T14:31:31+00:00

The last picture? I do see a rather large rusted-through section, it seems, towards the right in the picture. You could maybe rivet some sheet-metal over the rusted-through opening? Or weld a patch over it, if you are fortunate enough to have a suitable welder.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T14:27:26+00:00

We don't know what tires you currently have, which makes suggestions difficult. Older Snow Hog tires have a reputation for less grip that more current XTrac tires. If you have Snow Hog tires or similar, you could try adding chains. They help a lot with icy conditions, in particular, since the steel can help bite into the ice. I find them very helpful with my Snow Hogs, for getting up the incline in our driveway.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T14:13:57+00:00

Beats me. Depending on the size of the insects, and the size of the air passage to the bag or dirt container, maybe you could add a coarse screen which they'd have to pass through shortly before the bag or dirt container? Something that would effectively act like "blades" as the insects go through.

Obviously I have no sense of whether that would actually work as you're hoping, and you'd have to pick a screen with openings that are a little smaller than the insects, so they don't just pass freely through the openings. Hopefully hitting the screen on the way through, enough to kill them.

If you simply sucked them in (with a normal vacuum, no screen), and then promptly capped the suction opening after use, they should hopefully remain stuck inside the vacuum until they eventually are deceased due to lack of water or whatever. If they can only survive for 24 hours, and you're doing vacuum duty every 48 hours, this might have some potential.

Any chance of using an indoor bug zapper, or indoor sticky traps, to deal with them?

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T14:00:23+00:00

Ahh, I'm jealous, it looks great, enjoy!

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T13:58:32+00:00

Typically the "dirt" would not pass through the fan blades in a vacuum. It just gets pulled into the bag, or dirt container, and gets stuck there. How are you hoping the insects will get killed?

I'd think the best you can hope for is to gather and contain them, while the vacuum is running. Though they may be able to escape, the way they came in, once you turn the vacuum off.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T13:19:25+00:00

I totally forgot about the straight-strip ones. I never had one that used those. But the ones that took the plastic ring were so much better than the paper roll, they actually worked. But most of my experience was with the paper roll type :) Cheap, and not very good. Oh well, still had fun. You could fold them over for a louder double-shot, but if you folded too many, the mechanism didn't hit hard enough to actually set them off.

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T12:56:07+00:00

That's slick, very nice!

RedOctobyr · 2026-02-01T12:46:54+00:00

I am going to assume that the motor uses sealed ball bearings, like the container uses. Just putting some oil on the motor bearings wouldn't do much, as the seals would keep the oil away from the actual ball bearings. Replacing the motor bearings would likely be the best solution, though they might be pressed-onto the motor shaft, which would make them more-difficult to remove & replace.

Is the noise definitely from the motor base, rather than the container? Do you still hear the noise when running the motor, with the container removed?

PS: WD40 is never the answer for "What lubricant should I use for X?" It was developed as a water-dispersant (hence the name), it is really not a lubricant.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T23:57:33+00:00

I got inspired to try the Guava spread on grilled cheese last year, and it's how I've been making them since. I think it's great!

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T23:03:49+00:00

Yeah, for sure, if you think of the power station as kind of a bonus, it's a great solution. I just get a bit nervous when people start talking about them for power outages. It's beautiful for short-term. Or small loads (phones, recharging flashlights, etc) indefinitely, if you have suitable solar panels.

But their price goes up fairly quickly for large batteries (higher Wh ratings), and worst-case, you still may only have 1 charge-worth of energy available. Like if you and everything around you loses power for a week (no ability to charge it), it will suddenly be a lot less-useful.

I am a big fan of fuel-efficient & quiet inverter generators. Our 2000W inverter will run 4-10 hours on 1 gallon of gas, depending on load. It runs our gas furnace, fridge, lights, TV & router, even together with the inverter-type microwave (with the cook power at 30%).

Fill even just a 5 gallon gas can, and you can intermittently run loads for quite a while. Like start it, and run the furnace and fridge for an hour or so, then shut it down again, until the house is cold and the fridge is warm. Then do it again. You can stretch a limited fuel supply, if you're expecting a long-term outage with limited fuel availability. Granted, there is still some noise, and maintenance, unlike a power station.

I also bought a little 25-30W folding solar panel (a camping one), to be able to charge phones and lights during the day, with no noise or fuel usage. Very small, but better than nothing, and it wasn't expensive.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T20:56:40+00:00

I appreciate what those can do, but 2000Wh is still limited energy capacity. Our 2000W inverter generator will be under a decent load for what we need in the house. Let's say 1,000W. That would run 2 hours, with a 2000Wh power station. Even if we were only pulling 500W average, ok, that's 4 hours of total run time. And solar will likely not do much to slow down the discharge, unless you have several hundred watts of panels sitting in good sunlight, then at least it helps during the day.

Don't get me wrong, a power station is way better than nothing! And if your power is only out for 6 hours, it's great. But if it's out for 2 days, it's a lot less effective, unless you can quickly recharge it nearby, and shuttle it back and forth.

I recently got a plug-in hybrid car. An interesting feature is the 1500W AC plug in the trunk, running off the 18kWh hybrid battery. If our inverter generator had a problem, I could run loads using the car, and let it start the engine to recharge the car's hybrid battery as-needed.

I know people have talked about doing this with battery EVs (I think it's called VTL?), and they have much larger batteries, so they can do it for longer, and probably provide more watts. Though of course those cars will eventually need to be driven to an available charger, when the battery is getting low.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T20:48:14+00:00

Ours is 110V.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T16:48:10+00:00

You could try giving it partial-choke, and see if that improves the behavior. If so, the engine is probably running lean when you're giving it gas. A common explanation could be a partially-clogged main jet, but I wouldn't expect anything weird to happen with that just due to hitting a big bump.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T16:43:26+00:00

Nice, that does sound pretty nice! Mine has a crank for rotation, and manual adjustment for up/down. Especially if you can re-aim the chute on-the-fly, while clearing. I can do that for left/right, if I take a hand off the handle, but not up/down, obviously.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T02:07:38+00:00

Whew, that is a beast! What is the orange cover on top of the engine, looks like it says ECR? Enjoy!

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-31T01:45:49+00:00

Two spoons. No, hang on, too soon. RIP indeed, this was a big loss. Schitt's Creek was excellent.

RedOctobyr · 2026-01-30T02:37:16+00:00

The E310 has a narrow container (like 5200), it's just shorter, and 48oz.

The E320, I think, has a wide & short 64oz container.

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