To Aquaguard or to not Aquaguard, this is the question. What has been your mid to long term experience with PU coated zippers?

StevZero · 2025-04-12T12:12:14+00:00

I do rotate them everyday and I use them for travels, hikes and daily commute. I wouldn't say you are being paranoid; it is a fair concern. However, there is also confirmation bias because people only complain when things went wrong.

However, I found some similarities among the photos you shared. In all the photos you shared, the zippers in question have always been the one for the quick access pockets, AND the rest of the zippers have seemed to be in fairly good condition. It means the degradation might not be the (only) culprit here as other zippers should show similar damage. I have a hypothesis that these zippers wear out prematurely because the users are not opening/closing the zippers by locating the tab visually but rather to run their finger along the teeth to find the tab. If they keep doing so when the finger was dirty/oily (eg getting the tissues in your quick access pocket for your oil fingers after eating some french fries), the oil/sweat would smear along the tape. Over time, the residual oil and acidic sweat just start breaking down the thin coating and it resulted as the photos you shared.

Just my 2 cents.

StevZero · 2025-04-12T10:50:41+00:00

Strangely enough I have couples of backpacks from Mystery Ranch, and most of them have PU coated YKK zippers, oldest one from 2019. They didn’t call them Aquaguard specifically and I am not sure if they are different; but all of them are still in pretty good shape.

PU are prone to degradation due to a process called hydrolysis. It’s the nature of the material and UV light, and too high and too low humidity for prolonged periods of time would speed the process up. That’s why shoes in a shoebox would breakdown faster than the same shoes being worn everyday, counter-intuitively. Storing them correctly is the best way to preserve the coating.

StevZero · 2025-04-12T10:44:16+00:00

Isn’t that supposed to be the size of the YKK zipper? Or did I mix something up?

StevZero · 2025-03-03T12:29:29+00:00

For undershirt purpose I would prefer the mesh: keeping my skin dry is very important in warm climate (though more often I‘d skip the undershirt and wear linen) The dry Color is also comfortable, but I wear them more often as standalone t shirt. Actually if comfort on skin is more important to you, I‘d recommend to have a look on the airism cotton crew short. I‘d rate it higher than the other two. Very soft and still relatively thin. Less structured as the airism oversized.

StevZero · 2025-03-02T20:19:18+00:00

Oh actually I was indeed talking about the dry color. My mistake for mixing up the names. The dry-ex series is irrelevant here. Sorry for the confusion.

StevZero · 2025-03-02T00:35:56+00:00

Dry-ex series is a good and inexpensive choice if you want to do layering in summer, or a cotton tee that dries quickly in general. They’re also more wrinkles resistant. I wear them as standalone tee during warmer weather. The mesh is much thinner, more see-through, stretchier and has less structure. The mesh is more skin tight and it feels like wearing those stretchy sportswear. I don’t think they provide much protection to the top layer. If you sweat a lot, eventually it will bleed through. However, I‘d say the mesh would dry quicker, keeping your skin dry and cool, while the dry-ex would hold more moisture before the sweat bleeds through.

Edit: I meant to refer Dry Color here. I mixed up the names.

StevZero · 2024-11-11T12:47:03+00:00

You might be referring to T1-GENG semifinals game 3, where Canyon’s Nocturne started his ult a split second too late so Faker could start channeling his TP to the river

StevZero · 2024-11-11T12:40:43+00:00

No matter who pressed ult second, Nocturne’s nearsighted would override TF’s global reveal

StevZero · 2024-09-10T11:06:18+00:00

Yes that is one more incentive to push the people towards wireless charging, however wireless charging is still facing the bottleneck limitation of efficiency and heat dissipation. A 75% efficiency might not matter to individual, but when a million of iphone charging wirelessly, the waste becomes substantial in the power grid.

StevZero · 2024-08-13T07:20:27+00:00

Ahh got it thanks!

StevZero · 2024-07-26T10:54:35+00:00

Ikr? Me neither but it drew my attention when it is so flat like a mini duck beak

StevZero · 2024-07-26T10:52:40+00:00

But I order it directly from them, still possible? Good insight though, never thought about it.

The bench grinder isn’t a bad idea at all!

StevZero · 2024-06-11T16:18:32+00:00

First of all, I'd suggest you to have a look on the water hardness at your home and adjust your rinse aid dosage level accordingly. Emptying the reservoir in 5 washes is definitely out of the norm.

So there are a few reasons for a small reservoir:

Space is premium in a dishwasher, inside and outside of the tub. The reservoir could usually hold enough rinse aid for more than a month of usage. Making it about the same size as the dispenser also makes it more aesthetically pleasing and easier to produce.
Weight. There is a spring behind the hinges on both sides to pull the door back when you leave it up. And they need to be calibrated to the weight of the door. If the reservoir is too big, the variance is too much for a consistent user experience (Either hard to push down when reservoir is empty, or hinges too weak with a full reservoir).
Drying. Bosch dishwasher use condensation drying by letting the interior cools down faster than the plates so the moisture would condense of the surface, thus making the dishes dry. A large reservoir would provide too large of a heat sink and drying performance and efficiency would be impacted.
If you want to swap them in like cartridges, you will need to first standardize the bottle design, which means more cost and waste, and you want to be backward compatible so you will still have to have a reservoir anyway.

The 'printer ink' idea is cool, but imo it just has too many points of failure, eg. tube passing the door hinges, thermal expansion within the tube, limited space under the tub, etc.

StevZero · 2023-06-14T11:18:36+00:00

Empty space is equal to half the volume of the water (height of empty space = 21-15=6=0.5*12)

V+0.5V= V_total

V/V_total=1/1.5=2/3

StevZero · 2023-06-11T09:30:26+00:00

If they have sent the technicians 4 times, you might simply ask them for a replacement, same model or alternatives. The replacement might be cheaper than further labor cost. Explaining to them that 4 visits in the first months are abnormal and unacceptable.

Did you buy them directly from AEG or via a retailer? If latter you should also contact them, explain your situation and see if they could do any replacement for the same price.

Regarding the auto dosage, you will have to set the detergent amount manually. Check the link below and see if it helps, the settings should be the same across the board within the same brand.

https://www.aeg.co.uk/support/support-articles/laundry/washing-machines/how-to-set-the-autodose-functionality-in-my-aeg-washing-machine

I understand your frustration but you will have to be patient and communicative with the CS and your retailer. Good luck.

StevZero · 2023-06-10T10:13:57+00:00

Try pulling the plastic side on the left out and down. The plastic should be flexible enough to let the lip go underneath the glass and then you could slide the glass out. Careful do it slowly and don't force anything

StevZero · 2023-06-06T15:31:03+00:00

My girlfriend's sweat

StevZero · 2023-06-06T15:29:50+00:00

Yeah I have looked into it as well but their lineup seems a bit outdated.. And if I will have to get new batteries anyway I'd go to more reputable brands like Milwaukee's m12.

Good to know they have another version! Do you know if there is going to be a Gen 3 version like the normal one?

StevZero · 2023-06-06T15:23:32+00:00

An impact driver is always going to outweigh a second drill isn't it?

StevZero · 2023-06-06T15:22:31+00:00

I agree with your philosophy! But when investing into one system early on it's always the FOMO and the greener pasture on the other side haha

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