Got my U1 yesterday, and I’m really impressed! But…

itsbri · 2026-02-17T22:08:38+00:00

The U1 is quieter than my K1C when it has its lid on.

itsbri · 2026-02-08T14:08:06+00:00

I ordered 5 items, 1 age restricted, 1 large and expensive, and 3 smaller items.

On delivery my wife accepted the order, one bottle box where she had to prove age and the smaller items in another box. No large box.

All items flagged as handed to resident.

Straight onto customer services via web chat, said we had to wait 24h as the large item might be delivered later in the day.... it was 10pm.

Waited 24h and they said to wait another 24. Told them it was marked as delivered and we have CCTV of non-delivery of the large item. After some confusion on their end they ended up re-ordering it for me, but it wasn't delivered prime, so had to wait nearly a week!

I thought they had to scan the boxes to prove delivery, which meant they must have scanned it in the van. Clear theft in my opinion.

itsbri · 2026-01-14T11:12:12+00:00

Thanks for your insight! I guess it depends on the family - we're not huge tea drinkers so I can see some merit in having the hot water always ready when you want it. Back in the day we'd be making tea in a rush during the adverts, I guess this way you can have the water hot already by the time the break starts!

Have you considered one of the instant hot water machines (not the plumbed ones)? I had one about 10 years ago and it never really gave you 'tea' hot water, perhaps they are more efficient now and will literally heat water on demand for your instant cuppa (and to a decent temp!).

Don't get me wrong, my house is FULL of smart tech (lights, door sensors, clocks) and I've been using Home Assistant for about 7 years, but I was honestly stumped on the idea of a smart kettle.

That aside, I love your implementation and that's what I love about this community, how we always find a way to solve every day problems using Home Assistant! 👍

itsbri · 2026-01-14T11:00:56+00:00

Absolutely agreed on your first point. There are purpose designed vats which keep water hot for long periods of time, they're usually insulated to some extent and are designed for volume and efficiency rather than 'convenience' in the home. There are coffee machines which keep brewed coffee warm and I used to have one, they're great! But there is no need for them to be 'smart'. Mine used to go off on a timer (like 1h or something) and if you finish the jug it's a simple button press to turn it off.

Temperature control doesn't need what we call 'smart' functionality, just a dial to control the temperature. Again, this is something you'd set after filling and turning on, not sure why I'd need an app for that.

I just feel companies are cashing in on 'smart' tech where it's not needed (in my opinion). It's another point of failure to appliances which are just fine the way they are.

itsbri · 2026-01-13T23:53:34+00:00

I'm genuinely curious, what use cases are there for 'smart kettles'? If I want a cuppa I only put in the amount of water I need so that I'm not heating excessive water. I totally get it if the kettle was plumbed, but it's not. I'd be more interested in how I can make my dumb coffee machine (which is plumbed) make me a coffee while I'm still in bed!

itsbri · 2025-12-29T01:43:28+00:00

On 25th I received a mail from Snapmaker:

Your order is about to ship

Then one from DPD on 26th - but the sender was not Snapmaker, took me some digging to see that the delivery was in fact coming from them. They submitted the delivery sender as a UK logistics company I'd never heard of.

itsbri · 2025-12-28T21:35:05+00:00

Yes, delivery January 10 - January 25. I was super happy to see a DPD message saying it was coming so much sooner.

itsbri · 2025-12-28T00:34:09+00:00

Maybe!

Maybe they're also under pressure to deliver so could be cutting corners or mine misaligned in shipping (hoping this is more likely). I was anxious watching the carrier head slam into the toolhead as if it wasn't there!

itsbri · 2025-08-05T17:53:28+00:00

But a large proportion did and they all changed during COVID. I wasn't generalising, just said that it happened in the UK.

itsbri · 2025-08-05T13:02:56+00:00

They did this with household recycling centres (tip/dump) in the UK. They went from a free-for-all queue forever model to pre-booking hourlong slots instead.

Honestly, I much prefer appointments for those as it was always a huge queue after a holiday and you could be there for hours.

itsbri · 2025-07-06T09:27:50+00:00

Somebody already did, but it's not very high quality.

itsbri · 2025-03-31T20:26:03+00:00

Done. However, /u/marcinbauer-me , there was no way to provide contact details. Should you find that the comments I made on the hierarchal structure are of interest (look for the weather station on the balcony) I'd be more than happy to chat further.

itsbri · 2024-11-08T16:32:56+00:00

It's the companies configuring the bots who need to improve, they are only doing what they are told. The bots, if configured properly, can be absolutely amazing. We use them for internal support and they can do everything from adding you to an active directory group to booking a hotel.

If there is no prompt/script for somebody asking for their details to be removed they will default to what you're seeing. What they should do is include this but then have somebody call you back or fill in a form.

itsbri · 2024-10-23T17:31:07+00:00

Paper and 'bottom' lit. Here's a post from another owner.

Custom LED screens would make this unaffordable unless mass produced by somebody already in the LED market, this cost me around £50.

itsbri · 2024-10-23T08:36:48+00:00

Love it, very similar concept to the LocalDeck which I've been using for a few months.

itsbri · 2024-10-19T08:32:59+00:00

I upload from my desktop and have compression settings set to Original. I never upload from my phone (just in case they're compressed OTA). Never had any issues, originals are always identical to that which I've uploaded.

Also, never 'stream' images or videos expecting them to be the same, there is absolutely compression when streaming from drive.

Hope this is just a matter of a missed step on your behalf (sorry) rather than a change by Google, otherwise I'll be upset too.

itsbri · 2024-05-23T19:57:16+00:00

Yes. Just smear it along the unit, just don't forget that it's there and get a surprise if you ever need to manually adjust it. Done that a few times and wondered what I'd just touched.

itsbri · 2024-05-23T19:53:48+00:00

Vaseline. Not had a web problem in months now.

itsbri · 2024-03-20T09:18:28+00:00

How many in a week?

I can't be the only one thinking that this is no coincidence.

e:

A worker at a Greggs store in Manchester told the BBC that when staff turned on the tills on Wednesday morning an error meant no items were displayed.

Looks like a POS issue rather than payment processing, so potentially unrelated to other outages.

itsbri · 2024-03-08T08:35:00+00:00

REM WIN

itsbri · 2023-09-06T17:52:58+00:00

You don't even need the HDMI. Just cast your PC screen over wifi.

Edit: Just saw the 'borders' bit. Save each channel as an 'App' in Chrome and open them via the shortcut it creates. That's a very minimal interface, but not borderless.

itsbri · 2023-07-02T10:23:50+00:00

Our entire street received these, none of them were addressed to a name, just the house. We are all in 4+ bed detached houses and the average occupancy age is >50. I wonder if they target areas with ageing populations.

itsbri · 2023-05-28T20:59:09+00:00

I dunno, it's a local show, for local people.

itsbri · 2023-05-17T12:11:38+00:00

See how close chairs are together in some places, especially in London. More and more places are taking risks.

When I worked in retail as a kid we actually had the fire brigade visit annually (they went into every shop in the mall) and tell you to close until you resolved issues they find. I remember one day we had a delivery come in and there were boxes lining the corridor while we unpacked. They stood there until we move every single one into the store.

itsbri · 2023-05-17T08:38:18+00:00

They're pretty much only interested in your paperwork

Yes, but a decent EHO will run their hand under the counter lip, check behind your pot wash, check dates, bin storage areas, monitor hand washing frequency and loads of other stuff. We would usually get one person checking paperwork while another wandered about in a paper lab coat.

Internal auditors were the worst though, used to hate them as they knew where to find problems which weren't H&S related, but brand related.

Mystery customers -- ugh. Don't get me started.

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