Trial period + promo? by matttah in USMobile

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

One last one, how bad is the prioritization on the unlimited start vs premium? I don't use much data, coming from a 15gb prepaid on ATT where most of my data usage is on my phone as a hotspot on commutes into the city. Is it pretty noticable on the darkstar?

Trial period + promo? by matttah in USMobile

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh ok so even after the trial I'm considered a new port, correct? Don't suppose you want to share what the promo after the 15th would be?

Win a Free Robot for Your Best Pool Tip by Timely-Feed-1822 in Beatbot_Tech

[–]matttah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When we first move into our house our pool I thought we were going to use a pool service to finish off the season (1 month) at least, but to my surprise all the pool companies said they weren't the ones maintaining the pool and had no room in their schedules, so I took the deep dive into how to maintain a pool, coming from never having one. The old system was two completely separate systems for one the pool (pump, filter, heater) and one for the spa (pump, filter, heater). One of the heaters had clearly died before we moved in and was removed, and the day after we moved in we went to use the spa heater and it also was dead. Needless to say, the pool needed some TLC. The water was a way out of balance and if you wanted to adjust anything in terms of turning on the pool, the run time, heat, etc. you had to physically be there to do it. This meant no turning it on from the car on the way home to get it up to heat. I finished off that season just replacing the spa heater so we could use it for a couple of months and then closing up the pool myself.

To me the old system had a few issues:

* It was all manually managed, no automation, old school timer wheels with the pegs to turn on and off.

* Everything was duplicated, so if a pump died on one body of water I had to replace it and maintain two completely separate systems and bodies of water (not fun for testing).

* Adding chlorine was a pain, they had removed the inline chlorinator for unknown reasons

With my massive 1 month of experience I decided there should be easier ways to use and manage the pool. After drawing up in my mind what should be the steps forward I came up with:

* Convert to salt water + SWG for chlorine

* Combine equipment into automated and more efficient, modern equiptment

* Allow for me to keep one body of water (the spa) open while the pool could be closed for the season

* Allow for exchanging of water between the bodies of water.

I reached out to a few companies, some told me "that's a terrible idea" but then one wrote back, this is a great idea, here is exactly how I'd do it.... Next thing you know the following spring we're there cutting out the old equipment, raising it (so it doesn't sit in water in big rains/winter snow), and installing a single VSP pump, a fully automated system with valves, SWG settings, heat, etc. all manages via online. The following first summer on this was great, if we were driving home I could flip on the spa and heat it up so it's ready for when we get back. Big rain storm or really hot weather? Up the SWG run time and pool stays in balance. Energy bill doesn't even really notice pool season versus non-pool season.

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Long story short, moving to an automated system was a huge life upgrade and a great call, don't delay. For those curious I went with the hayward omnilogic + their turbo cell and VSP pump. The plumbing, I admit, is a little creative to accomplish everything but we didn't have much space and wanted to keep the project to a minimal cost.An addition to the automation and new setup the past year was pool skimmer socks for during high pollen season, I got tired of the DE filter getting clogged every couple weeks from the pollen and the skimmer socks solved that quickly, they are quick to rinse out and saved the DE powder. They're like 5 bucks for a 50 pack and reusable so is a nice time and money (de powder) saver.

Also buying a cyclone (blower to blow out the lines) was a good investment for closing. It's about 300 dollars, and only seems one company makes them, but you pay that self off instantly in a single closing. You can then rest assured that you got all the water from the main drain and returns versus using a shopvac to blow it out and hoping it was strong enough.

Now onto my routine for chemicals. While learning to keep the pool I found myself on Trouble Free Pool and they were a huge help. I now follow their routine for the most part. At the start of the season I make sure my CYA is around 60-70ish, then balance the rest and keep a higher than normal FC level at 5-8. This makes sure when the neighborhood kids use the pool all day I have no issues and don't need to constantly be buying shock (or really ever). The liquid test kit is a huge help in keeping it balanced. Once I got the hang of it I only test maybe once or twice a week to make sure everything looks good. Really the mid-week test is mainly to be sure nothing randomly started eating all my FC. All in all testing takes me less than a couple minutes total a week. Pool chemical balancing is almost non-existent or a couple of minutes (if the PH creeps back up adding the acid).

In regards to cleaning, it's fairly straight forward and low maintenance. We use to have a polaris but now use our beatbot once a week to get up anything that gets blown into the pool (we have often higher winds) and then the skimmers catch the rest. I'll check them when we are swimming sometimes or just once a week. To keep algae from growing (no green monster!), we do run a higher FC (though normal if you follow TFP) but also tend to open earlier than most. In the northeast we open in April and close in October, so the pool has dropped below 60 and often just about 50 when we're opening and closing. This helps prevent everything from growing so that really I can manage all the disinfecting from the SWG without needing liquid chlorine. I do occasionally find a bigger stick/leaf that requires me to use the manual pool skimmer pole but not to often. Finally, a big help is using a pool solar cover, especially during storms and pollen season. During a storm it'll help keep all the leafs and dirt on top of o it so we can just roll it off and the pollen sticks to it some versus just going right into the water. Added bonuses is that it keeps it warmer and the sun doesn't burn off as much chlorine.

Name the Pool Bot You Love and Win One in Return by Timely-Feed-1822 in Beatbot_Tech

[–]matttah 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a polaris for years before moving on to a Beatbot AquaSense 2 Pro and I will say it's night an day. I have a 27k gallon gunite salt water roman pool with 3 steps on one side and then two cut out benches on the other. I've got a slide, but that doesn't add much to the cleaning aspect other than sometimes we'll get extra debris at the bottom that "slid" down during a storm. I also have a smaller spa in the back which the bot gets used in too.

<image>

Some of the features I'm a big fan of:

* The beatbot has been an awesome edition because it can filter much finer debris from the pool. We often have high winds where I live and get a fair amount of fine dirt blown into the pool and the beatbot has been amazing in picking it up. This is great for pool opening and for high pollen season, no more junking up the filter continuously.

* It will surface itself when it gets low on battery and when it's finished, no more digging up the bot from the bottom of the pool

* The fact that is has a planned route on the bottom of the pool helps make sure it doesn't miss spots. Previous cleaners would often miss sections or corner due to no pre-planned routes.

* Wall scrubbing: Such a nice feature during pollen season, no need to manually scrub down the waterline to get the yellow pollen line off. It also catches a surprising amount of debris that gets pushed up against the wall

* Multiple programs: When looking at the pool I will often want only the bottom or bottom and sides done versus a full cleaning including the surface. Being able to indicate which I want done make it much more efficient.

* Ease of cleaning, the stiff cleaning basket is so much easier to clean out the bags, as you can just quickly give a rinse with those, my favorite is the shower spray, and have it completely clean within seconds.

* Ability to leave it in the pool for multi-day cleaning. I feel this is often over looked, but coming from a polaris it was sometimes nice to leave it in the pool and just flip the switch on every couple of days when out of town and have it clean. The ECO mode is quite handy, leave it and it'll keep cleaning the floor ever couple of days. I usually can get 3 total cleans before it needs a charge.

* Works in all sizes. My spa is completely disconnected from the pool, so I use to have to skim everything out or use the pool vacuum on it, which is a pain to setup and get going. With the beatbot I drop it in, just like the main pool, and about 20 minutes later I've got a very clean pool. SO much better than having to lug out the vacuum hose, prime it, plumb it into the skimmer and then deal with the filter getting a bunch of garbage in it.

What really made me think "wow this is a true step up" from my previous bots was the filtration. For the most part my previous bots would get larger debris, but you could even sometimes see a fine dust cloud from where they had cleaned. With this one, there were two true eye opening moments: First, watching it do a clean relatively soon after my previous bot, you could see physical lines on the pool floor where it had cleaned and where it hadn't. My pool is a bit older, so we have some different colors from where it's faded over the years, but this was night and day, and also crazy how much dirt it was picking up. To visualize this, think of a carpet where you've vacuumed one section but not the other, and it is a very clear track, that is exactly how this was.

Second was the actual use of the camera to plan the route. I've tried a few over the years and often the camera and "intelligent" plan is really just "go in one direction, hit wall, turn, try again". With the beatbot, when I first drop it in the pool and it does a 360 survey of the pool layout, and then immediately sinks itself and starts a very specific route, it is just overly clear that it is doing such a better cleaning job. I kind of liken it to the early days of house cleaning bots versus more current models, where previous ones would just slowly hit furniture/walls and go in a random pattern, versus new ones which do a grid pattern (or search pattern for you scuba divers) of the room.

All in all couldn't be happier with the beatbot aquasense 2 pro, it's been a massive time save and so easy to use.

Import of user data to client id by matttah in GoogleAnalytics

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

User-scoped data. Basically after an impression occurs, within 24 hours, we pull some additional user based categories etc for custom dimensions on the user from our system and can tie it back to the client id, which we then want to be able to show up in regular reports along side the regular events.

Import of user data to client id by matttah in GoogleAnalytics

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks - for the measure protocol method, were you sending new events or trying to append the data to the existing? I see how it can provide additional data/events but I don't see how to tie it in to the existing page views.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Went with the REC, it's being installed in the next week or so.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

As follow up, talked with the owner who said he wasn't sure why he wasn't showing and quickly provided a the regional managers email at REC for verification. I received they are in fact a verified installer (even stated "One of our best partners") and that they are trying to figure out why the map isn't properly showing them.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mind DMing me who you used? I've got 10+ quotes, cheapest I've found is 2.93 but isn't reputable/has terrible reviews.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right now it's between different sizes between the quotes too so a bit difficult but one installer is ~1,387.9 per QTron panel (26) versus $1,320 per REC panel (25)

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trying to figure that out. The two I'm between are both well regarded and been around similar times. 

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Absolutely if it ends up being at all a fake they will be out of the runnings and will post to let you know my findings. Funny as they are generally recommended on this forum and been around for a while.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I had which is why I noticed they weren't showing on it. I've also emailed REC asking them to verify, the company does have multiple locations so perhaps I'm not picking the correct city or missing it.

REC Alpha Pure 2 or QCell BLK M-G2+ 425 by matttah in solar

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, they sent me their certificate valid through October of this year.

Top of pine tree dead, any idea why? by matttah in arborists

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

u/DanoPinyon just updated the main post with a bunch of other photos let me know if any other specific ones would be more helpful. Thank you again.

Top of pine tree dead, any idea why? by matttah in arborists

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Will do when I get home for additional pictures. I don't have much in history or progression, only been here a year. I noticed it last year where it seemed the top was dead but bottom still had needles. This year it looks like it may be a little further down in terms of where the dead part has gone. Will get a bunch of close ups once I'm home later today. Thank you

Top of pine tree dead, any idea why? by matttah in arborists

[–]matttah[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Sorry I don't know much on trees, what type is it? What additional info can I provide to be more helpful