Sleep-deprived nursing mothers need to be aware of time, specifically when a middle-of-the-night feeding begins and how long it lasts. Projection clocks make keeping track of time easier. Another mother told me about these clocks, and I bought one for each of the rooms I spent late-night/early-morning dazed hours with my newborn daughter.

Like the previously reviewed Analog Atomic Wall Clock, this is an atomic self-setting timekeeper, so Daylight Saving changes occur automatically. While the clock’s face is visible from a fair distance, the unobtrusive projected red readout measures about 10 inches across when the clock’s placed at a distance of about 6 feet from the ceiling, so it’s legible from any point in a small- to medium-sized room. It doesn’t, however, show up at all in a bright room. Oregon Scientific makes a projection clock that’s bright enough to read during daylight hours, but it costs significantly more.

Projection aside, Oregon Scientific’s Projection Clock functions reliably as a user-friendly and intuitively simple alarm clock. It also displays room temperature. My daughter’s older now and I’m no longer nursing, but I still enjoy being able to just open my eyes in bed and see the time displayed on the ceiling, without having to roll over or contort my neck or body in any way to check the clock.

When I bought my refrigerator it wasn’t until it had been delivered that I realized there was no light in the freezer compartment. It wasn’t enough of a pain to go through exchanging refrigerators, but for the past 15 or so years, it’s been a minor annoyance, requiring me to turn on a kitchen light to see what’s in there. Until I remembered these motion-sensing LED lights I’d already placed in about a dozen spots throughout my house. Who says I can’t put one of those in the freezer compartment, such that the motion of opening the door turns on the light? So I did just that and darned if it doesn’t work beautifully. Better 15 years late than never.

These small Philips lights (3.1 x 2.7 x 0.8 in ) automatically go on when something in their motion-sensing field moves, give a nice bright light, and automatically turn off after 15-20 seconds without detectable motion. I’ve found them great for closets, cupboards and cabinets -- much better than those press-to-turn-on iterations that automatically go off but require you to first find them in the dark to turn them on.

You have three ways to mount them if you choose that option: included double-sided adhesive pad; included magnets; screws/nails through the pre-drilled holes in the back panel. Battery replacements are simple and don’t require dismounting. The one change I’d like to see would be an off switch to disable them during daylight hours.

I set out to replace the boards on our backyard deck this summer, and initially tried removing the old boards with a three-foot crowbar. The main problem was getting it between the deck board and the joist, so I could start prying. This required a hammer to drive it under the board. Then with a lot of effort, time and hammering I eventually removed one board. Clearly not the way to do the entire deck.

After some searching I discovered the Duckbill Deck Wrecker. This thing is a monster. It sits on the joist and has two legs that straddle the joist and slip under the board you’re removing. With almost 4 1/2 feet of leverage it’s easy to pry up the board, progressing along its length every one or two joists. You stand on the old section of deck and push the handle of the Duckbill up, thus prying up the old board in front of you. As far as other tools go, Mayhew’s Cats Paw functions with a similar design, though without the rotating head. The Cats Paw has a little less leverage and costs a little more.

The first, outermost, board(s) must be removed some other way to expose enough joist so that the Duckbill can fit under a board. As you make your way closer to the house -- putting down new boards as you take old ones up -- eventually there isn’t room to stand behind the Duckbill. At this point you remove the Duckbill head (it’s pinned to the shaft and can be rotated 180°), turn it around and now you are standing on the new decking and pulling the handle of the Duckbill to remove the last few old boards.

I’m sure I will find some other uses for this thing, but even if it’s only good for decks, it was well worth the money.

My needs are served half the time by a simple sub $100 DMM. Other times, I need a more complex and reliable meter. The Fluke 87V is that meter for me.

The 87V is more a general-purpose tool than Fluke’s T5, previously reviewed on Cool Tools. The T5 is a compact, limited resolution (only four-digit display) tester. It does not appear capable of measuring many of the things that the 87V can handle. The 87V can measure a much wider range of voltages and currents with greater accuracy. It also has an analog-style bar graph to help show trends, stores max./min. readings and will sound warnings if limits are exceeded. It can answer all the same questions as the T5, except in some cases it would need a probe (the open jaw mechanism for measuring current without breaking the circuit is the T5’s killer feature).

The 87V can also measure temperature (with a probe), frequency (for control circuits) and handles in-line current measurement to 20A. The peak capture will let you see spikes on a signal/control line as short as 250 us. It also has built-in filters for measuring voltages on noisy lines (as with motors).

If you only need to know how many volts or how many amps in a household setting, the T5 is surely sufficient. If you want a bench-grade tool for the homeowner, automotive and/or electronics hobbyist, the 87V is the real deal. For me, most of the time, the application is automotive or motorcycling (ensuring that things are charging and within spec); or that I can confirm the homemade wiring harness is assembled correctly prior to plugging in the $100-plus parts and accidentally cooking them. For more complex things, like servo controls in remote control applications, the duty-cycle measurements the 87V gives help confirm that the servos are in the right position.

I don’t use the frequency feature very much, but temperature measurement is useful in a few applications when debugging cooling problems in equipment, too. When trying to solve a problem with a power supply or load-induced glitch, the max/min hold functionality is great. You can stress and test the circuit and see the min. (or max.) readings after the fact to confirm, or refute, the problem.

The Fluke 87V is the benchmark by which most are measured. Knowing that it can be beat on and abused, yet continues to give me lab-grade results year after year means I just depend on it and stop wondering what is going on. It tells me.

This is the definitive source on composting crappers, from why to how, and yes, the scatological humor abounds. Yet this is a serious issue. Biosolids are recycled and used in the U.S. and around the world by governments and municipalities, and not always in the most responsible ways. Jenkins gives you the knowledge to do it yourself, and do it responsibly. The entire contents of this comprehensive guide are available as a free PDF download, and the Jenkins Publishing site offers up instructional videos, too.

This is the Bradley Tank of gutters. It is insanely engineered and overbuilt to last a lifetime without clogging with leaves, pollen, pine needles, twigs, etc. Like several other brands of gutters it ingeniously uses water's natural surface adhesion to bend rainwater around its blunt edge and into the drain. The water drips in upside down, but the leaves and gunk do not. This idea really works, even in very hard rains. I've spent some soaking wet time closely inspecting how well this clever system works in the worst downpours of the winter, and the physics caught about 98% of the rain (and zero debris).

GutterShutter distinguishes itself because of the quality of their build. They use 0.032 inch aluminum which means that you can hang from the gutters, or throw a heavy ladder on it without fear of denting it. I was very impressed with the solid construction details because of previous experience with wimpy metal gutters that bent or rusted. They also use heavy duty internal braces to screw in the gutter not just to the fascia board but to the roof rafters themselves. There's no doubt in my mind these will outlive me. Finally, the company guarantees there will be no debris in the gutter ever -- and will come clean it out themselves if you do find any. That's a promise hard to beat.

So far I've found none. Which is amazing. We live directly under several 100-foot Pine and Redwood trees that drop leaves and pollen cones year round. I would spend a weekend twice a year cleaning out several inches of crap, and the rest of the year knowing I should do it more often. I tried all kinds of gutter guards but without success.

The downside of GutterShutters is their very high cost. They are expensive, no way around it (and they have heavy duty sales pitches). Probably $30-40 per foot installed (in San Francisco area). Because of that cost we limited where we put them -- wherever I was tired of hanging off a 30-foot ladder several times a year.

So far, I've had zero work to do on the gutters, so their cost has been worth it. I'd recommend these for homes with a heavy load of leaf debris and/or high or hazardous roofs. Or if you simply want gutters you don't ever have to worry about again.

Other systems that work on this same principle, such as Gutter Helmet, and Leaf Guard, are a whole lot cheaper and probably just as effective, although I found them to be less substantial, and presume them less long-term. Some pop on top of existing metal gutters. They just were not built like tanks.

We live in a tiny house and love our Dickinson Marine fireplace -- it does an excellent job of heating our 105-square-foot space. Watching the flames makes things very cozy on a cold day.

We generally use our fireplace beginning sometime in November through about April, depending on the weather. It uses very little propane; I think it cost us about $40 for heating this past winter. We use the 12v built-in blower when it is particularly cold or when we are trying to heat things up quickly. But forced-air heat blows around dust, which makes me sneeze, and it is a little noisy, too, so I prefer to leave the fan off when it’s not necessary. Without the fan on the heater is very quiet. For our small space and compared with electric space heaters or even central forced-air systems, this little guy takes the cake.

One nice side bonus: When the heater is on, I can place my coffee cup on top next to the flue to keep my coffee warm!

Imagine Martha Stewart as a gun-toting Libertarian and you’ll have good notion of the editorial outlook of Backwoods Home Magazine. What makes this magazine useful, regardless of your political persuasion, is the wealth of information written by practitioners in the arts of self-reliance. You’ll find articles on everything from growing vegetables to baking bread to, yes, cleaning your Glock. Even if you live in the city there’s plenty to learn in the pages of BHM, in particular from Jackie Clay, Backwoods Home’s resident advice columnist. Clay can parse out and troubleshoot what have become almost lost arts, things like food preservation, soap making and small-scale poultry keeping. The rambling, unedited reader letters and the thrift-store-painting cover art are endearing bonuses.

Backwood Homes converges with Mother Earth News in terms of subject matter lately, but where MEN is liberal/progressive BHM is libertarian. MEN is professional, BHM homespun. MEN is rock and roll. BHM is country.

And what makes Backwood Homes magazine different from other DIY publications is that all of the columnists walk the walk in addition to talking the talk. They don’t just theorize, they actually do the things they write about. While the Libertarian rants may be off-putting to some, with what I’ve witnessed of our local government in action, the more I tend to agree. Even if I may never shoot, skin and make raccoon stew, I can appreciate the self-reliant activities profiled in BHM as part of an essential American skill set that needs to be recovered. We urban dwellers have been too busy in recent years with less useful activities such as selling mortgages and collateralizing debt obligations. Time for some tasty squirrel!

Mead making, beer brewing, bread baking, urban poultry raising, container planting, pirate gardening, foraging, pickling, bicycle-powered hauling, solar-oven making and anti-car culture ranting are just a fraction of what you’ll absorb plumbing the archives of HomegrownEvolution.com. Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen, husband and wife urban homesteaders, guide those of us who can’t make it back to the land on how best to incorporate aspects of it into our modern city-bound lives.

They’re encouraging, but don’t preach or pretend to be perfect, and therein lies their appeal. Erik and Kelly are friends of mine, and over the past few years their website and their book, The Urban Homestead, have led my household, step by small step, to be less consumptive and more productive.

A tool I love is the GB SE-94 Automatic Wire Stripper and Crimper. The Kronus Wire Stripper, previously reviewed on Cool Tools, used to be the bane of my electrical-work existence. It would only properly set and strip the wire in one quick motion half of the time, and the other half I’d have to spend a few minutes fumbling around getting the clamp to hold on tight or the blade to cut deeply enough to strip the wire. Averaging out the two amounts of time, it really wasn’t any more effective than the classic manual strippers. When I got my hands on the SE-94, it was as though someone gave me a hammer after years of driving nails in with rocks. It can grab and strip a wire with just a simple clench of the fist. It’s also been extremely handy in those cramped-in-a-sink-cabinet-wiring-up-a-garbage-disposal situations, when I don’t have the time to comfortably mess around with an inconsistent tool to get it to do what it was designed to do.

The cool tool here is creative solar financing. Solar-electric panels are pretty much a commodity, but still high priced. What's new is an innovative way for a homeowner to afford an expensive solar set up. Nine months ago I covered my studio roof with 5 kilowatts of solar panels financed by a solar company. We are generating about 85% of the electricity we use now. Here's how it works.

You sign up with a company that installs high-quality panels on your property for no money down. Zero dollars! On sunny days the panels make electrons which run your meter backwards. The quantity of panels are sized to cover about 80-90% of your current electric bill, so that you should be expected to pay the utility only 10-20% of what you pay now. In addition to the much smaller payment to your electric grid company you will also now pay the solar company a fee based on the number of watts you send into the grid. This is how they make money to cover the costs of installing the panels and their profit. The rates they will charge you per kilowatt will be less than the utility rates, so your total bill for electricity will be less each month. (Not zero, not half, but less.) Because the solar company makes money by how much electricity your panels produce they have a clear incentive to maintain the panels' performance and keep them clean and the inverters going. After 15-18 years, you can buy-back the panels for a fraction of their costs, but I suspect they will give them to you free since it will be cheaper than removing them from your roof.

You could think of this as a lease-to-own option for solar panels, where the solar company's rents for electricity are cheaper than the utility grid's. Those cheaper rents are made possible in part by government solar subsidizes, which the solar company will claim on your behalf. But this is a business. While you may be generating 90% of your usage, because you are leasing the panels, your total combined bill will not be 90% less. It may only be 10% less per month. But since it costs you nothing or little up front, over 18 years that 10% adds up. In California, one company providing this zero down financing is SolarCity.

While I got a bid from SolarCity, we went with a slightly different deal from SunRun. Rather than zero down, we paid for half of the installation. That investment bought us a better rate for the electricity that we generate. In fact for the next 18 years we pay a fixed rate for electricity. The average California rate is expected to at least double, and we are projected to save $80,000 over 18 years. We could have gone all the way and bought the panels outright and then paid no lease. But we went with SunRun because this path requires either half, or no, down payment, and because SunRun specs out, installs, insures, owns and maintains the solar panels on our roofs. Also, they guarantee a certain level of output performance.

The actual rates that SunRun or SolarCity charge you depends on the particulars of your place -- the solar climate in your town, the pitch and orientation of your roof, potential shade, and local electric rates. Solar engineers use a really cool computerized tool (above) which takes a annualized panoramic to determine your solar potential. From this they can accurately predict your site's solar potential and lay out a design to maximize it by the hour. The image below was taken on the roof of my studio where our panels now lay.

Solar panels these days are low profile (you can't see ours from the street), modular, and require a minimum penetration into the roof. (The picture at the beginning of this review shows the panels being installed on our roof.) Our 28 panels made it through the rainy season with no problems. If there is a problem, the owner -- SunRun -- takes care of it. (There are escrow mechanisms should SunRun go out of business.)

The technical term for this kind of financing is a "solar power purchasing agreement" or a Solar PPA. Solar PPAs were first used for commercial properties -- huge flat roofs converted for collecting electricity. SunRun, SolarCity and a few others have adapted solar PPAs for home residential use. Right now SunRun operates in California, Massachusetts, and Arizona. SolarCity, California and Arizona. SunPower seems to have dealers in many states, though I have not used them. Coverage is being expanded rapidly so it's worth rechecking. Here is a PDF document answering the FAQ on "whether a solar PPA is right for you."

Like a lot of folks, we've wanted solar electricity for a long while but the significant up-front costs of installing it didn't seem to make sense. Zero dollars down makes sense. Half down and a fixed 18-year rate makes sense.

And watching my daily stats on the SunRun website, seeing the meter run backwards, really makes sense.

Litter Robot is a perfect example of how approaching a design from a completely different perspective can produce a vastly superior tool. This is the cat litter box they'll use on the Death-Star! Its interior is a barrel which automatically rolls in such a way the catch basin opens, the poo is separated from the litter, it drops into a trash bag, and it all rolls back into place leaving the catch bin completely sealed and odor free and ready for the next use. To clean, just pull out the old bag from a front drawer and drop in a new one. Any plastic garbage bag will do.

Yeah, at $329 it's expensive, but unlike other automatic litter boxes, once you buy it you don't have to keep buying litter refills or disposable cartridge pans. You choose your favorite clumping litter and just remember to change the bag once a week and sprinkle in some fresh litter.

Did I mention it is as odor free as you can get? And it looks like a robot, so it's cool. I recommend buying the lip extender/fence attachment for the door which keeps vigorous cats from kicking litter out the front. There is a neat animation on the website on how it works.

I replaced my 'Scoop-free' with this one. (Scoop free was also great product, and I have no complaints about it except refills were terribly expensive, and it was still a conventional 'box' design.)

Intended for the new wave of back-to-the-landers and DIY city-dwellers, Country Wisdom is thick with possibilities for anyone looking to live, do and think more independently. Sure the content and format resembles the Whole Earth Catalog, but if anyone can -- and should -- carry that torch, it's the folks at Storey Books. Like the previously-reviewed Storey's Guide To Raising Chickens, the copy is clear and concise, accompanied by simple line drawings that are fun to ogle, even if you have no intention of mulling wine, weaving baskets, building a smokehouse, raising ducks or rabbits, composting, candle making, creating a bat house, constructing an underground root cellar or butchering livestock. I didn't grow up on a commune, but I recall a tattered copy of the WEC lurking around the house. It was only years later I realized what it was. Here's to another life-altering book for the next generation of kids to discover.

These pivoting plastic wheelbarrow handles let you go from a walking position to lifting and dumping without repositioning your hands. They're also amazing for me, because I am tall: When walking with a wheelbarrow the nose can sometimes catch the ground causing several problems. The handles lower the wheelbarrow's handles several inches, allowing me to walk upright instead of hunched.

Although I've only started using them, they've already had quite a workout. I am replacing the gravel pushed off of my 350' driveway by the snow plow. I load the wheelbarrow quite heavily. These handles have eliminated my hunching AND they let me dump the gravel easily.

Installation took me about ten minutes, being very careful, as they require you to drill permanent holes. They come with clear directions, a long screw, and nylon lock nut for each handle (also included are tubular shims to adjust the fit, if necessary). The steps are: 1) Slip it over the handle; too tight? Sand the handle. Too loose? Add shims. 2) Position as desired. 3) Drill hole in marked location through entire handle. 4) Put screw through the hole, apply nylon lock nut on the other side. Done.

I've found them to be stable. UV degradation is my primary concern, since I leave my wheelbarrow outdoor all year. Still, they are cheap enough that a second pair in 4-5 years would be acceptable to me, considering the convenience and back saving.

In the old days, I plugged all my computer equipment into a power commander, a large pizza-box device that sat underneath my monitor. It had have many outlets with individual power switches and a master switch on the front, allowing me to regulate which devices were draining power. I haven't been able to find those power commanders anymore, but after more searching than I expected, I finally found this surge protector that has per-outlet power switches. For the last year, I've used two of them as cheap insurance for power regulation in my RV.

Power in an RV can be at a premium, especially if it's coming from a generator or inverter (batteries/solar). A lot of the equipment in my RV is rarely used nowadays, but drains power if plugged in (vampire appliances!). Disconnecting specific devices is an easy solution -- flipping a switch for each outlet is even easier.

I use one for the TV, DVD player, satellite, etc., and one for my computer, monitor, phone charger, external hard drive, etc. I'm now able to turn my computer on and off with the master switch, and turn rarely-used devices on and off only if needed (TV/DVD especially).

I've yet to analyze the electric bill -- I'd need the previously-reviewed Kill-A-Watt (coincidentally on order) to know exactly how much power I'm saving. But this definitely helps me prevent using more than I expect. A great device for a cabin, RV or anywhere power use might be at a premium.

Way back in the 70s and decades before, too, hundreds of us tried lots of ways of heating water with sunlight. Some schemes worked fine at first, but later succumbed to failures of materials and technique. Some defiantly produced only lukewarm water available only at awkward hours. Some defied the laws of physics and didn’t work at all. A few exploded. It wasn’t long before it was common to see deteriorating solar water heaters perched disconsolately on rooftops, abandoned by humiliated, exasperated owners.

Time to try again! This inspiringly-comprehensive book presents what has been learned the hard way over the past 30 years or so. Clear illustrations—many in color—show the layouts that have proved to be the best in every way. Recommended hardware is here complete with brand name and even the part numbers. Here are the most effective pipe sizes and materials and why they are chosen. Classic mistakes are attended along with their corrections. Cautions are noted; success is celebrated.

My experience in the field and 25 years at the Whole Earth Catalog tells me that every aspect has been well covered and detailed. If you follow the recommendations, your solar hot water system will be sure to work and last a long time. I consider this book as a model for collected experience on other subjects as well.

Note: a black and white version of the book is also available. I recommend the colored version.

PDF download of Chapter 2: Drainback Solar Water Heaters
PDF download of Table of Contents

As a gadget writer, I get sent a lot of stuff. Much of it's junk, some of it's interesting, and an even smaller portion is useful. The Twist-Lok initially intrigued and never ceases to satisfy whenever I find myself drilling and driving, especially when perched precariously on a ladder. You just attach a basic keyless hybrid chuck to your drill, insert your drill bit, then slide the silver cover over the drill bit (the magnetized tip of the silver attachment keeps one of the 11 provided Philips or flathead bits secure).Need to drive a screw, you're set. Need to drill a starter hole, just pop off the silver attachment. Now, I'm no journeyman or contractor, but for my occasional use, the Twist-Lok just works. My only real complaint is the silver piece has to be removed in order to fit my drill back in its case. Of course, that minor annoyance is well worth the time I've saved this past year.

-- Steven Leckart

A video demo from Duluth Trading:

Rechargeable technology has gotten to the point where you can get almost as much power out of reusable batteries as disposables. Most battery chargers, however, are dumb circuits that simply jam a current through the battery no matter its current state of charge, which can ruin a perfectly good battery. With La Crosse's BC-900, you can not only monitor the charge on the battery at any given time, you can do a discharge + recharge cycle, or even a full refresh where the battery is discharged and recharged several times in a row. I've found the BC-900 can actually revive a battery that was rendered unusable via a less effective charger.

Previously, I owned a Panasonic that worked OK. Though I haven't done a completely exhaustive search of this space, after reading a lot of reviews and then using it, I really would rate the BC-900 as being one of, if not the best little charger for the money. With mine, I find I can get anywhere between 50 to 100 percent more cycles.

Plus, this unit has selectable charge rates, which allows you to charge batteries quicker if you need them ASAP, like within 15-30 minutes. Doing this does require a lot of current to be jammed through the batteries in a shorter period of time, which stresses them and shortens their lifespan. But it's helpful to at least have the option of optimizing for speed over longevity.The charger comes with eight batteries (4 AA and 4 AAA) and 4 C and D cell adapters, too, so you get a nice start all in one package.

-- Dave Cortright

La Crosse Battery Charger - BC-900
$40
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by La Crosse Technology

This low-clearance stove sits in a corner of our family room, which is not huge, so I wanted to nestle it in as close to the corner as I could. The big difference between this Morsoe and the previously-reviewed Jotul isn't the physical dimensions so much as just how close to the walls each stove can be. The Jotul needs to be situated 13 inches off the walls. The clearance for the Morsoe: 7 inches. A significantly smaller space clearance-wise than any other stove I've found. When I plotted just how far the Jotul would protrude into my room versus the Morsoe, the difference was dramatic.

In lieu of legs, the stove has panels bolted on either side which run from the floor to the top. Since they are not the same casting as the main body of the stove, the panels do not get incredibly hot. I can have the stovetop at 700 degrees F, and still touch the panels with my hand without getting burned. Air is drawn from beneath the stove up between the panels, and flows up into the room providing most of the heat output.

Aside from the clearance, this is a really nice little stove -- easy to start and burns great. I've used mine for two seasons now, two to three times a week during the winter months. While the rest of the house is kept around 65 degrees, the family room is 75. The downsides: requires small (10") wood, and the firebox is somewhat small, so it needs reloading pretty frequently. However, I shouldn't forget to mention the stove has cool squirrel symbols on the side panels.

-- Paul Mitchell

Morsoe Wood Stove - 1440
$1000
Available from Hearth Products

Manufactured by Morsoe

If you have an unheated outbuilding or basement and you want to warm it cheaply with minimal installation hassles, the ProCom "Blue-Flame" ML300TBA is an interesting option. A combination radiant/passive-convection heater powered by propane, the ProCom burns cleanly and needs no vent or chimney. A bit more civilized than the brute-force, rocket-engine-style of the previously-reviewed, portable Dyna-Glo workshop heater. Granted the Dyna-Glo has the raw power to bring a very large, cold space up to a comfortable temperature within a minimum amount of time, but it is relatively expensive to run and does make a distracting amount of noise. The Procom, on the other hand, just simmers almost silently in the background.

Those who live in the boondocks may already have a propane tank in the yard. Otherwise, you can buy a cylinder of the same type that you would use with a barbecue grill, and refill it from a propane dealer or by using the cylinder-exchange service at Wal-Mart. To run the heater from a small cylinder you will need a pressure regulator that screws into the top (with a sneaky left-hand thread), plus a piece of hose with 3/8" female connector on each end, and a male-to-male 3/8" brass adapter (known in the trade as a "nipple") to attach the hose to the heater. All of this stuff should be available at your local hardware store, together with Teflon tape, which you wrap around the threads before assembly. Make the joints tight, then squirt a solution of dishwashing liquid on them to check for leaks (which will blow bubbles). If you have any doubts about this, naturally you should consult a plumber. Personally, I had no problems.

Building codes and commonsense advise you to keep propane cylinders outside in case a cylinder leak occurs, which you may not notice since propane is heavier than air and collects at floor level. I made a hole through the wall for the hose and stood an 8-gallon tank outside on the deck. The only problem I found using this size of tank is that the heater's pilot jet sometimes doesn't relight easily when the heater is warm and the propane tank is cold (the tank gets colder during use, because of the loss of internal pressure). The instructions do recommend a full-size tank of 150 gallons or larger.

During use, the heater creates virtually no odor detectable by my nose, and because no heat is lost through an outside exhaust, it's super-efficient. Just to be on the safe side I bought a carbon monoxide detector from Home Depot for around $20, but it has not registered any hazard. Of course any flame will consume oxygen, and for this reason alone you should crack a window a little if you keep the heater burning for prolonged periods. The heater is not recommended for very small spaces, bedrooms, or bathrooms. Be sure to follow all the instructions in the manual.

Initial setup only took me fifteen minutes. It hangs on a single (supplied) bracket, which you fix to the wall with two screws. Model ML300TBA generates up to 28,000 BTU of heat and warms my office area comfortably within about fifteen minutes, starting from 55 Fahrenheit. Since the combustion of propane unites hydrogen in the gas with oxygen in the air, the heater liberates more than one-and-one-half pints of water per hour at its maximum setting, in addition to some carbon dioxide. The water is a bonus for me, as my sinuses prefer some humidity. The heater is silent unless you buy the optional (overpriced) circulation fan. Personally, I prefer to use a ceiling fan to spread heat around more actively.

Is it really safe?

Well, consider the alternatives. A wood-burning stove is generally regarded as benign, yet can emit significant carbon monoxide through incomplete combustion if you use it in "slow burning" mode. Fragrant wood smoke is rich in tars that may be carcinogenic, some escaping into your living room while the rest circulate through your neighborhood via that convenient device, the chimney -- which is not only horribly inefficient but becomes a notorious fire hazard as residues accumulate inside it.

You can see where my bias lies. For those who don't want to install a chimney, or don't have a municipal gas supply, or don't want to pay a plumber to extend an existing gas line to an additional location, an unvented heater is a convenient option. Propane is not an irritant, does not cause sensitization, and has no known teratogenic or mutagenic effects. Also, unlike a wood stove, the ProCom heater contains an oxygen depletion sensor that will shut it down if necessary. Of course if you allow it to become very dirty, it may burn less efficiently, creating some carbon monoxide, like a kerosene stove, which is why you may find a carbon dioxide detector reassuring.

Your only problem may be in finding this item. A large local hardware store refused to believe that such a thing could exist. Ventless gas heater? You mean -- without a chimney? "Impossible," they told me. Even a local plumbing/heating specialty place was skeptical. But my local propane supplier told me to mail-order one from Northern Tool, known to many of us as an indispensable source for cheap Chinese hardware, which sells the ML300TBA model heater for $170, excluding external connections. Similar heaters are available from Amazon, but they're more expensive.

-- Charles Platt

ProCom Unvented Propane Heater - ML300TBA
$170
Available from Northern Tool

Or $203 from Amazon

NOTE: Northern Tool also sells a natural-gas version of the ventless gas heater, which I have not tried -- Charles Platt

I have about 125 feet of mostly-uphill driveway. Before purchasing this salt and sand spreader, I found the only way to do a decent deicing job was the shovel method, which requires many trips up and down the driveway or dragging a bucket along. Though a truck-mounted automatic unit might be easier, for the money, this analog spreader is the best tool I have seen. You just fill the hopper and jiggle the handle up and down as you walk, spreading a nice even layer of sand, salt or mix. The spreader can hold up to 22 pounds, so one load should be plenty for the average driveway or walkway. Much faster than a shovel, easy to use and and unlike other manual spreaders I've tried, there are few moving parts to break. Should last a good 10 years, given decent care. Being made of plastic, the most important thing is to keep it out of direct sun. They're listed on Amazon for around $160, but I picked mine up at a surplus/salvage store for under $20 and have found them online for around $30.

-- John Wilde

Ames Salt & Sand Spreader
$164
(for 4 units)
Available from Amazon

Also sold individually, at times, for $31 via Backyard Style

Manufactured by Ames True Temper

If you have an unheated shop or garage, and you want to warm it fast so that you can get straight to work, this crazy-macho heater really does the job. It's very powerful (70,000 BTU) and, amazingly, creates no detectable odor while burning kerosene. Sold only in Home Depot stores (not available anywhere online) it retails for around $200, which is slightly less than similar models by other manufacturers. While many forced-air heaters of this type are propane-powered, this one allows you a choice of kerosene or diesel, eliminating the hassle, weight, and expense of a propane cylinder.

Inside the heater a pump vaporizes the fuel, which is ignited in a tube containing a powerful fan. The blast of hot air feels good and is much more effective than a passive convection heater. The device looks and functions like a small rocket motor, which adds to the fun of it for me, since I feel nostalgic for the days when consumer products were unencumbered by tiresome safety features. Some people however may be disconcerted by the yellow flames that emerge about 1 to 2 inches from the business end during normal use. If you live in Massachusetts, you're supposed to get a local fire department permit before you plug it in and induce ignition.

You must have a fresh air supply through a partially opened door or window, and you don't want pets or children around. Probably a concrete floor is advisable, and (even though the instructions somehow fail to mention this) you should not stand directly in front of the heater while switching it on! In 35-degree weather, in a workshop of 20 x 25 feet with a very high 16-foot ceiling, the heater created a 70-degree environment within about 15 minutes. The burning vapor makes a muted roaring noise, but you probably won't need to run it for more than a few minutes at a time.

Although the heater has a thermostatic control, I prefer to use mine manually, since a gadget resembling a small rocket motor which ignites itself at unpredictable moments is enough to make me a little jumpy. Dyna-Glo also manufactures a smaller, propane-powered version, which I tried but didn't like as much. They offer two larger liquid-fuelled models which I haven't tested, because I don't have that much space to heat.

--Charles Platt

Dyna-Glo Pro Heater
$200
model: RMC-KFA70TDGP
Available at Home Depot (not yet online)

Right now, the electrical power I'm using to submit this entry as I watch television in my warm home is being supplied by my Generac Guardian 12kw generator. It's been running continuously for more than 40 hours now since the latest ice storm left 250,000 people in Maine without power. I've had this unit for nearly ten years now, and it has reliably provided power whenever the grid fails, which can happen a few times a year in this pretty rural part of the country.

The exact model I have is a 04456-0 which is 10kw when used on Natural Gas or 12kw when used with LP (Liquified Petroleum) Gas. Ours sits on a small pad in the backyard hooked up to the same buried LP gas tank I use to heat the house, provide hot water, etc. Since the unit is air cooled, there's no radiator or water pump to worry about. No fan belts. And very little maintenance. Essentially, you have a 5-year battery to replace and an oil change every six months. It "exercises" once a week for 20 minutes and will indicate if there is a problem. The most that's ever gone wrong with it in all these years was a bad spark plug that I fixed in minutes. Mostly, you ignore it until the power goes out. I test mine in the fall or if I hear a big storm is coming; I do that by walking over to the master breaker switch from the power company and shutting it off. Like clockwork, 45 seconds later the house is lit back up as the generator is up and running.

Most importantly, this generator is automatic. As a volunteer firefighter, I wanted a unit that would start up and run automatically, since when we loose power there's a good chance I'll be too busy out on the fire trucks to go dragging a portable out of the garage and wiring it in.

Back about 10 years ago, this kind of permanently-installed generator was less common. The Generac line was really one of the first for consumers. At the time, automatic standby units were for businesses and public safety use. Big commercial units were simply out of the range for home use. My Guardian was purchased and installed professionally -- including the transfer switch and wiring -- for around $5500. I'm told they're available for much less now. There are also other products out there -- mostly higher-end ones like those from CAT -- that are great, but still too expensive for the average rural homeowner.

Honda makes great portable generators, like the previously-reviewed EU Series, which is enough to keep the fridge or freezer cold, or switch over and run the furnace to keep the house warm, but they're heavy, tricky to set up for many people, and don't hold as much fuel. At 12kw, the Guardian can run my whole house as long as I don't go crazy. The electric dryer and the air conditioner in my server room are not connected to breakers served by the generator, but everything else is. We're careful not to use all the burners on the stove and the microwave and oven all at once, but otherwise, it's just like being on the grid. The generator burns just under a gallon of LP gas per hour on a light to average load. With the tank I have, I can go several days if need be, which is plenty of time to arrange for a delivery of more fuel. During this blackout, my neighbors have even come over to cook and use the shower while their houses are still without power and they're struggling to keep enough heat in to keep the pipes from bursting. I can't think of a better testimonial than that.

My older model doesn't have Generac's new "True Power" feature that provides a cleaner power cycle for sensitive electronics, so I use battery backup units with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) on that gear. Newer Generac models provide this themselves. The one linked to below appears to be the newer version of mine in terms of size/market/capability, but it's only $3k. Given that it includes the transfer switch, that's a hell of a deal. For a cheapo 1 or 2 kw portable generator and transfer switch you'd pay around a thousand bucks.

-- Andrew Pollack

Generac Guardian Automatic Standby Generator
$3,050
(12 kW)
Available from Lowe's

Or $3,700 (10 kW) from Amazon

Manufactured by Generac Power Systems, Inc.

As a builder, woodworker and general do-it-yourselfer, I've been in my local ReStore every week since they opened. The concept behind Habitat for Humanity's ReStores is a building supply thrift outlet whose proceeds go to funding more Habitat projects. Everybody wins. Everything in the stores is salvaged, used, dontated or surplus, so the prices are incredibly reasonable. I just refinished a garage for well under half of what I would have paid retail by buying most of the supplies from a ReStore -- everything from the lighting to OSB board and 2x4's we used to make the temp walls. We even found some sound-deading insulation which helped sound-proof the place. So you never know what you might find.

The store in Dover has a volunteer demo crew that goes a few times a month on various demo projects and they usually produce a lot of usable material. The stock and materials do vary from week to week, but they have everything from engineered hardwood floors to tools to kitchen sinks. The quality also varies, but really only when dealing with items such as sheetrock and lumber. All the appliances are in working order and, at least at the one in Dover, there's a large selection of very nice kitchen cabinets. As a carpenter, I also go in during the day just to buy extra nails, joist hangers, and other little odds and ends that add up at the end of the year.

Currently, there are ReStores in 47 U.S. states and 9 Canadian provinces.

-- Dave Marcoux

ReStores

Available in the United States & Canada

These super heavy duty, compact shelf brackets were installed in the basement of my 80-year-old house when I moved in. I've never seen anything better for use as a lumber or pipe rack system at this price. The steel shelf brackets fit in a steel wall stringer that's rated to 300 lbs. at the tip of an 18" bracket. There are excellent commercial shelving systems costing hundreds, even thousands of dollars, but I don't consider those within the range of an average home owner or hobbyist. These aren't cheap, but they cover that middle ground between the industrial shelves and lesser, consumer-grade aluminum bracket systems. It took me 10 years to track down these, because, oddly, they don't seem to have a brand name or manufacturer affiliated with them. Woodcraft supply is the only place, the ONLY place I've ever been able to find them. Woodcraft claims Telco companies use them in their cable rooms for holding up heavy bundles of cables.

-- Jon Kroninger

Lumber Rack Bracket
$8 - 10"
$10 - 14"
$16 - 18"
$24 - 55"
$225 - full set
Available from Woodcraft

The "Breathing" Mobile Washer is a manual agitator that helps me do as good a job as a conventional washer machine, even better in my opinion. We do almost all our laundry at home in the tub, using the Breathing Mobile Washer and the previously-reviewed large spin dryer. The washer is sort of like a plunger, only made of rigid materials. The cone is articulated, so air is allowed to escape -- unlike a plunger, you don't get a build up of air pressure. Inside, near the bottom, there's a plastic grate. When you push down, water is driven through whatever is under the grate. Unlike the agitator in a conventional washer does, this washer doesn't just move the items around in the water. It literally forces water through the material. At the same time, though, it's gentle on clothing. There's lots of surface area, so there's little chance of anything tearing from potential stress. And, of course, being manual, you decide how hard to go at something. A dirty pair of jeans is always going to get a more thorough plunging than a delicate sweater or blouse. Soaking and pretreating laundry does most of the hard work. We do find it's important to still pre-treat stains, but we had to do that with our conventional washer, too.

Overall, using the mobile washer does not take too much work. I can throw the equivalent of 2-3 loads into the tub, agitate them for a minute or two to ensure everything is soaking well, then leave it for ten minutes or so, come back in, agitate it some more, leave it for another ten minutes, then give it a final agitation before loading it into the spin dryer in 2-3 batches. Since we usually use only one load of wash water and one load of rinse water for multiple loads of laundry, we're essentially doing 3-6 loads of wash with the same amount of water, detergent, and softener as we'd normally use in a single load. (Note: we use white vinegar in the rinse water instead of fabric softener).

According to the manufacturer, the Breathing Mobile Washer is actually a revamp of an old patent from the late 1800's. The old version was made of heavier metal that supposedly rusted. This one is lighter; the cone is made from plastic and the handle is wood.

-- Christine Mank

The "Breathing" Mobile Washer
$17
$35 (non-U.S.)
Available from The "Breathing" Mobile Washer

The uber dream: to live aboard a boat. This book's job is to wise you up about the reality of that fantasy. It will equip you with essential facts for this grand adventure, or else it will graciously eliminate the notion from your head forever. In either case it deserves a medal. This kind of clarity and sound advice is in short supply. Marina bookstores overflow with practical memoirs by salty authors, few of them with a view wider than their own hulls. This one is based on the experience of many liveaboard practicioners in many styles, and is the most useful way to answer the persistent question: "What is really involved living full time on a boat?" To clarify: The Essentials of Living Aboard is concerned with life on a boat that spends the bulk of its time docked, and only cruises occasionally. Your neighborhood will be other boats instead of open water. It is not too much of an exaggeration to say this lifestyle is less about living on a boat and more about living in a marina.

Living Aboard Magazine, still printed on paper, is devoted to the concerns and needs of liveaboards. It's a pretty cozy subculture, in part because the cost of mistakes on water are very expensive and possibly dangerous. Think of this as an old fashioned newsletter for liveaboard users; all material is generated by readers.

Start with the Essentials book and proceed to the magazine if you are not dissuaded.

-- KK

The Essentials of Living Aboard a Boat
Mark Nicholas
2005, 284 pages
$13
Available from Amazon

Living Aboard Magazine

Sample Issue PDF

The previously-reviewed Cable Slitter reminded me of this little thngamawhoogy. My father, who made his living as an electrician, always had one on him for stripping cable. You slip it over the wire however far you want to cut it. The electrical cable passes through a hole in the wide end of the CR-100 (note: the holes running along the side are only for checking the gauge of the wire). Then, gripping the tool firmly, you just slide it toward the end of the wire, pulling the wire through and causing the cutting blade on the open end to slit the length of the sheathing, without damaging the wires inside. You can then pull the inner wires out and cut off the sheathing with a knife. Or in my father's case, the cutters on his pliers. This Cable Ripper and a pair of pliers was all he ever used (he could also strip wires with pliers, but that's really an acquired skill).

It's virtually impossible to accidentally cut yourself with this tool, which makes it safer than trying to slit a cable with only a utility knife. I also find it's better than the strippers on a set of pliers, because it's specifically made to slit romex (NM or non-metallic) cable, not strip insulation off the wires themselves. Two drawbacks: it's intended for romex cable and really isn't too useful for anything else. Two, you need another tool to cut the sheathing off. Still, it's inexpensive, works great and you can get them at Lowe's, Home Depot or any electrical supply place and probably your local hardware store.

-- Keith Perkins

Gardner Bender Romex Cable Ripper
$2
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Gardner Bender

When we moved out to a farm, we decided to line dry whatever we could, but handwringing all our clothing, linens and towels is time and energy consuming. And the hand wringing was hard on my more delicate clothing. These electric-powered spin dryers do a fantastic job; the clothes come out just slightly damp and dry quickly. The dryers are also much gentler on stuff like sweaters, delicates and lingerie. Two years ago we bought a small counter-top dryer for the apartment we keep in the city (to avoid schlepping linens and towels). It worked so well and we were so impressed with it I then bought a larger one for the farm. The smaller one spins at 1600 RPM and the larger one at 3600 RPM, so they greatly reduce the time needed for line drying (probably only 1-2 minutes on average). They also help get much more water and detergent out of our laundry than a conventional washer does. There's much less detergent smell. We are most definitely not into the fragrances put in many detergents. It usually smells like nasty chemicals to us, so the more we can get out of our clothes and linens, the better. And avoiding the dryer frees us from that "cooked" smell.

Both systems are completely contained and the water drains into a sink or bath tub. We put the mini one on the kitchen counter (on the dish drainer tray) so we can load wet stuff right from the sink into it. It has a flexible hose that comes out of the bottom in the back, and you just snake that over to the sink and the water goes right back in -- makes it easy to use the same wash water and detergent several times, saving on water and detergent. The large one has a spout in the front at the bottom, which we position over the bath tub. My husband actually built a plywood triangle fitted with some rubber matting on the underside (so it wouldn't mar the tub). The larger one is especially great for cleaning and freshening up bed pillows. They're almost completely dry after only spinning a couple minutes! A couple caveats: you can't turn them on and go off and leave them unattended. And you do have to ensure they're balanced -- if the big one ever got away on you, I'm sure it could do some damage. But after using it a couple times, you get onto how to load for balance.

-- Christine Mank

Spin Dryer
$135
Available from Laundry Alternative

Mini Countertop
(pic at top)
$70
Available from Laundry Alternative

We heat our home with wood -- four full cords per year -- and began to feel guilty about borrowing our neighbor’s wood splitter for our annual restocking project. We don’t have room to store a full-size splitter, so I researched and found the Brave EZ split log splitter. At about 1/3 the size and 1/4 the weight (140 lbs) of a standard splitter, it doesn’t take up much more space than a lawn mower and can handle all but the most gnarled logs. The splitting wedge is quite narrow, so sometimes it actually cuts through the log rather than splitting it apart. A full cycle is about 18 seconds, so it's not as fast as a full-size splitter (closer to 12 seconds). Since the wedge isn’t as tall as on a full size splitter, I occasionally have to turn the log over to get a complete split. Also, the splitter only takes logs up to 18 inches long, but these are small trade offs for the ease of storage and transport. If someone wants to borrow it or if there is a downed tree that someone is willing to let us have, we can put it in the back of our van and not worry about a tow-behind-splitter bouncing all over the road. The engine, which runs on regular gas, always starts after one or two pulls.

-- John Savereide

E-Z Split
$700
Available from Northern Tool

Or $716 from Amazon

I still have vivid memories of the Northeast blackout of 2003, so a few years ago I decided to get prepared by purchasing one of those emergency flashlights which stays plugged in and switches on automatically when the power is cut, thus guiding you right to a fully-charged unit. Oddly enough, the best plug-in emergency flashlight I've found -- which uses standard AA batteries -- isn't even marketed as a flashlight! The manufacturer refers to this unit as a battery charger with a built-in light, but it's exactly what I was looking for. There is a three-way switch: always off, a smaller LED night light on the bottom, and automatically turn-on four LEDs when the power fails. Mine sits in a wall outlet in the bathroom, waiting to turn on during the next blackout. In the meantime, I use it regularly as a battery charger. It comes with four 1300 mAh batteries, but I actually use 2000 mAh batteries, which I switch out as I use them in other devices. All for the better, since I'm told batteries should be allowed to discharge on occasion anyway.

-- Allan Peda

Powerbank Torch
$28
Available from Green Batteries

This toilet seat's plastic hinges are equipped with seat anchors that allow the seat to be removed for toilet cleaning. A simple twist of two locking knobs and the seat lifts off; reversing the procedure re-locks the seat. It makes an awkward job very simple. My toilet is so much easier to clean completely. The area around the hinges is much cleaner due to easier access. Still one of the best ideas for the bathroom I've ever seen. There are various colors and incarnations on Amazon that cost more than $30. I purchased the cheapest basic style at the local Home Depot for less than $12.

-- Lester Coats

Bemis Easy Clean Toilet Seat
$9 (white)
Available from Amazon

$18 (black)
Also available from Amazon

$20 (blue)
Also available from Amazon

Manufactured by Bemis

NOTE: The manufacturer sells Easy Clean seats under the following brand names: Church, Mayfair and Westport. Also, I think it's worth saying that although we're recommending this product, I'm personally not thrilled with the manufacturer's "what women want" slogan. -- sl

This is the only big ladder I own. It works great as an extension ladder for painting, cleaning the gutters or reaching any of those high places. Like the Little Gorilla, it can be re-configured as a step ladder, so you can use it anywhere there is no wall to lean against. But like the previously-reviewed Green Bull Double Front Ladder, this ladder also has steps on both sides, allowing two painters to work at the same time (the max capacity is 375 lbs). The Werner definitely offers the best of both worlds. More expensive, yes. But surprisingly lightweight for a ladder this strong. I've had mine for more than 10 years with no sign of wear or tear. My dad is still using the one he bought in the '70s.

-- Dan McCulley

Werner Combination Step/Extension Ladder
$322
(8ft.)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Werner

The T5 is as reliable as a good, old-fashioned "wiggy" voltage tester, but adds the functionality of a digital multimeter (DMM) and an AMP meter combined. I've found the T5 to be a bit more robust than the average DMM and very reliable for a device in this price range. More importantly, it has a "fork" or "OpenJaw" that can be extended over a current-carrying cable so that it acts like an AMP-clamp, except you don't have to maneuver or close the jaws, making it quicker and easier to use. The fork is also a lot less intrusive and requires less space than the old open-and-clamp design. Perfect for a cramped motor panel or junction box. For most functioning/troubleshooting, it's helpful to know first if there is voltage and then if there is current (the garden hose comparison: do I have water pressure? is water flowing?). And, for service work for instance, it's great to be able to check both voltage and amperage of a motor running with one very lightweight, ergonomic tool.

I have been using a range of Flukes for well over 20 years -- everything from a multimeter to a scope meter and other devices. However, this relatively small unit remains my go-to instrument. It is the first one I grab both at home as well as on my job (I oversee the installation of packaging lines nationwide and, at times, do trouble shooting on pieces of automated equipment). There are two version of the T5, the 1000 and 600 models. The main difference between the T5-1000 and the T5-600 is their maximum voltage ratings, 1000 and 600 VAC respectively. To me, the relatively small price difference between the 600 and 1000 was worth it, but for general work around the house, the 600 should be perfect.

-- Ad Verkuylen

Fluke Voltage, Continuity & Current Tester
$78
(T5- 600)
Available from Amazon

$115
(T5-1000)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Fluke

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Pocket Ref

Fluke VoltAlert

Nuts & Volts

Problem: 50 feet of reinforced concrete curb where we wanted to build our community workshop. Plan A: Rented two pneumatic jack hammers. After a long afternoon, we had made progress, but only broken up about 10 feet. Plan B: My co-housing neighbor came across the previously-untried Dexpan. A non-explosive demolition agent, Dexpan is a mortar-like powder you mix with water and apply to rock, concrete and even reinforced concrete in order to break the material apart. As it dries, the powder expands a slight bit, but with a tremendous force. It's easy to use. We followed the guidelines for the most part. With a 1.5" carbide bit in a hammer drill, we made a series of strategically-placed holes holes on 12-16" centers, mixed up the mortar, and poured. It takes 24 hours or longer for maximum effect. As I recall, some holes didn't crack at first, but did after I added additional water and gave it more time. We did end up using a 20-pound sledge hammer and a 5-foot long solid steel pry bar when necessary to open up cracks so we could use an angle grinder to cut the rebar. The pry bar also was crucial in moving the chunks, which tended to be very heavy. Nevertheless, the Dexpan was responsible for breaking up the concrete into reasonably-sized pieces. The rebar had to be cut and required a lot of prying, but there's no way we could have broken all this up using a sledge hammer in any reasonable amount of time. There are other non-explosive demolition agents out there, but my recollection is that Dexpan was by far the easiest to buy in small quantities. They say their 44-pound box will cover 34-36 linear feet.You must order one of three mixes depending on the temperature you will use it at. As I recall, it was probably the low 60's on average when we used it so we got the middle mixture. If we had to do it over again, we'd probably price out having a professional remove the curb -- it really was a lot more work than we thought. But if you're going to do it yourself, this makes it a lot easier than just relying on a jackhammer.

--Dale Grover

Dexpan
$100
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Archer Company USA

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Demo Bag

The Art of the Stonemason

FuBar Demolition Tool

A few years ago when my wife and I renovated our home, we found inspiration in some unusual places. But perhaps the oddest of all was AW Direct, a mail order catalog that sells parts and equipment for tow trucks. While browsing through the catalog one day, I noticed AW Direct offers a recessed aluminum step designed for use on service vehicle bodies. But when I looked at it, I saw something different: a soap dish!

We bought one and installed it in the shower I now use daily. This is by far the best-designed soap dish I've ever used. The open front allows water to drain away easily, while the diamond-plate surface secures and elevates the soap so that it dries without creating a lot of yucky soap-gunk. And of course, the aluminum doesn't rust or corrode.

We ended up buying quite a bit from the AW Direct catalog for use in our house, and I heartily recommend it if your domestic tastes gravitate toward the functional/industrial. In the home or on the highway (or vice-versa), AW Direct delivers!

-- Todd Lappin, from his posting on the Dinosaurs and Robots blog

Industrial Soap Dish
$35
Available from AW Direct

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Waterfall Soap Saver

Shower Slate

McMaster-Carr Online Catalog

Since I seem to move house every six months or so, I have ample opportunities to test new strategies. This time around I experimented by putting plastic storage totes through FedEx Ground, and for the items I moved myself I used cardboard boxes with the addition of nonadhesive strapping tape and tubular handles. Much quicker and easier, less effort, no breakages, big success.

-- Charles Platt

Plastic Totes via FedEx

Wal-Mart sells them for storing items such as bedding and clothes in the home, but their semi-rigid construction makes them ideal for moving fragile possessions such as dishes and stereo components. They are stackable, waterproof, easy to pick up (recessed handle at each end), reusable (can be nested during storage), and will pass unscathed through FedEx ground. Best of all they barely cost more than cardboard boxes! My local FedEx-Kinko's was skeptical about accepting them for fear that the lids would pop off during transport. I allayed their fears by putting 2-inch tape around the perimeter of the lid and folding it under the rim. I had to make little notches in the tape so that it would seal properly either side of plastic strengthening ribs under the rim, but this was still much easier, quicker, and safer than using cardboard. Wal-Mart sells gray Sterilite brand totes (the type I prefer) through its stores, but not online. Models 1830 and 1835 are the ones I have tested through FedEx without any problems. You can pay a little more and get "latch totes" (models 1940 and 1945 with a flip-up latch at each end) but since you'll still need to add tape, I feel the latches are unnecessary. (NOTE: One reader pointed out that plastic totes may buckle if they are stored in a very hot place with heavy objects on top of them. I haven't encountered this problem myself, but I do follow the standard practice of filling each container to minimize empty space inside it)

Strapping Tape

If you still want to use cardboard boxes for items you move yourself, or if you are moving stacks of books secured with cling wrap (as I have suggested previously), consider adding half-inch nonadhesive plastic strapping tape. This is the stuff you sometimes see wrapped around boxes containing big items such as refrigerators being transported as freight. Often it's yellow in color. Shipping departments have a tensioner that they use to pull the tape tight, but you don't need that. You can get 3000 feet of half-inch strapping and a lot of little buckles, with a manual tensioner, for $36. You thread the tape through the buckle, pull up on it while bearing down on the box, and you have it as tight as you need it. You trim the tape near the buckle. The advantages are that it greatly strengthens the box while giving you something to grab it by, especially if you augment it with a handle (described below). Also you can link two or three boxes together so that you can carry them easily with one hand, especially up and down stairs. Much more efficient and secure than cradling boxes in your arms, less hazardous (you can see your feet and obstacles in your path), and less risk of back injury, since you don't have to stoop to pick them up. Note that FedEx and UPS don't like string or strapping that can snag their package processing machinery, so strapping is for transporting packages yourself or with assistance from movers.

DIY Box Handles

Make handles from half-inch plastic water pipe sawn into 5" lengths. My local Lowe's sold me six feet of pipe for around $3 and you can use any wood saw to cut it. You may feel this is a luxury, but if you want to protect your hands from the edges of the plastic tape, handles are nice to have.

Thread tape through handle.

Turn box upside-down and cross the tape ends.

Turn box right-side-up and thread one of the returning tape ends through the handle.

Add the buckle.

After pulling the tape tight, your box is now very easy to carry.

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Lay-It-Out

Moving Heavy Things

Furniture Sliders

I work in the beverage industry and use this scraper for removing stickers from cooler doors that other guys with pocket knives, razors, car keys, etc. couldn't budge. The Trim 10 has wide, super thin, very flexible blades about 4 inches long that really conform to the surface of the work. I find it picks up more material per stroke and gets down to the bottom of things better than a single-edge razor blade. The holder has a very elegant folding design that allows for safe, touchless blade changes and compact, safe transport -- a much smaller, flatter package than a lot of utility knives. The scraper comes in a nifty case that holds a few extra blades, which can be purchased separately. A modular handle is also available for heavier work, but I never need it. I get mine from a janitorial supply company in Austin. I believe the scrapers are popular with window tint installers, too.

-- Christian Taylor

Unger Trim Scraper
$6
(Trim10)
Available from ReStockIt.com

Manufactured by Unger

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Lil Chizler

Dexter-Russell Dough Scraper

Silent Paint Remover

Never before has a woodworker been able to make loose tenon joinery simply, quickly, accurately and anywhere. Loose tenon work is a process that has long been done by hand and/or large expensive stationary machines. With the Domino, you can now bring the tool to the wood. Anywhere. No back and forth to the shop, which can take hours. The Domino has locator pins in the face for precise alignment, meaning you can actually build something and test fit it together with no glue; the tolerances are that tight and perfect. The Domino really has the ability to turn a neophyte weekend bookcase maker into a pro -- I am a professional trim carpenter and in my line of work that's scary! Here's why it work's so well: the cutter is an oscillating carbide plunge bit similar to a router bit and it's interchangeable. It takes 5 seconds to set up for plunge and 2 seconds to do the deed. The time savings can be counted in days if not weeks on a big project. I used to scoff at overpriced stuff like this. Silly me. It's well made and, in the short and long run, it really increases productivity, which both saves and makes me money.

It's expensive, but I'd still recommend getting the set, as opposed to just the Domino itself. The set comes with two attachments that are a must for two different applications. One is for end joining, as you do with a face frame (the front of cabinets, which are made out of 1x2 or slightly larger stock). This attachment allows the machine to fit the narrow piece of wood perfectly on the end and it prevents wobbling (without it, the mortise would not be straight and at 90 degrees). The attachment also adjusts to take a 2 ¾ inch wide board, meaning you can mortise anything from an inch wide up to 2 ¾ inch. If you are making face frames you have a lot to do, but with this attachment, once you set to your size lumber, there is no more thinking. The other attachment allows you to align dominos that are farther apart than the factory pins. The factory pins allow mortise's spaced about a 1 ½” apart. With this attachment, you can space them anywhere from 4 1/8” to 8 3/8” and the pins hook into the last hole/mortise made, so all your holes are evenly spaced and line up exactly. No marks or measuring.

-- Per Swenson

Festool Domino Joiner
$750
Available from and manufactured by Festool

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This 21-LED flashlight dispenses an impressive amount of light for such a small and inexpensive torch. I find it to be of great use for illuminating a wide area, as it's not the least bit directional like a laser pointer. If I need to find something under a car seat, this is the flashlight I grab, as it bathes the entire area with a bright white light. Most of all, I really like that it's so compact. The three AAA batteries fit side by side in a carousel, so the whole flashlight is only about 3.5 inches long. The handle is made out of aluminum, and there's a sealed rubber push-button switch on the end. It claims to be water and shock resistant, but I haven't tested this. The light probably won't outlive (or outperform) something like a Fenix, but hey, it's only $11! I found it by skimming through JungleCrazy, a web site that lists Amazon deals. I bought three. I've been using one of them several times a week for the last nine months. I'm still using the batteries that came with it.

-- M. Schmidt

21-LED Flashlight
$11
Available from Amazon

Or $13 for a 28-LED light

Manufactured by Architectural Lighting Systems

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Ready Patch easily outperforms any spackling compound and drywall mud I've ever used. I'd liken it to the superbeast that would be created if you combined the hardness of body filler with the sandability of light vinyl spackle. It can patch drywall, wood, even metal on both interior and exterior surfaces. We recently moved into a new home and needed to relocate a cable jack in our family room that has painted wood paneling. I didn't want to use vinyl spackle, but was a little lost about how to patch the holes until finding Ready Patch. Smooth and easy to apply, it goes on just like vinyl spackle, takes no more effort, and in my experience it doesn't shrink when applied, so there's no need to overfill. Sand it like you would spackle and it leaves a nice smooth surface. It cures up hard as a rock, though. (I'm not certain about the product's composition, but the Technical Data Bulletin shows the generic name is casein resin emulsion; from what I gather, casein is used to manufacture plastic, so perhaps that helps make it stronger). It hasn't sagged when I've patched larger holes (like the ones left after removing toggle bolts from drywall), so it's good to go almost immediately with no second coat. Amazing stuff. I've patched drywall holes 2 inches across with it and sanded/painted the same day. Aside from the wood paneling and various drywall repairs around the house, I used it to patch the outside of the house on the fiberboard siding where I pulled the cable back through. Just a light sand, bit of paint and it was good as new.

--Chuck Balog

Ready Patch

$13
(includes $8 shipping)
(1 quart)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Zinsser Co.

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The Merck Veterinary Manual has long been the standard guide found in most veterinarian's back offices. Vets are required to serve the needs of many animals, not just one, and so this venerable book is their operating manual for lesser known species. It also serves as a reminder for uncommon ailments in the common species of pets. Recently Merck/Merial has published a one-volume paper-bound home edition of the Vet Manual. It is less technical, but still remarkably deep, and by far the best pan-species health guide for pets. It is often even better than many single pet health guides.

Besides the expected dogs, cats, and horses, it covers the health needs of rabbits, rodents, ferrets, birds, reptiles, and exotics such as pot-bellied pigs and sugar gliders. At 1,300 pages, it's an old-fashioned book, but intelligently designed, and easy to browse and study.

This book won't eliminate visits to the vet, but it will reduce their number, and make you smarter when you do visit. The real value of a pan-animal tome like this is when you take charge of an unfamiliar animal. It also gave us confidence to adopt pets we hitherto knew little about.

-- KK

The Merck/Merial Manual for Pet Health
1300 pages, 2007

$16
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Ear mange mites cause inflammation of the ear canal and skin disease in cats.

Hunched posture or fluffed fur in a hamster may be signs of illness.

Scale rot (ulcerative or necrotic dermatitis) is seen in snakes and lizards. Humidity and unclean environments appear to be the main factors that cause this condition. Moist, unclean bedding allows bacteria and fungi to multiply. When coupled with exposure to animal droppings, this can cause small skin sores. Secondary infection with other bacteria may result in septicemia and death if untreated. Reddening of the skin, death of the skin tissue, slow-healing sores on the skin, and a skin discharge are common.

Bacteria often cause shell disease in turtles and scale rot in lizards and snakes.

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Natural Goat Care

I have been dutifully buying the various LED bulbs being marketed as home incandescent replacements for a year or two. Up until now, all have had that weird, blue flickery LED light, and all have been expensive. The Lemnis Pharox is the first one that actually delivers as a home bulb replacement. It sips electricity pulling down a mere 4 watts, will last for 35 years, and replaces the light of a 40 watt incandescent. I installed one in our recessed home lighting adjacent to normal bulbs, and asked my wife to pick out which one was the LED and she couldn't tell which one it was. The only thing I am disappointed about is that they don't have higher output ones yet available (such as a 60 or 75 watt replacement). I can only assume they are in the works. While you pay an early adopter premium on these ($50-60), they are excellent for places where it's too much trouble to replace bulbs, or if you have a solar system on your roof and you want those watts to go further.

-- Alexander Rose

Lemnis Pharox LED Bulb
$33
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Lemnis Lighting

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Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century

On my little homestead near downtown Oakland, CA, I've dabbled in chickens, bees, turkeys, rabbits, and pigs (i.e. eggs, honey, meat, fur pelts, and wonderful manure for the garden). Recently the dabbling got a little more serious: two Nigerian Dwarf goats named Bilbo and Bebe (the one thing missing was milk; And I love milk. And goat cheese). Trouble was, I didn't know anything about goats, what they eat, how they behave. Luckily, a goat herder told me about this guide published in Australia. It put my fears to rest.

With all of the other farm animals (including the pigs!), it's mostly a matter of throwing down some food, making sure everyone has water and enough space, and we're all good. Goats turned out to be way more complicated than any other animal on the farm. They have psychological needs. They have a rumen for digesting food. They can get sexually transmitted diseases. They have hooves that need to be trimmed. They are a long-term relationship, which --- from day one -- kept me up late at night worrying. With this guide, I'm far less worried. And now that Bebe is pregnant, in a few weeks we'll have milk!

Bonus tip: I order all manner of goat-related items from Hoegger's. Recently, I ordered a natural de-wormer, made with Worm Wood, Gentian, Fennel, Psyllium, & Quassia; buckets of goat minerals--calcium, phosphorus, salt and magnesium, selenium, and vitamin E; a kid bottle and some colostrum (in case Bebe has a million babies); and a bag of kelp in bulk (I've noticed the goats love wakame, but at $5 a bag, it was breaking me, so this should do the trick).

-- Novella Carpenter

Natural Goat Care
Pat Coleby
2001, 372 pages
$17
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Homeopathic methods...

Cider vinegar maintains correct pH in the body, which is probably one of the reasons it is so useful. Because of its potassium content, it is invaluable for all animals coming up to breeding.

Mistletoe. This parasitic plant is a great tonic for goats, ell or ill. I pull it down from trees and feed it directly to my animals. Be warned, it turns the urine bright red for the next 24 hours--the goats have not developed bleeding kidneys.

*

Kidding...

The legs appear first and the kid's nose will be level with its knees. If the head is turned back, it is a good idea to scrub up (short nails, clean hands and plastic gloves if the farmer's hands are cut or scratched) and pull the head forward. The kid can be born with the head turned back, but it is not easy. Ease the kid out as the doe contracts and give it to her to wash and suckle or use whatever system of rearing has been planned. Each kid must have its ration of colostrum, the first thick milk that contains the antibodies for that kid.

*

Psychological needs...

All goats, particularly the older ones, should have names--ones that do not sound too similar. Goats soon learn to recognize their names hen called or reprimanded.

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Heifer International

Aladdin lamps have been around for 100 years. At their brightest, they're about as radiant as a 60W incandescent light bulb, so you can easily read by them. They burn kerosene or lamp oil, and employ a cylindrical wick that heats a Welsbach mantle (it's bright incandescence comes from thorium and cerium oxides). Similar to a lantern, but without the pumping and compressed air hissing. As such, the Aladdins are perfectly silent. They're also more fuel-efficient than a pressure lantern, yet provide almost the same amount of light. Though they're not more fuel-efficient than an average oil lamp, they can make a typical oil lamp look like a nightlight.

The lamp on the right (above) does not use a mantle, just a wick. They are both using the same fuel; I use Klean-Strip's "Klean-Heat" which is a purified kerosene substitute usable anywhere kerosene is specified. A bowl of fuel can put out a lot more lumen-hours than a battery-operated lamp, making the Aladdins perfect for off-grid use or in the event of a power failure. I have an off-grid cabin in San Benito County south of the Pinnacles National Monument. Though I spend most of my time at my on-the-grid home, I'm partial to using an Aladdin at both residences. After trying other lamps, including a basic oil lamp I bought at Wal-Mart, I finally got Aladdin's Genie III shelf lamp, the basic no frills version.

When properly adjusted they are essentially odourless and smokeless (the only time there is a slight smell is right after extinguishing the flame). By raising and lowering the wick, you can dim the lamp, too. If you raise the wick too high, though the fuel/air mixture becomes too rich and they start to soot/smoke, just like any other oil lamp. Properly adjusted, the wicked fuel creates a blue flame that heats the mantle. An optional chimney extender creates more updraft allowing you to operate the wick higher and get even more light. They recommend this for high-altitude (5000-ft.) operation.

-- Bruce Bowen

Aladdin Genie III Lamp
$85
(brass)
Available from Aladdin Lamps

Or $90 (clear), also from Aladdin Lamps

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Super White LED Lamp Product

The FURminator is the only really functional cat-grooming tool I've ever found. The stiff steel rake grabs the undercoat while leaving the topcoat intact. It does a tremendous job of removing loose fur. Be prepared, especially the first time you brush your cat. For my cats, the big difference between the FURminator and regular brushes is that the softer bristles of standard brushes just get hair from the surface -- the topcoat, and a bit of undercoat -- whereas the stiffer teeth of the FURminator primarily snag the undercoat (and lots of it!) as well as loose hairs of the topcoat. The best part is that all that fur goes in the trash, and not on your sofa, bed, or carpet. The environment of my apartment has been improved dramatically, and I no longer need to spend a lot of time vacuuming up cat hair. While the FURminator is expensive for a grooming tool, it's solidly constructed and ergonomically designed, and best of all, it really works. My vet used it on my cats while they were in for a visit. I was shocked at how much hair came off in just a few strokes, so I bought one to take home and have been using it for several months. I then threw out the other standard, cat/slicker brushes I had acquired over the years, and bought two more FURminators to give to cat-owning friends. The one I use is 1.75" and is intended for cats, so although the FURinator comes in larger sizes for dogs, I can really only speak to its utility when it comes to cats.

-- Debbie Chachra

FURminator De-Shedding Tool
$28
Available from Amazon
(for cats)

Manufactured by FURminator, Inc.

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The Scooba 5900 floor scrubber doesn't do as good a job as a professional house cleaner, but my wife and I are lazy, and we figured an automatic floor scrubber that washes the floor and does an ok job would still be better than the job I do. I used the same logic on vacuuming and bought a couple Roombas. We've come to find out these robots don't do just an ok job, they actually do a very good job each and every time they run. I'm always amazed at how dirty the water is when I clean out my 5900 and I cannot believe how clean our floors are. My floors are now automatically swept, then mopped every week. I only spend 10 minutes preparing the 5900 robot: adding hot water and a cup of the Scooba Clorox solution, then emptying the dirty water, cleaning a few parts and putting it on the charger for the day after tomorrow (we now sweep and mop up to three times a week). The robotic brothers and sisters all like to entertain. I clearly have the cleanest floors; and the best thing is I'm not the one doing the scrubbing anymore. I bought my Scooba brand new from distributors on eBay and ended up saving a lot of money and still have full warranties.

-- Don Tharpe

Scooba Floor Scrubber
$170
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by iRobot

Clorox Scooba Cleaning Solution
$10
Available from Amazon

[When this review was submitted almost a year ago, the Scooba retailed for $300 on Amazon. At that price, it was cool. The 40% price cut just made the Scooba even cooler. -- sl]

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Modern public toilets employ versions of these dual TP holders, and even though a private household has no similar absolute need for one, it's very nice to permanently eliminate one of life's little nagging gotchas. I've been using this model for 15 years, and it's served its purpose admirably: having an at-hand spare roll when the primary roll unexpectedly runs out. It's bound to happen someday to someone (maybe to a visitor), so why not attack the problem proactively? Rather than being haphazardly located under the sink, next to the john, etc., the spare roll is rather tidily found& #8212; neither in the way nor out of the way.

Also, there is no spool to thread through the roll(s), meaning there's no detachable part to drop while re-threading or misplace while moving or painting. Instead, there are a couple of 3/8" circular projections on each side that fit snugly into each roll's cardboard center. Press a little black button and an arm on the side pivots out an inch. Insert one side of the roll onto the center (fixed) post and swing/click the arm back into place -- fast and foolproof. This design also fits the roll more tightly than a spool, so the TP doesn't rattle on its axis while being turned and thoughtfully stops turning when the pulling stops. There are slightly cheaper versions of this style of holder, but they have spools. Besides, in 15 years mine hasn't failed, tarnished or scratched. I think building codes should encourage such dual TP holders.

-- Roger Knights

Double Paper Holder
$17
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by World Wide Sourcing

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I have been a horse owner for over 15 years. Throughout that time I've tried a variety of different leather cleaners and conditioners on my saddles and tack. Leather Therapy is by far the most effective cleaning & conditioning system I have ever used. It is easy to use, has a pleasant smell, and never leaves the leather feeling greasy. The Leather Wash comes in a convenient spray bottle. I've used this on several pieces of forgotten tack that were covered in dust, grime and mold upon their re-emergence from a damp old barn. This spray dissolved the grime like magic, allowing me to wipe away years of neglect with nothing more then a soft cloth. There is no need to rinse off the spray once applied. It leaves the leather with a nice shiny finish and also helps the leather regain some suppleness.

The second product I've used is the Restorer and Conditioner. It has the consistency of thin oil and is absorbed readily into most leathers. I once used this conditioner on an antique saddle, which was horribly dried out and moldy as a result of 20+ years of neglect. It restored the leather's sheen and much of its flexibility after only a few treatments. The conditioner also helps to prevent mold from reappearing. This is a huge plus for horse tack as once mold takes hold it is often very difficult to keep it from coming back.

This product is also great for giving new life to 'cheap' leather. I've bought several new bargain bridles for training purposes, some of which were made of such a low quality leather it was reminiscent of cardboard. After a couple of treatments with the Restorer & Conditioner these items suddenly had a respectable amount of suppleness. I believe the life of these items will be greatly extended as a result of using this treatment. The Restorer and Conditioner has become an integral part of my brand new saddle's maintenance routine. I treated this saddle immediately after purchasing it, and I do believe it helped to speed up the break-in time. (The same goes for my riding boots as well.)

Of course, these products aren't just for horse owners. The manufacturer's website states the products work well on leather jackets. I don't have anything like that to try it out on, but I use these products quite often on my $300 leather riding boots. I've also sprayed the wash on a cloth and used it on my car's interior. I haven't yet tried it on my new leather couch, but I will not hesitate to do so once the time comes. I really would use it on any smooth leather surface without hesitation, as it is not sticky or greasy at all. There are a variety of leather cleaning, conditioning, and waterproofing items on the Leather Therapy website. You can order online and each product comes in several different sizes. The products are listed as being biodegradable, which is another big plus in my book.

-- Talia Chiodo

Leather Therapy
$10
(Restorer & Conditioner, 8 oz.)
Available from Amazon

$14
(Wash, 16 oz.)
Also from Amazon

Manufactured by Unicorn Editions

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The FuBar is a single cast piece of

high carbon steel that looks like a prettied up hammer. One end has a hammer and a tearing, armour-penetrating beak, while the opposite end has a conventional pry bar and nail puller. You can use it to drive nails, but what it really excels in is F'ing things up beyond recognition -- hence FuBar. You hit something with the axe-like end until it's weakened, then hit again, twist to pry, and CRUNCH!

When my girlfriend's home suffered minor flooding, the damaged furniture needed removing urgently. But the furniture, including a bed and a very sturdy sofa bed, were too big to be removed through a doorway that had been put out of commission. The sofa bed just laughed at our attempts to take it apart using a heavy claw hammer and pry bar. The hammer bounced off the thing's ultra solid construction, making it more likely that I'd be damaged than the sofa. Hitting with a hammer can be dangerous; even if it has a straight beak instead of a claw, it's comparatively likely to recoil and bounce; you need many more hits and each one is much riskier. Demolition is a very violent activity and from my experience FuBar can make it safer, as well as much faster. There's more control, fewer blows are needed, and less contact with the object being destroyed are required - which matters, because said object usually becomes a mass of sharp nails and wood early in the process, and the less you have to risk cuts and tetanus by getting close up, the better. It’s also durable -- looks the same now as before I destroyed enough furniture to fill a pickup.

I have the smallest version, a 2.5-pound FuBar 2. The FuBar has just been updated into the "FuBar 3" model, which comes in 3 sizes (2.5, 4 and 8 pounds) and has a few minor changes to the shape of the hammer/pickaxe and prybar. I think you'd only want a larger FuBar if you were doing some very serious demolition. And even then, you'd probably want the 2.5-pounder as well. I find it can be used one or two-handed (making use from a ladder possible) and it also works well as a nail driving hammer. It's a little heavy, but superbly balanced. Note: Be sure to buy safety goggles -- and I recommend well-ventilated ones with an anti-mist coating. You'll sweat much more using a FuBar than an electric drill, and misted up goggles can easily result in a badly gashed hand.

-- Jonathan Coupe

FuBar
$30
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Stanley

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Will Your Home Survive?

These woven vinyl floor coverings are synonymous with high-priced "design" boutiques and museum gift shops. Translation: $$$$. But boy are they resilient. After three years of countless beverage spills, dirt, dust, mud, food, foot traffic, and housebreaking a dog, the 5'10" x 9' rug we keep in our living room looks as pristine as the day we first laid it out. I thought a rubbery rug might feel a bit too industrial. It's functionality won me over. The entire backing is vinyl so it never slides around on our hardwood floors. Best of all, in the event of a spill or restless canine bladder, you wipe it down with a damp cloth. No trips to the cleaners, and less likelihood of stains, depending on the color (our tan/dark brown one has yet to harbor a permanent spot *knock wood*). You vacuum it as you would carpet or a hardwood floor. The only other maintenance is to scissor the edges if part of the weave frays (we've done that maybe three times in three years). Though we scored a substantial discount, I'd pay full price if another room in our home ever calls out for a rug. Chilewich also makes a variety of indoor/outdoor mats, coasters and place settings. The small kitchen mat we've had for two years has been sprayed with dishwater, food droppings, you name it, and it still looks great. It's also much kinder to bare feet than our home's frigid, wintertime tiles.

-- Steven Leckart

Chilewich Woven Vinyl Rugs
$100 - $500
Available from Unica Home

Manufactured by Sultan

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A great resource on renewables and other off-grid techniques written by people who've done the work for people who are ready to do the work themselves. Last I heard (probably more than a decade ago now), there were at least 100,000 homes and buildings off the grid in the USA. Home Power is the magazine that shows them how to do it, what works and what doesn't. For those who aren't afraid to pick up a wrench and get dirty, good stuff.

-- George Mokray

I was the publisher of PV Network News and then Solar Electricity Today from '84 to '97, two publications for and about early adaptors, back to the land folks and anyone interested in using renewable energy (RE). I published the last SET in '97, trading it to Richard Perez who has since created the best American magazine on home energy. Home Power has how-to articles, product reviews and a lot of info on and dealers and manufacturers. It has stories on RE and the Electrical Code, electric cars, wind generators, PV, Hydro and pieces written by home owners telling their stories and showing installations and wiring diagrams -- from basic basic to utility interconnect. In '84 we lived in a place with a 12-volt, 200-watt wind generator and 3 or 4 33-watt PV panels. We used surplus phone company batteries to store our electricity, and we had lighting, radio, phone and TV for the rest of our loads. We hardly knew a thing when we started, it was so new. After 27 years of collecting and installing modules, I now have a 500-watt PV system that runs most of the lighting, all entertainment, computers, washer and dryer (dryer is gas) in our 2000sq. ft. home. Our system cost under $8k and I'm guessing we collect about 80kw month. If you're looking for info on remote homes or utility connected and want to get started or enhance the system you may already have, check out Homepower.com or their paper magazine. You can get all their issues on DVD for $95 -- 20 years, 120 issues, 2716 articles. HP's last issue is 128 pages and is offered as a free PDF. You can also look up dealers and installers in your area on their site.

-- Paul Wilkins

1 yr. subscription (six issues)
$25
Available from Home Power

120 Issues on DVD
$65
Available from Home Power

Free PDF

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Home Work

My father sent me this with an admonition to immediately throw away all the metal caulk guns I have, since I will never want to touch them again -- and I have to agree. This one has an integral spike to break the internal cartridge membrane. It's lightweight but won't break (nor will it break anything else) if you drop it. It's as strong as I have ever required, has never jammed or failed in any way, and the orange color is easy to find in the tool cabinet among all the other junk. As a Victorian homeowner, I use it several times a year and have had this one 3-4 years now. If I were to lose it, I would put off a caulking project until a new one arrived in the mail.

-- Michael Barrett

Wexford Caulk Gun
$6
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by COX North America, Inc.

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The American Woods is the life work of R.B. Hough, who assembled an astounding collection of more than 350 species and varieties of trees beginning in 1888. This updated edition emphasizes the scope and beauty of his work with two pages per tree: on the right, a gorgeous photo of three paper-thin slices taken from various points on the tree (radial, cross and tangential); on the left, a portrait of the tree's uses (i.e. tools, food, shelter), habitat, availability and a physical description in English, French and German. The subtle and striking range of colors, grains and patterns found in the same tree, let alone the same family, is truly remarkable. This is not a front to back read, but one that encourages haphazard flipping over time. Best to start with the introduction, though, which touches upon deforestation, colonialization, immigration, and the logging that decimated the seemingly inexhaustible American woods quite noticeably by the latter 1800s. With context, the book becomes a thick, visually-arresting reminder that consumption and conservation should go hand in hand.

-- Steven Leckart

The Woodbook
Romeyn Beck Hough, 1883-1913, 1938
Taschen 25th Anniversary, 2007
$27
Available from Amazon

Sample Excerpts:

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Shopping with a Conscience

These ladders have steps on both sides, which really helps if you're doing something where someone has to climb up and help you, like hanging fans or light fixtures. It has a higher rating (375 lbs) than most other heavy-duty commercial grade ladders. Its exceptional build quality and strength make it pretty much bullet proof. A friend introduced me to these after his painter had left one for him to repair some fallen gutters at his home three years ago. He loved it and bought one. I saw it, loved it and bought one and have been using it ever since.

-- Velemir Cicin

Green Bull Double Front Ladder
$190
(6')
Available from Western Tool

Manufactured by Green Bull Ladder

[The 2042 model w/375 lbs. rating comes in sizes 3' through 8', and 10',12' -- sl]

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Unlike the plastic, foam or rubber weather-stripping one mostly finds at the big box stores, metal weather-stripping lasts for decades and truly keeps out the wind and weather. I live in NJ about 5 miles from the ocean and we encounter typical northeastern freezing-to-steamy yearly variations. Very nearly every old (80-100 years) house I know of in my town has some of this installed on the doors or windows (that haven't been ripped out since in a hasty renovation). I recommend this specifically for retrofitting and sealing old homes' doors & windows to keep out drafts & winds. Even an old drafty window can keep the rain & snow out, but the air infiltration is tougher to seal against. These weather strips do this every bit as well as newer plastic strips, but last longer and add the advantage of smoothing out the travel of the sash as compared to the wood-wood sliding surfaces of old sash windows. I've seen metal weather-stripping described as "carpenter's weather strip" because it does require someone with some skills & tools to install, but an investment in a day's effort and a few dollars' worth of materials has allowed me to refit & tune up 100 year-old sash windows, inswinging casement attic windows, and doors that have clearly already outlasted those with new, more expensive vinyl stuff. I obtain mine straight from a manufacturer in Mt. Vernon, NY (est. in 1898!). They offer a vast selection in zinc, bronze and brass for all types of doors and windows. I usually choose zinc because it's less expensive and the old stuff I see around town is zinc also, so I figure it must have lasted some time already.

-- Michael Barrett

Metal Weather-Stripping
$50 minimum order
Free catalogue available from Accurate Metal Strip Co. Inc.

Or call (800) 536-6043

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

JUPITER Weather Forecasts

Psolar.Ex Cold Weather Face Mask

Kestrel 3000 Pocket Weather Meter

I am not a pro-dog walker but I might as well be. I have three cock-a-poos who need plenty of walk time -- sometimes up to four times a day. To reduce the hazard and thus my predictable fallout (literally) from one or more dogs suddenly changing direction, I use this inexpensive device. It's basically the same as the Double Dog Leash, except instead of being one ring you attach two leashes to, it's one unit with three interconnected, 3500-pound nylon leashes. I simply attach all three dog collars (I use the Gentle Leader harness) to each of the brass rings; metal is available, but brass felt sturdier. The physics of three dogs pulling from one vector instead of three has really given me a fighting chance. It tempers the faster dog and encourages the slower dog so I end up with less overall pulling and none of the dogs can dart out in front of my feet as easily.

-- Elizabeth McCorkle

Triple Leash Splitter
$9
Available from and manufactured by Strapworks

[When ordering, be sure to click and change the "2 Dog" tab to "3 Dog [Add $2.00]"; then click the "Update Price" tab above -- sl]

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Pet Blinker

GlobalPetFinder

Black Ice Dog Sledding Equipment

We live in Cleveland and shovel lots of snow (two feet last Easter Sunday!). I didn't have a lot of pain, mostly "tired" back, but this handle definitely worked. If I you're older or have a bad back or do not want the expense of a snow blower, this thing is probably indispensable and I recommend it enthusiastically. I found the handle itself loosened up after a few snowfalls, maybe three, but it's easy to retighten. That can be kind of annoying, since we shovel on average weekly during the two peak snow months, but considering the price point, this is absolutely worth the money. And aside from being a lot better for the wallet, it's also better for the environment (air and noise) than a snowblower.

-- Glenn Mercer

I bought a BackSaver grip when I was in the midst of the arduous removal of about 2000 sq. feet of rocks from my backyard. I didn't do it all personally, but I did a lot of shoveling and after a few hours per day, I always developed some degree of back strain, which tended to get worse the next day (eventually I had to get the build-up of muscle torque massaged out of my back). In the middle of the project I found the BackSaver at Ace Hardware. If it were cheaper, I'd get one for every long-handled tool I own because it made a huge difference finishing the rock-shoveling. I was grateful again when I went on to move 15 cubic yards of compost from my front driveway to backyard. It allows you to lift the shovel without reaching down as far, and although it looks like a short difference in distance, you can really feel the difference. I recommend this to anyone who has a big job ahead of them or just fears the freak movement that causes their back to give out. I've only had to retighten the grip once, although, to be fair, I have moved it from one tool to another a few times since I've had it. One thing to know: in order to accommodate handles of various diameters, the bolts that it installs with are long enough that they stick out a bit when installed on a narrow handle. However, the manufacturer provides little rubber caps so the sticking out bolts don't catch on stuff.

-- Amanda Redmond-Neal

BackSaver Grip
$12
Available from Lee Valley

Manufactured by Mercantile Buyer's Service, Inc.

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Yaktrax Walker

McLeod Fire Tool

A. M. Leonard

I've been using them for six months and during this time, one of the little buggers maintained power in a key ring torch for the entire period. I can definitely say that a normal NiMH would not have made it that long. Some people know this, some people don't, but standard rechargeable NiMHs self-discharge, constantly losing energy (even when not in use), so people often end up with powerless cameras at weddings or powerless radios or flashlights in survival situations. I've found it's quite possible for the energy in them to have halved after a month or two, and with some older cells I have, the dive can be much faster. Although Eneloops have a quoted total charge capacity that can be smaller than the best premium NiMHs, they lose their charge at a much lower rate - the company says as little as only 15% a year -- because of their design. They're also Cadmium-free, which is supposed to better for the environment. I really feel regular NiMHs should come with a safety warning, as I'm sure people have had cells they put in emergency equipment run down. These cells make it truly practical to do away with 90% of the alkaline and lithium cells you're still using, benefiting your pocket book and the environment. There are other brands that advertise the same improvement: Varta Ready2Use, Rayovac Hybrid, Titanium Power Enduro. All of them come pre-charged and ready to use and work in the standard NiMH charger you probably already have. I went with the Sanyo Eneloops after reading a lot of positive first-hand accounts online. Just two cautions: stick with lithium cells in devices like smoke alarms which have to maintain power for years; and don't use these cells (or any type of NiMH) in devices like cordless phones that recharge on their own base station without checking the manual -- these devices are often NiCd rather than NiMH, and the charger will be incompatible.

-- Jonathan Coupe

Eneloops Rechargeable Batteries
$13
(4-pack of AA)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Sanyo

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Solar Recharger

Battery Backup

Radio Shack 15-minute Rechargeable Batteries

A product claiming to be "magic" is worthy of skepticism. I'd seen these sponge-like melamine pads for a while and heard how tough they are on soap scum, oven grease, and even dirty laptops. Recently though, I witnessed one completely eliminate a deep, dark mark I deposited into our wall while moving. I was carrying a hefty box of All-Clad pots and pans, when one handle jutting out the top of the box caught the wall, leaving a five-inch blemish in an otherwise pristine, off-white stairwell. Hot water, soap and paper towel had absolutely no effect. Total bummer. Then one of our movers ran to his truck and returned with a Magic Eraser. He ran the pad under cold water, squeezed it out, and rubbed one edge lightly on the spot. In less than 30 seconds the mark disappeared completely -- no discoloration or stain whatsoever. They're reusable, but fall apart with use. How much use you get depends on how long and how hard you scrub, but they're cheap enough it's not disappointing to throw away a mangled one even after a couple jobs. I've started using them around the house (bathtub, kitchen, etc.) and to remove paw prints left by our overzealous dog. However, I'm mostly thrilled with how the pad can circumvent the hassle of touch-up painting. It obviously can't put chipped off paint back on the wall, but if you rent, these can help assure your security deposit is returned in full with significantly less effort. Mr. Clean makes other types, including Extra Power, which I've yet to try. Still, for walls, I'd recommend sticking with the gentler basic Eraser.

-- Steven Leckart

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
$6
(box of four)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Procter & Gamble

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

The Absorber

Moving Heavy Things

3M Masking Tape Dispenser

The Combi-Bolt is a traditional sliding bolt, but it has a 4-dial, 10,000 number possible combination lock for keyless security. I used to have a Hasp and padlock on my backyard shed and had to cut the padlock off more than once because one of my kids lost the key. I've now had this lock on my shed for over a year and I love it. I keep my garden tools, the dog toys, basketballs and even a spare house key in my shed, and I no longer have to worry about my kids losing yet another key or myself having to destroy another padlock! Everyone has access when they need it and if for some reason I want to change the combination, it's easy to do. It's constructed of solid metal and has held up well over our snowy, rainy, windy winter and works just as well as it did the day I installed it. It also came with "one way" screws so that once it's installed, you'd have a tough time getting them out (luckily I positioned it correctly the first time). You can even use this lock as a child safety device to keep the kids out of the cupboards in your home or workshop.

-- Mary Freeorn

Comi-Bolt Sliding Bolt Lock
$22
(black)
Available from Amazon

(chrome)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Combi-Bolt

Related items previously reviewed in Cool Tools:

Wordlock

Will Your Home Survive?

Utili-Key

I've been using this cleverly-designed scoop for more than four months and found it really cuts down on the amount of effort and time I have to put into one of my least favorite parts of the day. The tines are long (7 inches) and the slots are wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, so the clean litter passes through quickly and any lumps stay in the scoop. I don't have to make as many passes through the box (three quick passes does the job), and I don't have to shake the scoop to strain out the clean litter. Their web site looks awful, but the scoop is terrific. I will never switch back to those smaller, nasty old scoops I used to use.

-- Vince Houmes

Litter Lifter
$8
Available from Double-S

Manufactured by Preferred Merchandising, Inc.

To bury posts you want straight narrow holes in the ground. Traditional post hole diggers tend to flare the hole at the top as the hole deepens because the handles must swing out further. This clever improved design from Fiskars crosses the handles so they don't swing out as far in the hole, yet they still bite as the hole gets deeper. The narrower the hole, the less dirt to remove, the less work. I found I could get a tight cylindrical hole almost one foot deeper with this tool. Also, this design prevents that dreaded knuckle-banger when the handles crash into each other on the closing stroke, which alone makes it worth using.

-- KK

Fiskars Post Hole Digger
$60
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Fiskars

Just for Copper is a solderless bonding agent that permits the bonding of copper-to-copper and copper-to-brass without the use of solder or heat. This comes in especially handy when you have a joint located where you are not comfortable using a torch. Dry-fit your pipes, mark the joints, sand inside & out, apply a proper amount of compound, press together, twist, and you are finished. Works like a charm, even on those joints you couldn't get to hold solder.

I was surprised by this product. I've plumbed several houses, a volunteer crew leader with Habitat for Humanity, and so on. You name it, I've done a little of everything. My nephew and I were running new copper for his second bath and there was a joint that wouldn't take solder. He went to the local True Value for a compression fitting and the clerk suggested he try this bond. He brought it back and it worked. We then put in a new outdoor faucet for my mother. We were concerned with using a torch in an area that was cramped and had electric lines running through it. Using this bond took care of that concern and it worked great. Of course, the product isn't fool proof (i.e. human error), so here are some tips on how to use it.

-- Al Finnical

Just For Copper Bonding Epoxy
$13
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Jackson Industries, Inc.

Fiskars makes the best axes for the money -- light, sharp and virtually unbreakable. The handle is a fiberglass reinforced composite that is amazingly strong. A couple years ago I was carving a dugout canoe with my 28" Pro Chopping axe. The handle held up through a 30" diameter tree before breaking while I was working on the canoe (a quaking aspen log -- not the best for a canoe, but all I could get at the time). Still, the axe was returned to Lowe's and replaced for free. I have used similar-priced axes in the $30 range and the wooden handles either break in no time or the blade is dull or both. I have used my axe for around three years now and went quite a while without sharpening it. Eventually, I bought the Fiskars companion sharpener for $10 and with a few passes through it, the axe is ready to go.

-- Benjamin Thompson

Fiskars Pro Chopping Axe
$33
(w/free shipping)
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Fiskars Brands, Inc.

When I saw this cheap trap at Logan's Trading Post three years ago, I figured what the heck, but we've been amazed at how effective they are. About three fourths of the way up from the bottom of the jug a tube runs through a hole in each side. Fill the jug with water up to the bottom of the transverse tube, add a pheromone pack, let it sit for a week with the top off (to make sure it gets the right attention), then close it after topping the water off. The mosquitoes fly into the tube and lay their eggs. When they hatch, the little mosquitoes can't figure out how to get out. With luck, in about three weeks the trap will literally be swarming with skeeters.

We empty ours once a year and add new water once a month or so; as long as you break the breeding cycle early enough in the spring it's not a big deal if you forget to water them later in the season. On our quarter-acre lot, I've found that three traps is plenty. So far this season, I haven't seen a single mosquito (except for the two or three I let out when I opened up one of the traps to top it off w/water). Only one of the three traps have looked really busy this year (last year, it was two of three).

We don't get many bugs inside. We live in an 1872 farmhouse, so we do get the occasional palmetto bug, but never up so high as to need the Bugzooka. However, living as we do, in the North Carolina piedmont, we're plagued by mosquitoes; particularly the new "Asian Tiger" mosquitoes, which leave me and my sweetheart itching and inflamed for days after working in the garden or yard. We tried the "propane to human breath" machine (the Mosquito Magnet) for a year or so, and it simply didn't catch any mosquitoes. The fan was not powerful enough to suck in the little buggers, so the mesh bag they said would be full of bugs was full of dust and pollen. We tried the doughnuts you're supposed to dunk in places (like gutters) where water stands from time to time, and they didn't help. We drilled holes in all of our trashcans and recycling bins, but they still bred mosquitoes. We heard about services that will spray some sort of natural insecticide all summer long, but they were too expensive.

With these traps, we can now work in the yard or garden or sit on our porch -- one of the small joys that defines Southern living -- without fear.

-- Steven Champeon

OakStump Farms Mosquito Trap
$10
Available from Amazon

The biggest advantage of this brush is that it allows precise control and placement, and the bristles are soft rubber, so they are gentler on the gums, drawing less protest. A dog won't stand still for two minutes of brushing, so it allows you to cover all the surfaces in a shorter time. I have a miniature schnauzer, and find it is easier to maneuver a smaller brush like this than a long handled brush. (Note: I don't use both fingers at once because his mouth is too small)

My vet first gave the Jorvet pet toothbrush to me, and I wanted to buy another to put in a travel grooming box, but I bought the Petrodex because I couldn't find the Jorvet at any of my local pet stores. It looks and feels the same, but the bristles are a tiny bit shorter and may be a little stiffer (they are still softer than a conventional dog toothbrush). Both brushes get the same results and the dog responds the same to both (he doesn't shy away at brushing time, though I should mention I put poultry-flavoured dog toothpaste on the brush and let him lick it up before sticking my finger in his mouth, praising him throughout the ordeal). With both brushes I find it difficult to rinse out the bristles in the sink unless I run my finger over them. Since the Petrodex's bristles are shorter (by about 0.5mm) it makes them easier to rinse off. Other than that, my bare skin doesn't touch the toothpaste or mouth at all.

-- Sarah Cooke

Petrodex Pet Toothbrush
$6
Available from PetSmart

Manufactured by Virbac Corporation

NeverScrub, formerly the Puricle 110, automatically dispenses a bleach-type cleaning agent into the overflow tube of a toilet at the conclusion of a flush. It is far more efficient and effective than the old "hockey puck" style of toilet bowl cleaner. It prevents all sorts of stains, mineral deposits, etc., and leaves the toilet bowl crystal clear (refills last about four months, depending on usage rate). It installs without tools in about 90 seconds (or 30 seconds if you've done it before). You just clip the unit to the inside of the tank and swap out the hose that feeds into the overflow tube for the hose attached to the unit.

The typical "hockey puck" cleaner dispenses a variable amount of cleaner (depending on how long it's been steeping) mostly into the bottom of the bowl, during the emptying phase of the flush cycle, which is wasteful and ineffective. This system releases the right amount of cleaning agent at the right place and time -- i.e. it dispenses a consistent, "measured dose" under the rim, during the refill phase (mostly), so it remains in and on the bowl, including above the waterline. It's amazing no inventor took advantage of this approach decades ago.

(The percentages that follow are guesstimates). When a toilet is flushed, water enters the bowl from two sources: the tank (about 80%) and water fed into the overflow tube through a small hose (about 20%). Once the tank has emptied, the tank's outlet valve closes and water flows into the bowl only from the refill tube (via the overflow pipe), slowly refilling it.

Consequently, less than 20% of the water that was in the tank remains in the bowl after a flush, so 80% of any hockey-puck cleaning agent absorbed by the tank-water is wasted. But over 80% of the water that enters the bowl through the refill tube remains in the bowl, so only a little of the cleaning agent dispensed in this manner "goes down the drain." Also, with the NeverScrub, the cleaning agent remains on the bowl's surface above the water line, because the last water to enter the bowl is treated water. With a hockey-puck cleaner, the last water to enter the bowl is untreated water from the refill tube, which rinses away the cleaning agent that entered under the rim during the initial phase of the flush.

Finally, with the NeverScrub, there is also a beneficial social side effect that is even more important than cleanliness: it can greatly reduce water consumption. I've found that toilets needn't be flushed after doing "number 1" because the product's cleaning agent bleaches and deodorizes it. (When this stops happening, add a refill cartridge.)

The agent is a deodorized form of bleach that employs bromine as well as chlorine: 1, 3-Dichoro-5,5-dimethylhydantoin. According to the company, the refills have an unlimited shelf life and the cleaning agent "breaks down and is harmless to septic systems and environment." Additionally, they claim that "Bowl water [is] not harmful to children or pets." They thoughtfully add, "However, it is not recommended that pets regularly drink water from the toilet."

A few things you should know: It's best to get the surface clean and smooth before installing the unit. I suggest scrubbing the bowl clean with a Pumie stick. You should also be aware that there was a badly mixed batch of refills shipped out a year ago. I bought them, and when I put in the first one, the product stopped working. I contacted the manufacturer and was told that the cartridges had been reformulated to correct this flaw. I exchanged the ineffective batch and the new ones are working perfectly. Third, "Never" Scrub isn't 100% accurate; "Very Rarely" is more like it. Lastly, if you order from the manufacturer the shipping cost for the gadget (it comes with a cartridge included) is $7.61 (to Seattle). That's 69% of the cost of the item itself, which seems excessive. I recommend diluting the shipping cost by placing a larger order. For instance, if ordering six refill cartridges at the same time as the basic unit, the postal charge sinks to only 25% ($9.42) of the cost of the goods.

-- Roger Knights

NeverScrub Toilet System
$12
Available from Amazon

UPDATE: The manufacturer is selling the product and one refill for "free" if you pay the $4.95 shipping.

Also advertised as the "Kaboom" NeverScrub

Ceilings are notoriously tough to paint evenly - it's difficult to get every last little bit covered and easy to miss spots because you can only see it when the light catches it just right. This paint insures you get it right the first time: it goes on pink, but dries white. As long as the ceiling's solid pink when you're done, you know you've done a great job!

We had an old, dirty ceiling, which my wife attempted to paint using a mini-roller. It didn't look right, and I figured it was messed up anyway, so I tried to touch it up and even out the texture. I was left with a ceiling that was technically white, but looked like military camouflage when morning light would hit it at an angle. So, with numerous assurances from the Home Depot paint guy, I bought a gallon of Glidden's paint for our 180 square foot ceiling.

Though my dining room ceiling initially looked like it was soaked in Pepto-Bismol, it dried a glorious, flat, even white overnight. It goes on like any paint (I was using a very deep-nap roller, as I had to go over that heavy texture) and it covers nice, just like regular latex paint. The most difficult aspect of using this paint is overcoming the feeling in the back of your mind that the folks at the Glidden factory have duped you into painting your home pink.

-- Doug Barnard

Glidden Ceiling Paint
$32
(1.85 gallon "Quick Roll" container)
Available from Amazon

Also $80
(four 1-gallon cans)*
Available from Aubuchon Hardware

Manufactured by ICI Paints

[*If you would like to purchase one 1-gallon can for $16.99, it appears you must go into Home Depot in person. Also, I contacted Glidden to find out how the paint's "EZ Track™ Technology" works. Here's their response: "It is a temporary dye. Unfortunately, we are not allowed legally to discuss specific technology." Many readers suggested the color-changing "magic" may be due to a similar mechanism as these disappearing colored bubbles. - sl]

Most pesticides I've used are full of chemicals that are toxic to people and pets, but this spray doesn't have anything like that. The active ingredient is natural mint extract, which is a neuro-toxin to insects. It works just as well or better than any spray I've tried, and smells very minty. I've been fighting roaches this spring, mainly in the kitchen, and my dog has become pregnant. I have never been a fan of the toxic chemicals in most roach sprays, so when I found this at the hardware store I decided to give it a try (it was also less expensive than the more toxic stuff I'd been using). I sprayed the baseboards and everything in my kitchen, and I found that not only does it kill on contact, the roaches seem to avoid it like the plague for about a month. I have also used it to spray and kill spiders, and it was just as effective. The minty smell is nice in small doses, but when I do my entire kitchen the whole house kind of smells like toothpaste, which opening a door or window helps.

-- Jessica Boydston

Victor Poison-Free Ant & Roach Spray
$5
Available from Planet Natural

Also $12 (for 2 bottles) from Amazon

Manufactured by Woodstream Corporation

[There is also a Poison-Free Wasp & Hornet Killer by Victor, which has been recommended by the HortIdeas newsletter - sl]

This gorgeous, stainless steel spinning extractor, made in Italy for Mann Lake, sits in a privileged part of our living room and sometimes serves as a coffee table. But come extraction time, I not only use this beauty in my yard, I share it with my beekeeping friends. It's about the size of a medium garbage can, so it's easy to load into the car. It fits three frames at a time -- the perfect amount for backyard beekeepers who often need to extract only 9 frames at once.

There's no plug, no motor, just human arm power.

Inside is a metal carriage or rack you slide your frames into. Each side of the frame has honeycomb, so you need to flip the frames to get the honey out of both sides. But most backyard beekeepers are curious and want to check out the progress of the extraction process, anyhow. Watching the honey splatter on the inside edges of the extractor is very satisfying.

It's also very satisfying to hold up the frame to the light and see that the honey has been sucked out of the comb and is now dripping down the inside of the extractor. And therein lies the beauty of this hand-crank model: the spigot. The honey flows down the sides of the extractor and coalesces in a pool. One only has to turn the spigot and out drips your liquid gold. I never filter or heat my honey so we just hold jars under the spigot. Viola!

Clean up is simple -- just put the extractor near the beehive. The bees will lick up the remaining honey. And before I put it back in the living room, I like to pour a few buckets of hot soapy water just to make sure.

Mann Lake makes a few extractors, including a cheaper 3-frame model. However, cheaper models have the crank on top instead of on the side, which makes it more difficult to spin (can you say instant tennis elbow?). I've also heard it's harder to get the spinner moving fast enough to splatter the honey. With this extractor (the HH-190), the crank is on the side, which is more ergonomically friendly. The next model up is motorized, which I think you need only if you're a commercial size beekeeper or elderly.

Beekeeping involves buying a lot of equipment (an urban farmer, I have been beekeeping since 1999 and bought this extractor two years ago). Paradoxically, while we're in it for the long haul and strive to buy quality, long-lasting equipment, we also pride ourselves on being thrifty, and some of us border on the edge of being Luddites. For example, in order to extract the bee's hard-earned honey, a beekeeper must remove the frames of honeycomb, slice off the capped honey and then somehow extract the sticky ambrosia. I'm proud to say I've never used one of those electric, plug-in hot knives for uncapping the comb. I use a pot of boiling water and a good kitchen knife, and simply dunk the knife in the water for a time, wipe it off and then slice. No cord, no expense.

I feel the same way about my extractor.
It's a nice synthesis of human and machine. Before I got this extractor I used to try to use a bowl, some pans and gravity. This is impossible in a place like California with all these ants! And it just takes forever to let the honey drip out. This machine allows us to speed up the extraction process, but not too much.

-- Novella Carpenter
Hand Crank Honey Extractor
$320
Available from Mann Lake, LTD

This grooming rake is excellent for removing dead undercoat from dogs. It's basically a series of curved metal "fingers" with blades on the inside. The fingers gather the hair as you pull the rake through the dog's fur. The blades allow it to cut through matted hair and they're rounded to keep the dog from being cut. This model has 18 fingers or teeth, making it especially good for larger breeds.

My wife discovered it at a local grooming shop. They used the brush on our dog for six months before we finally decided to purchase one. We have a 110 lb Golden Retriever and our floors are usually covered in a generous layer of dog hair. We've tried other grooming brushes, but this rake easily removed 10 times as much hair.

Bonus: it's fun to use and the dog seems to enjoy it, although he's not picky about which brush we use.

-- Eric Weary

Oster Grooming Rake
$24
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Oster Professional Products

[There are cheaper grooming rakes and "slicker brushes" that work well from what I've read, but they're often made of plastic. I spoke with the groomer at a pet shop near me, and she said this metal rake is the way to go if longevity is a priority. -- sl]

I've used these solar LED lights for reading at night for over a year. There are three models and I have one of each -- the Heavy Duty Compact model, the Compact model and the Mini, which I attach with Velcro to my backpack and then to my bike helmet when I need it for night riding. On full brightness, the Mini lasts 12 hours (recharge time is advertised as 7 hours).The Heavy Duty charges completely in 10 hours and, at full brightness, gives 12+ hours of light, while the Compact charges completely in 6 hours and, at full brightness, gives 12+ hours of light.

I've never run the lights until battery drain so I can't speak to recharge from zero. I use them for reading at night so that is usually only an hour or two a night and they are always connected to the solar panels in my south facing window.

I took all three lights on vacation to Jamaica last December, and used each of them except for the Mini (no biking). After the trip, I gave two sets of friends the extra lights I'd bought. Both couples like these lights, too.

They also offer a variety of connectors, which work with all models of the lights, that allow you to charge your phone, camera, computer, etc. I bought all to test for compatibility and found it to be a very good system (although at $20 a pop the connectors are a little pricey). It's worth noting, I use them only for demo purposes. I haven't tried to run my computer, for instance, on the Compact model.

I settled on this brand because they were the first I'd seen with a natural form factor. They looked sleek and useful and have turned out to be all that I expected. The only quibble I have is that there's a light sensor that will not allow the lamps to go on in the daytime. I'd prefer a switch so that I can decide when to turn them on or off without being overridden by the sensor. Still haven't seen anything that is comparable on the market.

Gotta tell ya, it makes me feel good to use these things. Finally, after all these years, this renter has one room that is solar powered. They made me an honest solar advocate, somebody who not only talks the talk but walks the walk as well.

-- George Mokray

Newlite Portable, Solar LED Lights
$29-75 (depending on model)
Available from Kansas Windpower

Manufactured by Newlite

This wonderful dual alarm clock is the best one we have found in 40 years. The display and control layout make it very easy to use and difficult to make a mistake. On the front display you see clearly, unambiguously, the status of everything: both alarms and the current time. The layout of the buttons really reduces the likelihood of hitting the wrong button. We frequently adjust our wakeup times and with other dual alarm clocks we made mistakes. With this clock, the controls for Alarm A and Alarm B are on opposite sides, so it's very clear and obvious to set. Also, because the LCD display allows you to see the current time and both Alarm A and B all at the same time, you don't have to press any buttons to see when you're wake up is set for.

In the old days we experienced things like pressing the wrong buttons in the dark, adjusting the radio off-station when we meant to adjust the volume, setting the time of day instead of the time of alarm, setting a time to PM when we meant AM, setting the alarm time but failing to turn the alarm on, one of us would get up ahead of our alarm time and turn off the wrong person's alarm, a power failure erasing all settings and we had to remember how to deal with a complex device, a power failure while sleeping and we failed to rise on time as no alarm sounded, etc.

With this clock, you don't have to decode -- or learn to decode -- what or how the clock is set. With a lot of clocks you simply get a bunch of different LEDs, such as green for AM and off for PM, green 'on' for radio ('off' for no radio). With this clock, the buttons are located and sized to eliminate, or at least reduce, confusion. The current time is displayed large enough to see it from across the room (we place the clock across the room to force a certain level of wakefulness). There's a lithium stand-by battery that preserves time of day and alarm settings just in case of a power outage. It also has sleep, snooze and nap functions, as well as two alarm setup modes: workweek and weekend.

The clock isn't as high end as some models by Boston Acoustics, and there are aspects that could be improved, like the buzzer/beeper. Since we keep ours across the room, we felt the buzzer/beeper was not loud enough. Still the volume of the radio and preset tunes is fine, so we use those. Also, the Time Zone, Daylight Savings mode and Time of Day buttons are located along the back edge on the top of the clock in a recessed well, so they do not protrude. Two of the functions are doubly protected, as you have to press one button then another to adjust time or time zone. However, Daylight savings mode just takes a single hit and that moves time by one hour forward or back. Nevertheless, there is a little Daylight icon on the front display to help you notice if there's a mistaken change.

Overall, if you're looking for a simple clock radio, it's really great. I was shopping for a teenager coming of age. At $29.99 this alarm clock was more expensive than I planned (and I don't often deviate from plan), but it has one feature that I found exciting: the display that lets you see everything. When I got home my wife was critical of the amount spent. Two weeks later, she sent me out for another one for our room. A week or two after that, I noticed the same device at Costco for $19.99. Upon telling my spouse, she put it on our list for purchase "just in case ours breaks someday and this is no longer available." So we now have a new alarm clock in a box in our basement. It is THAT good.

-- Jim of MN

Sony Dual Alarm Clock Radio
$25
Available from and Manufactured by Sony

Or $33 from Amazon

Sanding drywall is messy and nasty -- it's hard on both your tools and lungs. With this system the majority of the dust is sucked up right at the sanding pad. The sanding head, which uses standard sanding screens, is attached to a hose that runs to the Aquair Water Filter, a five gallon bucket that has a another hose you attach to a Shop-Vac (not provided). As you sand, the dust is sucked through 36 little holes on a pad attached to the sanding head. When the dust hits the water it goes into suspension, and doesn't reach (or ruin) the Shop-Vac. Note: after a good bit of use, you will need to change the water.

As a builder sometimes forced to live at the site (the horror!), I can say that this has made my life (and marriage) much less messy. Even if you're a homeowner and not a professional, this tool is especially useful, as drywall dust is incredibly pernicious. It can blow all over the house and settle everywhere. With this system, you can sand in the areas that you live in with significantly less clean up - and you won't even need a mask!

-- Doug Barnard

Sand & Kleen Dustless Drywall Sanding
$54
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Magna Industries, Inc.

The Bosch has the power of earlier, more cumbersome cordless screw guns at half the weight (under two pounds), meaning its capabilities really surpass its diminutive appearance. As an old guy in trades for thirty some years, I'm on a continuing quest for the smallest, lightest tool that can still accomplish a tough job. The Skil iXO Palm Screwdriver is great for household chores, but the Bosch -- a step up in power, capability and price -- can drive one hundred 3" screws on one charge. It can really be used for all but the heaviest job site uses, and still fit into the tight spots. Typical screw guns require their own holster, separate carry bag, or just hand carry. The Bosch fits easily in my tool belt bag. It takes lithium-ion batteries and features a variable-speed trigger, 10 setting clutch, 1/4 quick change chuck, and LED light.

-- Jerry Garner

Bosch 10.8V Pocket Driver
$120
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Bosch

Unlike conventional stepladders, the top step of this nifty aluminum stepladder is the most stable because of its extra size (100 square inches, the biggest of all the steps). It also makes tasks lickity-split efficient, especially with its thoughtful storage bin 11.5"W x 4.25"L x 1.25", meaning no more lost nuts, etc. And if you're changing light bulbs, for instance, you can leave the top open and place tons of stuff inside.

There are three, four, five and eight-step models. I bought the four-step version ($99) which weighs 9lbs, so it's easy to lift with one hand and much lighter than my rickety old wooden ladder. It folds to 4.5" wide, so storing it is easy. Nicely engineered, the ladder opens and closes smoothly -- meaning no pinched fingers - and very little force is required to open it (they are lightweight). I highly recommend these ladders for older folks who're getting on and may not feel as stable, but insist on taking care of stuff around the house nonetheless. The ladder I have has a flat, undivided storage compartment designed to hold tools. If dusting or cleaning is more what you need the stepladder for, Frontgate also makes a version with a built-in towel rack and a bin with sections intended to hold spray bottles.

-- Joseph Stirt

Deep-Step Safety Ladder
$40-200
Available from SkyMall

Manufactured by Frontgate

I no longer apologize for using this "shock collar." Not only has it potentially saved our dog Jolie's life on at least two occasions, but it has given us a measure of security and Jolie a degree of freedom that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

The system works like this: the collar has a receiver on it with two stimulation-delivering prongs that fit snugly against the dog's neck or throat, depending on how the collar is positioned. The human carries a transmitter (about the size/weight of a deck of cards), which will deliver stimulation at a range of up to 300 yards.

The dog must first know the command you want. It won't work if the dog does not know what you are asking of her. Once you are sure the dog knows what you want (we found that Jolie would "come" indoors but not outside), give the "Come!" command. When the dog doesn't come, immediately say (shout!) "No!" while simultaneously pressing the "tone warning" on the transmitter. This will cause the collar to make a quiet beep the dog can hear. Again, try the "Come!" command. If the dog doesn't come, immediately say "No!" while simultaneously pressing one of the stimulation buttons on the transmitter to deliver the shock. You can choose "momentary" to deliver a brief, pre-measured tap or "continuous" which delivers stimulation for up to 10 seconds. Call "Come!" one last time -- either after the tap or during the continuous stimulation -- and this should get the dog on her way. As soon as the dog starts to come, stop the stimulation and immediately begin to praise her. If she gets distracted on her way, she gets another "No!" accompanied with more stimulation. As soon as she complies, the stimulation stops and she gets lavish praise.

This sequence of commands and activations is fast. At the start, you will have more difficulty fumbling with the buttons and timing than your dog will have responding to the collar. The stimulation level (controlled by the transmitter) ranges from 1 - 7. It usually takes a 3 to reinforce the "Come!" command with Jolie. Only on two occasions did I have to go higher and that was when she was in hot pursuit of a cat. Imagine the relief I felt as she was heading full speed, headlong toward the street and was stopped in mid-flight by a jolt from her collar.

We adopted Jolie as a young adult and while she quickly learned "sit", "stay", "down", etc., she would not respond to "Come!" in the park amid the distraction of scents and dogs. We tried everything: two series of training classes, a personal trainer, and an armload of dog training books. To no avail Jolie would NOT come. Her rescue group suggested an electric collar and loaned us the Innotek collar (one of its volunteers met with us for a training session). Within one afternoon, Jolie was coming when called - and it took only a couple of weeks until we no longer had to activate the stimulation on the collar to reinforce the command.

We've now been using the collar for 8 months. Only very rarely do we need to deliver stimulation as reinforcement. Almost every time, she comes on command. For those rare times she doesn't come right away, usually a tone or "No!" will get her moving in the right direction. I'm not exactly sure how the dog knows to come when she receives stimulation, but I'm guessing it's the quick, consistent, and proximal combination of negative stimulation and positive praise.

I have tested the collar on my wrist (not neck) on all levels (I also taste new dog food and treats). The collar goes up to Level 7. It's hard to describe the differences in the shock experienced as I have no experiential gauge. I touched an electric fence once at the zoo when I was 10, but that's about it. Level's 3-5 give me an involuntary jump reaction. They are uncomfortable. But the discomfort or pain of an electrical shock is different from other types of pain. As soon as the shock stops, so does the pain. Level's 6&7 are very uncomfortable, in a startling, well, shocking way. As I said, we've only gone to that level couple of times. It made her leap into the air. I'm sure it was painful, shocking. But when I compare it to the pain and trauma of getting run over (remember, she was in hot pursuit of a cat), or getting away from us and fighting with another dog (she's a pit bull, she'd win) I'd do it again.

The loaner collar from the rescue agency was not working properly (it had been submerged in the ocean and would not consistently deliver a simulation - even though the collars are supposed to be waterproof). We decided to purchase the same brand and model due to its good reputation in the dog training industry and its low price compared to its main competitors (we bought ours on eBay for $100). Our collar has gotten fully wet and continues to work perfectly.

-- Michele McGinnis

Innotek Dog Training Collar
$120
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Innotek, Inc.

This tool came into my life years ago when preparing a campsite. While the rest of us were clearing the area with loppers and bow saws, one fellow was blazing past all of us with one of these -- and actually enjoying it! I borrowed his funny-looking axe and was impressed enough to get my own from Gemplers. It's sturdy (a hickory handle) and has a good feel when you swing it.

With loppers, you have to grab the branch and squeeze two handles. Using a saw takes even longer. Swinging an axe handle is much quicker, but a small axe doesn't extend your reach like the brush axe does. The handle is 20" long and the head is lightweight (it really feels as if you're swinging just an axe handle), so it's easier to swing and less awkward than a typical axe.

I also feel safer wielding the brush axe instead of a machete, because the area of the exposed blade is smaller. I haven't had to sharpen my blade yet, but I have removed it from the head to see how much trouble it would be. Once I figured to clamp the head in a vise and lever the handle to "pinch" the ends of the head closer to each other, the blade came right out. Assembly is just as easy, and I imagine the blade will be much easier to sharpen when it's free from the axe!

Whenever an ice storm fills my backyard full of tree limbs, I now reach for the clearing axe. Chainsawing through the big stuff isn't a problem, but getting to it can be tedious -- usually you have to chainsaw away the smaller stuff so you'll have enough room to work on the big stuff safely and easily. With this axe, that clearing work is now safer, often quicker, and certainly more enjoyable than maneuvering a chainsaw the whole time.

-- John Bodoni

Bahco Swedish Clearing Axe
$48
Available from Amazon

Also from B&T Grower Supply

Manufactured by Bahco

This soy-based, biodegradable stripper is not the cheapest stuff around, but it's easy to use and can be used indoors because it doesn't have the harsh fumes of typical strippers. When I first used it about five years ago, I was shocked. I used two gallons to strip an entire room: it went on like honey and smelled almost as good. Three hours later, almost all the paint came right off in one fell swoop. I've since used it on several pieces of wood furniture and a metal gate.

There are several citrus-based strippers out there that are cheaper, but they're just not very strong. SoyGel really is the most impressive eco-friendly stripper I've run across. I've been restoring and renovating old homes and furniture for over 25 years, and always used those harsh chemical paint strippers that are environmentally unsound. I'll NEVER go back.

One recommendation: if you use SoyGel outside, watch for breezes that dry the stripper out too quickly. If this occurs, just brush on some more. You need the moisture for it to work. That said, it takes ages for this stuff to dry out - and frequently you can also cover whatever piece of furniture you are working on with thick plastic sheeting to keep the stripper moist longer.

Franmar also makes a Mastic Remover that works like a champ, and a great Marine Paint Remover that I used to strip my boat (ever try to remove anti-foulingpaint?!).

-- Justin Anthony

SoyGel Paint & Urethane Remover/Stripper
$21
Available from Amazon (1 quart)

$65
Also available from Amazon (1 gallon)

Manufactured by Franmar Chemical

I replaced my D battery Mag-Light with this small LED light that only needs AA batteries. I get whiter light, longer life, and more intensity. Tripod lights have always been great tools (I work at Amazon, so I see a lot of gear). The problem with the traditional ones is they get very hot, use lot of battery power, and burn out fast. Stanley's tripod light - the first LED version - takes all the advantages of LED and combines it with the convenience of a fold up stand.

I have already used it for a variety of household projects since I bought it last year. The best use has been to install dimmers. Usually I'd have to do this during the day or ask my wife to hold the flashlight. With the tripod light, I can now do it by myself at any time.

-- Jason Goldberger

Stanley Tripod Flashlight
$25
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Stanley

Control 4 is the most versatile, affordable, standards-based, programmable home automation plus digital audio solution I've seen. More than a few IMs from my wife with questions like "Why does the light in the hallway keep flashing off and on?" proves it hasn't been 100% smooth sailing, but once you get it all wired, it's a very cool system.

If you're just looking to fire up digital music in your home you have a few tiers of options: Squeezebox or Roku gets you in the game for $150; Sonos is the Rhapsody-enabled, Mossberg-approved whole home music solution. With Control 4 my house is now an MP3 player, but I also have the ability to control the heat, lights, Tivo, DVD, XM radio, etc., which is magical. The other night we ordered takeout and watched "The Office." From the couch we were able to turn on the heat (it was cold in there) and turn on the porch light for the delivery dude. Handy! Motion sensors are for security lights. For the "Hey, this is the house you're looking for" light, you want to be able to make your house look inviting with a quick switch.

Before bed, we just hit "goodnight" and all the lights, music, etc. go off. I also have a few "scenes" programmed. The lights come on automatically in the evening, and it's cool because you can set it to coincide with sunset -- and the timing automatically changes with the seasons. You can even insert some randomness so the lights don't come on at exactly the same time each evening (for security). I even programmed a "media scene" tying the dining and kitchen together so that when you play music in the kitchen it automatically plays a little less loud in the dining room. I can also mount a share from a computer in my home office and the HTC will index all my MP3s, then allow me to pump the audio through any configuration of speakers in the house. The HTC has two analog outputs that plug directly into the amp, so you can listen to two different MP3 streams at once. My teenage daughter can listen to Girl Talk in her room while my wife can listen to James Taylor in the baby's room and the rest of the house. We also rigged up the turntable in the living room so it slides out of the wall unit, plays through the living room system, and is route-able to any or all of the speakers in the rest of the house.

While whole house music has been my dream since the spring of 1995, being able to sit in the rocker with our newborn, turn down the lights, turn on the music, and adjust the heat all from a hand-held remote control the size of the one that comes with a TV is pretty crazy.

Here's how it works in my house: a Control 4 Home Theater Controller (HTC) sits in a rack in my closet, attached to my home network, along with a Control 4 16 channel amp (also networked), Control 4 XM/FM/AM Multi-Tuner (ditto), DirecTV TiVo, and Marantz 8500 A/V Receiver. The receiver is tied into the plasma and 5:1 surround in the living room, and the 16-channel amp is hard-wired to in-ceiling speakers in every room in the house (both living room and in-ceiling speakers are from TruAudio). The HTC has little infrared remotes so it can control the TV, receiver, and TiVo box, and it talks directly to the components on the network. Additionally I swapped all our light switches for Control 4 switches or dimmers as well as our thermostat, and these all talk to the HTC via the Zigbee RF protocol (the electrician who puts these in doesn't have to know anything about them - he/she just swaps out the old switches with the new). This allows everything (lights, heat, TV, etc.) to be controlled from any Control 4 remote, of which there are a few options: mini touch screens in the walls, hand-held remotes which are in a few of the rooms, or the hand-held remote and the TV. Control 4 has done a very good job making the interface 100% consistent across this variety of control points.

Yes, I had help with the installation, and the average buyer shouldn't install this themselves; but there is a cheaper way to go: they sell this equipment at Magnolia. I was prepared to go old school analog with little knobs in the wall until a friend introduced me to the folks at Control 4. They really seem to be the only ones who get it, leveraging standards like IP, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and MP3, and creating something reasonably priced, useful, and easily extended.

A setup like this definitely isn't for everyone - and neither is home automation in general -- but I've had enough people ask me about what it is and how it works that I wanted to explain the basics and have a place to point people when they ask. If you're looking for a whole-house solution, I don't think there's much competition on both price and flexibility. To be honest, I wouldn't have been able to afford it if I hadn't gotten a discount, but if you're already in the market for home automation gear you'll probably find it to be pretty reasonably priced. A friend of mine looked at another high-end system and the bid came in around $10K. I did fifteen switches and two wireless outlet dimmers in addition to the other gear, but depending on the number of components and outlets you desire, you could do a starter for $5K on the C4 side.

-- Ian Rogers

Control 4 Home Automation
$5,000 (depending on components)
Available from a Control 4 dealer near you

Manufactured by Control 4

This 10-in-1 screwdriver/nut driver has a soft, cushioned grip wrapped around a hard and solid handle, making all day use no problem. And, because of its design, changing bits can be done super fast and in such way that they're less likely to pour out.

Other 10-in1's store the bits in a hard plastic handled push sleeve, or there's a plastic or rubber ring around the shaft and the bits are barely secure in there, so when you screw off the end they just come out. Instead of having two, maybe three large pieces to handle, with other 10-in-1 screwdrivers you have four to six little pieces in the palm of your hand. Then you have to dump those little pieces back into the handle of the screwdriver or 'worm' the screwdriver in your hand to scoop up the bits.

The Klein 10-in-1 has bits like that of a ratchet driver, but it's cheaper than both the Craftsman's 14 bit Ratcheting Screwdriver and the Snap-On ratcheting screwdriver. The bits themselves are double-headed, and two double-headed bits are kept on what can best be described as a hex socket bit holder. Changing bits is as simple as pulling out the shaft, spinning it around and plugging it back in. To change additional bits, you pluck the bit out, then spin and click the new one back in. It takes a bit of force, but it ensures that they won't fall out - and the pieces are all nice and large to grab.

The average home user can probably suffice with the Craftsman version of this screwdriver, but for a few dollars more the Klein quality is worth the price. I ran mine over with a 4-man scissor lift, picked it up and finished the job. Not to mention all the times it's fallen off the ladder or the scissor lift and been fumbled and dropped. Klein tools easily last longer and when they break they can be replaced for free. Craftsman tools have the same warranty, but how many times are you willing to go back for a replacement?

-- Jordan Des Mazes

Klein 10-in-1 Screwdriver
$11
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Klein

I inherited a five-year-old 125-pound Labrador retriever who always pulled when he was walked - and his preference was to run. This harness corrected Mac's pulling within a week. When he pulls, the harness tightens over his opposing shoulder muscle. As it pinches the outside shoulder, it narrows the dog's stance and forces him to turn back instantly. To relieve that pinch, the dog essentially snaps right into the heel position.

There are other gentle harnesses out there, but with this one, the D-ring is affixed to an additional loop of webbing that extends out from the harness. When you pull on the leash, the loop cinches the harness hard on the side away from the applied force, without letting slack on the inside shoulder.

Mac had been choked with a "pinch collar" his whole life. When I tried that collar, he didn't stop pulling. Now I take him for walks with a normal collar unless we're going to be in high-stimulation situations where I might need to control him more.

-- Fred Hann

Gentle Leader Dog Harness
$17
Available from Amazon (sizes and color vary)

Manufactured by Premier Pet Products

With the price of lumber going up all the time, I'm recycling wood more than ever. But I ruined a blade on my circular saw after hitting an old nail I'd missed when cleaning the wood (my eyes ain't what they used to be). The Lumber Wizard is a lot less expensive than those security metal detectors, and it's saved my new blade a couple times. It takes less than a minute to check a big sheet of ply. If it finds something and I still can't see it, I use the Little Wizard (when I purchased my Lumber Wizard, this came bundled with it).

I guess you could just use the Little Wizard to scan lumber, but it would take longer since it only covers a few square inches at a time. The bigger Lumber Wizard covers about a 6" x 6" area, so sweeping it over a big ply or 2 x 4 goes pretty darn quick (for thicker wood, I usually flip over the lumber and scan both sides just to be sure). The battery life is pretty good, too. I went three months on a single nine-volt battery, using it several times a day, three to four days a week. The Lumber Wizard also has a vibrate setting, which is helpful if other machines are going in the shop, since my hearing ain't what it used to be.

-- Robert Palembas

Lumber Wizard - $100
Available from Amazon

Little Wizard - $15
Available from Woodcraft

Or $20 Amazon (Little Wizard)

Manufactured by Wizard Industries

This is the most satisfactory soap dish I've ever tried. If positioned away from the corner of the basin, all of the soap residue drains into the sink basin - not onto the sides of the sink. Some residue does accumulate on the Soap Saver itself, so every month or so it has to be rinsed and wiped clean, but that's the lesser of two evils. Overall, it reduces the amount of cleanup effort by 2/3 or more.

It's superior to the spike-holder type of dish, which is hard to clean, sometimes sticking to the soap, and tends to skitter across the sink top when knocked. In contrast, this plastic soap dish stays put because it's relatively heavy and because its descending downspout rests against the basin's edge. (This stability is a plus the vendor oddly fails to tout.) To make sure the soap itself doesn't slide around within the dish, I position one of its corners pointing down between the posts (not level, as shown in the vendor's photo). This also improves drainage a bit.

I'd previously used liquid soap until someone gave me twenty bars of handmade hemp-oil soap. When I've washed my way through that, I think I'll go back to liquid soap; but if you have a preference for solid soap (or if you too get such a gift), this Soap Saver is really handy.

-- Roger Knights

Waterfall Soap Saver
$4
Available from Colonial Medical

Manufactured by Jobar International, Inc.

Anyone who has installed an outlet knows how hard it can be handling all those copper wires and the sharp edges. The PlugGrip has two three-prong plugs that literally plug right in. It fits snug, which allows you to maneuver the outlet to get the angle you want and saves your fingers the trouble. The hard plastic handle also works great for shoving the wires back in the wall when you're done. I am scared to death of electricity, so I tried to hire an electrician to change all the outlets in the house. He couldn't show up for about a week, though. I saw this product and decided to give it try. There are indicator lights on the inside of the handle that give you a sense of security. If an outlet is hot, the light turns orange, saving you the time of bringing out the circuit tester. A good tip is to plug the grip into the outlet and then turn off the power. When you return, you can be sure it is off because the lights should no longer be glowing. I was able to do about 25 outlets throughout the house much faster and definitely much cheaper than without. The electrician was going to charge $125, not including charges for the outlets and any other problems he claimed existed.

-- Mario Zamora

PlugGrip
$10
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by PlugGrip Products

I have a 1927-type porcelain bathtub, and it once looked that old. I tried fruitlessly over the years to remove the dinginess at the bottom with scouring pads and liquid tile cleaners. Then someone gave me a pumice scouring stick and I was able to restore the tub to good-as-new condition (without marring the finish). It took ten or 15 minutes, and required several rinsings and re-scrubbing of spots I'd missed, or hadn't worked on hard enough. But in the end, it really worked; and annual touch-ups require three to five minutes. I wouldn't use these sticks on plastic, though. They're so abrasive they'd scour into anything softer than glass. As such, the sticks are also good for removing paint from concrete and tile, baked-on build-ups from ovens and grills, and rust from garden tools.

I got one recently for $8.50 at True Value. Pumie also makes a less fancy stick without the plastic handle that costs half as much at True Value ($4.50). I recommend spending the extra bucks: the handle makes it less yucky when scouring a toilet bowl ring, and it doesn't require you to wear gloves to protect your hands when scouring a tub. These sticks last long enough that it's worth spending more for convenience. Mine wore down about 30% while doing my tub the first time, and about another 7% getting out some nasty persistent stains in my toilet bowl.

-- Roger Knights

Pumie Toilet Bowl Ring Remover
$7
Available from Amazon

[If you're pinching pennies, are less squeamish and don't mind rubber gloves, you might prefer the no-frills Pumie scouring & cleaning stick sans handle. -- sl]

Pumie Scouring Stick
$3
Available from Amazon

Shaped like a worry stone, this low-tech scissors sharpener features a ceramic whetstone piece set in plastic. The tiny tool (about the size of a poker chip) is designed specifically for the user to sharpen the two blades simultaneously, a process that's safe and controlled due to its design. The textured tab is to be held between thumb and forefinger. Mounted inside is a small ceramic rod that serves as the whetstone. One blade is inserted below the rod and the other above. As you draw both blades through, the open scissors close themselves. The previously reviewed Jiff V Sharpener might be the best all-around inexpensive sharpener for the home -- it can handle knives and the blade is replaceable -- but it's still too big to keep in crowded or small spaces. The SewSharp is perfect for an office desk or sewing kit. It also costs half as much as the Jiff V, so you can buy multiples to stash in crafts kits, tool drawers, and scrapbooking boxes. The life of the ceramic rod is not indefinite, so I'd recommend buying more than one anyway.

-- Anne Morris

Fiskars SewSharp Scissors Sharpener
$3.50
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by and available from Fiskars

I've never felt completely clean after taking care of the paperwork end of visiting the restroom. This bidet attachment is cool because it fits on most toilets, is really cheap compared to a standard bidet, is easy to install and doesn't require you to modify the plumbing.

Just remove the toilet seat, place the bidet on the bowl, put the toilet seat back on top of the brackets that hold the bidet, and use the longer bolts (supplied) to tighten the seat and bidet to the bowl. As far as the water connection, simply introduce a valve into the tubing in between the pipe coming out of the wall and where it enters the bottom of the toilet tank. There is a pressure dial off to the right of the seat (it allows you to go to the full pressure of the water coming out of the wall, so be careful!). The higher priced models have heaters, but that requires either patching into a hot water line or snaking an electrical cord around your bathroom for the models that come with mini hot water heaters. For me the basic, inexpensive one works just great, and the ease of installation was important (I am not the slickest with tools). The only maintenance I do is spray the bidet nozzle with a bleach/water mixture whenever we clean the toilet. I have used mine in three different houses in the last two years, and it's truly enhanced my life. Why take two showers a day unless you really have to?

-- Ryan Combs

BB-50 Natural Water Bio-Bidet
$79
Available from PlumbingSupply.com
(scroll down)

Previously available from Amazon

Manufactured by UCI, The Bidet Company

I borrowed one of these non-contact thermometers to test the heat dissipation around a new fireplace I'm finishing. It worked so well that it had me running around my house measuring the temperature of lots of things that I'd often wondered about but had no way of investigating. For instance I was curious about the results of extra insulation I put in last year. I also found myself using the device to follow heat contours around the house. I could follow heat contours in the air by using this device to measure the temperature of the skin of my hand. This method made a rigorous investigation into energy conservation fun as well as informative.

One attribute of IR thermometers I really appreciated is their instantaneous response, even across a distance. Since the device is based on an infrared light sensor, there is no lag, no hysteresis (like a thermostat), no memory, no need to even be close to the surface being measured, which is a lot different from how I am used to thinking about temperature.

With the ST pro model it was like I could reach across the room and touch the wall in the back of the fireplace to see how hot the fire was getting. I discovered all kinds of readings that affected my fireplace design. For instance it was around 400 degrees near the gas pipe I was sealing with fireplace caulk. I found that it got to a max of 70 degrees above the fireplace where I was thinking of mounting a plasma TV; that it was a max of 100 degrees about a foot in front of the fireplace at the level of the hearth, and that there was a temp gradient of about 40 degrees to the side edges of the hearth. (I figure that gradient was probably not a steep enough to cause levels of thermal stress that would crack the slate I was planning to use for the hearth). However I was able to measure a much sharper gradient across the metal face of the zero-clearance fireplace, where I planned to mount tile with special heat-tolerant silicon adhesive (thus needing to confirm the max temp of the metal face at around 210 degrees after 2 hours of fire). And so on.

As a homeowner it may be hard to justify buying one, but as a nerd (and especially if I had kids) I want one around. For me it has something to do with an Internet-biased mentality -- I hear an obscure concept, or someone has a question, and I almost reflexively reach for Google. Now it's like that for my home. Is that frying pan at exactly the right temperature for pancakes? Wait, I can get the IR thermometer out of the kitchen drawer...

-- Rick Botman

Raytek Mini Non-Contact Thermometer
Model MT4
$45
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Raytek

This cool flashlight doesn't need batteries and will charge itself -- and cell phones -- with a quick hand crank. One minute of windup gives 30 minutes of light. Most other windup emergency products I have seen have are bulky radios with a little beam for lighting. This product combines three high powered LEDs with a radio that has a rather loud speaker. This is also the only hand crank flashlight/radio I am aware of that has a built-in adapter outlet to charge cell phones. Combine that with a really sleek looking design, and you have a great flashlight.

Whenever the local power goes out, this is the product I want to have around. It allows me to communicate with people by charging my cell phone and it allows me to hear news from the radio.

-- Mike King

Electrilite Flashlight
$24
Available from Cool Stuff Cheap

Manufactured by Electrilite

This tool is nothing more than a short fiber optic wire attached to a rubber hood, which goes on the end of a Maglite or equivalent. It completely gets rid of the problem of aiming a flashlight beam into a small hole. Just insert the end of the adapter and voila, the inside is lit up and you don't have to contend with all the glare from the light hitting the edges of the hole. Comes in 7" and 20" versions.

It's simple, inexpensive, and essential.

-- Mike Ginou

Nite Ize Fiber Optic Flashlight Adapter
20 inches
$10
Available from X-Treme Geek

Or Amazon for $13

I've spent years looking for a clock radio alarm that I wouldn't hate, either because of poor design, lousy tuning, awful audio, or too much wood-grain. I finally found it in the Boston Acoustics Recepter Alarm Radio. This beauty is exquisite. Great sound. Every control is perfectly intuitive: knob-twist digital tuning and clock setting with built-in acceleration. The thing I like about the alarm-off button on this radio is that it's all by itself, right above the best-tuning-knob-ever. (Whether in a car or an aircraft, nothing beats a twist-knob digital tuner....) I've never had a problem threading my fingers through the various water bottles and night-table crap to stab the button, first try. It's even made with a tacitly pleasant more-rubbery plastic for good finger traction. The snooze button is an example of what makes the device so sweet. It's just the right size, well proportioned without being a Huge Snooze Bar. And get this: you tap it once and you have ten minutes of snooze. Tapping it again within three seconds adds five minutes. Each successive tap adds five minutes up to a total of 60. Then, once it's in snooze mode, it becomes a count-down timer! Hit the button and you see how much time you have left!

It is a gorgeous utility package. Ever buy something you like so much you want to buy another, and then another? I like waking up in the morning just to look at this little clock. Picks up NPR from the fringes too and the audio quality is shockingly good for its small size. There's nothing I would change about this little appliance.

-- Tom Parker

Boston Acoustics Recepter Alarm Radio
$150
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Boston Acoustics

Scotch (3M) sells three varieties of ready-made double-backed tape for sticking together two flat surfaces. Their Double Stick Tape (model #137) does what a self-connecting loop of ordinary tape does, but more tidily and sure. Their Double-Coated Tape (model #667) is similar but you can re-position the tape. For most uses - scrapbooks, posters, etc - I much prefer this kind. Their Photo Mounting Tape (Cat. 002) is double-side, not positionable, but acid-free. This is what you want to use for archival stuff.

--KK

Double Stick Tape
$2
Available from Amazon

Double-Coated Tape
$4
Available from Amazon

Scotch Photo and Document Double Stick Tape
$7
Available from Art City

This has to be the most useful tool for anyone who needs to solder a pipe while the water is still persistently dripping (thus cooling the pipe so it won't solder properly). Just insert the tool and tighten the end nut to expand the rubber plug and presto, dry and ready to solder! I would imagine it could be used to stop a leak in a broken pipe too but I haven't tried that one yet (and hope to not have to), my nextdoor neighbor could have used it when he broke off the toilet shut-off valve while trying to "fix" it. I am not a plumber but I do my fair share of plumbing and wonder how I ever did without it.

-- Maarten van Hell

Jet Swet
$40 and up per diameter tool
Available from Brenelle Enterprises

It finally happened, an off-the-shelf household robot that works and pays back even the early-adopter price.

For less than $200 you get a vacuum cleaner the size of coffee-table book (though round) which has robotic smarts and its own battery. The main thing is, it works. It cleans rooms.

What makes it work is the combination of clever robot design AND clever vacuum cleaner design. Its job as a robot is to cover an entire room and not get trapped somewhere or wander off where it's not wanted. The first time you use it, you watch with fascination as the Roomba goes through its repetoire of exploration (spiral till a wall is encountered, then scrub along keeping the wall on the right, etc.) and avoidance of trouble (detect drop-offs and deflect; when blocked, keep rotating and trying again; etc.) It will happily go places that most vacuums don't, like under beds. For keeping it from openings into other rooms or from entangling wires or such, the Roomba comes with a separate device which puts out a keep-away beam up to 13 feet.

It does not mix well with pets or little kids, who torment it. It is perfect for bachelors of either sex who put off vacuuming chores for months (like I do in my office and storage container). Plugged into a wall socket for battery charge, the Roomba is always ready to grind away diligently in a room. Weekly, daily, who cares? After the first time, you'll leave it to work alone, or you'll find yourself giving it advice, which it does not need.

-- Stewart Brand

Roomba
4100
$144
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by iRobot

Moving Men Furniture Sliders are smooth frisbee-shaped polymer disks, either 7" or 3 1/2" in diameters, filled with a spongy material (they call it a special grip pad). They are an improvement on the "furniture coasters" my mother used to put under the sofa in that the special grip pad does really work, allowing you to move furniture easily. They work on carpet, though our experience has involved sliding things over berber and low-ply (we've never owned shag).

We have moved some pretty heavy furniture using them. You *might* be able to slide an upright piano this way -- but I would leave moving a grand piano to the professionals.

These also work well for slipping under boxes on moving day.

-- Martin Schwimmer

Moving Men Furniture Sliding Set
8 pieces
$10
Available from Amazon

This is the best tool for drawing lines, guiding saws, and basically all carpentry that requires a 90 degree angle. One edge is set perpendicular to the rest of it so you can quickly push it up against a straight side and have a 45 degree angle and a 90 degree angle to mark or saw with, etc. Hard to explain, but once you have one, you won't know how you lived without it.

-- Peter Lawrence

A good metal square is an essential tool for home building, especially framing. It helps you figure out rafter cuts quickly and easily, and it also has a ruler for quick measurements.

There are a number of different models of square out there, but Swanson's Speed^® Square is the best. Why? Well, sturdy aluminum alloy construction makes it nigh indestructible, and the recessed tick marks and numbers are colored in black so there's good contrast for legibility.

The metal construction also makes it super-handy for making square cuts on lumber. Just snug it up and use it as a guide for your circular saw. Plus, all this utility fits in the pocket of work pants without any trouble.

-- Keith Pelczarski

Swanson Speed Square
SO101 7 inches
$8
Available from Amazon

My wife swears by this very Swiffer-like mop. It is basically a stick which you use to shove a towel around the floor with. The towels can then go in the wash.

The nice thing is that is uses very little liquid, so it can be used on laminates with (reasonable) safety. But the massive wave of towel seem to pick up debris quite well, and changing out your towel is far, far faster than with other replaceable head mops.

-- Sandi West

Cuban Mop
$13
Available from Cuban Food Market

Come-alongs are a must-have for country living. They're most often used to tug vehicles out of ditches and unsuccessful stream fordings, and to tighten fencing. I've also used mine for erecting and tightening large tents and canopies, pulling objects into and onto trucks, hoisting 350 lb carcasses for butchering, encouraging crunched automobile bodies back into proper shape, pulling stumps, straightening sagging barns back to verticality, moving large logs, turning trailers to face another direction, erecting pre-assembled 2x4 wall sections built on the floor, cinching loads onto flatbed trucks, dragging heavy boats up the ramp onto the dock or onto their trailers, erecting wind generators, extracting and installing engines in vehicles and boats. In other words, moving just about anything up to 2 tons. Come-alongs should not be used to move people, since a well-used cable can snap.

The Maasdam Pow'r Pull is the best (though not the cheapest) come-along you can buy. It is built better than knock-off copies -- especially the $19.95 ones -- in every way. There's an accessory wire gripper that enables the Maasdam (or any other pull tool) to tighten fences, clotheslines etc. I've beat the hell out of my 1969-model, and it has never failed. It will pull 2 tons. You can buy very expensive aluminum giant come-alongs from several firms, but the fine print with them sez that they are also 2-ton, so I don't see much point in them except they are beautiful and classy-looking. Any tool that carries a high loading should be of the very best quality, as failure can be deadly or at the least scary. The Maasdam is good stuff.

Hints for working with a come-along: Many folks loop a come-along's cable hook around an object and then hook it back onto the cable like a noose. This is very unsafe, as the hook will either cut or seriously damage the cable. Users should invest in a couple of suitable "Shackles" (any hardware or boat store) for such duty, and never hook anything directly to a come-along's cable. Hint for come-along use where there are no trees or objects to anchor it to: Bury your spare tire a couple feet down and hook to that. Come-alongs also need some sort of anchor for the mechanism. I keep a length of 3/8ths chain for that purpose.

-- J. Baldwin

Maasdam 2-Ton Pow'r Pull
$50
Available from Builder Depot

Manufactured by Maasdam

If you have a storm door or screen door, you probably have a pneumatic device that closes it. And the device has a little washer thing that will hold the door open if you put down your bags, and the baby, and let the dog go free while you fiddle it down the bar, so it can jam against the piston. It's a hassle.

The Touch n' Hold is a device that makes this a happier moment. The Touch n' Hold door closer lets you set the door open with a simple tap of your toe or elbow. Then once you've got all your stuff inside, just nudge the door (not the thing) open a little more and it will go back into closing mode.

I use it every day, and it always makes me think of Cool Tools.

-- Thomas T. Ballantine

Touch n' Hold
$14
Available from Touch 'n Hold

The "Third Hand" is a low cost helper that has been an indispensable assistant for many of my projects in electronics. It holds circuit boards in place as you put in components, or if you need to solder delicate parts which require a steady hand (sometimes, more than two) it gives you a few more. It's also pretty tough to find someone to help you at 3am when most of the important work seems to happen. Two adjustable metal clips hold in your circuit boards (or whatever else) and a magnifying glass gives you a little zoom in action for the really tricky constructions. Perhaps I anthropomorphize useful things, but on an otherwise cold work bench, the Third Hand looks like a little robot pal with claws raised, always eager to help.

-- Phillip Torrone

Third Hand
$6
Jameco Part#: 26690
Available from Jameco Electronics
You can also find these at most dollar / discount type stores too for $3 or $4.

I started a major remodel of our home last year and was being driven crazy by all of the interior and exterior measurements that had to be made. Most of them required more than one person and my wife wasn't exactly happy to go along. That doesn't include the measurements that were simply hard to make (too high, too far, etc.)

That's when I ran across the Stanley laser "measuring tape." Inexpensive ultrasonic versions of this have been around for a while,
unfortunately they're generally inaccurate and in a tight space it's never completely clear what's being measured. Professional laser tapes have been around for a while also, but at $400+ a pop weren't exactly in my budget. The Stanley comes in about $100 and is every bit as accurate as the pro models.

Put the rear of the device against the wall (or starting point), point the laser dot at the point you're measuring to, punch a button, and presto distances up to 100' measured instantly and accurate within 1/4". Awesome!!!

I finished all of my measurements in 30 minutes. My time alone was worth the cost of the tool.

-- Mike Green

TLM 100 FatMax Tru-Laser Distance Measurer
$100
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Stanley

I don't do enough serious fabrication work to spend thousands of dollars on a real milling machine, but for about $500 this provides much more precision and versatility than a drill press. The handle on the right moves the table from side to side. The handle in front moves the table in and out. Both are calibrated in 1/1000 of an inch. Add a couple of small vises (I bought mine from McMaster-Carr) and you can position holes exactly where they should be, or make slots and more intricately shaped cutouts using an appropriate bit while moving the table. The speed control is a simple knob, like a lamp dimmer, enabling me to reduce the speed conveniently when drilling plastics.

The Grizzly catalogue has other similar tools in what I would describe as the intermediate category: Not quite professional level, but more upscale than Home Depot.

Grizzly G8689 Mini Milling Machine
$525
Available from Amazon

I have seen many attempts to improve that humble tool, the wire stripper. This is the one that pleases me most. It clamps the wire, makes an incision into the insulation without cutting the copper underneath, and removes the insulation, all in a single action. The best part is that you don't have to hold the wire, because the tool grips it for you. You can use it with only one hand.

It looks clunky and over-elaborate but is absolutely functional. I enjoy all aspects of its design, even including the snick-snick sound of its clever mechanical linkage.

Although the one I own bears Radio Shack's "Kronus" brand name (available on their web site and in their stores) an identical version is available more cheaply from Grizzly Tools at the URL below.

Kronus Automatic Wire Stripper
$10
Available from Amazon

Wonder if you got this: It's the World Time Clock from designer Charlotte Van Der Waals. Think it's an incredibly clever piece. I appreciate a lot the ability of seeing "upside down" things and problems :)

-- hexholden
[There are four variations of the World Time Clock design. You can find them pictured together at Ameico. Each can be turned to one of 12 positions to indicate the time in selected global regions. I love the concept because I consider a regular 12-sided polygon (a dodecagon) to be the most aesthetically pleasing shape in nature. Maybe it's no accident that there are 12 hours in a day and 12 months in a year--also 12 pennies in an old English shilling, before the metric system came along and condemned us to the rule of 10, merely because we happen to have 5 digits on each hand. -- CP]

World Time Clock
$150
Available from Junro

You already know why it's good!

-- Jeff Hoover

[After you flush the toilet, incoming water cycles up through the sink before going down to refill the toilet tank. Water is used twice: Once for hand washing, and a second time for the next flush. -- CP]

Toilet Lid Sink
$89
Available from Gaiam

Manufacturer not listed.

Previously listed on Cool Tools as a Source Wanted

While we wait for LED table lamps to emerge from the development phase and arrive at our local Wal-Marts, Hong Kong manufacturers have started selling ultra-high-output white LEDs direct to the consumer via eBay. These are the raw components, plus resistors for wiring them to a 12-volt car system, which is a popular application to create "undercar phantom glow" and other effects which will be familiar to those who have seen episodes of "Pimp My Ride" on cable.

The singularly named Light of Victory Led Store will send you, via airmail, 100 large size LEDs (1 cm diameter, 130,000 millicandles) for thirty-five bucks, including series resistors and air-mail postage. What a deal!

Of course you will have to do a little work at your end, drilling holes to mount the LEDs in a panel, and hooking them up to a power supply. The series resistors are not necessary if you buy a 3.5 AC adapter for house voltage, available for less than $10--check Froogle. Just remember to hook the shorter wire of each LED to your negative source, and the longer wire to your positive source. Each diode draws just 20 milliwatts, making them, I think, the most efficient known form of artificial light, already finding widespread use in flashlights, tail lights, and turn signals. Soon to be used for ambient indoor lighting in an RV near you?

I expect to be writing a build-your-own-LED-reading-lamp crafts project for Make magazine later this year. Meanwhile you can have fun playing with this almost magical device.

-- Charles Platt

Super White LED Lamp Product
$35 including air mail from Hong Kong
Sold by Light of Victory Led-Store

This tool has changed how I think about glue guns. My old glue gun got used about once every two years; this one gets used almost every day. I use it so much because it warms up quickly (you can start using it in less than a minute) and is very precise. In addition, it lives in my house rather than in the garage because it is so clean. No more drips! I haven't used it for design or shop projects yet, but it's earning its keep on incidental things--like gluing up a loose part on my running shoes, gluing the end caps on stool legs, plugging a leak in my snorkel, attaching a candle to a base, etc. It's nice to just turn it on and use it without having to plug it in and wait.

-- Kevin Fine

ColdHeat Glue Gun
$40
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by ColdHeat

Finally, a really worthwhile use for cellular technology. Global Pet Finder is essentially LoJack for dogs in case they get lost. If your dog wanders out of the area, it will transmit its location every minute to your cell phone, PDA, or pager. You can also check your dog's location on their website. Alternatively, you can manually locate your dog by dialing "FOUND" from your cellphone.

One other really cool feature is a temperature sensor, which will cause the unit to transmit a warning if the air temperature gets dangerously high or low.

-- Curt Nelson

GlobalPetFinder
$350 plus $35 activation fee and $18 to $20 monthly service fee

Manufactured by and available from Global Pet Finder
Also from Amazon

Lets you connect multiple devices, even with big power converters, to a single outlet.

-- Zimran Ahmed

PowerSquid
$14
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by PowerSquid

This is possibly quite goofy, but I got my 16 year old a Slanket for her birthday and she was thrilled. She is quite certain that our house is insignificantly above freezing in the winter, so she's always cold. Not anymore!

--Chris Noble

[The Slanket is an extra-large blanket fitted with sleeves to anchor it while you lie back on the couch.]

Slanket
$45
Available from Slanket Loungin

I have been using a pretty cool detergent product that was launched recently. These are half ounce dissolvable packets of concentrated laundry detergent, so that you just throw one into the washer and you don't have to carry, measure, pour or waste detergent. Very cool and convenient!

--Kunal Bahl

[The manufacturer also emphasizes that its products are environmentally benign.]

Dropps
$6 for 20 loads
Available from Cot'n Wash Inc.

My sister gave a MysticMaid cleaning cloth to me for a birthday present. Prejudging the gift (a towel?) I feigned a thanks and a fake smile. Then I tried it. I cleaned my glasses and then my monitor. Wow! I'd swear I got a new prescription.

One of the best uses I found for it, was cleaning up items for online auctions. I cleaned an older digital camera to a nearly brand new state. Cleans CDs and DVDs, too.

Machine washable.

-- Russ Taber

MysticMaid
$10
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by MysticMaid

Like many people, I've had a lifetime of those round shopvacs on wheels with various attachments strung out around the house. The Pro Pack solves a lot of the problems that the traditional shopvacs had. It's in a rectangular form factor much like a giant toolbox, right down to a sturdy handle and storage compartments for all of the attachments and the power cord. The shape and light weight make it easy to carry and store, and because the vacuum is so powerful -- 5.0 peak HP -- you can pick up all sorts of things. To empty, just pop off the top and pour the contents out. It's easy enough to manage that I'll probably be using it around the house almost as much as my regular vacuum cleaner.

-- Annette S. Leung

Ridgid Pro Pack
$89
Available from Home Depot

Manufactured by Ridgid

As a remodeling contractor, I benefit greatly from a well-designed tool. One tool I especially like is the Tibet Almond Stick. I always have one in my toolbox. It is a remarkable quick fix for minor scratches in wood finishes. One swipe and the scratches disappear (or are greatly diminished!) Great for touching up wood floors, furniture, wood countertops, trim, etc. I have no idea how it works.

-- Rock Heindel

Tibet Almond Stick
$5
Available from
Amazon

Manufactured by Zenith Chemical Works

How do you keep a camera lens clean? You cover it with a filter. But how do you keep the filter clean?

I floundered for many years with streaky Kodak solutions and other goofy products, till I was referred to a mysterious product called Pancro by an extraordinary AC named David "AC Dave" Wendlinger. Pancro comes in industrial white bottles with a big sticker on the front, "PANCRO Professional Lens Cleaner Non-Streaking Non-Residue Non-Toxic Fast-Drying" (almost poetic).

Who knows what it is. But it works like magic. Now my lenses are spotless. This stuff cleans anything with glass; binoculars, telescopes, cameras, rearview mirrors. I carry a little bottle of it in my pocket for my eyeglasses. A pack of Rosco Lens Tissue goes well with it.

Best practice for cleaning the lens/filter? First, hold the camera upside down with the front lens pointing down. Use a little blower with SOFT bristle brush to blow off any particles from the lens surface, particles which will fall off the lens aided by gravity. Put a few drops of Pancro on the Rosco lens tissue and softly polish the lens in a circular motion. Rotate use of the 4 corners and both sides of the tissue so that you always are using a clean part of the tissue to avoid grinding grime into the lens surface. Repeat upside down brush operation if necessary. Inspect with extremely bright flashlight pointed at angle to the element. Some people recommend a cloth instead of the Rosco paper, but I've found them too fussy to keep clean and free of abrasive particles. Canned air can work as well, but it can streak the lens if Freon is accidentally sprayed when help upside down or sideways. And it can't be checked in baggage legally.

--Paul Lundahl (Creative Director/Partner, eMotion Studios)

Pancro Lens Cleaning Fluid, 4oz
$23
Available from Studio Depot

Manufactured by Pancro

The pet blinker reviewed on Cool Tools is nice, but I've used a larger one which I've found works much better. They give a full 280 degrees of light, and being a much larger surface area of illumination is a real advantage. I can see my dog in the deep underbrush, even if he's laying down (where the "dangling" type lights get blocked by leaves and front paws.) We get about 5 months of use out of a single battery in flash mode, which we run for about 1.5 hours a day. We could get longer, but the light starts to dim a bit after that time period.

-- John Todd

PolyBrite Dog Collar
$10
Available from
Amazon

This is so simple. You plug your PC into the main socket, and then plug your printer, scanner, monitor etc into the other sockets. When you turn off your computer, the smart unit shuts the power off to the other sockets. Saves power from constantly-on transformers, saves the environment, and saves lives from electrical fires caused by overheated DC adaptors. Also works for AV equipment.

-- Bruce Richardson

Smart Strip Power Strip
$37
Available from
Amazon

OneClick Power Strip
Available in the UK from
OneClick

I find that compressed gases just don't work for me on computer accessories (e.g., keyboards and cases) or cameras -- the junk just gets blown deeper inside or I am afraid that the "condensate" will gum things up. A vacuum seems a better solution, but the teeny-tiny ones sold for these purposes don't suck enough(!). The answer -- an $8 Vacuum Micro Attachment Kit. This is an ingenious set of attachments and connectors that turns any upright or canister vacuum into a powerful "micro vacuum" that really does the trick on keyboards, PC cases, cameras (bodies and lenses) in a safe and effective manner.

-- Bryan Quattlebaum

Vacuum Micro Attachment Kit
Item #114 0210
$8
Available from Cyberguys

Also from Amazon

The Kensington SmartSockets Table Top is very nearly the best power strip I've ever used. It has excellent surge suppression with an indicator light when the suppression is gone, and a $50,000 equipment warranty on top of the lifetime warranty on the strip itself. Beyond that, the design is excellent. It's circular so you have a fighting chance of getting six AC adapters on it. The cord is 16 feet long, so you can get it to places without an extension cord, and the cord has an angled plug so you can use the socket below it. The plug is even ridged you you can grip it better when your arm is stretched behind cabinets and whatnot. Normal power strips tip and move around if they're off-balance from AC adapters. With the power switch in the dead center, and the pre-attached rubber feet, this thing is rock solid. I wish every product I used had the same attention to detail!

-- Bob Plankers

Kensington Tabletop SmartSockets Surge Protector
$41
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Kensington

Sending my black shitzu out on a dark night from my country home can cause some stress. Not knowing where the little mutt has gone has me worrying if he has wandered off too far. Plus out in the country there are many predators that would consider the little dog as a snack. I found this pet blinker in a local feed store. It is the greatest thing I bought for my pet. The bright LEDs can be seen for a good distance and the low battery usage means a long time between changes. The blinker is very light and does not weigh down my little dog. All I have to do now at night is just follow the blinking light to know the location of my dog.

-- Roland

Pet Blinker
$6
Available from World Pet Store

Also from Amazon

Manufactured by Flipo.

This item converts any AA or AAA Maglite into an LED torch, with the same brightness as the original, the same ability to focus the bulb, much longer battery life, and eliminating the need to ever change the bulb again. It fits in the same way as the bulb, and does not require any modification to the Maglite. This is a way to keep on using the sturdy Maglite casing and benefit from LED technology.

-- Ellis Weinberger

TerraLUX TLE-10 MicroStar1 LED Replacement Bulb
$15
Available from
Pocket Lights

Or $21 from Amazon

Manufactured by TerraLUX

For additional info, see Flashlight Reviews.

*

Easily and inexpensively upgrade those Mini-Mags lying around in your drawer to life long L.E.D bulbs and longer battery life. You lose the focus feature but who cares. Niteize has a bunch of other useful stuff as well.

-- Cliff Rediger

Nite Ize AA Mini Maglite LED Upgrade Kit
$11
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Nite Ize

My electric bills are killing me, and now I can finally figure out exactly why.

The Kill-A-Watt plugs into a wall outlet and will measure the actual electricity usage of any appliance. I've been wanting one of these things for years, to the point of seriously considering manufacturing one myself. I'm glad someone has finally done it for me. It looks like my computer costs me something like $216 a year to run. Trouble is, I have five of them. Something's gotta go.

Street price for this device is about $30. I should save that much in the first month.

An additional idea that I thought of would be combining these units with that cheesy home-network technology that communicates via your home's electrical system. (Or use WiFi) That way several wall units could communicate with a PC and give you a running total of your energy consumption. The system could automatically retrieve your electrical rates from the Internet and even give you a running total in dollars of what you're spending.

-- Curt Nelson

Kill-A-Watt
$22
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by P3 International

The handband version of the 3M pop-up tape strip dispenser is fantastic. When wrapping gifts, it's hard to realize just how much you would appreciate being able to get pieces of tape in exactly the right size, every time, with one hand. The tape strips are not economical for everyday use (about $3.50 for a 3 pack of 75 strip refills), but the gift-wrapping simplification yielded from this small tool is greater than you would expect.

-- Patrick Niemeyer

3M 91 Handband Pop-up Tape Strip Dispenser
$4
Available in drugstores or from
Farm & Home Supply Center

At Costco I found a 15 MILLION candlepower rechargeable flashlight for $29.99. It pretty much stopped me in my tracks. After charging all day, it's incredibly bright. The only analogy that I can think of is the spotlight on a police helicopter.

It's a model CYC-S1500, made by Cyclops Solutions of Bedford, Texas. It uses a standard automotive H4 130W halogen bulb and what appears to be a motorcycle battery. It has a high and low-power setting and it comes with both AC/DC charger and 12 volt cigarette lighter adapter. Manufacturer's claimed burn time on high power is 40 minutes.

Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined a light like this would ever be available for thirty bucks. My friends and I are already talking about upgrading ours with super-duper PIAA H4 bulbs and Optima batteries, to hopefully create a real monster...

-- Curt Nelson

Cyclops S1500 Spot Light
$45
Available from
beeGool

Previously available from Amazon

Manufactured by Cyclop Solutions

From 1930 to 1987 the Lister company made diesel motors for pumps, generators, and general-purpose use, using mostly the same design of big, slow-speed, heavy flywheels and simple, easily-repaired parts. The Lister company then sold the designs. Today there are many Indian and Chinese companies that produce Lister copies (aka: "Listeroids") for export. These are fairly faithful to the original design -- with varying quality. The price for these engines *per kilowatt* is cheap, when compared to the more commonly found gasoline-powered generators, though they are not very portable. What is truly amazing is the efficiency of the Lister: one user reports an average of 8000 watts and 0.3 gallons of diesel per hour. They can be made nearly silent with cheap car mufflers or a water muffler. They run fairly cool, and home-built radiators (water tanks, house radiators, car radiators) seem to work well. These slow-rotating workhorse machines are good for nearly 100% duty cycle if properly maintained. (A 100% duty cycle means running 24/7, with no down time due to heat and lubrication needs). The Listers can run all the time, and there are even some people who have figured out how to do oil changes while the motor is still running, thus removing even the lubrication issues. Their efficiency and raw power makes them perfectly suited for electrical generation for long-term use versus "emergency-only" generators which have an extremely short lifespan. They are also works of mechanical art, and will keep a mechanically-minded hacker occupied for weeks, experimenting and tuning. I'm sure that vegetable oil or waste motor oil would work as fuel in these engines as well, but more research is needed.

There are quite a few US-based vendors for engines and gensets. You'd still need to rig a mount for it (concrete pad) and a radiator. This is as close to a "complete" system as you can get. The utterpower.com website sells a cheap CD with loads of useful information; well worth the cost before you start looking.

-- John Todd


One home-built Listeroid-powered 7.5 kilowatt generator with water-tank cooler.

Listeroid Engine
$800 and up
Available from
listeroid.com
Powerful Solutions
eBay

How-to information from:
utterpower.com
Old Style Listers
Anand Enterprise
Rocketboy Aircraft Products

Everone knows the standard 1.6 gallon low-flush toilet does not work as advertised. The three different models we installed in our bathroom in as many years did not easily flush large turds. Finally a maniacal plumber who methodically reviews low-flush toilets on his website (O, the glory of the web!) pointed me to a 1.6 gallon toilet that really, really works: the Toto UltraMax. It has garnered unanimously great reviews online.

I can categorically say that if you have trouble with non-flushing 1.6 gallon toilets, than the Toto UltraMax will change your bathroom life. You can store that plunger away. Created by clever Japanese engineers who figured that if you could make a toilet that worked in space, why not one that worked at home? They rethought the standard design, and came up with the G-Max system. It inserts a vortex in the bow of the throne's bowl which satisfyingly sucks everything down in a split-second quiet whoosh. Shit be gone!

Even better, I found a site that would mail me the Toto UltraMax to my home via DHL (and with free shipping!) Two days later I had a very large box on our front porch, and a few hours later, a low-flush toilet running that has not clogged once since installation. (Previously we needed a plunger every third time).

I've been so happy.

-- KK

Toto Ultramax Toilet
MS854114S
$406
Available from
Performance Toilets

Or $421 from Amazon

Terry Love's Consumer Toilet Report

I've been using one of these carpet sweepers so long I forgot to think of it as a Cool Tool. You've probably seen them used in restaurants and hotels. They just plain work. No electric, no plugs, no noise & lightweight. So convenient to grab for a few second cleanup. Just push and they clean, even small crumbs. They go forever. Around $50. And when you flip them over to empty, you're always amazed how much stuff they picked up.

-- Vincent Crisci

Hoky PR-2400
$64
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Hoky

I've used many different types of spray lubricants over the years, some good, some not so. One problem with all of them is I always lose the little straw that comes with them. Rubber bands always seem to dry out. Hold-it's hold the straw to the can. I haven't lost one yet. Fairly inexpensive as well- $4.99 for twelve. I've given some to friends, they love them as well.

-- Mark Phillips

Hold-It
$5/ 12
Hold-It

Spiders up in the corners of the ceiling. Mosquitoes lurking on the wall by the light. Flies on the windowpane. They're hard to hit, and when you do, they squish. So don't even try to hit them...

The Bugzooka looks and sounds (and is priced) like a kids' toy but it has highly evolved efficiency. No batteries. Just cock the bellows on your hip, point the extendable end to within an inch or two of the offending insect, thumb the trigger, and FWOOP!, insect magically gone. Stroll the country house--- thirty spiders, fwoopety-fwoop, all gone in five minutes.

The bugs are sucked in good condition into a chamber on the end of the Bugzooka where they can be studied by a child (probably male) or released humanely. If you really don't care to see the bugs up close, the kit includes a smoked-plastic version of the capture chamber. Now that's nuance.

-- Stewart Brand

Bugzooka
$20
Available from Amazon

Why didn't we think of this earlier? A lock with a password. Much easier to remember. Because there are only 10 letters per ring, you are limited to a mere 1,000 dictionary words and names. I could not program my usual password, or my favorite names, but I did code in a memorable nonsense word, of which many abound. The mechanism has the heft of your standard gym locker lock.

-- KK

Staples Wordlock
$6
Available from Amazon

My wife and I are both Master Gardeners who live on mountain land where there is not a single level square foot. We have less than 1000 square feet of grass stuff (not really turf) so I have no use for a lawn tractor. Instead we use a Powerwagon. Think of it as an ATV wheelbarrow. It can haul hundreds of pounds of rock, logs, soil, or what have you up steep grades. My wife enjoys building stacked stone walls in almost inaccessible places, and this is the only way that I can get the material to her. I doubt that I could work our property without it. Warning: it is not cheap, but for me it is worth it.

-- Mike Saunders

DR Powerwagon Pro
$1,934
Available from
DR Power

After living in a house with 3 animals for a while, I started to notice the usual hair balls scattered around. I needed a very light, powerful vacuum that could reach corners easily.

I tried a hand-held dustbuster type, but found that its incredibly small storage and lack of any useful way to hold debris inside was just a bad design. After investigating those "Shark" or small Oreck vacuums, I found their prices were much too high and their design didn't look very impressive either, so I passed.

I found my dream machine in the 2 Gallon Stinger Wet/Dry Vac for less than $30. What you get:
Lots of sucking power, very easy to dump out debris, lots of capacity, very light and easy to move around, gets into tight spaces, and much less expensive than those premium models! AND, it will pick up both dry and wet material, as the name implies!

This really is the perfect convenient vacuum for quick clean-ups. And at half to a third the price of those premium models, you can't go wrong.

-- Steven Deterling

Stinger 2 Gallon Wet/Dry Vacuum
Model WD2010
$27
Available from
Home Depot

Disposable alkaline batteries are not perceived by most people to be rechargeable, and that's how the manufacturers like it. Until digital pulse-technology chargers came out a few years ago, it was NOT an option for most people. Alkaline battery walls are very thin, and the heat generated by simple brute-force recharging frequently split them open with a bang.

There are new chip-controlled chargers which will safely and effectively recharge "disposable" alkaline batteries. I have a Buddy-L Super Charger, one of the first designed this way. Bought it about 7 years ago, and I still use it to recharge all my alkaline batteries. Saves me a BUNDLE!

The newest of the new chargers claim to be able to charge Ni-Cad, NiMH, AND Alkaline in the same unit. (Don't know if this means mixed types at the same time.)

-- Nestey

Battery Xtender
$40
Available from Battery Recharger

Robomaid is a low tech, very cheap version of Roomba cleaner. It doesn't clean rugs, but has done a great job on our wood, tile, and stone floors. The design is wonderful in its elegance: a powered ball propelling a sweeping "hat". Like Roomba it cleans along walls, under tables and desks, and in corners where it would be difficult to clean otherwise. It uses no intelligence, so it randomly changes direction, but is surprisingly thorough. Especially since I don't care how long it takes.

It has some lovable quirks: you need to block it from going down stairs (going down the stairs has not damaged it, but I worry). It does not find its way back to its recharger when done, so you need to locate it after it has cleaned. The electrostatic cleaning pads need replacing after 5-10 cleanings, and cost 30-40 cents each, so the cost per cleaning is 3 to 8 cents.

I got it for Christmas from friends who thought our pets would enjoy it. I had low expectations. Our pets ignored it after the first time, but it cleaned so well it has become a fixture around our house.

-- James Tierney

Robomaid
$8
Available from Amazon

I've been a reader for 35 years, and I'm finding it pretty useful these days. This old hippie magazine is the only place to keep current with back-to-the-land news. The old dream of thriving on a few acres of land is still serviced with enthusiasm here. Familiar subjects like backyard animals and all-year gardens are reliably addressed, but they also have solid reporting on the such technological innovations as the latest in modern cabin toilets, microgenerators, the best chain saws and solar panels, and so on. However, since a lot of homesteading chores haven't changed much, their website offers 35 years of back issues online -- some of the best stuff they published was written in the 1970s. (You can also get the archive on CDs).

At ten bucks per year, this magazine is essential reading for anyone attempting to homestead in the country, or to live self-reliantly in a town. But I also find it a great bargain for anyone with a do-it-yourself mentality. Despite the glossy sheen, the pages radiate with reports of reader's hands-on, can-do, think-different attitude.

Why I subscribe: Most magazines are about consuming. This one is about producing.

-- KK

Mother Earth News
$10 for 6 issues/year

Sample excerpts from one recent issue:

Tool Sharing Start Up Advice
Are you thinking of starting a tool-sharing program in your community or neighborhood? Here are some helpful tips:
* Hold a meeting to find out people's needs and available resources.
* Determine the scope of the program; it's often best to start with simpler hand tools.
* Determine storage-will tools be stored in homes or in a common space?
* Determine how costs will be covered for tool purchases and ongoing maintenance.
* Develop a clear set of lending, repair and tool-return rules.
* Develop a list of "experts" who can share skills.
* Organize a system to track checkout and return of tools.
* Assign responsibility for maintenance and repair.

It usually does cost a bit more to buy meat from heritage [pork] breeds, but Small says there are good reasons for the higher price tag: Heritage breeds take longer to reach market weight than conventional breeds, and because they also produce a higher percentage of body fat, fewer of those pounds consist of marketable cuts. Small says the high quality and great flavor of the meat nevertheless creates steady demand from customers willing to pay the premium. "Cost per pound of our meat is definitely higher than cheap factory-farm pork," she says. "What we tell our customers is to eat less meat, but eat better-quality meat."

Lots of people visiting my house comment on all the different gadgets I have, but the only one they ask me about -- where can they get their own? -- is my double draft stopper. Sometimes the simple and cheap is more impressive than the complex and expensive. It's just two long cylinders of styrofoam that slide into a cloth cover which is then slid under the door and holds the foam in placed to stop drafts. The foam can be trimmed to fit your door and the extra fabric folds back and fastens with velcro. The whole thing moves with the door, is easily removed, and the cover is machine washable. They're available all over the web for less than $10.

-- Jimmie Whipple

Twin Draft Stopper
$10
Available from Improvements

Also from Amazon

The need: a very tiny woodstove suitable for a small space in a home. I received many suggestions after posting an inquiry here last month. Here is the consensus from Cool Tools readers.

The original Very Small Woodstove is the Jotul 602, from Norway. This model is a mere 12 inches wide, 19 inches deep. They are found most often in cottages and cabins in the woods, where the 602's good looks are a highlight. It's been around almost forever. Jotul claims over 1 million of these have been manufactured. Waterford and Garden Way produced a near identical stove called the Reginald 101, but it is no longer in production, but available used, as is the Jotul 602. Although very small it can heat amazingly well.

Jotul 602
12 x 19
$700
Available from Jotul

But the tiniest very small woodstoves are those built for boats. These are designed for very tight quarters, and often have a railing on the top to keep pots from rolling off. Here is a typical one from the Canadian coast measuring all of 12 inches by 12 inches. They are made of cast iron and porcelain and are so cute and enchanting, folks have thought of getting a sailboat just so they need one.

Sardine
12 x12
$650
Available from Marine Stove

The third option for extremely small woodstoves are those manufactured for camping. Sometimes known as wall tent stoves, or pack trail stoves, or ice shack, or even shepherding stoves, these are meant for nomadic or seasonal camps. Like the marine varieties they double as cookstoves. More expensive varieties are produced in titanium, the cleverest are even collapsible, but the cheapest are steel, and they are as plain and basic as camp coffee.

Two Dog Stove
10 x 12
$185
Available from Wall Tent Shop

THE source for pack trail stoves is Pack Saddle Shop

Wilderness Shanty Wood Stove
8 x 15
$140
Available from Shewchuk Outdoor Supplies

Slightly larger-- that is small, but not extremely small -- home woodstoves can also be found at Lehman's

Thanks to Chris, Gordon Crone, John Simons, Art Johnson, Cate, Helge Gudmundsen, CJ Cramer, Christopher Wanko, Rob McCartney, Todd Holloway, Eagle, Scott KS, Stephen Foss, Rick Smith, Dean Johnson, Matt Murray, Curt Jopling, Justin Anthony, Egil Hogholt, and Russell Hall.

-- KK

I have been using these wonderful little Clear Removable Mounting Squares from Scotch for about 2 years now for holding things up and down and together and have loved them. I was desperately searching for an easy and elegant way to tack down my speaker wire for a new surround sound system when I stumbled upon these little gems and knew that I had found the answer. These squares are like a cross between Sticky Tack and the best Scotch tape you've ever used--they are gooey and very sticky, yet hold their form and are almost totally invisible. For tacking down speaker wire, many folks nail those little "U" shaped brackets into the wall; but these are so much better. I simply stuck one to the wall, stuck the speaker wire to it and then stuck another one over it to make a "sandwich" with the speaker wire in the middle. It looks fantastic, it's non-marring, it's easy and fast, and it really holds well! Not to mention that these hold up pictures, posters and even light objects with ease. They are truly an innovation and fill a need that many don't realize they have until they see the product. They are just great to have around.

-- Peter Lio

Scotch Clear Removable Mounting Squares
$2.60
Available from among others:
Amos

Also from Amazon

Manufactured by 3M

The dream of animating your house to automate the routine and alert you to the unexpected has reached the level where you need only four things:

1) An inexpensive software controller program for your PC or Mac.
2) Off-the-shelf X-10 components, which send signals along your 110 volt room wiring.
3) The Smarthome catalog of devices, hardware and parts.
4) This book, which tells you in satisfying detail how to use 1, 2, and 3 to accomplish (and extend) your fantasies.

-- KK

Smart Home Hacks
Gordon Meyer
2004, 328 pages
$16
Amazon

For an avalanche of smart products in mind-numbing diversity, see the previously reviewed Smarthome catalog.

Sample excerpts:

Not everyone in your household will be as enthusiastic about home automation as you are. That's to be expected -- everyone has different interests -- but unlike some hobbies, automating your home has a profound impact on others. If it's not done in a careful and considerate fashion, it can disrupt and bring frustration to a family's ultimate retreat: their home. For this reason, and just for common courtesy, it's a good idea to discuss your plans before you implement them. The results of some automation projects can be surprising, such as a talking house [Hack #28], so it's best to make sure you aren't the only one who will enjoy them.

*

The PowerLinc USB power-line interface

*

Hack #55. Know if the Garage Door is Open.
Use a magnetic switch and Powerflash module to keep track of the status of your garage door.

*

A keystone in my home automation system is that it knows when the house is unoccupied [Hack #70]. When the house is empty, the alarm system is activated, visitors coming to the front door are logged [Hack #74], and the network camera that I used to check in on my dog [Hack #82] is turned on. Furthermore, the first person who comes home to the previously unoccupied house is greeted with appropriate lighting and thermostat setting, and important reminders and announcements [Hack #28].

*

Hack #48. Put the House to Sleep for the Night.
When it's time to go to bed, have your house turn off all the lights, check to make sure things are secure, and ready your motion detectors to light the way should someone get up for a drink of water.

Here it comes, ready or not: the Smart House. A whole avalanche of products in mind-numbing diversity is available via this mail-order catalog and Web site. A lot of the equipment I find creepy (networks of concealed in-house mini-video cameras for "security" purposes), but some I covet right now (I want to be able to beep my front door open like I beep my car door open; $69 uninstalled). The rest can wait (the caller ID of your incoming phone call shows up on your TV). The avalanche is only picking up speed and this catalog, which has the widest collection I've seen, is the best way to keep up.

-- KK

Smarthome.com
800/762-7846
949/221-9200

I have lived on a boat since I was 13. We have tried just about every way of heating water (including one kettle at a time on a wood stove). Since boats usually don't have room for a big water heater, nor the natural gas hookup, we usually had a hardly-functioning on-demand propane water heater. They were infernally breaking down. However these "instantaneous" water heaters have finally come of age due to market pressures, so now you can buy a highly efficient mainstream tankless heater for home use.

I now have a Bosch Aquastar 125HX. Not only is it smaller and more efficient than any water heater that uses a tank, it gives endless hot water at good pressures, and has worked flawlessly in a marine environment for the last three years on my houseboat. This water heater instantly lights up a propane heating system automatically the moment I turn on the hot water, yet it does not need a power cord (important if your power goes off, or if you aren't on the grid). It does this by cleverly generating electricity from the water pressure in the pipes to spark a piezo igniter.

There is a whole Aquastar line from large ones for multi shower households, to the smaller ones like mine. Some are made to work in line with solar radiant heating, some with propane, some with natural gas. I really like the HX model because it works with no outside power source or pilot for ignition, making it very efficient, safe and reliable. They cost more than standard water heaters (mine was $550) but they pay for themselves fast in power bills since you don't have to keep a large tank of water heated all the time; you only make hot water exactly when you need it.

I would absolutely use one of these even if I lived on land with access to a gas line. The hot water never runs out (which would be great in a household with a lot of people, or if you just like long showers) and its more efficient because its not heating a whole tank of water all the time.

-- Alexander Rose

$565
Tankless Water

I don't know how many CT readers spend much time splitting wood to make kindling for their fireplace or wood stove. But when I think of tools that I love, this one is near the top of the list.

Most folks will tell you that the way to make little sticks (kindling) out of big sticks (chunks of firewood) is to hold the firewood chunk upright on a chopping block in one hand and take a good swing at it with a hatchet. It's pretty obvious what's wrong with this picture: you have a sharp bladed instrument moving at high speed in the direction of your bare hand. After some practice, you'll get the hang of it; the problem is reaching that level of skill without a few trips to your local suturist or finger-reattachment specialist.

There's a better way: the Froe. Traditionally used for splitting shingles, it serves equally well for bloodless, fear-free kindling. The iron blade is driven into the log (another piece of firewood makes a perfect "mallet" for this), and then torque is applied using the wooden handle to complete the split.

Your fingers will thank you.

-- Karl Bunker

Froe
$40
From Lehman's, among others

Old froes can be found on eBay for $10 - $30.

In this latest incarnation of a survivalist magazine, the two strands of the self-reliance movement are mixed up here with the glee of cognitive dissonance. You've got your pure survivalists, who run away from things (the government, Y2K, society in general), and now you've also got the greens, who run to society (rural values, ecotopia). So in one issue you'll get articles on solar-powered yurts, making your own soap, and the best "combat flashlights" used to temporarily blind an assailant, or software for training your long-range rifle skills. In between is material on outfitting four-wheel drives, diving for legal abalone, AC inverters, building your own home and other matters of living close to the land away from the crowd.

-- KK

Note: Self Reliance Journal went out of business since I wrote this review; extant subscriptions were taken over by Backwoods Home Magazine, which has very similar coverage of say, solar energy and guns. I'll do a proper review of BHM when I get to know it better.

Backwoods Home Magazine

Power Generator Lanterns
The new Liberty Power Generator unit is attached to the top of a lantern and heat from the lantern's flame produces enough electricity of run a portable AM/FM/short wave radio for as little as 1 cent per hour, providing a valuable alternative to battery power for radio communication or other electric needs. The generator has no moving parts to wear out, no batteries and needs no external power source, only the heat from the lantern's flame.

Wood pellet stoves are an alternative way to heat a home. The stoves use wood pellets, which look exactly like rabbit food, and are made out of dried recycled compressed sawdust from lumber mills that otherwise ends up in landfills. They were invented in the 1980s and were popular for a while then declined some in the late 90s but since 9/11 have made a big comeback. The industry for stove manufactures, pellet distribution and stove technology has greatly matured and is nationwide.

Wood pellet stoves have a number of advantages over normal wood stoves. Because the stoves are so efficient, there is almost no smoke or creosote produced, in fact the exhaust is barely even hot so the stove doesn't need a masonry chimney and can be installed anywhere a tin metal liner can be put in, either directly into the roof, or sideways out a wall. They can be stand-alone stoves on legs in the corner of a room, or chimney inserts using an existing chimney. Unlike wood stoves, pellet stoves work well in urban environments because of little exhaust and no need for a chimney and can be installed in any room.

The pellets come in 40 pound plastic bags, about the size of a mulch bag, which makes transport and storage a snap compared to dealing with cord wood. A fully automated stove requires filling up with the pellets and turning on; the stove does the rest: it automatically lights, automatically feeds the pellets into the flame with an auger, automatically adjusts the rate to keep the room at a pre-set temperature with an electric thermostat. At the low setting I can go 76 hours on one load in my Harman stove, which is a fireplace inset so it is limited in hopper size. There are other stoves that have bigger hoppers. Indeed there are pellet furnaces that can hold weeks worths of pellets and heat an entire central heating system.

A 40 pound bag of pellet wood produces less than a cup of ash so it rarely needs to be emptied (keep the pellet hopper and ash tray size in mind when shopping for stoves). I need to vacuum the ash pan in my Harman stove after burning fifty 40lb bags --about every two months during heavy use.

A 40 pound pellet bag can cost from $2 to $4. Typically they are sold by the pallet, which is 50 bags or 1-ton, for $120 to $200. You will need storage space and some brawn. How much you use will depend on the stove, season, comfort level, space, etc., but the general recommendation is 1 bag of pellets a day. In my experience it can be much less than that based on your comfort level and weather and time at home. Wood pellets can be found at most hardware stores around the country including Home Depot, Ace, etc. Pellets come in 3 grades, depending on ash content (less ash the better), the higher grade pellets are hardwood while the lower grade is pine, most of the major hardware chains sell the middle grades. For buying pellets my experience is to call the local hardware stores, buy a single bag of different brands, try them out and when you find a good brand purchase a pallet for the season. The brands and availability seem to change with each season.

The stoves require electricity to run so if you lose power it won't work, which is a notable drawback, although there are solutions such as a generator or battery back up. I personally have a long extension cord to an inverter in my car in the driveway in case of a heating emergency. The pellet stoves also make noise with the blower fan and turning augur, this has become less an issue with more recent stove technology which is significantly quieter.

Pellet stoves range in price from $1200 to $3000. Harman is way ahead of the game with computerized sensors and controls and is the brand I recommend. The stove I own is Harman's Accentra Insert, and it was $2800 installed complete.

-- Stephen Balbach

Are wood pellets cheaper than gas or oil? Probably not, although they may be in some areas, but there are environmental "costs" to consider as well. For a straight BTU comparison for heating fuels prices see this chart.

Here is a list of the major pellet stove manufacturers. You'll need a local stove dealer to sell, install and maintain yours.

Amazon carries the American Harvest, 52,300 BTU Multi Fuel Corn/Pellet Stove for $1945.

After reading an article on the pet food industry by the Animal Protection Institute, I switched to Wysong brand dog food. I learned what is really in pet food - slaughterhouse waste such as bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, and almost all the other parts not generally consumed by humans; plus dozens of additives including toxic and potentially cancer-causing preservatives BHT, BHA, and ethoxyquin. Wysong offers an alternative to the myriad processed brands, the majority of which are manufactured by a very few multinational food conglomerates whose main business is not pet food.

The Wysong line of pet foods was started by veterinarian Randy Wysong, a long-time critic of the pet food industry. Wysong foods are specifically designed to optimize health, not simply meet regulatory standards. Their ingredients are made from fresh meats and non-processed living foods. They are additive free and use only natural preservation. A diet of Wysong pet food is only part of the philosophy of Wysong's Optimal Health Program. According to the program, a diet of hunted, raw prey is the healthy ideal for carnivores. At the unhealthy end of the diet spectrum would be generic foods alone. And in between these extremes are various combinations of Wysong foods, supplements, nutritional supports, and raw and cooked foods.

I've tried many brands of generic, premium, and high end "healthy" pet foods over the years. Wysong is simply the best. Whether or not you subscribe to Wysong's philosophy or follow its optimal health pyramid, its maintenance diets (just the dry food alone without the supplements, supports, raw & cooked foods) have made a discernible difference in our dogs' health. There is a noticeable improvement in coat health - their coats are much smoother and shinier whereas before Wysong they were more coarse and dull. However, the most significant difference has been with our dog, Maroon. For six years, he suffered from an undiagnosed gastric upset that caused him to vomit several times per week. Since switching to Wysong Senior almost 1 year ago, his vomiting has stopped completely.

Wysong can be purchased at most stores selling pet food products and online from Wysong. A 40 lb box of food costs $40 at my local pet store.

-- Michele McGinnis

Wysong

Available from pet stores, groceries and Amazon

"What's really in pet food."
Animal Protection Institute

Your source for incredibly strong rare earth magnets. They cling so forcefully they can hurt, and some are so tiny they are useful in ways you have never anticipated. Small super-magnets can be used like a bolt easily unlocked. I've had good service from this outfit.

-- KK

Force Field

A favorite tool, the glue gun, now comes in a low-temperature version which works much better with some materials like foam, and is the preferred one to grab at our house because it is slightly less dangerous for kids to use.

-- KK

WESTEX�Lo-Temperature Trigger Fed Glue Gun
$4
Mister Art

Amazon carries a cordless, dual temperature version for $20.

I bet this cheap tool is the best bargain on this site. For 2 dollars you get a flexible 24" plastic probe that will remove an alarming amount of hair and gunk clogging your sink or shower drain. It descends easy. You can snake it down without taking off the usual drain plug. The many little reverse (and very sharp!) spines hook hair balls and other unmentionable crap as you carefully back it out. It removes grunge that liquidators won't budge. Sold as disposable, a cautious wipe will keep it going forever. We have a very hairy household; I can't keep the plumbing going without it.

-- KK

Zip-It Drain Cleaner
$2.26
Lowe's
I got mine for 99 cents at our local Ace Hardware

I use these new Nickel Metal-Hydride batteries now in my radios, flashlights etc. I hate throwing away little environmental hazards in the form of Alkalines and I hate always having to buy batteries. These new cells have almost the same operational life as an ordinary Energizer but you can use them over and over and over.

-- Alexander Rose

Sanyo Batteries, among others

Amazon carries a variety of rechargeable NiMh batteries, like these Rayovacs.

I did absolutely zero to prepare for Y2K. I mean nothing. No extra gas in the car, no canned food, no extra cash, no extra milk or water. Nada. But now that the apocalyptic hysteria is over, and no one expects Armageddon, I'm convinced this is the time to treat preparedness seriously. This dense workbook has long been considered the bible of the food storage and family preparedness crowd. Preparedness as in: be ready for any long-term disaster or crisis. A newly revised and expanded 10th edition has everything from how to store the basics (and how much), to how to cook 'em, and how to keep water and stay healthy. Up-to-date and exhaustive. Yeah, it's from Utah, so it dispenses well-worn, almost comfortable, anxiety.

-- KK

Making the Best of Basics: Family Preparedness Handbook
James Talmage Stevens
1997, 237 pages
$16
Amazon

Excerpts:

Water that is bacteria-free when stored in thoroughly clean containers will remain safe for several years. Tests of water quality after long-term storage showed that water stored properly for several years could not be distinguished by appearance, taste, or odor from water recently drawn from the same source. However the principle of rotation is the best guarantee for monitoring stored water's purity and taste.

*

Treating Contaminated Water
Basic Bleach Method
For emergency treating of water of unknown quality, use any household bleach containing sodium hypochlorite (5.25% solution) without soap additives or phosphates. By using common household bleach as a chemical treatment method, large amounts of safe drinking water can be provided quite inexpensively.

*

Inventory management for basic in-home food storage is very simple--and hopefully, by now, very familiar:
1) Store what you eat.
2) Eat what you store.
3) Use it or lose it!

*

Fumigating Wheat for Storage
Carbon dioxide released from evaporating dry ice will kill all animal life in the container. The freezer will kill all live bugs--but not necessarily the eggs--over an extended period of time. It's always best to refreeze the previously frozen wheat after 30 days to assure that any eggs hatched since the last treatment are killed.

Fresh2 makes fluorescent compact light bulbs coated with a titanium dioxide film. The fluorescent UV light causes a chemical reaction with the film, and the resulting oxidation eliminates odors. I know it sounds far fetched, but the things really work. I ordered a pair for my laundry room where I keep 3 cat litter boxes. Although I keep them clean, there has always been a persistent odor there. I replaced the room's 60W incandescent bulb (which I kept on all the time) with this new Fresh2 40w fluorescent fixture (already liking the fact that I'm saving a little electricity). Within one day, the odors were completely eliminated. I now swear by these bulbs. The only problem -- the air has to circulate around them. They work best in exposed sockets. Not necessarily the most attractive look.

A similar technology is being used in Japan on windows. In this application, exposure of the titanium dioxide to sunlight UV caused a reaction that effectively cleaned the windows of soot, grime, etc.

-- Gregory Winer

Fresh2 Compact Florescent Bulbs
$13 for 1 bulb
Available from Amazon

Or $20 for 2 bulbs from Fresh2

These generators are ridiculously quiet. The secret, as I understand it, is that they are low-volt 12v DC generators that take advantage of the new, very efficient inverter technology to produce the needed 120v AC. There are two sizes to choose from in the EU series (Honda's quietest and most efficient): 1,000 or 3,000 watts. Both have the ability to be hooked up to another generator to double the rating. The 1,000-watt model weighs less than 30 lbs., fits in a trunk, and can power a few appliances. On the other hand, I have used the 140-lb., 3,000-watt generator to power a camp of twenty people in the desert, including a full sound system, for ten days round the clock, and it hardly was breathing hard at all. With an optional cord you can use the 12v DC current directly to charge batteries. These generators also automatically shut off if they get low on oil. They have electric start with pull-start backup. Best of all they completely decimate the track record for efficiency of most gas gennys. Instead of the usual one gallon per hour they can operate for between seven and twenty-four hours (depending on load) on a single 3.5-gallon tank. In short, they take all the usual horrors and worries out of using generators.

-- Alexander Rose

Honda EU Series Generators
EU 1000, $800 street price
EU3000is, $2,000 street price
Southwest Supply

This appears to be a book of tips for housekeeping, but it is as much about housekeeping as Moby Dick is about fishing. It's about doing mindless chores mindfully. If you cook, clean, and dress, why not do it with full knowledge of what the most scientific method is? There is something attractively nerdy about Mendelson's obsession with getting to a deep technical understanding of whatever needs to be done. So much good-spirited lore swims in this book, that you can pick it up anywhere and find yourself reading hours later about the absolute best way to iron. Ordinary chores are given a new life. I haven't seen such behavior-changing information in ages. I'm thinking I'll give each of my kids a copy when they depart for their own places.

-- KK

Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House
Cheryl Mendelson
1999, 884 pages
$24
Scribner
Amazon

As a dog owner of many years, I've trained my own dogs to walk nicely at heel. I've escaped receiving that "are you walking that dog or is he walking you" look from passerbys. Enter Maroon, my housemate's dog. He is 85 lbs of pure force pulling on the leash. On weekends, when I have the choice of whether or not to take him on an outing, I find myself declining to have him along because I just didn't want to fight him the whole time. Out of desperation, I finally decided to try the Gentle Leader Headcollar. I'd seen them frequently on other dogs, but they looked so wimpy. I was wrong ...this leash is unbelievable. It has changed our lives.

The headcollar uses a nose loop and a neck strap. The nose loop encircles the dog's muzzle in the same way a "pack leader" gently but firmly grasps a subordinate's muzzle in his mouth, giving the dog a clear signal that you are the leader. The neck strap puts pressure on the back of the neck, working with the dog's "opposition reflex," the natural instinct of dogs to push against pressure rather than move away. Thus the dog instinctively leans back against the pressure, putting an end to leash pulling. The literature that comes with the collar claims that most dogs respond with a dramatic change in behavior in less than 10 minutes. I can attest to this. Maroon gave a few good tugs, bucked a few times and then began walking calmly beside me, not once pulling.

I'ts been a couple of months since we started using the Gentle Leader. Maroon is pulling a bit more than he did at first, but I'm convinced that is due to inconsistent and sometimes incorrect handling techniques that arise when more than one person in the household share in dog walking duties. And even with a slight amount of pulling he is easily managed and controlled and no longer a source of unhappy person or dog. The main thing is I no longer dread the nightly walk, and Maroon is now welcome on special outings. The pet store owner who raved about it and sold it to me said, "A happy person makes a happy dog."

-- Michele McGinnis

Gentle Leader Headcollar
$13
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Gentle Leader

This powder is a non-toxic, non-chlorine bleach. Chemically it works like hydrogen peroxide, which is a water molecule with an added unstable oxygen. OxyPower is chiefly sodium percarbonate, which is washing soda with additional unstable oxygen. As in hydrogen peroxide, the excitable oxygen bubbles off when it reacts, chemically oxidizing smells, films, germs and stains of all kinds. But because OxyPower is a dry powder it is far more durable and stable than hydrogen peroxide, easier to concentrate, and cheaper in bulk. (Drugstore hydrogen peroxide is 2% solution; OxyPower is equivalent to 27% peroxide.) Best of all, percarbonate degrades to simple oxygen and washing soda (sodium carbonate). Greenies love it, and it is sold in many environmental friendly stores. I feel comfortable using it in the kitchen, and will freely work it in my hands; it has an alkaline soapy feel and fizzes satisfyingly.

Dissolved in water, it works wonders on carpet stains, soiled clothing, weird gunk on counters, mildew, trash cans, refrigerator smell and so forth. American Test Kitchens tested all available cleaners and found that sodium percarbonate was the all-around champ on getting severe grease, food, coffee and wine stains from clothes. Generally, oxygen bleaches won't fade or affect colors like chlorine bleaches will.

Sodium percarbonate is an old chemical, but manufacturers only recently learned how to make this stuff in the vast quantities needed to be tossed by the cupfull into laundry machines. For around-the-house chores, I've found that a very little of this stuff will go a long way. You can mix it to your own preferred concentration. There are a number of powdered cleaners based on sodium percarbonate and they all have "oxy" in their names. (Liquid cleaners with "oxy" in the name are usually hydrogen peroxide.) But of these, OxyPower has the highest percentage of the active ingredient. OxiClean, from another manufacturer, is a best buy for laundry use. Most general stores, like Walmart and Target, carry it.

-- KK

Shout OxyPower Multi-Purpose Stain Remover
$4, for 24 oz.
Drugstore.com

Manufactured by Shout

Like most households we have lots of precise clocks and watches, but none of them are set to the right time (I think). With constant advancing or retreating because of travel or daylight savings, no timepiece is safe from being infected with inaccuracy. (Who has time to call for time?) Most clocks and watches linked to the exact time from Boulder, Colorado, are digital, but I'm an analog man. The 14" Atomic Wall Clock is large, analog, and self-correcting. (It's like having an atomic clock in your basement.) It's spooky to watch the hands whirl around until they find their spot as it adjusts itself in and out of daylight savings time, a chore worth at least its price. Someday all clocks and watches (and appliances!) will be this smart.

-- KK

14" Radio Controlled Clock
$35
From, among others, Amazon

You plug this solid-state inverter into your car's lighter socket and power whatever 110 volt AC appliance you want, 75 watts max. No need for special DC gadgets. It's made for recharging cell phones and other batteries, but I've used it for my scanner and my printer while on the road. Also, I've run a small B&W TV set (5'5), and more important, my baby's bottle heater (I admit is a small one). You can power almost anything that doesn't use large resistance like hair dryers, waffle makers, bread toasters, small ovens. I haven't tried a coffee maker yet.

The same company offers an assorted line of automobile inverters with more output power (200 watts on up). This is the smallest one.

-- Juan J Gil

XPower MobilePlug 75
$20 from among others
Buy.com
Also from Amazon

Manufactured by Xantrex

Radio Shack has a new line of AA and AAA batteries (they seem to actually have been developed by Rayovac) that recharge in 15 minutes when you use their IC3 charger. The fastest rate of chargers I'd seen before this was an hour, and those were difficult to find. This acceleration makes a HUGE difference - the charge time has now passed the threshold where, in many cases, you can still have a fresh set of batteries before you leave the house even when you've forgotten to charge them beforehand. I've tested these out a bit, and they do indeed charge in slightly less than 15 minutes using their IC3 charger, and they seem to work as well as any other NiMH batteries (which is to say, very well in high-drain electronics). In a pinch the IC3 batteries can be charged in a "regular" NiMH charger, but then they take as long as regular NiMH batteries, and likewise, charging regular NiMH batteries in the IC3 charger doesn't speed them up.

-- Adam Fields

4-Pack AAA Radio Shack IC-3 15-minute Rechargeable Batteries
$6
Catalog #23-534
Radio Shack
Available for purchase in stores only

Editors' note, 9/25/07: RadioShack will be discontinuing this item, but we've seen a charger/battery line from Rayovac that looks promising. If you can report positively or negatively on Rayovac or any similar item, please let us know via the submit page or the comments below.

I once had to get rid of a lot of mice. Standard mouse traps were too messy to reuse, but too expensive just throw out. Have-a-heart traps were too finicky, and traps were too cruel. Finally, I found the proverbial better mouse trap: a wind-up repeating trap. No bait required. Just put it two inches from the wall and for some reason the mice climb right in. A spring loaded trap door flips them into a little chamber, and they call their friends to join them. One trap catches ten a night, and the mice don't seem to mind at all. The one I used is the Trap Man, sold as the Ketch-All in the US, but the Mouse Master looks like it may work just as well.

(Of course, it does leave you with the problem of what to do with a daily box of live mice.)

-- Danny Hillis

Ketch-All Multiple Catch Mousetrap
$13
From Cooperseeds, among other places

Manufactured by Kness Mfg.

Mouse Master available from Triton Pest Control

One mouse seen is many mice hidden. This is a pretty good tutorial on live mouse traps.

My girlfriend and I were sharing a single room in a shared apartment, so we didn't have much space. I suggested getting a loft bed, and she surprised me by liking the idea. Searching online to purchase a loft, I couldn't find any great designs, and shipping all that wood wouldn't be cheap. But I didn't really want to put the time into designing one I'd like.

When I found plans for an OP Loftbed, I instantly recognized a quality design. OP stands for "Orgy-Proof" and though we haven't tested it that way, it's a good bet the bed would have NO problems.

I took my time and built it over several weeks, but it could be done pretty quickly (a long weekend). That's with basic, though not complete beginner, tools and skills. The website estimates that for a twin-sized bed, it'll be around $100 for lumber, and $25 for fasteners if you buy it from their online partner. The queen-sized, which is what I built, cost me more like $300 to $400. The difference is that:

1) The queen-size needs 2 sheets of plywood (and I used nice $30/sheet ply).
2) The fastener deal wasn't around, so I probably spent around $60.
3) I made a desk, which needed more wood and another sheet of good ply.
4) It's all painted and the shelves/desk are all poly'd.

Joel's queen-sized loft

It's like buying a car -- the basic model is probably around $150 or so, and you can spend a lot more for the accessories. There are free plans for bookshelves, a desk, and a telephone table, all of which I've modified slightly for my queen-sized loft, and all of which are fairly ingenious in their use of space.

Overall, the loft makes the room feel much bigger. I built mine to last, either for my own use, or for resale value. It was a good investment.

--Joel M Rosenberg

OP Loftbed
$10 per plan

It's in the headlines every summer: The number of homes built -- and burned -- at the wildland-urban interface is mushrooming. If you live on the interface, don't count on the fire department showing up. Safety-conscious fire departments across the country are changing their policies, and will no longer risk fire-fighter lives to protect mere property in these conflagrations. The survival of your house is utterly dependent on the steps you take to protect it.

This is a short (56page) booklet that provides a complete overview of how to make your home more survivable in a wildfire. It covers the same material as many brochures published by fire departments on the same subject, but covers the subject in just enough additional detail to make it worth the $8 price tag. Important details not covered elsewhere from the theoretical (e.g., a detailed but not overly technical assessment of different terrain types and their effect on firs burn rates) to the practical (e.g., be sure to leave a ladder leaning against your roof when you evacuate - it might encourage firefighters to stop and save your house.)

Above all, the book has a refreshing and welcome bluntness that begins right on the cover -- two house photos, one labeled 'winner' and the second labeled 'loser' In an actual wildfire situation, fire crews will be making exactly the same snap decisions as they drive down a row of houses and decide which to save and which to sacrifice, so this is a good mindset for any homeowner to adopt.

The book thoroughly covers the basics of all aspects of passive fire protection, from vegetation clearances, to construction details and even evacuation practicalities. It doesn't cover active measures such as pool fire pumps and stand-and-defend tactics. But this is just as well: such steps are at best risky and should not be undertaken without a level of planning and commitment (and perhaps sheer crazedness) that is beyond the scope of a short book

-- Paul Saffo

Will Your Home Survive?
R.D. 'Dick' Harrell and William C. Tie
$8
Deer Valley Press
800-455-1950

When my wife and I got our second dog this summer, walking them became a royal pain. Neither one will crap in the dog run, so they have to be taken out twice a day. We were faced with the choice of taking them separately (taking twice the time) or taking them together and dealing with the inevitable tangles as each one sees different squirrels or wants to go at different paces.

This leash lets us walk the two dogs simultaneously with no tangles. Thanks to the riveted connectors, they can cross back and forth to their hearts' content, with no adjustment necessary on our part.

It looks like several companies make these, but I couldn't find a link for the exact kind we use. The site below promises its version can accommodate three or more dogs.

--John Endicott

Add A Dog Couplers
$7 and up
Super Leash

See Amazon for several brands of leash couplers.

Visco-elastic foam (aka memory foam, or Swedish foam) is rather odd stuff. When you poke it, it takes a while to gloop back into its original shape. This isn't the neat bit though. The neat bit is that it becomes softer at higher temperatures, so it can react to human body heat. The result is to spread pressure very evenly over the bits of you that touch it.

It's currently used mainly as pillows and mattresses, but could probably be used for anything that exerts pressure on the human body. I recently bought a pillow and mattress topping made of the stuff... very nice :-) I'm planning on using it for a seat cover and to pad my backpack straps as well now.

In terms of working with it, it seems to be just like ordinary foam except slightly heavier. I cut a slice off my mattress overlay with scissors: no problems, nice clean cut. At a place like Target or equivalent a memory foam pillow goes for $35, a (fairly thin) mattress overlay for $90. A company called "Tempur" has been marketing the stuff fairly heavily.

--Paul Harrison

Memory Foam
Available from among others:
Memory Foam Source

Amazon carries many memory foam products, like the Visco Memory Foam Orthopedic Pillow for $49,

A cheap pillow supplier
$40
Stacks and Stacks

I'm not convinced you need a how-to book to raise chickens; they're pretty resilient and will eat damned near anything and still lay eggs. But the best reference guide we have is the Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens by Gail Demerow. Easy to read, full of information, and covers the whole range from hatching to keeping layers to raising meat birds to dealing with problems.

--Mike Gunderloy

Excerpts:

The standard catching hook consists of a 30-inch (75cm) length of 8-gauge (4mm) wire bent at one end into a hook and firmly attached at the other end to a wooden rake or broom handle.

*
Scratch can be used to trick chickens into stirring up their coop's bedding to keep it loose and dry.
Toss a handful over the litter once a day (traditionally late in the afternoon when birds are thinking of going to roost) and your chickens will scramble for it.

*
Depending on the weather and on the bird's size, each chicken drinks between 1 and 2 cups (237-474 ml) of water each day. Layers drink twice as much as nonlayers. In warm weather, a chicken may drink two to four times more than usual.

Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens
Gail Demerow
2000, 341 pages
$13
Amazon

Brilliant invention for clearing clogged drains without caustic chemicals. Comes in different sizes for different drain diameters. You attach it to a hose, and say for the kitchen sink, take off the p-trap, and slide the hose down the drain pipe as far as it will go. You then turn on the hose and it builds up pressure inside the wedged bellows to the point where it releases in a burst, expanding and contracting, ka-chunk, ka-chunk . . . You can clear one obstruction and then push the hose further to get to others. It really unclogs crap. Marveloso!

-- Llyod Kahn

Drain King Water Powered Drain Cleaner
$9
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by G.T. Water Products, Inc.

This is a great composter, made out of a recycled pickle drum. It comes via UPS and you assemble it. It has end-over-end tumbling action (unlike the larger, more expensive drums that roll horizontally) and it has solved the problem I've had for years of composting kitchen scraps and fending off coons, skunks, foxes, and possums. Here it's locked up and impenetrable. It takes a while to get it working right, with the proper amounts of green stuff, dry stuff, and soil organisms. I've transferred some worms from my old compost bin into it, to get them processing the organic matter.

--Lloyd Kahn

Urban Compost Tumbler
8.5 cubic foot
$150
Urban Garden Center
Also from Amazon

Our neighbor has one of these which we've used with great appreciation and delight. It's your basic wood-fired, fresh water, aromatic wooden hot tub. Takes two or three hours to heat up, but it's pretty thrifty with the fuel. The gut is a marine-grade aluminum stovebox, which you can purchase alone (choice of large or small) or in a cedar/redwood tub and stove combo that costs about half of a modern fiberglass version. Even the small one is roomy enough for three. Bathers are safely protected from the submerged stove by a metal and wood shield. A drip of Clorox between soaks keeps the water tame. Discounting your labor in making firewood and keeping the firebox stoked, the upkeep is free. This tub is ideal for a remote cabin, cottage or hideout anywhere off the grid -- precisely the kind of place where a steaming hot bath with an open view is most welcomed.
--KK

Snorkle Stove
$750

6 ft diameter by 4 ft high Cedar Tub with Snorkle Stove
$2600

Snorkle Tubs
800-962-6208

My friend has built several of these. It's art you use. Take clay dirt, water, and imagination. If you make a mistake, you just smash it and start over. Many in the world still bake their bread in these.

Build Your Own Earth Oven
Kido Denzer
2001, 113 pages
$15
Amazon

As an untidy person, I've found that the secret to an organized work spaces is to have lots of bins, boxes, drawers, tubs, and containers. A couple of each are not enough. You need scores of each size. The key is to not skimp on the numbers. The wonderful news is that plastic containers are getting cheap enough to buy in bulk . If you keep an eye out for sales you can get molded, lidded, durable containers for only few dollars a piece. I recently bought about 40 plastic stackable breadbox-size containers at IKEA for 99 cents apiece. I use them in my workshop and studio and kitchen pantry.

Suitable containers come in all sizes and shapes. Some of the cheapest these days are the 12-gallon Tuffcrates, with hinged lids. (There are larger versions but I find these unmanageable when full.) The 12-gallon laundry-basket sized guys swallow a nice pile of stuff. They are semi-transparent giving you a hint of what's inside. Empty they stack up compactly. Full, they stack up solidly five or six high. We store seasonal clothes, hobby materials, vacation gear, holiday decorations, old documents, and so on in a handy self-made wall in our basement. They are easy to move around, easy to get in and out of, pestproof and dustproof. They look fine too. Stored in basements and garages, we've had zero problem with mildew or mold or mice, which I cannot say about goods stored in cardboard boxes. I've seen Tuffcrates for sale as low as $3 a piece. Since they don't ever wear out; you could easily pass them onto the next generation. You simply can't have too many of them.

For more specialized storage I gravitate to Rubbermaid containers. They are often perfect for certain uses, but it's harder to find good discount deals on them; they are usually not cheap. I like the small stackable small-parts containers (#7747). They are book size (good), open fast and are indestructible - unlike a lot of tackle boxes. I use the smaller ones, about 6 inches square, called ActionPackers (#7874), for office supplies as well - all those paperclips, pins, and easily lost paraphernalia. Get at least a dozen. I thought at first that having uniform containers would make finding things more difficult because you'd be without distinctive visual cues, but in fact labeling and standard holders speed up locating stuff.

Rubbermaid and others produce a whole line of containers called underbed containers, which slip into the underultized - or at least under-organized - space under most beds. We've found no where else that stores giftwrapping paper as safely and conveniently; we keep a set of cutters and tape right in the wrap boxes. But I've recently discovered that these long sealed flat containers are also marvelous for storing maps, charts, blueprints and other rolled paper quite securely. The Rubbermaid versions come in regular (#2128) and the Jumbo (#2129) -- a full 42 inches long - which I prefer. They are also stackable.

I was in one of those discount stores the other day and I found a stockpile of shoebox-size containers for about $1.50/ piece. They are not as good as the Rubbermaids, because their lids slide off too easily, but I got a dozen and now they have brought order to the closet that holds our craft materials. A bigger size - larger than a breadbox but smaller than the Tuffcrates - took the chaos out of the Legos, Duo blocks, and Konexits toys.

Find a good deal, then pounce on a bunch. I've never gotten a set of containers that we haven't used sustainably. But I have bought one or two here and there that I haven't made much use of. You need a critical mass.

Tuffcrates
Manufactured by Contico

Rubbermaid
888-895-2110

A selection of products available from
Rubbermaid Products