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FLUID Water Meter

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I’ve been building a smart home (at my home) for years. Buying home automation, energy monitors, etc. One of the big things I had no good way to monitor was water usage. So when I found out about FLUID Water Meter (years ago), I was stoked. I missed the Kickstarter (somehow) so I put my name on the waiting list and waited.

Then, come January of this year, I got an email from Fluid saying they were accepting pre-orders for a run of meters they’d do and have delivered by end of April (2019). Cool. Also, that the price would be $300 vs their expected MSRP of $600. I sent an email to them confirming the meter would work on my home piping, and then placed the order. Something I should have never done (in hindsight).

As time ticked I kept checking Fluid’s website. No updates. The only email I got was a confirmation of my preorder. No status updates on the process of their April run. April came around and I started trying to contact them asking for an update. Nothing. Finally, something I should have done, I looked at the comments on their Kickstarter page and saw a lot of asking for refunds, and a lot of non-responses. =/ Also the fact that no one on Kickstarter had had their order fulfilled in the years since.

Then I looked at the reviews for the preorder site (Celery, or trycelery.com). Not great. Their FAQs pages were all seller focused with very little targeted toward buyers. So, I’d had enough. I contacted Fluid through Celery asking for a refund. Nothing. I tried contacting Celery asking for options if the seller doesn’t respond. Nothing. Tried contacting Fluid via twitter, facebook, other email… nothing. Finally, I did the last resort and filed a chargeback with my VISA processor (in hind sight, I should have used Paypal). I have more than a sneaking suspicion that VISA won’t be able to help me, but I’m hopeful.

At this point, I’m hoping I get my money back and then I’ll save up extra and buy the Flo from Moen. Sure, it requires actual plumbing, but it looks like a better product, and I don’t worry that Moen is going to randomly up and close shop.

Add a valve to your fridge water!

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We bought our house 5 years ago now, and have replaced all the terrible floor surfaces except the kitchen. This was largely due to lack of options, and also the fact that we didn’t like the idea of cold, hard, tile. I personally think hardwood in the kitchen is a bad idea (dings, divits, water damage, etc), and carpet is obviously right out. When, about 3 months ago, my wife found modern “luxury” peel and stick, grout-able, tile (Lowes page) she suddenly got very interested in replacing the flooring. The current floor was an “orange” rock looking sheet vinyl from the late 70’s, and had since become impossible to clean.

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Quick update

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Just thought I’d post and give a quick update on the last two days.

Yesterday, Tara and I tackled a long overdue project that I’ve been dreading since it involved a bunch of time in the crawl space (well, 30-45 minutes). We replaced the dryer exhaust vent. The old one was one of those wedge shaped ones that directed all the flow downward, and had a flapper below the “wedge” that keeps outside air and critters out. Well, the vent was situated right above the ground (it comes out from one of the crawl space vents). So, the vented air goes right into the ground, and if there was any soil/debris buildup in the herb garden, it would block the flow of exhaust. The other problem being the flapper had long since stopped working/been clogged with lint and debris. So outside air came down the vent into the laundry room, making it even colder. So, we replaced the vent exhaust with a modern louver style (one of these). The advantage is supposedly they have better flow, they don’t blow down into the ground, and they actually close, so no more air coming down the vent pipe. YAY!!!!

Then today, the other project I’ve been meaning to do: repair the front sillcock (a frost-free Nibco 90). Back when we bought the house, I noticed that if the sillcock is open, but there is no flow (a sprayer on the hose, a Y with both sides closed, etc), it would leak at the stem. Opening it up, the packing was all torn up. So, I tried to rebuild it at the local hardware shop with various parts. Afterward, it wouldn’t leak, but it was a bitch to turn on and off, and it didn’t turn on all full flow unless you opened the valve all the way. So, this year, while wandering around the local hardware store, I noticed they had rebuild kits for “Fu San” Frost free sillcocks (not that I can find such a thing exists… the receipt, however, says “Flor Repair Kit”) that looked like they had the right parts. So, I pulled it apart again, and brought in the stem. Then at the store, put it all together with the new parts. Similar to this. Turned the water back on, and viola, it works like brand new! And the vacuum breaker seems to work again (it was kinda weird between the first time I fixed it, and now). Cost of repair kit, $2.99.

Other than that, Tara and I are going to be on cleaning duty the next day or so since Tara’s mom and aunt’s are coming to visit. Hopefully we’ll be ready for them. We’ve been struggling to control a sugar ant problem in our guest room (of all places, that doesn’t ever have food in it). Here’s hoping it’s somewhat better by then.

So, there it is. Have a great weekend!