Cheap Koldfront PAC801W Ultracool 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

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List Price: $429.00
Sale Price: $301.91
Today's Bonus: 30% Off

This unit will turn off if the ambient temperature is above 90 degrees!

Quoting from the trouble shooting section of the manual:

"Issue: My air conditioner is not cooling at all"

"Possible Cause: The ambient temperature is too high"

"Solution: Lower the room temperature to be below 90°F degrees"

If you live in a climate where it gets above 90°F DO NOT BUY THIS AC it will simply turn off.

I wish I had known that when I purchased the unit...

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I was skeptical but hopeful when purchasing this item given the weak 8,000BTU rating and positive reviews. It's easy to set up for sure, and it blows cold air... but it doesn't do much of anything to cool a room. We put it in a 12x10 living room with a 4x6 blinded window in a small apartment well within the square footage rating for the air conditioner. Even with the temperature outside only reaching the low 80s, this air conditioner never made a single degree of impact to the living room temperature. By sitting within two-three feet of the unit, I could feel the cold air and feel a little better. But even just a few feet away, the room was hot. Also, although the automatic vents are neat, they don't move at all, so the unit fires mostly upward, probably 75 degrees angle from the floor. For a room where people primarily sit and yes, understanding of the "heat rises" idea the air goes right at the ceiling. I'm not sure if this is a design flaw or just an inconvenience. Regardless, the unit was completely ineffective and I'm returning it to Amazon.

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I wanted to replace my 8000 btu window unit with a portable and figured an 8000 btu portable would be work fine. Boy was I wrong, this air conditioner despite the frigid sounding name, is anything but cold. My room is virtually a shoebox and this unit was not able move the dial more than 3-4 degrees. Very disappointing. The fan louvers were also not working right, it would get stuck and then jerk open forcefully.

The window kit is thin and tacky does not work well at all for horizontally sliding window. And in case you weren't aware, apparently you have to drain this air conditioner every few hours to keep it going.

Wish it worked like an air conditioner but it's just not working out at all.

Honest reviews on Koldfront PAC801W Ultracool 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner

Just finalized the return on this item with compact appliance (great customer service!) and I'm exchanging it for a frigidaire window unit at their recommendation over the phone.

Purchased this a month early before temperatures started to rise here in NYC. We have a small apt and planned on using this in either a 140 Sq ft room or a 90 sq ft room and this Koldfront isn't powerful enough to cool EITHER effectively.

Yes COULDN'T EFFECTIVELY COOL A 90 Sq ft room

It also BARELY dehumidified the room, if at all. We felt like we were in mildly cool dampness during our sleep.

I have no idea where these 5 star reviews are coming from, I base a lot of my purchasing decisions on amazon reviews and this is the first one I'm writing because this was such a terrible purchase.

Do yourself a favor and DO NOT buy this unit.

For a comparison, we have a Haier 5,200 BTU window unit and it is WAY more effective than this

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Currently, looking for a better option and will return this one. Outside of the exhaust hose being gargantuin, and the window insert provided is for vertical window, not horizontal. And it's true that it does a poor job cooling the room. It also is loud on low, medium, or high. We have it in our living room, and you can't have a conversation while it's on let alone hear the television. More time was spent on design of this piece than function. May work for a bedroom for white noise, but the volumn of fan is more on the intolerable side.

Reviews of Hydrofarm Seedling Heat Mat

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List Price: $24.95
Sale Price: $23.48
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We are home gardeners and have tried many ways to provide bottom-heat for vegetable seed germination -atop my always-on docked laptop was the most effective but the space was tiny. We bought a 20" x 20" heat mat and now have the right tool for the job. We set it up on a card table and found that it was not providing sufficient heat to the soil in the trays above. After an overnight on the mat, the soil surface was less than 10 degrees above ambient temperature. The room where the seeds are was 60 degrees overnight, and the soil surface in the trays was 68 degrees -certainly not good enough for eggplant germination. I used an infrared thermometer (Raytek Minitemp MT6 here on Amazon) to check all temps. The exposed mat surface (no tray on top) was 82 degrees. I felt the surface on the underside of the card able and it was definitely warm, indicating heat loss downward. I wanted all of the heat to go up into the soil, so I cut a piece of rigid-foam insulation just slightly larger than the heat mat (22" x 22") and put it under the mat. Within 15 minutes the exposed surface of the mat was at 97 degrees and when I moved a tray to measure the temp of the mat beneath a tray, it was at 115 degrees. 2 hours later, the soil surface temperature was at 85 degrees. I am now confident the soil will get enough heat for proper germination, and I will begin using the heat mat thermostat to regulate soil temps based on the particular seeds we're starting (search the Web for "vegetable seed germination temperatures" to find one of the many reference charts available). We can also regulate temperature by covering or uncovering the trays to change the rate of evaporative cooling. We are well aware that covered soil is more prone to damping off/seedling death, which we now control with a spray of strong-brewed chamomile tea.

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I bought this heat mat to get my seeds started inside. Since my apartment is cold and seeds like heat I thought i'd give it a try. Three days after I planted my seeds I had a ton of sprouts. Nearly every seed germinated. If you need some extra warmth to get your seeds going definitly get one of these heat mats.

It didn't get too hot and I was able to keep it right on my countertop. My only problem was I should have had a light to put over my seedlings once they sprouted. It's very easy to use as you just plug it in and put your tray on top. The instructions are even written right on the mat itself.

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This mat does the job! If you have a couple of seed flats to warm, this mat will suffice. On the other hand, if you, like me, really enjoy starting plants from seeds, you may want a larger size mat (or more than one of this size). In any case, this one does exactly what it is supposed to do: it gently (and reliably) warms seed flats until the seeds sprout.

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I have a tabletop greenhouse in my (unheated) garage, and I use the large version of this mat along with the thermostat controller to keep the seedlings warm. (I also add a 40w lightbulb in the winter to keep the air warm). My garage never really gets below freezing, but it can be in the 40's quite often.

The mat does a great job of keeping the bottom of the flats warm. In the spring, it gets the seedlings off to a quick start, and lets them grow without any setbacks from cool weather.

I also use it during the fall and winter to keep a constant supply of fresh garden herbs. Again, it does this quite well, although the 40w bulb helps keep the air warm.

It arrives rolled up, but within a day or so it lays perfectly flat. It seems reasonably well made, and my first one has lasted a year with no sign of problems. I am not sure how well it would do if left on 24/7, but since I use a thermostat, it is only on maybe 40% of the time during the cooler months.

Its a matter of choice, but I could do without the instructions printed in bright green on the top of the mat.

In summary, I love having seedling mats to jumpstart my spring growing, and the fresh herbs all year are fantastic. While I didn't really shop around too much for heat mats, these seem to work quite well. I suspect I could do better on price with another brand, but I didn't bother to when I bought the first one...and I will always go with a proven performer when I buy a second one.

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The first time I have tried using a heat mat. I placed the mat on a sheet of 3/4" styrofoam insulation and set my covered seed trays on top. I planted presoaked seeds of tomato and pepper. In two days I had sprouts. This was in a cool (50 degree)greenhouse. The temp inside the seed trays was 80-85 degrees.

Discount Nesco FD-75PR Snackmaster Pro Food Dehydrator

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List Price: $88.99
Sale Price: $59.98
Today's Bonus: 33% Off

I had been researching dehydrators for months and finally decided on this one. I am happy I did. I have dried veggies, fruits, made jerky and fruit leathers so far. It is easy to use, has great recipes and works well. It is nice to be able to give the kids snacks that are not full of sugars and things no one can pronounce. I only wish it had a timer. I will probably use a regular timer and plug it into that.

Pros: *fan not in bottom of unit allows for more uniform drying

*temperature control

*size fits nicely on a kitchen counter

*availability of accessories

*ease of use

Cons: *no timer

*no on/off switch you have to unplug the unit to turn it off

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I was so surprised at how well this dehydrator works

expected it to work okay but not this good!

I put 5 pounds of beef to dry, expecting it to take at least a day.

5 hours later and it was done!

This was thicker sliced than the paper thin I usually do

on top of that!

I love that the heater and fan are on the top

that makes clean up after jerky

a breeze.

My sister just bought one too and is very happy she did.

We both contemplated on buying the Excalibur one but

this by far is a better deal for your money.

I have had it a week now and have used it almost every day.

With the excellent quality of this dehydrator I expect to get

many , many years of use out of it

Update...

over a year later and we found that we needed more than one dehydrator, so we purchased another one of these with extra trays, screens.

we were hooked on dehydrating...so easy and no food spoilage!

We found ourselves needing even another dehydrator to keep up with all the

fresh produce and meats that we would purchase in bulk to save money.

This time we bought an Excalibur 9 tray with timer.

I have to say, we should of just bought another Nesco American Harvest

FD-75PR. The Nesco dehydrated the corn faster than the high priced Excalibur and I found I did need to rotate the trays in the Excalibur,

because the foods on the back of the trays dried faster than the foods on the front of the trays.

So ...if we need another dehydrator down the road we're sticking with

Nesco American Harvest FD-75PR 700-Watt Food Dehydrator and putting the extra cash we save in the bank!

9/21/2012 update...Over 5 years later and still going strong. Have used it for everything from dehydrating fruits and veggies,various types of jerky, raw foods recipes , roll ups and dehydrating meals for camping. Still Very happy with this dehydrator.

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Very impressed with this unit. Don't waste your money on a lower cost dehydrator that lacks a fan or variable temperature. I have made about 6 batches of jerky and each has turned out great.

Pros:

Can expand the number of trays

Temperature selection

Fan to circulate air

Cons:

No timer this is a serious bummer

Trays aren't totally dishwasher safe heat will warp the plastic.

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A correction I once owned the FD-50 version of this dehydrator. It sadly got washed away in a flood.

For all of you who want a timer: Go to the hardware store and buy an outlet timer. This is what I did with the FD50 and it worked great.

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OK, this is my first dehydrator so I can't compare this to other units but so far I'm truly impressed! I made my first batch of beef jerky in about four hours and it was delicious! I also made some chicken jerky for my boxer (one of the main reasons I got this unit) and it works great for that as well. I can't wait to try some new stuff!

I've seen a few comments concerned about power consumption so I figured I'd post my findings. This is a 700 Watt unit but remember that appliances controlled by thermostat don't run at peak power the whole time. I tested mine for 4 hours at 160 degrees and it used 1.68 kWh or an average consumption of 420 Watts per hour. Current cost of power where I live is around 10 cents per kWh so this unit costs me a little over 4 cents per hour. If I run it 10 hours a week, I'm looking at around $1.82 per month. I saved more than that making my first 1 lb of jerky!

As others have said, clean-up is a piece of cake especially with the clean-a-screens I recommend going ahead and getting enough of these to cover each tray. I didn't have to do any rotation and the jerky was done evenly throughout. The fan is quiet like white noise and the unit puts off a little heat but only right around where it is sitting (where else is the air passing around the food at 160F going to go?).

I guess a timer would be nice but I can pick up a timer at the hardware store. It even helps dog-sit as my boy wouldn't leave the kitchen the whole time it was going...

January 2011 I've now had this dehydrator 2 1/2 years and it is still going strong. I really don't use the clean-a-screens anymore, I just use the dishwasher to clean the tray's and bottom you just have to make sure you select "air dry" so the trays don't get damaged. I'm up to 9 trays and for me that's as many as I'll probably ever need. It is nice to know I could add 3 more if I needed to and I have no doubt it would work perfectly with 12 racks. This thing has paid for itself many times over and continues to produce great tasting treats!

Update: June 2013 Just a quick update to say 5 years in and this thing is still doing great. I wish all of my appliances were this reliable!

Reviews of YCT53K1003 Standard Millivolt

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List Price: $29.99
Sale Price: $29.98
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Since this is the only product of its kind that I've used, it's difficult to confidently assert any opinion about it because I have nothing to compare it to-hence the wishy-washy middle of the road rating. Having said that, I'll share that the thermostat did not meet my expectations. I'm just not sure my expectations are reasonable. In replacing a simple on off switch on a gas fireplace, I was hoping to prevent the too hot/too cold cycle that results from my laziness (not wanting to jump up and turn the switch on and off frequently) as well as the wasted money from the occasional forgetting to turn off the fireplace at night. Unfortunately I've found that thermostat does not seem to be very sensitive and rather than turning it off and on within a reasonable temperature range, it stays on (and off) much longer than I would like. If there is a way to adjust the offset, I am unaware of it and do not see it in the instructions. The device is installed only about 3 feet from the fireplace, but it is on an outside wall, which could have something to do with the lack of sensitivity. Because it stays OFF longer than expected also, it's easy to trundle off to bed without realizing it's on....discovered only the next morning upon coming downstairs to a much too warm family room. There goes the savings! The responsibility, of course, remains mine...but so much for my plan!

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excellent t'stat for gas logs or gas stove or any requirement for a millivolt t'stat if you do not need a programable one. best of all NO batteries!

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Bought this to use on our gas fireplace in our mountain home. Earlier this year our furnace quit working due to a plugged vacuum switch allowing our cabin to get below freezing. We ended up with a couple broken valves and pipes. Fortunately we turn the water off when we are not there but had some water damage when we turned the water back on until we could find where the leaks were.

Installed this thermostat for the fireplace as a backup to the furnace. We set this at 45 degrees and the furnace is set at 50 degrees when we leave. So if the furnace goes out again the fireplace will come on at 45 degrees and when the limit-style temperature switch gets hot enough the blower fan will start. Tried it this last weekend and it takes about 15 minutes for the blower to start after the fireplace comes on and about 30 minutes to shutoff after the fireplace is turned off.

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This was the perfect answer to a complex issue we were having with our old programmable thermostat. They work great and are not very expensive.

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This product was very easy to install it also looks very good on the wall. its been doing a great job since being installed.

Taylor Weekend Warrior Grill /Smoker Thermometer Review

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List Price: $17.99
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I bought two of these thermometers to modify my Char-Griller Smokin' Pro. Anyone who's used that particular smoker will tell you that it has very uneven heating without any modification, and the single centrally-mounted thermometer is just about worthless for smoking in the unit. A popular modification of the smoker is to mount two of these to the hood of the grill at grate level one on the left and one on the right. This will tell you the temperature at the grate on both sides of the grill.

I double-checked the thermometers with a probe thermometer poked into the chamber around grate level and they all matched up quite nicely...and were completely different from the piece of junk thermometer that came with the grill. Cooked a 16 pound beef brisket on the grill after installing these and it came out perfectly. Had a much harder time doing that without proper thermometers.

These thermometers are very large. In my case that's a good thing a big dial is easy to read at a distance, which means less baby-sitting the smoker. I was using the thermometers at night but we had lights rigged up so I can't vouch for how well the glow-in-the-dark dial works.

Edit: After about 8 months of these being installed one of the two has fogged up pretty severely (the other is still free of moisture). It doesn't appear to be effecting the performance of the thermometer and I can still read it but it's kind of annoying.

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Dial assembly broke off base while removing from packaging (and I didn't just tear it out of the package, I cut the package open with scissors). There is no fastener between the dial and the base - the dial is simply pressed on the base and requires almost zero effort to remove. So even if you have a thermometer which is currently in one piece, any slight bump or jar could knock the head off. Once off, the needle hangs up on the dial as this is the only thing keeping the two pieces from completely separating. If you're lucky, the shaft/needle assembly won't be permanently bent or kinked. Oh, and there is no keyway between the base and dial. So you would have to boil the thermometer and then rotate the dial to 212 and repeat this every time if falls apart. Epic Fail. I am extremely dissatisfied.

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I bought two of these to put into my smoker. I tested them with boiling water when I received them. One was basically broken showed 100 deg F for the water. The other one was 25 deg F off. These cant be calibrated.

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This is a really nice heavy duty gauge, It's installed on my patio built in gas grill. I lost my thermometer so I bought this one as a replacement. I used JB Weld in order to install it on a non taylor grill and it's terrific! It's one solid looking grilling machine now. After I let the JB weld cure for about 15 hours I turned up the grill to see how the thermometer worked and it performs as it should. The con about this product is the glow in the dark feature. Even though I could still see the temp in a low lighted area, I wished it was glowing bright. But overall this is a great accurate gauge for the grill.

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This is a nice gauge it was much larger then I expected. I can see it from across patio with a quick glance. The face is supposed to be glow in the dark, but that hasn't worked for me. Overall it was a nice addition to my Weber smoker that did not come with a thermometer at all. I would recommend using a uni-bit when drilling the hole to install it.

Lux Products LV2 Line Voltage Double Pole Heat Thermostat, Sterling Review

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This thermostat, made in China, has a kind of metal plate inside which is the only reactant/reactor/heat-sensitive element, and it is very "gross", in that it needs quite a large temperature change to move enough to turn on or turn off one's heater. So you'll wait until you're being roasted before it turns off, or until you're freezing before it turns on.

I'm willing to be proven wrong on this, but that is my experience with the "lux" thermostat. Also, there is some confusion in the way Amazon is listing this; the LV2 is a double-pole thermostat, while the LV1 is a single-pole thermostat. Theoretically (if the damned thing worked at all) it is possible to wire up the LVV2 as a single-pole thermostat, only using one of the two microswitches inside.

But it still won't be sensitive enough to know what that median temperature for turning on and off is; you'll overheat and get cold before it kicks in.

By the way, I tried every possible location including holding it in front of the heater vent (where it did have the decency to turn the heat off, I have to admit).

Unless there is some fact or factor I'm not understanding, putting this product on the market was an amazingly crass and cynical act.

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Ok, I would have to agree with the other reviews that have had problems with this item, if only i had read the reviews before purchasing two of these items then i wouldnt be trying to return them right now, afetr installing these thermostats i noticed that with the room tempreature being 73 degrees these thermostats would not turn off untill i turned them down to around 55 degrees, that gives it around a 17 degree difference. so if you want an acurate thermostat do not buy this item, put out some extra cash and purchse the LUX ELV4 programmable line heating thermostat, i now have two of these units and they are the best, they have a digital thermometer built into them so there is no need to worry about checking your heating system after programming these devices, your room will be nice and warm when you wake up and will turn off when you want it too.

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I replaced two old thermostats with Lux LV2's in my future retirement house. I had checked them with an ohmmeter before installation and they seemed OK. So I merely made sure they would turn the baseboards on, set them back to 60 degrees, and went home (85 miles away). Fortunately my wife and I decided to go back the next day instead of the following week. When we got there, one of the rooms was over 70 degrees and the baseboards were on. I had to move the dial back to below 50 to turn them off. The other room was cold. I needed to turn that thermostat to 80 before it came on, but then it didn't turn off until below 50.

I pulled both of the Lux LV-2's. Replaced one with a Honeywell digital and the other with a Honeywell mechanical. Both Honeywells work well and the $20 mechanical holds within about 3 degrees total.

Finally, I took one of the LV-2s into the electronics lab at work. We put a 500 watt load on it in an enclosure and it would not shut off. The thermostat frame was nearly too hot to handle but it would not shut off. After it had cooled we again tested with the ohmmeter and it again seemed OK when cold and not under load.

Buy another brandthese are poison.

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The thermostat keeps a narrow temperature range which is good. The only problem is that the temperature setting dial is about 6-8 degrees off. I set it at 60 to get a 67 degree room.

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I tried to save some money by changing out our old thermostats. Going cheap on the thermostats was a mistake. This thermostat uses the old method of bimetallic material to switch on and off. It was poorly calibrated and when the room was 70 it needed to be turned past 85 to work. They would get stuck on and create all sorts of problems with the room temperature. I returned these chinese made hazards and purchased ones that use a chemical cell to detect temperature. The electronic ones are + or 1 degree. These units are + or 20 degrees and get stuck on. Forget them. We returned them. Round two on the install!

Reviews of Honeywell T87N1026 Round Non-Programmable Thermostat

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List Price: $104.79
Sale Price: $55.00
Today's Bonus: 48% Off

Just perfect. Purchased for elderly parents. Still wont end the thermostat war. Very easy to install and use. Ty Ty

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We installed the thermostate for my elderly mom, who has poor sight. She still has a problem seeing the numbers on the dial, and the cool, heat or off switch should be made longer for a person with poor sight. The switch should protrude above the dial. I think my mom turns the dial instead of switching the switch, because she fumbles finding the switch located behind the face of the thermostat.

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Great for old folks who want a simple large thermostate to read. Had it professionally installed. Well worth the money spent.

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Makes it easy to adjust temperatures when the regular thermostat numbers cannot be seen due to diabetes-affected vision. This should be a standard product in any household where occupants have vision limitations.

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needed as a gift for Mom...what a difference to set thermostat now ! I think I need one myself !