Products that work better than they should

I shave with Daisy Razors. Pink, $2.99 for a bag of 'em, they last about 3 weeks each and they give a great shave. I've tried the blue male equivalent and they're nowhere near as good. I've tried fancy 3-, 4- and 5-blade razors and they're nowhere near as good. I've tried single blade, electrics, house brands, other manufacturers and I always come back to Daisy. They're head-and-shoulders above all others.

The water heater up at my dad's house was put in when the house was built. It's been running 35 years without any issues and still works great.

The freezer up at my dad's house was bought when I was a kid of 6 or 7. Never been serviced in 54 years. My dad tested it for power draw and it costs like $2.35/yr in electricity.

Two-Buck Chuck is pretty decent wine. It's now $3.99/bottle but all of their colors are as good as, if not better than, the more expensive stuff. I'd put it up against anything costing $16/bottle or less.

And I still like plain-jane Constant Comment better than any exotic tea I've tried.

My house is on its third water heater in fourteen years.
I replaced the heating and air conditioning system after ten years.
The waste pump is a constant hassle - on my third pump, and don't know how many service calls for leaks and check valves.
Nothing seems to last any more.

Not a fan of tea or wine. The last wine I drank was brought to the house by a guest. It was $250/bottle. Tasted like shit (but the others praised it).

Don't have much use for razors. Shave the neck every few days. Razors last a long time. Could go back to using my Buck knife, but not as steady as I used to be. Might be a bad idea,

_Howard wrote:

The waste pump is a constant hassle - on my third pump, and don't know how many service calls for leaks and check valves.

I went through three sump pumps in ten years, all the same brand & model (Flotec 350 gpm). The fourth one -- same model number and specs, same price, but plastic body instead of cast iron -- has lasted me six trouble-free years so far without so much as a single jam.

_Howard wrote:

The last wine I drank was brought to the house by a guest. It was $250/bottle. Tasted like shit.

I had a red wine from Chile in a restaurant a couple years ago that was really quite good. Never been able to find it again. I have the name written down somewhere.

NoCoPilot wrote:

I went through three sump pumps in ten years, all the same brand & model (Flotec 350 gpm).  The fourth one -- same model number and specs, same price, but plastic body instead of cast iron -- has lasted me six trouble-free years so far without so much as a single jam.

That's a different type of pump than the one that's driving me nuts. What I have is a sewage waste pump, which pumps all of the sewage from the house to the septic tank, which is uphill and about 150 feet away. I'm not really sure if a pump has ever actually failed. The first time I replaced it was when I moved the sump and just went ahead and put in a new pump. The next failure was caused by the pump getting clogged by stuff that shouldn't have been there. It's likely that the pump could have just been cleaned out, but considering the cost of labor, I just went ahead and replaced it. The real hassle is the period leaks and check valve failures.
Time to move back to town and quit pretending I'm a country boy.

_Howard wrote:

Time to move back to town and quit pretending I'm a country boy.

Well you're in for a long hot dry summer this year. You might not have many options.

Not really a "product that works better than it should" but similar in some parallel universe. I just got the bill for redoing the driveway up at my dad's. The bid, which I approved, was for $6,486.00. The invoice came today, and it's $2,473.89.

Quite a discount!

Where I live is designated an Extreme Fire Hazard area, which is now reason enough to move. Of course, when I lived in town, we were evacuated because a huge fire was eating that end of town. So...

NoCoPilot wrote:

Not really a "product that works better than it should" but similar in some parallel universe.  I just got the bill for redoing the driveway up at my dad's.  The bid, which I approved, was for $6,486.00.  The invoice came today, and it's $2,473.89.

Quite a discount!

That illustrates a difference between Washington and California. The numbers for the bid and invoice would have been swapped here.