Snake oil?

[sardine]

There's a good con going round the world of canal boat owners at the moment, a wire mesh cage that goes in your stove to hold the coal, some people swear by them and claim they use less fuel but no one can explain why.

Boat owners fall for every new product that comes on the market, everyone is covering everything in Vactan™ rust converter but no one knows why either .

 

[jerrytug]

There's a good con going round the world of canal boat owners at the moment, a wire mesh cage that goes in your stove to hold the coal, some people swear by them and claim they use less fuel but no one can explain why.

Boat owners fall for every new product that comes on the market, everyone is covering everything in Vactan™ rust converter but no one knows why either .

I haven't seen those ads but they probably claim to improve the performance of crude coal burners with secondary burning somehow..I wonder what the cages are made of, so they don't burn away?
Ok now I have seen the ad, it looks worth trying!

 

[pcwizme]

There's a good con going round the world of canal boat owners at the moment, a wire mesh cage that goes in your stove to hold the coal, some people swear by them and claim they use less fuel but no one can explain why.

Boat owners fall for every new product that comes on the market, everyone is covering everything in Vactan™ rust converter but no one knows why either .

Best thing for making the coal stove on my ex-boat more efficient was the stove fan as I could point it in to the bedroom or lounge area and get the heat moving. Its amazing the difference it made. These coal cages I believe were meant to work like a charcoal starter for a bbq, they increase the surface area of the coal to burn, but I dont think it will work as planned as you will get more heat but I expect it will burn faster..

 

[Stupoty]

Yep, for a few reasons.

First, and crucially, what problems do you think you have with your home electrics that needs to be solved? A lot of these kinds of adverts drum up some kind of holocaust-level issue that realistically we are not really suffering.

Next is the idea that "the last metre" is going to make any difference at all. A comparable snake oil candidate is Russ Andrews £65 power cable - why would this 1m cable magically rectify the shortcomings in the 100m cable in your house, the 4Km run to the substation, and the 15Km run to the distribution hub? it won't - it's like me having 15 Happy Meals and then eating a satsuma as an antidote.

Brah only £65 thats like a normal cable , what you need is this £1300 mains lead , , unbelivable , low end mains cable , bahhhhh .

Eos Superior Power Cable, by Atlas Cables | Audio Sanctuary

OCC / PTFE construction with exceptional fidelity, superior protection, specifically designed for high-end systems with high current draw devices. Eos Superior mains power cable by Atlas Cables. Available from Audio Sanctuary in London, UK.

www.audiosanctuary.co.uk

Stu

 

[BarrieJ]

Best thing for making the coal stove on my ex-boat more efficient was the stove fan as I could point it in to the bedroom or lounge area and get the heat moving. Its amazing the difference it made. These coal cages I believe were meant to work like a charcoal starter for a bbq, they increase the surface area of the coal to burn, but I dont think it will work as planned as you will get more heat but I expect it will burn faster..

Another vote for a stove fan, bought one from Aldi's abought three years ago, really surprised at the difference. We burn ovoids on a solid fuel stove in an open plan living room with unrestricted access to the stairs etc. It's not lit 24 hours but the fan's running when we go to bed at about 10 to 11pm and it's usually still running at 5am. You can really feel the warmth on the landing upstairs. Made a big difference.

 

[brightspark]

Brah only £65 thats like a normal cable , what you need is this £1300 mains lead , , unbelivable , low end mains cable , bahhhhh .

Eos Superior Power Cable, by Atlas Cables | Audio Sanctuary

OCC / PTFE construction with exceptional fidelity, superior protection, specifically designed for high-end systems with high current draw devices. Eos Superior mains power cable by Atlas Cables. Available from Audio Sanctuary in London, UK.

www.audiosanctuary.co.uk

Stu

and they plug in to a power feed in a rural cottage on the end of the line of houses and the power goes up and down like a fidders elbow as the farmers run there 5hp mills and milking machines

 

[Stupoty]

and they plug in to a power feed in a rural cottage on the end of the line of houses and the power goes up and down like a fidders elbow as the farmers run there 5hp mills and milking machines

ow well yeah , that bit of elecky cable doesn't make a difference just that mega priced one at the end of it all ha ha

Stu

 

[mtt.tr]

alot of these are just a capacitor to reduce powerfactor but domestically we are not charged for bad PF,

they also wont work for industry as PF correction needs proper sizing



i personally like directional audio cables, being that audio is AC, the mind boggles

 

[Seadog]

domestically we are not charged for bad PF

You are if you have a smart meter.

 

[mtt.tr]

You are if you have a smart meter.

glad our houses are full off capacitor dropper LEDS which have shocking bad PF

 

[pedrobedro]

I just read an article on power factor correction, I can still hear the whoosh as it went over my head.

 

[Seadog]

You don't need to understand what it is and how it's corrected. All you need to know is that modern electronic gadgetry, LEDs for example as @mtt.tr mentioned, will mean you are paying more than you would have with the old analogue meter. Add into that mix motors, a welder, maybe a rotary converter and you suddenly see a significant difference in old power vs. new power, and a consequential increase in the amount that you pay.

 

[Morris]

I was under the impression that smart meters measured kVAr but did not charge for it.
There seems to be a lack of information on this (possible lack of Googlefoo as well?!)

 

[Stupoty]

You don't need to understand what it is and how it's corrected. All you need to know is that modern electronic gadgetry, LEDs for example as @mtt.tr mentioned, will mean you are paying more than you would have with the old analogue meter. Add into that mix motors, a welder, maybe a rotary converter and you suddenly see a significant difference in old power vs. new power, and a consequential increase in the amount that you pay.

I have seen some articles a while ago that stated the first generation smart meters were/are very bad at measuring the power draw for led lights and dimmers.

Stu

 

[skotl]

Good "review" of hifi snake-oil here. $200 for a plastic device to lift your speaker cable off the floor, $400 USB plug to "fix" digital noise, and $600 copper plugs for XLR cables.

Linus is a bit marmite, but at least all the guys on the couch are hilariously dismissive of each and every product.

 

[GRW]

power correction factor is something that is used in industrial settings though, to reduce electricity costs, although the electrical consumption of a factory with high powered machinery is more likely to benefit than someone turning a kettle on at home.

if you saw top gear the other week with the hybrid lambo on it with capacitors instead of batteries, its a bit like that when the capacitors cut in under peak demand for a very short period to smooth the power transition. (on that car it was to give a boost in power out of the corners)

anyway Im sure someone who knows about industrial electricity will be along soon to confirm how they work.

30 years ago I was working for a company and they has to stagger the starting of their power presses in a morning to reduce the demands on the electrical network, and the had some gubbins fitted that reduced the time getting all the machinery running, and because the peak current was reduced, there was a small saving in electricty.

I never knew the details of how PF correction worked, but I know that they have to be switched-out if a backup genny is brought online.

Also these PF things used to drop the voltage to the site by around 10v. We got a few calls for backup gennys "nuisance starting" out if the blue... & the cause was the PF kit reducing the base voltage much closer to the min. acceptable "brown-out" setting of the backup system.

Lots of water works I went to had "staging" load schedule systems to ramp up the works sequentially after a shutdown or power outage - otherwise the huge inrush of all the pumps would have the LAN voltage drop & trip everything out (plus they needed to have some kit operating before other kit could be started). AFAIK it was all managed by PLC's.

Edit: just realised how old this thread is. That's what happens when insomnia has you awake but not "with it" at 4:30am

 

[tom2207]

The hifi world is a sad old place nothing sums it up better than this

half the world cant tell mono from stereo if they were listening to a tennis match or cant tell Motorola from TAD and the rest dont care ,,, in there somewhere are a few folks who know , but its the ultimate industry for box shifting..

 

[cheb]

Flanders and Swann were there before them in 1957:

 

[tom2207]

makes an interesting watch too ,,, Having worked in this area for a while it all gets quite interesting , a lot of the time its better to listen to the music than the people trying to tell you what to listen for.

 

[ajlelectronics]

The Audiophoolery thread on the apparently "North Korean" Vintage radio website is possibly the only one that hasn't been closed after a few pages. Some of the posts about these snake oil products, you couldn't make up!

The Audiophoolery Thread. - UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum

The Audiophoolery Thread. General Vintage Technology Discussions

www.vintage-radio.net