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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • Lotta hate in the comments here. I’ll speak to the car objectively. TLDR: it’s a great car, BIC and competitively priced, auto wipers are hit or miss. I’d buy it again given today’s options.

    I have a 2018 M3 RWD. 50k miles on it. Maintenance wise it’s one set of tires, a couple air filters, tire rotations and brake caliper lubes in that time. There was one mechanical failure, lower control arms which were covered under warranty.

    This excludes folks smashing into the parked car twice and related bodywork repairs.

    I did pay out of pocket for new side repeater cameras that don’t have the blinker occlusion at night. I sold the old repeaters on eBay so it was basically break even. Little bit of hassle for something I felt should have been covered under warranty.

    Software wise it was unstable in some of the early 2019 releases. Things like cellular disconnecting, backup camera lag, have all been sorted out now. Yes the UI changed a bunch over that time and not always for the better. But generally it’s advanced in a good direction. I’m considering these items early adoption issues and now that they’ve been resolved, do not factor into my opinion of the car.

    My biggest issue with car is the auto wipers not functioning consistently. Very hit or miss and have to switch to manual mode.

    FSD beta: I paid $5k for it. I don’t think it’s worth more than that. Did they deliver what was promised? No not really, it was over hyped. Highway driving is pretty solid I use it frequently though stop and go can be a bit rollercoastery at times. City streets has a ways to go still. Sometimes it navigates complexitys impressively well. Other times it fails on the most mundane task.

    That being said it’s been an absolute blast watching it progress over time. It’s made massive steps forward, but every two steps forward there was always a regression elsewhere.

    I don’t think FSD really influences my car purchase at this point. Do I regret buying it? No, not for the price I paid. If we exclude it for a moment, the M3 is still a best in class car in my option. I don’t see another model on the market with the same range and price point. Even when comparing it to say a Toyota Camry hybrid. It’s the same price with current incentives. And you don’t have to deal with a dealership their markups and high pressure sales BS.


  • Agree with this post here. Adding to this thought:

    Outside of initial provisioning/firmware updates. This server should only need to reboot once a month for OS/firmware security updates and maintenance. Maybe less/more depending on your organizations security posture. OP said they’re running VM’s so I don’t understand the concern with the boot time. Once you provision the host you don’t really tinker with any setting unless your adding hardware to updating firmware/os.

    If the boot time is really that big a deal, get a second host and setup replication/vmotion with your VM’s to eliminate the host boot time from affecting your uptime entirely.






  • Things that were built to code in 1986 may no longer be up to code in 2023. When making improvements it is a best practice to bring things up to current codes, but not always a requirement.

    Towns don’t generally send inspectors around to enforce codes unless you’ve done major obvious stuff like add a bathroom. However, if you ever go to sell the house, smaller code violations can come up during an inspection.

    My hot water heater doesn’t have an expansion tank either, but it is on an open connection to the municipal water supply which acts as one. I plan to add a PRV which makes it a closed system and would necessitate an expansion tank. I don’t believe there is any harm in adding an expansion tank to an open system, other than cost.

    For the pressure relief air gap. The 2015 IRC code in New York for example requires that it discharge to an air gap inside the building. You can then drain it outside from there.

    https://codes.iccsafe.org/s/IRC2015NY/chapter-28-water-heaters/IRC2015-Pt07-Ch28-SecP2804.6.1

    I’m not sure why a drain pan would not fit. They add a negligible amount of height and aren’t much wider in diameter than the heater itself.

    Electrical panel clearance see section E3405.1 workspace clearance. 30" width, 36" depth, 6’5" height. The 30" can start at the edge of the panel if you’ve got the room on the other side. It’s probably fine, but hard to tell from the picture angle.

    https://codes.iccsafe.org/content/IRC2018/chapter-34-general-requirements

    By all means, I think you did a great job and there likely won’t be any issue with the installation. These are just observations from a code compliance perspective.



  • Electrical panel clearance may be an issue. Think you need like 30" width clearance which can be off-center to push it up to the panel edge. Looks tight from the picture.

    Add some fire blocking on the wall penetrations if that is going to an interior wall from a garage.

    Is your pex rated to handle the pressure relief valve temperatures and is the inner diameter equal to or larger than the valve opening?

    Is there an air gap on your pressure relief drain? (can’t see where it terminates.

    Might need an expansion tank

    What is the square footage of the space it was installed in? There’s usually a minimum requirements for heat pump units to function properly.

    As others said: drain pan, straps

    Had a nicer formatting post writen but lost it when trying to post during site outage.





  • It’s not ideal, but could be worse. The old decking gave way. Whether the roofers saw that and covered it up or it gave through when the air nailer got it is another matter. Most roofers would probably keep going till the job was done and address isolated issues like this after.

    If decking repairs or a warranty were in your contract then they should make it right. If you don’t have a contract then it’s at the discretion of the roofers if they want to do anything about it.

    Over the life of the roof that spot may wear prematurely or give way if any weight hits it. It’s under a vent so there is probably a metal flange over it. So it might hold up. Time will tell.

    It’s certainly fixable. To do it the right way you need to take it all the way down to the decking and patch in a new board. Certainly doable, but kind of a pita.


  • General order of operations

    -When is the last time your AC was serviced? Are the filters or condenser coil blocked with dirt and dust and killing it’s performance? Is the condenser installed under a deck or somewhere stupid with no airflow?

    -Fix air leaks. These are the biggest loss of energy. You can diy or have someone preform a home energy audit where they hookup a fan to see how much air loss there is. Then seal gaps, replace worn weatherstripping, etc and retest. There are incentive programs here in many states to help pay for these audits

    -Is you attic properly vented? Look for soffit vents and ridge vents. You may only have gable vents in an older home which is not going to cut it. Your attic becomes an oven if it’s improperly vented. There is a certain ratio of ventilation to square footage of attic that needs to be met, 150:1 if I recall.

    -Insulate attic: You didn’t specify your region but 8 inches of old fiberglass isn’t going to cut it in the majority of regions. That could be as little as R20. Adding additional insulation to the attic is cost effective and there are incentives programs to do so. Check what the recommended r value is for your zone. R49 will cover most of the US if I recall.

    -insulate walls: You don’t need to tear down the drywall to insulate. They drill holes into each joist bay and blow loose fill insulation in. Then patch all the holes. Same as attic but slightly more work.

    -windows: are your windows/storm windows using double pane glass? If they are, how old are they? have their seal been broken? Also look into curtain treatments for windows that get heavy sun.

    The very last thing you should do is be looking at replacing HVAC gear. If you do it out of order then you’ll buy oversized equipment that will short cycle when you add insulation.

    Also more generally, trees. Plant them. Let them get big and grow around your house for shade. Not exactly an overnight fix but mature trees can reduce massive thermal loads. Especially if they shade your AC from direct sunlight.

    And one last note, please don’t add vinyl ontop of your brick veneer. That’s a great way to devalue your home. Yes technically you can put vinyl up with a layer of foam insulation board underneath but that’s really a last resort.