What is the last thing you ordered from Amazon?

[Moemg]

I just ordered a roomba . All my friends have cleaning ladies but I am not quite ready for that so I thought this would be a good compromise .

 

[Sarah in SC]

I loved my Roomba! Sadly, dog hair was the death of it. I now use a shopvac and I'm on my second one of those!

 

[travelover]

I loved my Roomba! Sadly, dog hair was the death of it. I now use a shopvac and I'm on my second one of those!

You need a dog with a removable coat.

 

[Souschef]

Lighted keyboard

I do not touch type, and my genius wife found a lighted keyboard for me. My keyboard is shadowed by the desktop over the keyboard tray.
eBay comes through again!

 

[bizlady]

I just ordered a roomba . All my friends have cleaning ladies but I am not quite ready for that so I thought this would be a good compromise .

Love my Roomba- you will too! The key is to clean the brushes after each use. Also, when you do need new batteries, the after market one on Amazon are cheaper and work better in my opinion than the originals!

 

[bobandsherry]

Love my Roomba- you will too! The key is to clean the brushes after each use. Also, when you do need new batteries, the after market one on Amazon are cheaper and work better in my opinion than the originals!

For those looking to replace or buy a Roomba, I'd recommend that you look at Neato. I've had both and prefer the Neato. Their brush design is such that I have to clean it MUCH less often than Roomba. Additionally it seems to do a better job cleaning. There are other advantages including a larger bin.

 

[skipro33]

I recently replaced my Roomba battery with a lithium. I can now run it for three cycles before it needs charging.

Best thing about Roomba is that it cleans under beds and furniture. Mine is over 9 years old. I have dogs so occasionally I have to disassemble the gear box for the brush and clean, lube. Otherwise I just use co.pressed air to blow it clean.

 

[davemartin88]

Battery backup for new CNC Router.

 

[easysurfer]

A replacement power supply and cables for my laptop. All I really needed was a Mickey Mouse cable as the previous one burned out.

 

[W2R]

A giant bottle of my favorite shampoo, Suave tropical coconut. The bottle will last forever and meanwhile I love having the light scent of coconut in my hair.

 

[LOL!]

Garage door torsion spring. Repaired garage door opener for $36.

 

[Philliefan33]

Yesterday I sent an email to Amazon Customer Service regarding a coffee percolator that isn't heating to a high enough temperature to brew. I told them that I believed it should still be under warranty, so should I return it to Amazon?

Within 30 minutes I got a reply that a new percolator was being sent, next-day delivery, no charge. I am free to dispose of the broken item as I see fit. The percolator was just delivered, about 26 hours after my initial inquiry.

I love Amazon!

 

[Rosie]

Our new home has a couple of orange trees in the backyard, and we're now inundated with ripe, tasty oranges!

We're giving a bunch away but we still have plenty.

So earlier this week we purchased this. It's a Black & Decker CJ630, it cost under $20 (err, when we bought it it was $18.99, I see it's now a bit over $21, oh well), and it works great.

I don't think I've ever had truly fresh-squeezed orange juice, it's a revelation. Yum!

 

[Meadbh]

I don't think I've ever had truly fresh-squeezed orange juice, it's a revelation. Yum!

Freshly squeezed orange juice is so much better than anything processed! But so are most fresh locally grown foods.

 

[dixonge]

eyeglasses case for my now-backup pair - comes w/ microfiber! lol

 

[harley]

Our new home has a couple of orange trees in the backyard, and we're now inundated with ripe, tasty oranges!

We're giving a bunch away but we still have plenty.

So earlier this week we purchased this. It's a Black & Decker CJ630, it cost under $20 (err, when we bought it it was $18.99, I see it's now a bit over $21, oh well), and it works great.

I don't think I've ever had truly fresh-squeezed orange juice, it's a revelation. Yum!

I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday about so called "natural" foods, and they were talking about what was done to orange juice. They store it in giant vats, remove the oxygen which makes it flavorless, then add in packets of flavoring from oranges before packaging it. It's all natural, since it all comes from the orange, but they said all you need to do is taste fresh squeezed and you'd understand the difference between "natural" on the package and really natural.

I've been thinking about planting an orange tree myself, although I'm also considering an avocado. We've got an incredible mango tree, but they ripen after we head back north so I've never tasted them.

 

[ERD50]

I was listening to a story on NPR yesterday about so called "natural" foods, and they were talking about what was done to orange juice. They store it in giant vats, remove the oxygen which makes it flavorless, then add in packets of flavoring from oranges before packaging it. It's all natural, since it all comes from the orange, but they said all you need to do is taste fresh squeezed and you'd understand the difference between "natural" on the package and really natural. ...

I'd expect that fresh squeezed tasted better, fresher than anything that isn't fresh. But I wouldn't criticize their 'processing'.

Of course they "store it in giant vats" - this is mass production, and actually, "giant vats" are preferable - the ratio of surface area (exposed to O2), decreases with volume.

And they "remove the oxygen" (which is likely only a few ppm), so it doesn't oxidize. It may be that O2-less OJ does taste flatter than OJ with O2 (that is why boiled/cooled water tastes 'flat' - the boiling removes most of the few ppm of O2). But it would likely taste worse if the didn't remove the O2 - so why should it be surprising that they do this? (edit - BTW, I bet that vigorous shaking of your OJ container for 45 seconds will return the O2 to the product. Homebrewers do this prior to fermentation, the yeast like some O2 at the start, and it has been documented that this brings the un-fermented beer 'juice', called "wort", O2 content near its saturation point at room temperature. Wort has a similar sugar content to fruit juice, maltose rather than fructose, so should be applicable)

So to counter the drawbacks, they "then add in packets of flavoring from oranges before packaging it". Again, this makes sense to me, why not add back some flavoring from the oranges to improve the flavor?

If you don't like shelf/frozen OJ, don't buy it. But fresh is either unavailable or expensive for many people. IIRC, frozen actually tested better in taste tests, even though it is concentrated, that process actually preserved the flavor better.

"It's all natural, since it all comes from the orange,.." At least it comes from the orange. The term 'natural' is really pretty meaningless. Even a label like "natural Maple flavoring" does not mean that the flavoring came from anything Maple related. It just means the flavoring is 'natural' - from an animal/plant/mineral source - not synthesized by a chemical process. Pretty meaningless. In fact, maple flavoring is an extract of an herb, Fenugreek.

Of course, the flavor component of Fenugreek is the chemical Sotolon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotolon and it is represented like this:

But, if you create that exact chemical structure in a lab, rather than extracting it from an herb (and how is that process done?), your Maple syrup is no longer legally considered to have 'Natural Flavorings".

Stupid. Plus, how many "natural" things, like poisonous mushrooms, botulism, and salmonella, are very, very bad for us? Natural-shmatural.

-ERD50

 

[easysurfer]

Cat water fountain... My kitties need fresh water when I'm away.

note: picture is not my cat, but a stock photo of the fountain with a feline .

 

[Nodak]

Just ordered a replacement power supply for my Toshiba laptop computer, only $9.

 

[travelover]

Some people shop brick and mortar stores to see the product, then order on Amazon. I shop Amazon including reviews, then try to find it for less on eBay. If both use the same photos, you can use Google Images file search to locate the exact item.

 

[Lakedog]

A replacement washer door lock switch assembly for a Samsung front loader. The door would not close/lock so the washing machine was inoperable. It is great that you can find videos online showing how to fix issues like this. The part from Amazon was only $26 - a very inexpensive repair requiring only about 20 minutes (after my initial thoughts of having to pay a service tech a couple hundred bucks).

 

[Theseus]

I'm that way too but I learned that if you ever get a foot condition that requires special shoes that will alleviate the pain you'll be willing to spend much, much more. DW had a bout with plantar fascitis and we ended up spending nearly $200 on a pair of special sneakers for her. Both of us had to swallow hard to do that.

It worked, so it was well worth the money.

+1MM

Having endured a Cortisone shot into my foot with a needle the size of an Gemini rocket, just about any price to prevent a recurrence of planter fascitis is easier to swallow.

 

[harley]

I'd expect that fresh squeezed tasted better, fresher than anything that isn't fresh. But I wouldn't criticize their 'processing'.

Of course they "store it in giant vats" - this is mass production, and actually, "giant vats" are preferable - the ratio of surface area (exposed to O2), decreases with volume.

And they "remove the oxygen" (which is likely only a few ppm), so it doesn't oxidize. It may be that O2-less OJ does taste flatter than OJ with O2 (that is why boiled/cooled water tastes 'flat' - the boiling removes most of the few ppm of O2). But it would likely taste worse if the didn't remove the O2 - so why should it be surprising that they do this? (edit - BTW, I bet that vigorous shaking of your OJ container for 45 seconds will return the O2 to the product. Homebrewers do this prior to fermentation, the yeast like some O2 at the start, and it has been documented that this brings the un-fermented beer 'juice', called "wort", O2 content near its saturation point at room temperature. Wort has a similar sugar content to fruit juice, maltose rather than fructose, so should be applicable)

So to counter the drawbacks, they "then add in packets of flavoring from oranges before packaging it". Again, this makes sense to me, why not add back some flavoring from the oranges to improve the flavor?

If you don't like shelf/frozen OJ, don't buy it. But fresh is either unavailable or expensive for many people. IIRC, frozen actually tested better in taste tests, even though it is concentrated, that process actually preserved the flavor better.

"It's all natural, since it all comes from the orange,.." At least it comes from the orange. The term 'natural' is really pretty meaningless. Even a label like "natural Maple flavoring" does not mean that the flavoring came from anything Maple related. It just means the flavoring is 'natural' - from an animal/plant/mineral source - not synthesized by a chemical process. Pretty meaningless. In fact, maple flavoring is an extract of an herb, Fenugreek.

Of course, the flavor component of Fenugreek is the chemical Sotolon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sotolon and it is represented like this:

But, if you create that exact chemical structure in a lab, rather than extracting it from an herb (and how is that process done?), your Maple syrup is no longer legally considered to have 'Natural Flavorings".

Stupid. Plus, how many "natural" things, like poisonous mushrooms, botulism, and salmonella, are very, very bad for us? Natural-shmatural.

-ERD50

 

[Meadbh]

You didn't like Chemistry in school, I take it?

 

[Katsmeow]

Cat water fountain... My kitties need fresh water when I'm away.

note: picture is not my cat, but a stock photo of the fountain with a feline .

Would love to hear how you like it when it arrives. I've pondered getting one although there is no outlet on the wall where I have their water so I would have to move it.