Top Products of 2021 So Far

This is episode number 147 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for this in-studio episode of The Homeowner Show. Kevin's back.

Back, baby.

Well, like, as far as everyone else is concerned, you haven't been gone, but I haven't seen you for like 2 weeks.

Yeah, it's, it's been 2 full weeks that I've been gone, and I'm back, but I'm leaving again. I'm gonna be gone a lot more over the next couple of weeks. So anyway, it is what it is.

Yep. So Kevin's back, and Two Bourbon Craig is back.

Oh yes.

Which means that the wit on the show will be as fast as Joe Biden's ever-creeping dementia. And that's why I'm here.

Oh, man. Y'all just tune in. This is what it's gonna be like all night.

That's right. I hope you—

I hope you enjoy it. Most of you— most of you are probably not listening to this. at 11:15 at night. But if you are, we're glad you're here with us.

So here we go. Um, 2 things I wanted to talk about right off the bat.

Okay, bring it.

So one, uh, was an interaction with a client today.

Okay.

Um, and I'm not gonna use their name because that's rude.

Sure.

Almost as rude as they were to me today.

Oh.

So we had a situation. So for those of you that don't know, we, we have a pest control business. One of the services that we provide is mosquito fogging, and so we had this customer set up on monthly mosquito fogging, which down here pretty necessary. Oh yeah, for certain times of the year. Then you don't need it all year, but like it's it's really really helpful most most of the year.

Right.

And I can't find our show on Facebook.

Nope, me either.

What's going on?

I don't know.

I mean, it says that it's there. I can see that it's there.

Oh, it shows me that we're live.

I know that we're live. I just can't find the post. Anyway, so about 3 weeks ago, this customer calls us. It's a lady.

Okay.

Which is a generous term. Um, calls us and says, hey, I just need to go ahead and cancel my service.

No problem. Sure.

So she happens to live right next door to one of our other clients, right?

Sure.

Who we call and, and we were talking with him. It's like, hey, we got— you got your service coming up. You know, it's, it's usually really easy for us because we can just schedule it with your neighbor, but they, they canceled. And he goes, oh really? And we're like, yeah. And he goes, I'm gonna call and talk to them. So he calls and talks to him and calls us back and says, hey, I just talked to the husband. He said go ahead and do it. No problem.

Okay.

So week before we actually go and do the service, We send them an email.

We're coming out.

We're coming out next week.

Yep.

We'll be there. What is today? Thursday?

Sure.

We'll be there Thursday to take care of everything you need. Didn't get a response to the email.

Which, which assumes it's fine for us to show up, I, I guess.

Yes. So we show up, we do this service.

Yeah.

While we're in the middle of spraying the yard, get a phone call from the customer.

Okay.

Or no, actually, we get an email from the customer. Hey, I thought we said that we needed to go ahead and cancel this service.

Oh, wait, wait, wait, hold up. While you're working on their yard?

Yes.

You get an email?

Yes.

They don't just walk outside?

They're not there.

Oh. How do they know that you're there? Did they have cameras?

No, I think somebody else was there. It was like a kid or something. Okay.

All right, gotcha.

Doesn't matter.

Oh, it mattered to me.

So yeah, so they, they, they email you. They email us and they say, hey, I thought— and this was the lady. Yeah. Now keep in mind, we had talked to the neighbor who had said, I spoke to to the neighbor husband who said, please go ahead and do it.

Right.

So lady emails us and says, hey, I thought we said to cancel this.

Right.

We've already finished spraying the house, done the yard. So we call her. Or actually, I call her.

Okay.

And I'm like, ma'am, here's what happened. We talked to your neighbor. Neighbor said he spoke to your husband. He said to go ahead and do it. We sent you an email last week letting you know we were coming. And so we came today.

Yeah.

She's like, well, I told you guys to cancel this. And this account's in my name. And it's not my husband's. And it's none of his business.

Oh.

And I'm like, oh, well, I don't really want to get inside your marital problems.

Right.

But that's what happened. And I was like, but if we somehow made a mistake in this whole process that I just explained to you, I won't charge you for any of it.

Perfect. She goes, I got a free chart, free. You know, it's free.

She goes, thank you, hangs up the phone.

Oh.

And I'm like, so you can, you can see nothing that you did wrong in this situation whatsoever. You didn't respond to our email. You emailed us in the middle of while we were doing the service, which you knew was happening.

Right.

Because we emailed you about it last week.

Right.

And so the people from my office are like, well, invoice her. And I'm like, no.

Right.

And they're like, why not? And I said, because I'm never going back.

No, it didn't.

And they're like, but you need to send her the invoice because of the principle of the thing. I was like, no, no, the principle of the thing is I'm going to send her a zeroed out invoice so that she knows that I zeroed it out. And so when she calls with any other problem in the future, it's like, go pound sand.

Good luck.

Yeah. You can use Joe Bob.

Yeah.

And see how that works out. Yeah. So enjoy yourself, mystery lady.

Right.

So The other thing that irritated me today—

Okay.

Was an ad, and I think it was on Pandora that I heard it today. And it was the absolute weirdest ad I've ever heard in my life. And it's actually pertinent to homeowners, so that's why I'm bringing it up.

Okay.

Which will sound weird, because it was Stone Cold Steve Austin and Snoop Dogg.

Oh, perfect.

Yeah. telling people why they need to now take cold showers.

Okay.

And somehow we're supposed to make the connection that it's Stone Cold Steve Austin. Okay. And cold showers. And that, that's what we're supposed to do now in order to conserve energy.

Wow. Well, how does Snoop Doggy Dogg enter into this equation at all.

I think he's supposed to be the voice of ethnicity in the ad.

Well, okay.

Because I don't think it's supposed to be like, hey, you should be taking a cold shower while smoking dope.

No.

Although I guess you could do that. It might be the thing that gets you through the cold shower. That's—

well, maybe. And I guarantee that's what he does.

Probably.

Probably. I mean, why wouldn't he?

Yeah. I mean, like, if he's got a show with Martha Stewart, he's doing ads with Stone Cold Steve Austin, and he's selling sweet tea someplace else.

Oh my goodness.

So wow.

That, that does sound very odd.

And it was just like, what? Why?

Yeah. And who's paying for this?

Is there like a hot water shortage? Is this the biggest, like, consumption of power in my home right now? Because like, the sun will heat up the water. Maybe I'll put it in a tank and heat it up. I'll take all the hot showers I want.

Oh, man.

So, and like, like, let's just be honest. Like, it was, it was supposed to be like this intimidation move. Like Stone Cold tells you to take a cold shower. And I'm like, dude, you're 70, right? I will kick you in the kneecap and we'll call it a day.

Yeah.

And then you can sit there on the ground while you watch me take a warm shower. Hey, y'all, this is 2 Bourbon Craig for you. 2 Bourbon Craig.

No, that's good. I will tell you this real briefly before we get into our topic for the evening. And that's this. You and I have a friend who we've talked about before on the show, whose house was ravaged in the storm, the ice storm.

Yeah.

And completely— you know who I'm talking about, right?

And again, not naming names.

Not naming names.

Because we're polite people.

Yeah.

We don't name names.

No.

Well, we don't make jerk moves like tell people to take cold showers and not pay for services we've already scheduled. Carry on, Kevin.

We named Joe Biden. We did just a minute ago. Absolutely.

That's okay. He won't remember it.

True. So the latest thing, they're— they still are not back in their house, right? I mean, it's been— that was February.

How do you say that? February.

February. Well, you said fogging earlier, so it's all the same, right?

You live your life how you want to.

That's, you know, is month 2.

Okay. Right.

They're still not back in there. They're not even close. The biggest thing that they're dealing with right now is that the water company has sent them a bill for consuming 100,000 gallons of water when In March, when their water was turned off. Okay. Has anyone ever researched how much 100,000 gallons of water is?

That's like a water park.

Yes.

Maybe they got their address confused with Schlitterbahn.

I mean, the, the entire neighborhood would know they consumed 100,000. They even told— well, maybe someone stole it. With what?

With it turned off?

Even if it wasn't turned off, how did they get it? What did they take it away in? This is 100,000 gallons of water.

They escaped on elephants.

I'm just like, oh my goodness, this is ridiculous that they're even battling this right now. I don't know. It's dumb.

How do you fight that?

I don't know. I mean, other than to say, look, you go down to this—

I want to show off and go, nuh-uh.

But seriously, what are you supposed to do in that moment? I mean, if, if you get a bill like that, what are you supposed to do with it? If you know the answer to this, if you know—

Do you know how much it was?

I don't remember. It was like $1,000, more than $1,000.

For 100,000 gallons of water, it's $1,000.

I'm pretty sure.

I might be willing to pay that. I feel like I need delivery.

Bring it to me.

Bring it, put it in the driveway. If I'm paying for it, I want to see it.

I mean, that's more than a swimming pool, right?

Yes.

Way more.

I think like, I'm trying to think, I think like a, like our swimming pool, I think is like 15,000 gallons.

Oh my goodness. I mean, now y'all's pool is not the biggest pool.

It's not a big pool.

However, that it would be what? 8, 7 of your pools, and they don't have a new pool in their backyard. Right, right. So anyway, it's dumb.

Yeah, but that sounds ridiculous.

Yeah, it is. But that's not what we're here to talk about.

No. And before we do that, if you haven't yet, smash the like button, smash the bell if you want. Like, like we're live on Facebook. So follow us there, hit the like button, let us know that you're here so that we can, you know, shout you out and say hello. Also, we're live on Instagram. So right over there.

Yeah.

So not this camera. No, but that camera, that one over there we can't turn on because it's Instagram and you need like a dedicated phone for that. So we're live over there. If you're an Instagram person, you can watch us live on Instagram. It may not be the best shot, but at least you'll get to listen. And then we're live on Facebook. We'll be live on YouTube. We're doing all the stuff, man. All of it. Where, where can we not, you know, put our grubby fingers into the interwebs? I don't know. So we're doing it. But tonight, we're gonna get into— so this is June.

Yes.

Which just means we're halfway through, and we're like at the tail end of June, which means we're almost exactly halfway through '21. And so we wanted to talk about what we, you and I, have seen as some of the coolest products so far in '21.

Exactly. Yeah. And again, to reiterate, we have not seen each other's list.

Right.

And I will guarantee you, you don't have the things on my list. There's no stinking way.

If you do— What if I do?

There's no way. It's not possible.

I know one of them is not because we did talk about one of them.

We— oh, we did. Yeah, we did.

We agreed that I got it.

Yes.

Because I found it first.

You did. And and and it's a really good one. I'm not gonna lie. I'm yeah, it's a good one. So are you going first or am I going first?

Um, I'll go first.

Okay. Yeah, do it.

Okay. So the very first one is this product that we found called Jelly Wee that I found. Yep. Trying to be generous with the credit. It's never been helpful in my life.

No.

So it's a product that I found.

Yes.

Called Jellyfish Lights.

Yeah, these things are amazing.

Yes, so like as soon as I found it, I sent it to Kev and I was like, dude, we gotta get them on the show. So, and so we're talking to them.

Yeah.

So we don't wanna give too much away.

Right.

'Cause we wanna let them, you know, like share what all their product is about. But essentially it's permanent accent lights for your home.

Right.

So they can be, but, They're— I assume they're LEDs.

Yeah, they are. They're definitely LEDs. Because they have like a— I think they said they've got like a 15-year life on them.

Okay.

And I think that's if they're on.

If they're on, like, like all the time?

If they were on for 15 years.

Oh, wow.

That's what I— that's what I gathered from it.

Okay. That's crazy.

Yeah. So tell us a little bit about what it is.

So I mean, they're, they're basically like permanent Christmas lights for your home.

That's exactly what they look like.

Yeah. But you can change the colors in such a way that they could be Halloween lights, right? They could be Thanksgiving lights. They could be Fourth of July lights.

Sure.

And they're programmable from your phone. And you can dim them, you can turn them on, They have all this different functionality to them so that you throughout the year can change the theme of your home without having to hang up stupid Christmas lights.

Yeah, that's—

which is the bane of my existence.

Right? Yeah, and the cool thing is you don't even have to have them all on. Like you could do every, I don't know what, I don't know exactly how specific you can get, but you can do like every 4th one or something. So you can do less light if you just want some accent lighting out there. But the great thing about this is how it's installed. And I don't fully understand it yet.

I don't really know either.

I really hope we can get these guys on the show to give us more information about it. But the way they're installed, they are permanently installed. It's like you've seen like LED strips before, right? They're real thin. And these are painted to your soffit or whatever you're putting them on. They're painted To match that, so they completely blend into your house. You wouldn't know they were there until it's night and you turn them on. Exactly. Yeah.

So I watched several videos of their of it just looks so cool. Really. And like you can even do like blinking patterns and all whatever.

Yeah.

And I'm like, look, if they last for fifteen years, like when I'm 55.

Right. If they were on all day.

At that point in my life, I can tell my wife, look, I'm too old to go up on the roof. Right. So we just need to have them installed again.

Redo them.

Totally worth the investment.

Absolutely.

Yeah. I like— don't get me wrong. I love Christmas lights.

Sure.

I love the Christmas season. Yeah. I hate hanging Christmas lights. I hate I hate the fact that the expectation is that when Christmas season is over, I have to pull them down and pack them up and hope that they work next year.

That's actually what some of these companies that are doing them— like, that's their business, right? Is they install Christmas lights?

Yes.

You, you don't buy Christmas lights, you just pay them to use theirs. Yep. It's actually brilliant.

It's a racket.

It is, because it's super expensive in comparison.

However, It preys on poor fools like me.

But that would pay the money and do.

Yeah.

Because they don't want to— well, in some of these houses—

And it's because when I'm done hanging the lights, I'm 3 bourbon Craig.

Yeah. Oh, and some of these people like have some really steep pitched roofs on a second story. No, I ain't doing that. No, no. So brilliant.

So I want, I want it. Yeah, I want it. I want it. send it to me. I'll put it on my house. Yeah, I will write a song about it.

And we're all waiting for that. You ready for my number 3?

I'm ready.

All right, my number 3 is—

Are we going in reverse order?

Are we? So I normally do.

Sure.

Why not? Your number 1?

No, but go ahead.

That was totally your number 1. All right, I'll go with my number 1 if we're going that way. My number 1.

Okay, you ready? So first, First is the worst.

First? No, first is the best.

First is the best. Okay.

First is the best.

As it should be. It's a meritocracy.

Okay. Well, this is different than we normally do it.

So, okay, whatever. But so you can all— everybody can just switch off after Kevin gets done with this one.

Yeah.

Yes. The rest don't matter.

But, but yours was your favorite one, right?

That was my favorite one. Okay.

So that's what we're doing here. All right. The favorite one that I've got, another, uh, company that we've actually reached out to because they've got a really, really cool product. And it's Gray's Mowing.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah. So these guys, okay, we've all at this point, if you, if you haven't, you've kind of been under a rock. If you want to have your lawn mowed by a robot, you can do that. Yep. Just like you can have your carpets vacuumed by a robot, you can have your yard mowed by a robot. These guys have said, "Ha ha ha! You want to mow your residential lawn? We'll do it commercially. Yep, with a robot. You want to mow a golf course? We can do that." And this thing is Gray's Mowing. It is a robot that is basically on what would be the, the cutting power of a riding lawnmower. I mean, this thing's a big unit.

It's a big unit. I mean, you, you would need some space. This would not be something that you would put out in your residential lawn, right? You would.

I would.

But you also have 6 acres here.

So, so send it on over for the actual field test, Grace.

I got a lawn for you.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's really, really, it's really cool. I mean, the deck on this thing is, is really, really cool. It's got run-flat tires on it. It's got sensors all over the place. It's got lights for night options. It's got— yeah, I mean, it's— the thing is really, really cool.

And I can tell you the big reason I want this thing. I want, I want it to be the thing that goes and mows around my bees.

Hmm, that's awesome.

That's always like a kamikaze mission.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, not only that, the other thing that makes it amazing is that it's electric powered.

Oh, okay.

So you don't have to put gas in it.

Even better.

It's all powered by electric.

So does it have solar panels?

That's what I'm actually looking at. And I am—

because if not, it should.

Yeah, it definitely should. I, I was looking at it and I can't tell. I need a top-down picture of it and I can't find it. It— again, we want to get these guys.

We need to have them on the show. We have questions that need answered.

That's right. So we've reached out to someone and we hope to hear back from him as well. But really, really cool product. And I, I mean, the thing's huge. This thing is really, really big. And I I mean, they're—

I think that's the thing from the pictures that you see online. It's very deceiving as to the size of it.

Yeah, they've got one picture on their homepage though. If you go to graze-mowing.com, they've got a picture of— I'm not sure what this guy's position in the company is, but he's standing next to it and it just dwarfs him.

Yeah.

And but, and he's standing on a golf course. So They're obviously saying, look, we can mow golf courses. That's a lot of electric power.

Yeah, I legitimately want to see this thing in action, like in person.

Yeah.

Because it looks— I mean, like from the videos, it looks really impressive. I want to see if like the actual real product, you know, can it cut grass?

Yeah, I want to know. I mean, they've been funding it, working on funding for it for a very, very, very long time. But They've already got a bunch of pre-orders and it's pretty amazing.

Awesome.

So, all right. This is your legitimate number 2 because it's in the middle.

So yeah, we're—

so it is.

Yeah, whatever.

Yeah.

So my number 2 is— and like, this is not something that's new, it's just that I've seen more market buy-in, okay, to it. I can't, like, because I'm out and about at different houses, different neighborhoods every single day. I can't tell you the lack of gas-powered lawn equipment that I've seen. I have seen more people with electric mowers for their, for their lawns than I've ever seen.

Yeah, it's pretty amazing.

I was, I was, and I'm not kidding. I was on a street today. And there were 3 people out mowing their grass. Every single one of them had an electric mower.

Really?

Yes. So, and I think there's 2 things going on here.

Okay.

One is I think the technology has finally caught up and made them powerful enough to where they can actually last long enough to cut through. And like, like here in Texas, most grass, at least in South Texas, is going to be St. Augustine. Yeah. And it's a thick grass.

It is.

It has a lot of thatch to it. And so it's just, it's just a denser grass than like Bermuda or Zoysia or any of that other kind of stuff. So like, they have to be tougher mowers, stronger mowers to actually cut through the grass. This is the other thing I think that's actually going on. I think it's the first mower that you can use with earbuds where you can actually hear the music or a podcast while you're mowing. Oh, yeah.

You mean just an electric one in general?

Because the noise level is so low, right?

I mean, even with my gas trimmer, I can— regular volume. I don't have to turn it up.

You mean your electric trimmer?

Yeah, my electric— what'd I say?

You said your gas trimmer.

I did?

Yeah.

Man, I've not even had any bourbon. Let's go back to the review.

Let's go to the replay.

Yeah, instant replay. No, I— with my, my ego that we've reviewed here on the show.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't even have to— I've talked to my brother on the phone. While I'm—

while you're trimming?

Yes. And he's like, he's like, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm trimming my lawn. He's like, really? I could tell you were outside, but that's about it. Yeah, it's amazing.

And like, you can see them mowing the grass. Yeah, you see the bits spitting out the side, but like, it's— there's next to no volume, right? Um, yeah, like the dB level on that thing has to be really, really low. And so like, I see guys out mowing their lawn and they've got like AirPods in And I'm like, oh, like they can hear that just fine.

Yep.

Because like when I'm on my gas-powered zero-turn, like good luck. No, unless I have like noise canceling. Even then, about all I can hear is like the kick drum.

Right.

So, right. I think that's the big appeal. I mean, I think more millennials are going, you know, I really want to listen to Rogan while I mow the grass.

Well, I mean, honestly, for me, I've always enjoyed doing yard work because I can kind of get away And be on my own for a little bit. But now, when I can go outside and listen to a podcast while I'm doing that, I feel like I'm not even wasting my time.

Yeah.

I mean, it was, it was time well spent to begin with. But now I'm really— I'm learning.

I mow the grass and I'm smarter. That's right. So every time.

Yeah, that's good. Do you have a— do you have one that you like? more than others?

It's not— well, here's what I'll say. It's— I have not tried one.

Okay.

So I don't know. Yeah. What I— and like, I know that people get frustrated that this is what we talk about on the show, but 9 times out of 10, if I see one, it's a Ryobi. I don't know why.

I don't either.

I mean, it could be because they're cheaper.

Probably.

Um, I, I, it could be because they, those people already have Ryobi tools and it's just easier to integrate that into what they're already doing.

Yeah.

But 9 times out of 10, I see a Ryobi. Yeah.

And most of the other times you're probably seeing an EGO simply because now they're in the big box stores, they're in Lowe's.

I haven't seen as many EGO. Okay. I was seeing like last year in 2020, I was seeing a lot of EGO stuff. I haven't seen as much this year.

Yeah. Well, and our friend Eric G is a huge Greenworks guy.

Yes.

So he's a huge fan of that.

Actually, I want to ask him about that because it seems like their prices have gone significantly down.

Yeah.

And I don't know if that's because their quality has gone down, they're trying to reach a broader market, or what's going on there. But like, I've definitely seen a downgrade in price on theirs, which is the complete opposite of what's happening with everything else.

Yeah, the only thing that I'm— because I've seen some of that too. I'm wondering if that has to do with the fact that some of those prices that you've seen lower are on an older model.

Could be.

And they're bringing out new models. And that's because I saw one just the other day that was $200. Yeah, like the, the mower, 20-inch mower, it was $200. And I'm like, yeah, what's up?

Yeah, exactly. You know, and well, and he's going to be on in a couple weeks. A few weeks. Yeah, a couple weeks. Yeah, we'll ask him about it. Okay, cool. So, well, the, the new player that I'm seeing, and I haven't seen any actually out like in the wild, But Makita has come out with lawn equipment now.

Yeah.

And specifically like electric mowers, electric trimmers, right? The whole, the whole shebang. So, and so you're gonna start seeing that sort of like royal blue lawn equipment out there. I don't know if it's any good, but that's, that's the newest player on the block.

Yeah.

So cool. And it's priced like Makita stuff, right? So interesting. Which— where's that company from? That's like— is it Korean?

I, I don't know.

I, I don't—

I have no, no clue.

No clue? Okay.

Nope. I don't, I don't want to be, uh, lying.

We'll turn on the research department to that.

Yeah, yeah. Hope one of us can find out. Um, so, all right, my, my next product, number 2.

Number 2.

Number 2.

So either way, this would have been number 2.

It's what I'm saying.

No matter what.

I literally just said that.

I know, but like, we reversed the order and it's like, there's only 3. So like, this would have been number 2. No matter what, this was the right one.

Right one. We got one right.

That's right.

It's like a clock that's not working is right twice a day, right? Anyway, so my second product, my second and third products are really obscure. They're things you've probably not even heard about, but they've hit the market.

Okay.

And they're really, really cool to me. The first one, it's called Lasso.

Okay.

Lasso.

I know what those are. It—

well, yes, but yours is a—

It's pretty old school.

Yeah. No, this is not, not old school at all. It is new school. I just said new school. Um, it is just a recycling system.

Okay.

Okay. However, it is not your mama's recycling system where you just go and go, oh, this is plastic. Oh, this is glass. Oh, this is paper.

And there you put it in gender recycling.

They all do it. It's on the— it says plastic on the side of the bin, right? So what's cool is this product uses artificial intelligence to determine whether or not that item is actually something that can be recycled.

Oh.

Okay, so it goes out into the wherever world of, of knowing what can be recycled and says, okay, that can be recycled, that won't be recycled. So literally what you do is in order to find out if it can be recycled, you can just take the item up to the machine and it'll scan the barcode on it and it'll tell you whether or not it can be processed or not. And if it can, then, you know, it opens up the front slot, you put it in there and it will process it. And it basically— what they say is, uh, the, the company behind Lasso has said that the appliance guarantees closed-loop recycling, which basically allows them to, to track

everything.

Okay.

And know this thing is being recycled from this place. And it helps them with all of their things that they do, how they do it, all that kind of stuff.

So, so is this something that you actually have installed at your home? Or is it you take it to like, you go to a place?

Oh, not me. You're not asking if I have it. I don't have it installed.

Well, I mean, is it something you could have installed at your home?

Correct. Yes, you just install it at your home.

Oh, okay.

It's not cheap. Which, I mean, this is not something you're finding in a mobile home. It's $3,500 is what they're expecting it to be.

But— Oh, they haven't released it yet?

Uh, no, they haven't released it. It is going to hit the market, but it's already— every— all the production's done. They're ready to it's just not actually on the market.

Do they need us to test it?

I would.

I kind of want to scan you.

I'm not recyclable, I promise.

Let's see.

No, I'm just telling you right now, nobody wants bits and pieces of me.

Well, let's ask the AI. They're supposed to be super intelligent.

Well, I did get that little shot, so I have a barcode on me.

Yeah, that's right. It's, it's all over you now.

Exactly. So It is what it is.

All right. All right.

That's my number 2.

All right. So my number 3. So I feel like I have a little bit of a theme here. Because it's things that I see more on people's homes now. Okay, my third one is mini splits. Oh, yeah, I am seeing more and more mini splits on people's homes. And I think it's an amazing thing. Yeah.

And what I'm finding is I was talking to a friend just the other day, who they're just putting in a guest quarter, in behind their house. They're just in a regular neighborhood, but zoning allows them to do this. And they're, they're gonna make it where their parents move in, right? And they're just using mini splits. Yep. It's so much easier, so much cheaper.

And it's efficient, right?

So it's great.

Well, I mean, just as a for instance, so we just bought a cabin on the lake just down the street.

Okay.

Um, it's like a little 800-square-foot cabin, but we, we bought it because my, my parents bought it so they could be closer to us. And so we bought it as is, and it needs a lot of work.

Sure.

But it was worth it because of where the property was. We don't really— nobody needs to live there. It's just a weekend place, right? So one of the things that we talked about as we were— because we went in and tried to turn the— excuse me— the AC on, didn't work. Of course not. So we're gonna get it checked out, and Jehu's gonna come take a peek. Um, and if it's not fixable, one of the things that we talked about is like, hey, like these mini-split systems with multi-head units Extremely efficient.

Yeah.

You know, way cheaper than reinstalling, you know, and could actually increase the square footage in this place because we're not having to put in all the other stuff. Right. Let's just, you know, drop some, drop some coin and put a mini split in this thing if we have to.

Sure.

If the system's non-recoverable. If it's recoverable, maybe we'll fix it. But if not, I mean, like, we could really increase the efficiency in this place by putting a mini split in.

Yeah. Why not?

And they're, they're more accessible than they've ever been. You see people with big houses, you know, quartering off rooms just with a mini split so that they don't have to heat the whole house. Like, I'm going to be in here for the day. So I'll just cool this room and, you know, let the other one go to 85 degrees. Right. And save a bunch of money. Yeah.

And they, they do cool down or heat up really quickly. Yes, typically. I mean, So I mean, because what you just said at my house, if you let it get up to 85, if I'm trying to get my house back down to say 75 even, I mean, that could take an hour, right? You know, for the— just because there's a lot of air to move through the house. But if you're just doing one room, I mean, you could do that in a matter of 10 minutes, right? You know, nothing at all.

Like, this room's a good case in point. I mean, we got a mini split in here, right? I mean, this room is what, like, square footage?

Yeah, I don't know, like maybe it's like 12 by 17. Yeah, I was gonna say maybe 200, 300 square feet.

Maybe.

Maybe.

So, I mean, but it takes it like 5 minutes.

Yeah, not bad at all.

I think from going from like, I don't know what it is, it's usually pretty— we don't run it all the time. No, we kind of run it like 10 minutes before we come in the studio.

Yeah, when we're here.

and it cools it right off.

Yep.

It's no big deal.

Nope.

So like, and it's, it's really cool going from house to house going, oh cool, you've got a mini split. Like, why'd you do that? And like having people explain to us like why they dropped that coin.

Right.

To put a mini split in. I mean, like if you talk to Jehu, they just had one put in their bedroom.

Oh yeah.

Because they like their sleeping conditions a little bit cooler than the rest of the house. So they let the rest of the house, I think it's like hang out at like 75.

Yeah.

and they put their room down to like 68 degrees at night.

Well, and, and that's brilliant for them because they've got a new baby.

Yeah.

And the baby just can't be as cold at night because they're not— you're not putting a blanket on that thing. So, right, you know, we were fortunate in the house that— in the current house that we're in, the house that we brought our babies home from the hospital at, it had 2 separate units.

Okay. Yeah.

And it just so happened that where they were, we could adjust the temperature accordingly. But man, if, if you're wanting to cool your bedroom differently than your kids' bedrooms, there's really not another great way to do it unless you— I mean, it's really, really expensive. You can zone most, most ACs, you can zone And have, you know, put another zone on it, but it can cost you $2,500. Yeah, just to put a zone on it. So you put a mini split in, you're gonna spend, you know, I don't know, less than half of that.

Well, and I will say I've been tracking the price that they're— the prices are coming down on these units.

Sure.

So yeah, they're becoming more and more affordable.

Right, exactly. Hey, just so you know, our research department has gotten back to us.

Okay. Good.

Thanks, Ryan. And it's Japanese.

Japanese. Okay.

Yep. You were close.

I was close. I was on the right continent.

Yeah, exactly. So anyway, thanks, Ryan, for doing the thing that we pay you so well to do—

research.

We appreciate you.

Thank you.

Yeah, that's right. All right. My third one. This one is off the wall. You thought my last one was off the wall. This one's off the wall.

I'm ready.

First of all, I will say that it is currently only available in France. Oh, okay. So it's very localized. I'm not 100% sure if it's a French company that has put this out there, or if it's, you know, something bigger that's doing that. But this is a product. And it's— I don't know how I'm gonna say it wrong. It's E-C-O-J-O-K-O. So it's like Ecojoko, I think is the way you say it.

Jacoco.

That seemed a little crazy.

Uh-huh.

But you may be right. So what it does is it monitors in real time what the energy output is on your home.

Okay.

So in real time, like, let's say you turn on your— the fan in your room, instead of having to run out to your meter and find out what is this doing, because by the time I get back, it could be different, right? I mean, by that point, someone may have turned on another light or flipped the garbage disposal on or whatever. It lets you in real time see how much energy you're consuming. And if you're trying to save money on electricity, all you got to do is look at this device, figure out whenever I turned that on, this is what happened to my energy consumption. And you can turn things off, or you can level things

out so that you're just saving energy in your home.

Hmm.

Yeah, it's really, really weird. What they're saying is So what, what is French coin? We use dollars. What do they use?

Francs.

Francs. Okay. So, well, okay.

I think they used to use francs. I think they use euros now.

It may be, it may be euros. Let's say it's euros. They're saying a French household that has one of these installed could save up to €300 per year. Okay, so I don't know what the conversion rate is. I'm just American that knows dollars, right? But why?

Because that's where we don't care.

No. Yeah, probably not. But what's cool is they're seeing 25% reduction in households' electricity consumption because people are looking at it going, oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, turn that off, turn it off, turn it up.

Now, no, you have it on.

Exactly. I yeah, I saw it spiked.

Turn it off.

Right? No, you may not get the jacuzzi tonight. Leave it off.

Here's what I'm wondering, because when I was, uh, when I was on Celestina's, uh, show, right, we were doing a live cooking thing. Um, there was a couple times where I was like, hey, we need to use this. And she was like, okay, let me think about that because I have to turn a couple of things off in order to use that.

Interesting.

And so I think their houses are wired different than ours, where like you can only use so many things at at a certain capacity, right, before you might trip a breaker. I don't know how it works.

Right.

She was, she was very concerned at one point about having too many things on.

Right.

And so I— and to be fair, that was Germany, not France. But I would imagine that they, they have a similar situation.

Right? I would assume so too.

So it could be, it could be like you install something like that. So that you don't overload.

Yeah, and maybe that's why they're, they're putting it in to begin with. Like, yeah, because that's what I'm saying. I don't know if this is a company that's gone in and said, hey, we want to help you with this. Or it could be even the government that's kind of, you know, funding some of this sort of thing.

The government wouldn't do that, Kevin.

Not in France.

They're all about freedom and letting you do what you want.

That's right.

I will say this, besmirch the French government.

And I've got Monty Python rolling through my head. I will tell you that our research department told us the conversion rate's 1.19.

We have an efficient research department. That's right.

They're on point tonight. There's no doubt about that.

That's good stuff.

Anyway, so I don't know. I mean, like, I don't know what that would necessarily do. if it made it over here, honestly, I'm afraid that we're just a bunch of really selfish Americans and we would never want this.

Probably because we don't care. No.

But I do think that there could be situations in which it could be really, really beneficial. But anyway, I just thought it was a really cool product.

Let's be honest. Like, people aren't getting solar systems installed on their home because they're like, I want to save the environment.

Right.

Or the main motivation going here, I don't want to pay that electric company anymore.

That's right.

I want to be independent.

Right. That's the whole—

like, if you don't understand about that, that about the American market, you get nothing.

Sure.

Because that has everything. I don't want to pay the man. And I don't want some other corporation to be in charge of my life.

Right.

So yeah, you can put that solar system on my house as long as that guy is out of the payroll.

Yeah. And I would even say that people buy Teslas are the same way.

Exactly. I don't want to buy gas anymore.

I don't want to buy gas.

I don't want to do oil changes.

That's exactly right.

Yeah. That's the whole motivation. People like, you don't understand that.

Right.

People are like, oh, you're being environmentally conscious. Like, no.

Right.

I'm giving the man the boot.

Right. Or my neighbor bought one. I can't let my neighbor buy one and me not buy one.

That's right.

They can't be better than me.

That's right.

I bought the one that the doors do this on.

Frickin' Joneses.

Like, I drove— like, Mike, we were behind that family, uh, the other— like, what was that, like a month ago? One of the last days of school, we were dropping our kids off, and the kid in front of them, like, their Tesla doors came up like a frickin' Lamborghini.

That is cool.

And we were like, yeah, we ain't that family. Opened my Excursion door and like, hop out, people.

That's right.

Get out.

2004. Listen to the hole in my muffler.

That's right. I'm not fixing that. I'm not paying the man to do that either.

That's right. Duct tape.

And as I strolled into the gas station, because yet again, I had to fill that thing up.

That's right. You went 10 feet. That's right.

Exactly. Anyway, I'll tell you this. Your list was way better than mine. No. Yeah, it was.

Well, I mean, there wasn't France on it. Yeah, it's true.

Yeah. I mean, on a scale from 1 to 10, yours was just better. Scale from 1 to 10.

Okay.

Yeah. I'll take it. Okay.

Yep.

That's all we got.

Put one in the W. Yeah.

Congratulations. I'm actually giving you something here.

You're giving me something? Yeah. Just like France.

Yeah. It's— I mean, it's just a win. I'm gonna tell you when.

Yeah.

If it makes you feel good, congratulations.

I don't feel that great. Okay. Now, if I got to kick Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Yeah.

In the pearlies.

Well.

For telling me to take a cold shower.

Just the kneecap is all you need.

I don't care. Just let me kick him.

You know what? He could still take you.

You think so?

Oh yeah.

I think I'm faster than him. I don't need him. I don't need to like actually engage him. Just need to kick him and run.

Run.

That's right. I think I could do that.

I may not be a lot of things, but I'm fast.

That's right. He's got to be kind of fat by now.

I would— but yeah, I mean, he's on Pandora.

Yeah.

He's not on NBC or like Netflix. He's on Pandora.

Well, he's, he's getting that cold shower money, so you gotta imagine he's putting down a few Burger Kings.

If he's, if he's taking cold showers, you're gonna have a hard time kicking him in his little pearlies.

They're all gonna be—

they're just all like a frightened turtle. Anyway, so all right, he's really taking a beating in this episode, and we have just digressed. Yeah, really, really badly.

He'll never sponsor. No, I'm okay with that.

Yeah, it's fine. I'll tell you this, some washed-up fake wrestler. If, if you're still with us at this point Thank you for downloading the episode. We really appreciate you guys, and we're here every Tuesday, whether you like it or not. Yeah, and so whether you took a cold shower, hot shower, doesn't matter. We don't really care.

We made an episode.

Download the episode that we made.

We like ya.

Thanks for doing it. Do it again.

Tell your friends to do it as well.

And until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya!