I often get asked about some of the everyday products I use and why I chose them over others. I research every dollar I spend extensively. If I want to buy so much as a new pencil for my desk, I want to know the longest lasting, easiest writing pencil out there so I enjoy what every product I buy can bring to the table for me and ensure I’m buying quality and long lasting investments and not cheap/throwaway products. I used to be a professional product reviewer for an online publication I ran in my past life, so researching products is my jam.
Walking through various parts of my house, here are some here are some key products I find myself using today in various areas. This isn’t an exhaustive list, but merely some stuff I want to highlight, or things I’m often asked for recommendations on from friends and family.
Kitchen Appliances & Gadgets
Espresso Machine: Gaggia Classic Pro
Why I like it? The Gaggia Classic Pro is Italian espresso in it’s simplest form. There isn’t a circuit board or piece of modern electronics inside this machine – it’s old fashioned point-to-point wiring with no gimmicks. Highly user repairable, user upgradeable if you want to get adventurous, Gaggia has made this machine since 1991 and it’s a legend in the sub-$1000 machine market for a reason. This is a machine you can buy for life.
Drip Coffee Maker: Moccamaster KB
Why I like it? Like my espresso machine, I wanted a “buy it once, buy it for life” coffee maker. Like the Gaggia, the Moccamaster is simplicity in design and regarded as one of the best coffee makers ever made. No fancy circuit boards or sensors to die, and easily and cheaply repaired at home should a problem ever arise. Technivorm has been hand-making these in the Netherlands since the early 1960s and very little has changed in the design since then. You get consistently hot coffee and a consistent brew every time you flip the switch thanks to it’s copper boiler which heats the water far more consistently and evenly than any mass-market coffee maker.
Coffee Grinders: Baratza Sette 30 and Encore
Why I Like them? I use the Baratza Sette 30 for my espresso grind, and the Baratza Encore for my drip grind. I’ve stuck with Baratza for the same reason I was drawn to my coffee and espresso machines – user repairability. How often, in this decade, can you buy an appliance and it comes with a full disassembly and parts guide? Baratza wants you to buy their grinders for life and gives you all the support you need to self-repair them should anything ever wear down over time. Parts are easy to find directly from them and their dealers, and the simple design makes repairs a breeze. Another buy it for life coffee investment in my books. Kudos to companies trying to NOT make throwaway products these days.
In fact, with a simple swap of the grinding mechanism, I can upgrade my Sette 30 to the Sette 270 when the time comes (the 270 was initially out of my budget to buy outright, but the user upgrade path on the Sette 30 was particularly appealing!)
Technology & Home Office
Laptops: Lenovo (Thinkpad X1 Carbon Gen9 & Thinkbook 14s)
Why I Like them? The laptop market seems all over the place with reliability ratings, and every few years it seems to swing a different direction in regards to who to avoid, and who is making quality, lasting systems. When I moved away from my Macbook Air, I wanted something similar in size because the ultrabook design was great to travel and leave the house with. Lenovo has consistently had very reliable laptops, especially the Thinkpad series with it’s MIL-SPEC rated durability (Thinkpad notebooks are so long lasting there’s actually huge cult followings out there for old Thinkpads!). The X1 Carbon is ultimately the Macbook Air of the Thinkpad line, except with way better specs all around, and a fantastic 14″ 16:10 aspect ratio screen which is a huge improvement for productivity with some extra vertical resolution.
For my wife, on a bit more of a budget, we went for the Thinkbook 14s. The Thinkbook line is more consumer oriented with a good balance of price to performance/durability.
These exact models will change over time, but the Thinkpad series remains my #1 recommendation, with Thinkbook my #2. Happy to chat about specific models and specifications if you aren’t sure what you need.
3D Printer: Creality Ender 3
Why I like it? Arguably one of the most popular 3D Printers on the market because of it’s low cost of entry, very high quality results, and endless customization options, I’ve put my Ender 3 through the paces for several years now and it hasn’t let me down. At times I would be printing 15-20hrs a day for a week straight with it. I have done some upgrades (glass bed, bed level sensor, and some smaller tweaks too), but even in it’s stock form the entire Ender 3 series are a great buy. Being able to design and print (or pull from an existing online library and print for more common items) things for around the house, the shop, or for electronics projects has been a huge asset for a DIYer like myself.
Office Chair: Steelcase Leap V2
Why I like it? Remember how when you buy a mattress they always say don’t cheap out because you’ll spend a third of your life on a mattress and want to be comfortable and not cause harm to your body from bad posture? If you work from home, have you realized yet that your home office chair is where another third will be spent, and have you invested accordingly in proper body support and ergonomics?
I started noticing really fast that aches and pains were setting in spending 8 hours a day in a sub-par chair, and not far behind my complaints were the same from my wife. After much research, we landed on picking up some used Steelcase Leap V2 chairs for our home desks (our close #2 would have been a couple Herman Miller models). Think of that amazing sleep you get on your favourite mattress, well that’s how my body now feels while I’m awake and sitting in this chair for 8+hrs. I would buy these again, at full retail price, having now realized how vastly different a high quality, ergonomic office chair is from the $100 office store special chair. Two of these may very well last a lifetime – they’re one of the most popular office chairs out there, so repair and replacement parts are plentiful and easy to find. Treat your office chair like your mattress and don’t cheap out – it will only catch up with you later in life if it hasn’t already.
Work From Home Gadgets: Elegato Stream Deck and Elegato Key Light Air
Why I like them? I’ll admit – we’re more into luxury gadget territory here now than “must have” gadgets, but I do spend 40 hours a week in the home office and wanted to have a few areas where I could treat myself.
The Stream Deck is a 32 key macro pad, where each button is a screen, and you have actual limitless possibilities of what it can do based on a huge network of plugins. I have keys assigned to mine for media controls, Microsoft Teams meeting controls, common macros I may use, control of smart home things like lighting, folders I need access to, and of course just the basic launching of applications too. Being able to put your buttons into virtual folders means you have way more than just 32 keys because one key can be a folder, that refreshes the buttons to now show everything inside said folder. Although it’s marketed towards gamers, it’s the ultimate work from home and developer gadget too. Everything I need to do in a day is one or two button presses away now! The Stream Deck comes in different sizes to accommodate different budgets.
The Key Light Air could really be any old dollar store ring light too, but I liked the wifi controls and how my Stream Deck can control it. Lighting in my home office is a bit shadowy, so I can press a simple button to fire up the light before a meeting and look more professional on screen. With endless white balance and brightness controls, I can easily tweak my lighting based on the time of day to compensate for the sun that is (or isn’t) currently coming in my home office window – all from my Stream Deck that’s only an arm’s length away.
Around the Home
Paint: Behr Marquee
Why I like it? As an avid DIYer, I’ve tried various grades and brands of paints on projects and renovations over the years. You’d think “paint is paint”, but I’ve been surprised to see the difference in quality, coverage, and durability/washability of various paint brands and tiers of paint within those brands.
Benjamin Moore Aura was always my favourite, but it did come at a high price especially when our plan was to repaint most of the house over time. After reading some very favourable consumer reports feedback on Behr Marquee, we decided to give it a try. At this point, most of our house is Marquee now! It has great coverage and holds up really well to the uses of a home and cleaning. The price point isn’t too bad, especially if you’re painting a room for long term use and aren’t just doing a cheap paint job to sell with. I’d easily put it on par with, or better than, Aura in my non-professional opinion.
Furnace Filters: FurnaceFilters.ca House Brand
Why I like them? Probably the last product you’d ever expect to see a recommendation for here, but a lot of companies make a lot of money in accessories, and filters (for your furnace, car, etc.) are no exception to this rule. The FurnaceFilters.ca filters are every bit as good, and often even better, than what you’re buying at the store under big names like 3M or Honeywell. They have every size known to man, and every MERV rating you could possibly want – it’s a buffet for furnace filters. I save considerable money using their filters each year – to the tune of paying half as much per filter as I did anywhere around town (which adds up when you have the big 16x25x5 filters we do..).