Want to dive deep into what and how to buy your favourite product? Check out the Kyaloon Blog!
Fresh water scarcity and contamination is one of the leading matters of concern in developing countries around the globe. When bio wastes like animal and human feces and insoluble impurities like lead and arsenic pollute the potable waters, they become unfit for consumption, and can lead to diarrheal diseases. Diarrhea is one of the primary symptoms of gastrointestinal diseases, where stool is passed from the human body with excessive water and fluids, or in extreme cases, with blood.
With the industrial sector on the boom since the last century, not even ground water sources can ensure a safe drinking water source for the children in the third world countries. Cases of water borne diseases in India are high due to the poor waste management systems employed in the municipal corporations, and high levels of fluoride and arsenic in the ground water. The list of water borne diseases goes along with names like typhoid, fever, dysentery, hepatitis A or E, polio among the many others.
When contaminated water is unknowingly employed is activities like bathing, washing, drinking, in the preparation of food, or the consumption of the infected food prepared, it causes and spreads such water borne diseases and infections. Since water pollution at the ground level affects more people than air and land pollution, along with preventive measures at individual level, proper waste management systems need to be installed by authorities, and they must ensure the general public of their very basic right of healthy water supply.
At the personal level, here are some methods you can employ to prevent and control water borne diseases;
There are many types of water purification systems for home use advertised in the market, employing different techniques of water filtration. There are many home utility appliances like storage water purifiers, faucet filters, and countertop distillers which employ these technologies. To make an informed purchase most suitable for your needs, one must take a look at the advantages and disadvantages each filtration technique has to offer;
Advantages
This type of water purifiers usually employs 5-7 stages of purification, using semi-permeable membrane to pass the water through, and filter out hard water, heavy metal impurities and gastrointestinal disease causing pathogens. The water will taste sweeter and bad odor would be removed. They usually have a durable lifespan of 6-8 years, have a lower maintenance cost, and repairable parts are readily available in the market too.
Disadvantages
Since the semi-permeable membranes in RO purifiers use very tiny pores to ensure undesirable elements cannot pass through, it makes this process very slow, while making it difficult to function well with the regular tap water pressure. Hence they require electricity to pump with water through with increased pressure. These membranes are sensitive to chlorine as well, many a times they need to be coated with a layer of carbon filters to avoid damage. The biggest drawback in this filter system is that during the process of removing Total Dissolved Salts (TDS) and other impurities, it can reject upto 75% of the water-input, even if clean water is supplied into the system to be purified. Such low efficiency can make it an undesirable choice, especially in regions which face shortage of water supply. This also makes the time required to collect a required amount of water significantly longer.
Advantages
This process drains the pathogenic microbes from the water using a fibrous membrane, similar to what RO systems use. It is a simple physical straining process and doesn’t require chemicals or any electricity to operate; the biggest advantage of this purifier. The membrane uses larger pores than that of RO filters, hence can work well with water from normal tap pressure.
Disadvantages
The simple drain-and-clean mechanism of UF filters require them to be cleaned very often, but can be easily cleaned manually, flushing all the dirt trapped. The larger pores can successfully block pathogens, but are ineffective on hard water, dissolved pesticides and other fine metal sediments.
Advantages
Their unique technology tackles the DNA of the pathogens present in the water, disabling and killing them. These are natural and very efficient filterswhich don’t require any chemicals, don’t alter the pH balance of the water, and consequently consume low electricity. Also, they don’t produce any waste, and manual cleaning and maintenance required is minimum.
Disadvantages
The primary feature missing from these water purifiers is that they can’t filter out salts and metals from the water, and usually require clean water to be passed through. Hence UV systems are most successful when combined with RO systems.
Advantages
These water purifiers use the simplest of technology, by passing the inlet water through layers of sediment filters using gravity and normal tap water pressure. All suspended dirt and sand particles are easily filtered out, and carbon filters can remove any bad odor and chlorine dissolved in the water too.
Disadvantages
It is a simple straining process which remains ineffective on fine metal particles line lead and arsenic. They also don’t affect the TDS level of water, or remove any harmful microbes.
Advantages
Most Water Purifiers available in Indian the market employs more than one technology to make it suitable for wider masses and more diverse needs, like the RO+UV or RO+UV+UF water filters. While the RO components clear the hard water, UV and UF make sure the scope of water borne diseases is eliminated. Definitely hybrid filters ensure a higher level of purity.
Disadvantages
Many a times, such complex systems are not required. If your water is supplied by municipal corporations, it is fairly clean and UV or UF can be a good enough choice. RO systems are best suited for purifying water from bore wells. If your water supply is a mix of both, only then you are positively required to opt for a hybrid system.
For whatever water purifier you may select, be sure to always check for TDS regulators to be present in the purifier systems. The higher the TDS, the harder the water is. The TDS regulator must be adjusted with the quality of water supplied to ensure that the purifier is not only removing the bad salts and hard metals, but also retaining the natural minerals in the water. These days there are many advances RO water purifier with mineralizers that can add back some of the essential nutrients that get filtered in the RO process.
Most water purifier sale reps can help you determine the TDS levels in your water with a small handheld TDS meter, which can also be bought online. In case such facilities are not available, it is helpful to remember that RO water is best suited for ground water or water from borewells. UV+UF filters work sufficiently well with municipal supplied water. If you get a mix of both, get hard water supply at timesor in doubt, it is safest to go for RO or RO+ (UV+UF) models to cater all needs.
The blue planet, with more than 70% of its surface covered with water bodies, is facing a global crisis; being unable to provide every individual with fresh consumable water even for their basic needs. The broader reason for this can be understood if we study some water facts. Only 3% of this water on the planet is obtained from fresh water bodies, and the rest 97% is saline, resting in oceans. And out of this small fraction of potable water source, only 1% is accessible and the rest is trapped in glaciers, which too are melting due to global warming and draining into the oceans. Compared to the rising population and proportional increase in industrial water consumption, the depleting water sources pose as a major threat to the survival of human race.
It is indeed an important and sensitive global issue, but especially important in India. The Ministry of Water of India estimated that we have an adequate supply of freshwater, taking into account that covering only 2.5% of the global geographic space, we hold 4% of the global fresh water reservoir. But population is another major factor affecting this distribution, where 16% of the world population residing in this country is fighting over 4% of the world’s freshwater. India being an agricultural country, supplies 80% of its water resource to the agricultural land. For these purposes, groundwater levels have been seen to reduce drastically too. The diverse geographic features of the country, from mountains to deserts also contribute to the unequal distribution of water sources across the subcontinent. Inefficient water treatment plants and poor drainage systems lead to floods and not ‘freshwater harvest systems.’ These are some of the many signs of the national crisis worsening rapidly.
Source: https://businessconnectworld.com/2018/01/11/water-crisis-in-india/
One may ask what a citizen sitting at home can do about a national crisis which the government and authorities must act upon. To answer this, we must understand that at least at the crux of the need of fresh water lies with how much water at the individual level we consume, and if there is any way in which we can reduce our own water footprint. Each human, on a standard, requires 150 litres of water for drinking, cooking, washing, bathing and other uses daily. Hence we can conclude that water conservation can begin from home. The little things we can do to conserve this critical natural resource and reduce our wastage at a personal level can go a long way to help save the planet.
Here are some ways in which you can reduce your water consumption and conserve the limited water resources;
Along with reducing your water footprint, you can employ a number of measures to save and harvest water for your own consumption. For every cause and effect, there is also a solution for water scarcity. Rain water harvesting is a traditional and very efficient method to collect the fresh water supplied by rain. You can install harvesting systems and collection tanks on your roofs and employ appropriate filtration systems to obtain clean fresh water right at your homes, which can especially be of great use during emergencies, where you’ll already have saved water during water shortage.
Individual efforts can go a long way in humanity’s collective effort to fight this worsening crisis. Make this blue planet blue again!
Can you recollect how the need for ‘quick fixes” has impacted our lives? Probably not, since we have grown so accustomed to them in our every-day routines. So look at it this way; what if you couldn’t reheat your last night’s leftover in seconds, or had to wait for hours if you forgot to get the chicken out of the freezer in time, or just were out of popcorn and needed pressure cookers to prepare some in the short movie intervals.
Well, now that we have your attention, one can make out what revolution this smart cooking technology of microwave ovens hasbeen brought about in our kitchens. It is easy, fast, efficient and convenient cooking on the go. The food prepared is very safe, hot, and nutritious too. One of these devices can be found in most ofthe modern kitchens all across the globe, and the shorter cooking time and ease in usage has significantly affected the life of working professionals and people who are always on the clock.
Most importantly, it has revived the practice of cooking meals at home, and that has a major impact on the lives of young professionals. The importance of home cooked food is well known and widely understood. No matter how many food joints are ready to deliver your favourite lip-smacking dishes right at your doorstep, such food is not the most nutritious, hygienic, and doesn’t help maintain a balanced diet. Contrasting to that if we compare the benefits of home cooking, the food we prepare at home is always prepared with more care and consciousness, and definitely helps define a routine.
The convenience of microwave cooking has not only made people more aware of their own diet, but also made the tedious task of self-preparation a breeze. After all, no matter how healthy something might be, we tend to neglect that in defence of our convenience. Making absolutely delicious gourmet out of boring packed ingredients wouldn’t have been so fun if it wasn’t for microwave cooking. And more than that, with its handy features like timer, auto cook menu, defrost and multistage cooking, not to forget the bundled recipe books, from simple cooking to complex, everything has been taken care of.
Now the only thing which will stop you from home cooking is going to be your own mood of the day. Since, no more excuses will be given room. Microwave cooking has simplified our lives just for the good!
If you are looking to buy the best microwave oven and have visited some stores or researched online, chances are you are already overwhelmed by the microwave oven types and models available on sale in the market and are wondering which the right model for your cooking needs is. Apart from power efficiency, price range, capacity, and warranty, there are so more important features to look for when making an important and informed purchase. Primarily, more than the sale schemes and post-sales promise, one must take a note of what features are good to have in a microwave oven, and if they are required by you.
Here is a list of some of the most important features to look for in your microwave oven model;
This feature is the very basic feature your microwave oven must have. Some foods like instant noodles, popcorns, and other items require a specific set-amount of heating time at a constant temperature. For people on a run, to trying their hand at home cooking for the first time, this feature can be a handyman, as well as a lifesaver.
Some high-end ovens come with a set of preloaded heating programs as per the recipe you desire to cook. Just place your food item inside the oven, and the program will automatically alternate between various temperatures at different times, depending upon the stage of cooking. This is an ideal cooking tool for Indian foods like curries and ‘halwas’ which at a particular interval may require high temperatures to cook, and at other intervals would need to be set at a low simmer.
It is not safe to heat an empty microwave without any food for the microwaves to be targeted upon. But some dishes, especially bakery items, require the cooking process to be started only after meeting a required temperature mark. For these purposes, it is good to have a preheating mechanism.
Be it defrosting a big chicken before dinner preps, or thawing chilled fruits to juice them with ease, all you have to do is enter either the weight of the food, or the estimated time required by the food to defrost, depending upon the model. This can be extremely handy and save upon hours in your pre-preparations.
It is a very basic feature which helps you cook your food without any auto cook menus in your oven. Simply enter the time you estimate your food needs to cook inside the microwave oven.
If you are a big fan of barbeques and grilling, you should look for a model with this feature. While using this mode, place the special grilling racks inside, and simply cook the dishes you relish the most.
This is a must have feature you need in your microwave oven if you have small and curious kids at home, who are likely to press some colorful buttons on the control panel and auto start your device without any food inside.
Lastly, be sure your device model has an easy-to-operate control panel which displays out all functions, feature, and programs in an informative manner.
Boiling water for purification is the oldest trick in the book. This time-tested method had been working great for us, till new technologies in water purification systems were introduced, to challenge its credibility. It is generally held that boiling water can kill 100% of pathogenic microorganisms present in the water, but this is not true. There are many mutated tough germs and super bugs which can be left unaffected in boiling water. Also, for killing germs dissolved in water successfully, it is essential to let the water boil for 20 more minutes after it reaches the boiling point; contrary to popular belief where people simply take the water off the heating stove as soon as visible bubbles are seen in the water.
Is boiled water purified water? The answer has to be No. To throw some light on this, here are some differences between boiled water and purified water which may highlight what limitations does boiling water for consumption have when compared to filtered water from purifiers;
Along with the limitations of the process, boiling water instead of using water purifier also poses inconvenience while handling the purification process;
The primary function of water purifiers is to filter out dissolved salts and chemicals from the water, like the RO water filters, and purify the clean water obtained from pathogens, like UF and UV water purification systems, which may otherwise lead to water borne diarrheal diseases. Where the tedious task of boiling water simply heats the water and merely reduces the probability of pathogenic contamination, water purifiers on the other hand can successfully filter out dirt, mud, chemicals, pathogens, fine metals and TDS from the water instantly, efficiently, at the normal room temperature, while not compromising on the dissolved oxygen levels of the water.
To conclude, if you wonder “Is boiled water safer than purified water?”, then the answer is not completely. We get better and efficient results from purifying water than boiling water. Still, if you prefer the boiling water purification method, it is advisable to filter out the water afterwards. Make sure you pass the boiled water through water filters after, and not before boiling it, since the water purifiers will successfully restore a balanced taste in the water.
The washer and dryer installation costs are usually built into the cost at which you purchase your new appliance. For instances where, for example, you have bought your machine at a wholesale price or under heavy discounts, many times you yourself have to take care of the washer dryer hook-up requirements.
In case you need vents and connections made into your space, you can always contact authorised washer and dryer installation services from the manufacturers’ helpline. But in most cases, the washing machine installation processes are simple and can be carried at home, saving you time and money. In this article we shall highlight what kind of inlet and outlet connections does one need for different washing machines and dryers.
A. Electricity
B. Water Supply
C. Drainage/Vents
After making sure the area selected has the availability of all listed connections, make sure the ground is levelled. If not, then you can use rubber soles for the feet of the appliance and secure it as well as possible. If only 3 out of the 4 legs of the machine are stable, the machine can wobble and walk under the internal spinning momentum when operated.
Connect the water supply, electricity ports and open the drainage vents. Make sure all connections are neat, without leakage, and the venting ducts are cleaned from the insides; check for any debris which may block the drainage/vent.
After you are sure that operating the machines under the current electricity and water supply is safe, turn on the appliance. Check for leaks, disturbance in levelling of the feet, and proper connections made to the separate hot and cold water inlets.
In case you have floor space constraints to have two separate machines next to each other while installing for washing and drying, there is a possibility of mounting the dryer on top of the front load washing machines, with an external bracket/ stand that are available at separate cost.
Not only is helps in freeing more space in your laundry room, but is also aesthetically pleasing. Also, loading and unloading the machine becomes easier due to the added height which is easier on your back.
Twin washer dryer combo machines cannot provide fully dry clothes in a single appliance. Dedicated electric dryers not only specialise in providing absolutely satisfactory results, but they also have dedicated mechanisms to help vent out moisture from the clothes, as well as the laundry area, leave a clean and dry environment after every cycle.
The types of electric dryers available in Indian markets can broadly be classified into 3 categories. You may choose one that best suits your requirements;
These dryers blow hot air into the damp clothes tumbling inside the spinning drum. As drying the clothes inside the appliance produces a lot of moisture, the warm and moist air needs to be vented out using ducting hoses, expelling it out in a shaft, open window or ideally any open space out of the laundry room.
They use the simplest mechanisms, building the most affordable dryers in this list. But such cheap clothes dryer technology bumps in terms of energy consumption and generates a lot of noise too.
Somewhat like the vented dryers but so not like them, condenser dryers too blow in warm air into the drum filled with wet clothes. As the heat makes the water evaporate from the items inside, the moisture generated is condensed and stored in a water tank that needs to be emptied, or dispensed out using a hose for drainage.
No external vents need to be built for the appliance to function; hence they are good for windowless room, or rented apartments where you don’t want to make modifications by installing vents. But to avoid moisture build up, it will always to advisable to install a condenser dryer in a well-ventilated area. This technology costs a little bit more than the vented dryers.
The working mechanism behind these dryers is remarkably cost and energy efficient, giving credit to a small built-in heat pump that handles heating and cooling functions. Heated air is blown through the wet clothes. The condensed water is drained off and hot air inside is cooled down, only to be reheated and blown through the clothes again. No moisture is expelled out, making them ductless and ideal for rented apartments and windowless areas.
They are the most expensive of the other dryers listed here, but use less than half the energy of a vented or condenser dryer, especially owing to the recycling of air. Consequently, such efficient use by the system sums out to be cheaper than the other technologies in the long run, saving energy and money.
The most obvious question to answer while thinking of a new washing machine is “Which type of washing machine to buy?” Broadly, all washing machine models available in the market can be categorised of either a Front-load design, or of a Top-load design.
As the name correctly suggests, Top-load washing machines have a vertical washing drum inside its body, allowing you to load your clothes onto laundry by the window on the top. On the other hand, front-load washing machines have a horizontal drum and the clothes need to be fed-in by the front window. But the difference between top loading and front-loading washing machines isn’t only limited to the name.
Due to this minor change in the orientation of the washing unit inside, the entire washing process executes differently; both of these designs providing their own advantages and disadvantages. Here below is a comparison chart discussing the major top load vs. front load washers’ pros cons.
These economical refrigerator models work on a simple on and off mechanism. When the power is on and the doors of the refrigerators are closed, the compressors start at the highest, and honesty, at the only programmable speed of the cooling compressor. When an optimum low temperature is achieved, the compressors shut down automatically and start again when the temperatures begin to rise.
The advantage of conventional refrigerators is that they always cool as top speeds, giving high and fast results, and of course they are cheaper too. But when they start at such high load, not only they consume a lot of power, too much at times, but also produce a lot of noise during turning on.
Property | Top-load washing machines | Front-load washing machines |
---|---|---|
Friendly design | It has the simplest and most user-friendly design. You need not bend your back to load and unload the washing machine. Most prominent feature is that you can add-in clothes from the top window any time during the washing process. | Even though the front-load design looks sleek and attractive, unless washing machine is placed at a comfortable height, you will always have to bend down to add and unload your laundry from the machine. Also, you would always have to wait for the washing cycle to be over and water to be drained out first before you open the front window. Hence you can’t add more items in between the washing cycle. |
Efficiency | The vertical drum spins the clothes inside the drum to help clean them using friction produced among one another. This uses more power for spinning and more water for completely soaking-in the clothes. As we can see, it is a simple but inefficient mechanism. | Due to the horizontal-drum design, the clothes inside the washing machine keep on rubbing against and falling on each other during the washing cycle due to gravity, hence giving it more efficient and effective wash with less electricity. |
Washing quality | Average washing quality. | Best washing quality, especially for delicates since very fast spins are not required that may tear up the delicate clothes. |
Water and Electricity consumption | They consume more electricity and pump in more water for every wash cycle due to its inefficient design. | You will save on both water and electricity bills in the long run due to its efficient washing mechanisms. |
Cost | Even though the long-term costs of electricity and water supply may be slightly more, Top-load washing machines are very economical and available at cheaper rates due to simple mechanisms and design. | You will save on your power and electricity bills, but the primary cost of buying a Front-load washing machine will be a lot more due to the more complex functions. |
Washing functions | Economical machine will allow you more-or-less the major basic washing programs like auto-wash, quick-wash, woollen-wash, strong-wash, etc. | If you are paying more for this machine, you are paying this price for an array for extra washing functions, up to 10-15 programs, which the Top-load washing machine won’t be able to be perform. |
Drying | Top-load washing machines will never allow you to achieve 100% drying of clothes in the vertical tub. | Clothes spin-dry faster and better in a horizontal tub. |
Stacking of separate dryer | Separate dryer machines need to be placed side by side; stacking kits are not available for top load machines. | In case you have a separate dryer, you can mount the dryer over the front load machine if you have floor space constraint. |
As we can see, both there are various advantages of top-load washing machines, primarily its simple design and economical price. Although one may challenge its efficiency, which on the other hand lists under the advantages of front-load washing machines.
The market for washing machines is very competitive. Stuffed with designer models and “latest technological innovations in washing machines”, many washing machine manufacturers tend to advertise their products in a manner to attract maximum populace.
It can also be seen how different terminologies mean the same thing but some brands coin different words for the same and use them as marketing gimmicks. For instance, the very common Fuzzy Logic washing cycles which are available in most of the latest fully-automatic washing machines can be labelled as ‘Smart Rinse’ or ‘6th Sense’ under different brands.
Here below we list some of the well-advertised and popular washing machine programs which may not be so special, just products of marketing strategies.
Your washing machine may come with two separate water inlet connections, one in which you could connect hot water supply as per your choice. But many manufacturers highly advertise machines which are capable of heating the cold water supplied into the drum, leading to ‘best quality washing’.
It must be understood that in most cases, cold water washing gives the same result as a hot water wash. If anything, you can pre-soak your clothes in the drum for a more efficient cleaning cycle. Heating element will consume more power supply, and would anyway be harmful to your colour clothes, elastics, and delicate pieces such as lingerie.
Both washing machines and machine-load detergent companies have joined hands to convince their customers that 100% of all stains can be taken care of in the machine. Well, some stain expert washing machines might be available to provide scrubbing and tougher washing functions without compromising the integrity of your clothes, but it is impossible to achieve targeted action on rigid and untreated stains.
You could pre-soak the affected area in stain expert detergents and scrub it before hand to somewhat get clean results after the washing machine cycle. Sprinkling salt over wine stains, or pre-soaking ink and dye stains with glycerine can be other options too.
Sure, the washing machines can be programmed in a way to minimise the harsh spins, but due to the very mechanism behind washing machines, the clothes must spin inside the washing drum at high Revolutions per Minute.
If your clothes have long sleeves or legs that have been thrown into the drum improperly, or there are stringy or delicate laces like elements in your clothes, there is a high chance they will get tangled under the machine’s action. Shirts may have lesser creases in the iron-free mode by avoiding highest RPM, but sure there will be wrinkles.
In general terms tonnage refers to the weight of an object or thing, whereas in the terms associated with AC world tonnage implies the amount of hot air a unit can remove from the room and cool.
Buying an AC with the right tonnage is an important factor. It does not simply depend on the size of the room, but also on the season during which the unit will be used, number of people in the room etc. But it is advisable to think of the peak temperature during which the unit will be used in a city.
An AC with a lesser tonnage will naturally require more time to cool the room compared to the one with a higher tonnage whereas the latter one will consume more power and energy.
Keeping in mind the above factors and requirements of the user the following size logic will help you chose the AC with the right tonnage.
SIZE OF THE ROOM | TONNAGE OF THE AC UNIT |
---|---|
Up to 80 Square ft. | Will need <1 Ton |
81 to 120 Square ft. | Will need 1 to <= 1.2 Ton |
121 to 180 Square ft. | Will need >1.2 to <= 1.5 ton |
180 square ft. upwards | Will need > 1.5 Ton |
Various different tonnage calculators are available online to help users decide the required size of the AC unit, but the above table shows the most common and accurate results to help you guide through the size selection.
The results from different calculators have been combined to give you the most efficient size logic. However, it is always advisable to double check the specific model you are proposing to purchase for the size of room it is being planned for.
The refrigerators which we commonly see at homes use basic technologies which, without a doubt have given us good and reliable results. But with rising energy costs people are getting more and more conscious about working efficiency and power consumption of these appliances.
The growing popularity of the inverter refrigerators has made us stop and wonder, why they are so popular in the first place. “How do inverter refrigerators work?” Well, let’s find out.
These economical refrigerator models work on a simple on and off mechanism. When the power is on and the doors of the refrigerators are closed, the compressors start at the highest, and honesty, at the only programmable speed of the cooling compressor. When an optimum low temperature is achieved, the compressors shut down automatically and start again when the temperatures begin to rise.
The advantage of conventional refrigerators is that they always cool as top speeds, giving high and fast results, and of course they are cheaper too. But when they start at such high load, not only they consume a lot of power, too much at times, but also produce a lot of noise during turning on.
These come at the higher end on technological innovations. As the name might suggest, they have an inverter built in their compressors. They don’t start at top speeds at the very go. Rather, they start at low speeds, gradually optimising their performances with the temperature requirements.
One may consider them to perform slowly for this very reason, but the fact remains that they can work at adjustable speeds, maintaining their efficient performance which saves both energy and money. And also, the gradual increase of compressor load will not produce as much noise.
Features/Performance | Conventional refrigerators | Inverter refrigerators |
---|---|---|
Cost | Economical models. | Cost more, but due to the growing standardisation of this technology, not much difference in the cost. |
Power usage | Consume more power due to high un-regularised usage of compressor. | Can save up to 20-30% on your electricity bills due to optimisation of compressor speeds. |
Cooling speed | Very fast cooling, always at high speeds. | Starts with slow cooling speed which stabilises at higher cooling speed as required. |
Efficiency | Poor efficiency. | Very high efficiency. |
Noise Levels | High noise level. | Negligible noise level. |
Compressor | On-and-off compressor. | Always on compressor. |
Adjustable speeds | Single non-adjustable speed. | Adjustable speed. |
Apart from the refrigerator door types, size and capacity, there are some very important features you must consider in your new refrigerators. This extension of the refrigerator buying guide will help you with what else to look for when buying a new refrigerator model.
Here are our picks for the top 9 features to look for in a refrigerator.
Refrigerators have been a staple appliance in all urban homes for decades now. With the popularity of modular kitchens, owning one fancy model has become a necessity of fashion more than utility, considering all refrigerators might work more or less the same.
Hence matching your new refrigerator to other appliances can be a great move aesthetically, most popular being the stainless-steel designs. It’s durable, easy to clean, and fits into most décor. Glossy black and bright solid colors might be your other choices.
A great addition to the exterior surface finish of the model’s body, a protective coating is added which resists smudges and smears. For a home with kids or pets, or simply for the added ease of single-swipe cleaning, this is a must-have feature.
Depending upon your use of food containers, frozen food packets and bottles, select the most appropriate layout of drawers and shelves. Make sure the shelves and drawers can be removed smoothly for cleaning purposes.
Toughed glass shelves are more durable and easier to clean than plastic ones. Adjustable shelving which you can add or remove shelf slabs to increase and decrease space volume is advisable.
Mostly found on side by side models, these water and ice dispensers are becoming more and more common on the flagship models by all top brands. You can simply dispense cold water or ice into your glass or container by pressing it against an inbuilt lever without the need to open the refrigerator.
Most frost-free refrigerator models come with great mechanisms to ensure the proper air circulation and even cooling of the food items inside the fridge is maintained. But most of the times, this leads to odor from open exposed food packet/container getting absorbed into the other.
Deodorizers remove odor from your fridge and prevents contamination of exposed items with the use of powerful filters. This ensures a fresh-lock on your food items which will remain fresh and odor-free from foods kept nearby.
Most refrigerators come with a decent 7-10 year warranty on the compressor, but the hidden terms and conditions might show that your existing warranty may not cover broken parts and other damages after probably just a couple of years.
Considering refrigerators are long term investments purchased with a usage intent for at least 8 to 10 years, it might be a smart move to shell just a few more bucks into buying an extended warranty. Most movable parts which are likely to break down will do so in the first 3-4 years. If your refrigerator survives that, it’ll most likely survive the long run with normal use. So, better to be ensured for those initial years at least.
Unlike other devices and appliances in your homes, refrigerators run all days of the years, all hours of the day. This definitely translates to consuming big units of electricity for years at a stretch.
To save huge bucks from your electricity bills in the long run, make an investment in buying a refrigerator model which is higher on energy efficiency ratings. You can also go for refrigerators working on inverter technology. They sense the outdoor temperatures and adjust the internal cooling accordingly to save the load on the compressor; hence saving money.
If you live in an area which experiences frequent power cuts, going up to long hours, having a cool pack feature maybe a life saver. This feature is capable of keeping the freezer cool without any power supply for up to 12 hours, varying between manufacturing brands.
Again very useful with such frequent voltage fluctuations, a refrigerator with an in-built voltage stabilizer is the best choice. These appliances are meant to work 24x7 all 365 days of a year, for 10-15 years most commonly. You’d surely like to take a few steps to ensure that the compressor is protected from high voltage fluctuations.
Looking for more? Check out our article “Newest Innovations, Trends and Technologies in Refrigerators” for more information.
While deciding which water purifier to purchase, the primary factor to keep in mind is the type of water you are going to filter out. There may be many features and post-sales services endorsed in a water purifier model available in market, but the type of water purification technology to choose is what needs to be settled first.
To give you a little recap, here below we have listed everything you need to know about types of water purifiers; the features and differences between various technologies used in them.
Features | RO Purifier | UV Purifier | UF Purifier | Gravity Purifier |
---|---|---|---|---|
Technology | Uses a semi-permeable membrane to pass water through. May use activated carbon to remove bad odour and chlorine. | UV lamp generates ultraviolet rays which disables DNA of microbes. No chemicals used. | Uses a membrane similar to RO, but with larger pores. No chemicals used. | Passes water through sedimentary filters under gravity and water pressure. May use activated carbon to remove bad odour and chlorine and other chemicals for disinfection. |
Power consumption | Uses electricity to pump water through membrane. | Uses electricity to power UV lamp. | Doesn’t use electricity. | Doesn’t use electricity. |
Removal of TDS | Removes all heavy metals, chemicals and pesticides. Effective on hard water; high TDS. | Doesn’t remove mud, dirt, and microbes. Ineffective on hard water; high TDS. | Successfully removes mud, dirt, and microbes. Ineffective on hard water; high TDS. | Removes all heavy metals and dirt. Ineffective on hard water; high TDS. |
Removal of Pathogens | Effective in eliminating larger-sized pathogens; smaller microbes may pass through. | Disables all living pathogens but leaves behind their dead bodies. | Filters out all pathogens but leaves behind no dead bodies. | Ineffective on smaller microbes that may pass through. |
Waste water | 75% of water rejected. | No water rejection. | No water rejection. | No water rejection. |
Best used for | Underground water with high TDS. | Clear water with low TDS from municipal corporations. | Unclear water with lesser TDS from municipal corporations. | Unclear water with lesser TDS. |
Maintenance | Low maintenance. Parts easily available in market. | Low maintenance. | High manual maintenance required to flush out the drained waste collected. | Moderate assisted maintenance required to flush out the drained waste collected. |
Life | Change the membranes every 6 months. System works for 5-8 years. | Change the lamps every 1 year. System works 5-8 years | Clean the filters every week. System works for 10 years. | Change the filter cartridges every 6 months. System works for 3-5 years. |
Firstly you need to check the TDS level i.e. total dissolved salts present in the water supplied to your homes. Most water purifier sale representatives can help you with that.
Summers call for a check on electricity bills and the reasons are surely valid. Air conditioners are high electricity consuming appliances and must be used in an efficient manner to ensure lowest consumption of electricity and highest savings on power and money.
Air conditioners with high star ratings on energy efficiency may cost a little more but will save big bucks in the long run. Does Inverter AC really save electricity? Yes, it does and is a great investment in terms of power efficient mechanisms.
Also check out our article “Does energy star rating really matter” for more information.
But apart from buying modern Energy Star air conditioner models, there are some simple ways to run ACs efficiently and save a little more power on the electricity metres. This AC User’s Guide will give you top 6 hacks to save money on electricity bills
The AC’s compressor will shut down its cooling and continue blow air at optimal speeds once the set temperature is achieved. To help the AC work efficiently, you can close the room so that the cooled as is not “wasted” and the compressor of the AC aren’t loaded unnecessarily.
Setting the AC at 18℃ isn’t going to cool the room faster than if it is set at 25℃. The recommended optimum AC room temperature ranges between 23.5℃-25.5℃ in the summer months. This is the comfortable temperature you would yourself like to maintain in the room.
Hence it is wise to set the temperature at 24℃ or 25℃ once and not stress the compressor by fluctuating the settings again and again.
At night the outdoors temperatures drop down too. Also, as we sleep our body temperatures adjust to that. A cooled room in the initial hours won’t require constant cooling throughout the night to comfort us. Rather such cooling will break our sleep pattern and cause discomfort and chills.
You can use a solution made up of your ordinary dish washing liquid and warm water. You can opt for mild exclusive fridge cleaning agents made up of natural elements like citrus oil.
Even when the doors are sealed heat can dissipate out of the window cracks. More so, glass windows can heat up from the outside temperatures which make the indoor cooling inefficient. You can close the curtains and pull down the blinds to help cooling further.
Also, to protect your room from direct sunlight, you may use tinted glasses or films on windows facing direct sunlight to help control the ambient temperatures within a room; thereby more efficient cooling of the room with the AC.
Indoor lighting especially incandescent bulbs release heat which can come as unnecessary hindrances for your AC to cool down continuously. Dim the lights if you don’t need them.
The AC stays awake even when it is not turned on but the power supply is given. Have you noticed the green light blinking? Yes, exactly. Simply plug out the AC when not in use, especially when stepping out of the house.
Clean filters will help the Air Conditioner to breath easily. Clogged filters will strain the compressors as well as not provide the desired results. It is advised to clean the filter-nets as frequently as after every 200 hours of continuous use.
AC servicing is a crucial step to ensure efficient performance by your appliance. It will help with deep cleaning as when check for gas leaks which can drastically reduce the life of your appliance.
Be sure to call for authorised AC service partners and use authentic parts provided by them to save money as well as protect your AC manufacturer’s warranty.
Also check out our article “AC Servicing & Maintenance: How important are regular AC Servicing and preventive maintenance” for more information about AC maintenance.
Most salesmen and ad commercials endorse RO water purifiers, with features they claim will help you choose the best water purifiers from their catalogues, but fewer details are given out about their mechanism, technologies used, and post-sales maintenance required. Just like how every water purification system has features which pose as advantageous and disadvantageous, it is important to study every product and its feature before making an investment in such long-term home utility machines.
Here are some important pointers you may consider before selecting a water purifier best suited for your needs;
With so many technologies and features each one has to offer, while weighing out pros and cons among them, be sure to keep post-sales services like reliable warranty, low cost of maintenance and easy availability of parts of the product purchased in mind. Be sure of checking all of those before you make an investment in a company product.
Window Air Conditioners require a designated window / wall space equivalent to the height and width of the Window AC unit to be installed and can cool down a smaller area more efficiently when compared to a split AC. Therefore, if one needs an AC for a small room, they should go for a window AC.
They are quite pocket-friendly and easy to install since they come in a single unit. The maintenance cost of a window ac is also low.
In case window ACs without a remote-control facility is planned to be used, it may need to be installed at a reachable height to enable easy access to the manual controls of cooling temperatures, fan speed and other features of the window AC.
It must also be noted that the inner, user-facing portion of the AC and its extended cooling unit on the outside are an integrated unit in a Window AC. Therefore, its use at a low height needs to be thought through properly if the space where the cooling unit would project outside is a usable area like a balcony or porch, which may hamper free movement of people in such areas therefore. In such cases it may be advisable to install the window AC at a height and plan a window AC with remote control facility.
Split Air Conditioners are mounted on a wall and are generally used for large rooms since their cooling capacity is quite higher. They do not require a window for installation. They come with a compressor and condenser where the compressor is placed in the outdoor unit while the latter is placed in the indoor unit which cools the room,
The split AC also adds a new designer element in the room since they are available in various colors and patterns. These factors lead to a higher cost for a split AC. Most of the major technological innovations in this category are also available in the Split version of ACs which are now becoming the default models is use by and large.
Unlike Window ACs they do not need a wall or window cavity which is equal to the width and the height of the entire AC unit. The indoor unit of a split AC model only needs a small hole through the wall for the cables and coils to pass through but needs enough wall space for the entire indoor unit to be fitted on the inside wall. Typically, most split ACs do not need much height for the indoor unit in terms of wall space but need enough space in terms of width surely, in the range of 2 to 4 feet of space by width. Due to this nature of the indoor unit and that most split ACs also come with remote control facility by default allows their installation on the free wall space closer to the ceiling at a higher height, thereby freeing up the main wall space for other possible uses.
Since the outdoor unit of a split AC is a separate unit it can be installed at some distance and a different place from the main indoor unit, thereby giving that much flexibility for it space planning. However, care should be taken to install it in such a place where is regular maintenance is possible to be carried out without much effort or risk of accessing it, while attempting to service or clean the outdoor unit at periodic intervals.
The table given below can shed some light on the broader differences between Window and Split AC and help you with which AC to choose between the two.
WINDOW AC | SPLIT AC |
---|---|
Less EER options available | More EER options available |
Single unit | Two units |
Easy installation | Complicated Installation |
More noise compared to Split | Silent operation |
Efficient cooling | More efficient cooling |
Both these types of ACs; split and window are efficient in their own ways; both have its pros and cons. Based on these differences marked in this article, one can sure decide which AC suits his or her requirements.
Moreover, budget plays an important role here. If the user is low on budget then it is advisable to consider a window AC however if there are no budget constraints the user can consider a split AC.
Keeping refrigerator clean and fresh can be a more challenging task than cleaning the rest of your entire kitchen. Many opt for refrigerator cleaning services, but practically you should clean your refrigerator at home more often than waiting for a service.
Considering it is where the food is left exposed for the longest, you don’t want to leave your refrigerator unsanitary, stained and definitely with any odor. But it is not necessarily such a complicated task.
In this refrigerator buying guide will explain the easiest and 7 most recommended ways to keep fridge clean and fresh.
As obvious it may sound, remove even the smallest sealed packet from a corner hidden shelf before you start. You don’t want any residue from refrigerator cleaning agents being left on the surfaces of the items left inside.
Take out the shelf slabs and drawers and soak them in warm water and dish washing liquid solution. Not only it gives you a lot of empty space inside the fridge to clean clearly, a pre-soaking step will help remove any stains from frozen leftovers. That also leaves the groves in which the shelves and drawer are attached open for cleaning.
Refrain from using any kitchen cleaners inside the refrigerator. They are meant for the kitchen counters, walls and floor; definitely not for where your food is left locked inside for hours at a stretch.
You can use a solution made up of your ordinary dish washing liquid and warm water. You can opt for mild exclusive fridge cleaning agents made up of natural elements like citrus oil.
Treat the spill stains on the shelves and dirt collected in the groves. They are where most of the disease causing germs breeds. While soaking the removable shelves and vegetable drawers, make sure to apply a paste made up of baking soda and vinegar and let it rest. The stains would come off with ease.
For the walls inside the fridge, clean refrigerator with vinegar and baking soda again, but dilute this paste with water and use it with a spray bottle. This homemade fridge cleaner spray makes targeting all groves and corners easy.
After the cleaning processes are done, let the suspended mist and detergent residue settle down for some 15 minutes. Then take a microfiber clothe or a good quality sponge, soak it in warm to hot water, rinse it and wipe all the surfaces inside the fridge. This will prevent any remaining food and detergent from contaminating your food.
After you’re done with the cleaning part, do check for the freshness of foods and expiration dates on packages as you start placing them back in the fridge. Besides consuming precious space inside the refrigerator with items no longer worth consuming/storing, retaining such expired items can have adverse effects of smell, as well as risk of mistaken consumption. Cleaning cycle of the refrigerator can be one of the best times to do this periodically.
While the above steps are usually valid for most models of refrigerators, it is a good idea to go through the maintenance guidelines given by the manufacturer for that specific model to make sure that the best practices are followed while cleaning and maintaining the appliance. This also ensures that in case the use of certain cleaning products is prohibited by the manufacturers, the user is aware of that.
While browsing through catalogue and choosing the best air purifier to buy, you’ll notice how most of the appliances are so similar yet so different. Give attention to detail and you’ll see the different array of features present in them. Some may be gimmicky but some are very attractive and useful, turning your preferences towards them.
This Complete Guide for Buying Air Purifiers will try to briefly explain each of these features you must look for while buying an air purifier;
Air Change Rate is a marking for the purifying capacity of air purifiers, telling you how many times an air purifier can clean the air inside a room for a specified square footage.
It stands for Clean Air Delivery Rate and is a rating for effectiveness. It tells us about the devices’ ability in eliminating Dust, Tobacco Smoke and pollen from the air. It is usually always measured with the top fan speed of the device.
Also check out our article “Air purifier ratings: Understanding the ACR and CADR markings” for more details.
Automatic air-quality monitoring is a great feature to have in your air purifiers. It keeps a track of the level of PM 2.5 pollutants suspended in the air in live time and adjusts the program of the device accordingly.
This display panel will not only show the digital controls and current settings of the appliance, but will also display the live results of the air purifier’s effectiveness from the air quality sensors.
Air purifiers with fans and motor will inevitably produce some amount of noise, but it need not be a lot. Some produce so little sounds that they double as a white noise device. Do test the device for noise level before buying.
This is a very handy feature to have. It will avoid tripping over the device in the dark, and also double as a nightlight.
UV lamps, Carbon filter and other anti-bacterial coatings on air purifier filters help in eliminating harmful pathogen from the air we breathe.
As useful as it sounds, this indicator will automatically detect and tell you when the filters have worn out. It is very important since disposing the filters too soon is a waste of money indeed, but using filters beyond their life not only puts load on the device while consuming more electricity, it adversely affects the life of the motors too and also adversely impacts the purifying capability of the device.
Air purifier maintenance is usually a very low costing service, and they anyway don’t require frequent servicing like air conditions and kitchen chimneys. But it is wise to choose your device from a brand which provides authorized after-sales maintenance in case of need.
Having a reasonable warranty period with any electrical device is advised, and it is the same for air purifiers too.
Read ratings and reviews and do a thorough check on the manufacturing party.
In general, air purifiers consume very less energy, ranging between 50- 200 watts for proper functioning. Yet a standard procedure before buying any electrical device, opt for one which has the lowest or reasonable power consumption and most efficient electric consumption rating.
Lastly, having comfortable handles on the side of the appliance and wheels at the bottom will make it handy to carry the purifier or to shift it across the room.
Refrigerators are a standard appliance present is every urban home across the globe. These are long term working appliances which typically last 10-15 years without many technological revolutions forcing you to keep up with the newer models. For these reasons, you must buy one which will sustain your growing needs in the years to come.
It is wise to know that a good layout of drawers and shelves might be more important for some, those who cook less often or for more meal at a time, they’d need larger refrigerators, whereas for those who have a lot of frozen food need lesser racks and more freezer drawers. It comes down to knowing what you’ll need the refrigerator for.
This refrigerators buying guide would help you compare refrigerators online, to weigh the benefits the different door type of refrigerators offer, helping you make an informed choice with your next purchase.
These are the most economical options there are for refrigerators. They don’t have a separate door for freezer, but a freezer box installed in the upper volume of the fridge. You are most likely to find these designs in smaller capacity sizes, not more than 250 liter volumes.
They are most suitable for couples, bachelors, and tenants. These are lower models of refrigerators out there so you will find both direct cool and frost-free variants, most likely direct cool.
Also check out our article “Direct-cool vs. Frost-free” for more information.
As the name suggests they have two doors instead of one, hence a separate volume for freezer. There are 2 possible orientations for the same available in the market.
The double door refrigerators have the freezer compartment at the top and refrigerator at the bottom. These are, hands down, the most popular designs out there.
Even with the advent of new technology and orientation designs hitting the market this past decade, these still make up for the most units sold every year across all manufacturing companies globally, thanks to its attractive price range, variable size range, options to customize with attractive features, and most importantly familiarity of design
On an average, general users open their freezers 1:10 times than their use of refrigerator compartments. Keeping this in mind, these double door refrigerators have the freezer compartment at the bottom, most commonly as a drum drawer, and refrigerator at the top.
Although the design is very thoughtful, these units are outsold by top freezer refrigerators by huge numbers. It could be the standardization of top freezer design that is to blame, but surely the fact that bottom freezers do cost a little more than its competitor adds to its disadvantage.
Of the double door variants, this one is not very high on sales of unit scale. According to the design, the refrigerator compartment is split into two sections right from the centre. The left side is for the freezer and right one is for refrigerator.
For buyers who consume a lot of frozen food packets definitely would find this an ideal orientation. Also for those who have space constraint around the refrigerator have a benefit in using this kind of double door fridge since when you open either door, a doors of only half the width of the refrigerator needs to swing open.
There are definitely some advantages to this design, but it only targets a small section of buyers.
These door styles are gaining a lot of popularity n the recent times. It is definitely outsold by the top-freezers as of now, but it is definitely one of the two most popular designs for large capacity refrigerators.
These have a twin door for refrigerator use in the top and a bottom drawer for freezer in the bottom. You will find lesser shelf slabs inside it but a more versatile layout of side holders on the doors. Additional features like water and ice dispensers are more common in these than standard top-freezers, since French doors are at the top end of the price range and technology when it comes to refrigerators. This is also why you’ll find them in high capacity volumes usually.
The popular misconception related to air purifiers is that it’s a one-size-fits-all machine. As neglected as this preliminary step while buying an air purifier might be, calculating and properly sizing an air cleaner for a room need not just be a necessary task, but also a clever one.
Having an air purifier which is cheaper and smaller for a room bigger than the devices’ prescribed square footed will waste more of your money than saving it. For instance, if an air purifier for a 300 sq. ft room area is placed in 450 sq. ft room, it will put unnecessary pressure on the appliance.
The ACR and CADR ratings on your air purifier are meant for the prescribed square footage recommended by the manufactures. If you place an air purifier meant for smaller rooms in a bigger one, neither will it be able to serve the, for example, 4x or 5x Air Change Rate, nor will be as effective as the 150/200/160 Clean Air Delivery Rate markings, for instance.
So, how to properly size an air cleaner for a room?
It is honestly very simple; just calculate the square area for which you want to buy an air purifier. For a larger open space with multiple rooms, sum the square footage of the individual rooms and now that is the minimum square footage for which you need an air purifier.
It is always wise to choose an air purifier meant for area equal to or a little larger than your calculated area, not the other way around.
There is definitely is a charm about interchangeable lenses, giving photographers the flexibility to shift between genres or formats, and helping beginners explore their way into their new passion. Given below is a complete beginner’s camera lens buying guide with all types of interchangeable camera lenses explained, listing out the essential features to consider in an interchangeable lens and how to choose camera lens as per your needs.
Pro-tip before you start your journey with a new set of camera and interchangeable lenses is to be aware that you are committing yourself into loyalty with a certain brand and series. For instance, Olympus and Panasonic share the Micro Four Thirds (MFT) mount and lenses can be used on either brand’s cameras, whereas Canon may use EF, EF-S or EF-M mounts while Nikon may use the F mount. You’d have to use an adaptor to interchange lenses between Canon and Nikon camera bodies but it will compromise on the function it was designed to deliver. Third party lenses are also available, like the ones from Tamron, Sigma, etc. which are generally cheaper and a bit low on quality, but some of them can be of excellent functionalities.
(expressed in millimetres): Determines the angle of coverage of the scene by your lens. If you want to cover more scene in your frame, like for landscape photography, you need wide-angle lenses which have shorter focal lengths, whereas for close-up images and portraits of objects taken from a distance, you need longer focal lengths like that of telephoto lenses.
The focal length and lens range will translate differently depending up on the size of the imaging sensor of the camera it is mounted on. Multiplying the camera sensor’s crop factor by the focal length of the lens will give you the full-frame equivalent. For example, an APS-C sensor which has 1.5x crop factor with an 18-55mm lens will give you a 27.82.55mm full-frame equivalent, while MFT that has a 2x crop factor will give you 36-110mm range.
(expressed as the “f/stop”): The f/stop number determines how much light can pass through the lens. Smaller the number, like f/2 or f/2.8, the larger will be the aperture and more light can pass through. Larger aperture will make the lens bigger, heavier and costlier. Therefore many times lenses of same focal lengths vary in prices, for example Canon’s 50mm f/1.2 lenses are more expensive than its 50mm f/1.8. Apertures can also be in ranges, for instance in a 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6mm lens, the widest aperture offered at 18mm is f/3.5 and f/5.6 at 55mm. Larger apertures can not only shoot in low lights even without flash, but also have faster shutter speeds.
Prime lenses have a fixed focal length. To get a close-up or distant image frame, you have to move yourself closer or farther from the subject to maintain the correct focal length. Zoom lenses on the other hand offer a range of focal lengths, which is indicated as a range from the shortest to the longest, for example, 28-200mm. There are pros and cons to each. Check out “Prime Lens vs. Zoom Lens” for a detailed guide.
This might not be considered much of a priority, but for camera bodies that don’t offer in-body stabilization; lenses with image stabilization will help both amateur and professional photographers alike by reducing shake, and also allowing low-light condition shoots. Different brands will use different stabilisation technologies, like Canon uses IS, Nikon uses VR, and OSS technology in Sony.
also called "perspective control" or PC lenses: Provide interesting ‘Depth of field’ options, from extremely shallow to deep, artificial depths of field. They do this by reducing distortion and achieving straight lines for their images. Used for landscape, architectural and portrait photography.
Allows focusing very close to the subjects with exceptionally shallow depth of field at a near microscopic level. Used in taking photos of insects, flowers, food photography, as well as for the classic ring photograph by wedding photographers.
For extremely wide shots of focal lengths shorter than 20mm. Their barrel distortion has a tendency to stretch the background, creating almost surreal looking images.
While most camera lenses look to minimize distortion in images, a fisheye lens will on the contrary warp an image using a convex front element within the lens for highly surreal imagery. It is popular in sports photography for getting closer shots to the subject, like in skateboarding and surfing.
Camera light sensors are like the ‘films’ of digital cameras. They consist of millions of light sensitive ‘Photosites’ which capture the light reflected on them and convert them into digital images. The larger the film, the more light is captured; consequently producing sharper images with more details. This enables the camera to shoot even in low light, keeping the noise and aberrations low, and also giving a better low lighting performance.
The following camera sensor size comparison chart illustrates the relative sizes of different camera sensors.
On a given camera light sensor, the more the pixels, the smaller the pixels will be. So if we have, say the same sized sensor on a 20MP camera, it will have smaller sized pixels than an 18MP camera. An 8MP camera with larger sensors will produce better quality images than a 12MP camera with smaller sensors. This is the reason why DSLRs of the same number of megapixels will produce much better colour composed images than a smart phone with the same number of megapixels due to much larger sized camera sensors in DLSR compared to the smart phone camera sensor size.
Digital cameras today majorly use two main types of sensors;
For more info visit our Camera Buying guide
How to choose the right type of chimney is just as important a question as having one. Depending upon your kitchen area and installation you can find the chimney most ideal for your needs. Types of kitchen chimneys can be sub categorised depending upon ducting and non-ducting features, design, and installation mounting.
Chimney designs can come in either of the 2 variants; Hood or Straight-line chimneys.
As the name suggests, they have a hood to cover the area directly above the gas stoves to cover maximum heat and smoke from the cooking surface. The smoke and steam rises and the heavy grease and dirt is separated in the filters. The remaining hot air and odour moves onto the vent and is eliminated with ducting pipes.
Instead of hoods, they have straight-line bodies like that of split air-conditioners. They suck in the gas and smoke from the covered area over the cooking stove and purify the odour and harmful particles using charcoal filters. No air from the kitchen is eliminated and the purified air is thrown back into the kitchen, it is ineffective on the heat and the heavy smoke produced in rich and gaudy cooking. Having no ducting pipes, they are best suited for kitchens which don’t have extra place for drilling extra pipes.
Depending upon the installation process, there are three different house chimney types, classified as;
The kitchen chimney is mounted against a wall for support. They can also be corner mounted chimneys, where two sides of the chimney are supported against the walls instead of one back side.
Best suited for island style modular kitchens where the chimney hangs down from the wall, directly above the cooking range.
It may either be a wall-mounted chimney or an island style chimney, which is built into the interior of the kitchen, hiding the body and ducting pipes of the chimney system completely.
With the growing dependence on Smartphones, the addiction to smartphones has become a real thing. The scariest part about this smartphone addiction is that you don't know about your addiction till you think hard about it and try not to use your phone.
This addiction affects your day to day activities on a large scale both physically as well as mentally. This could be because just like other drugs, smartphones also give an escape from reality. Studies have found that humans are attracted to things that give them a sense of distraction.
In earlier times, smartphones were used as a tool for communication, however, with time it is used for many other things. We don't just use our smartphones, we rely on them, and this has become a major concern.
Our brains on smartphones produce the same chemical ‘Dopamine’, the feel-good chemical, which gives us an instant high. Similarly, having access to a constant flow of information has all but destroyed attention spans.
The impacts of smartphone addiction don't stop there but goes beyond; our overuse of technology has completely transformed how we communicate and interact with other people. Instead of getting real face time with the people in our lives, we often hide behind a screen.
While technology can be a useful tool for keeping us connected, we have to be careful with when and how we use it. Follow these 5 easy steps to cut down on your screen time;
1.Don’t check your phone first thing in the morning
2.Stay away from blue light or any digital screen at least a hour before you go to bed
3.Open your curtains before bed and rely on natural light instead for digital alarms to wake up.
4.Use blue light filters on your screens
5.Install a Screen-Time Check app to monitor the time spent on screen on different apps.
Have you noticed the star ratings on the body of your appliances? Which a higher rated and higher costing AC should be preferred? Read to know more.
Star rating is a universal factor used to determine the energy efficiency of any electrical appliance. It ranges from 1 star to 5 stars with 5 stars being the highest. Higher the rating of the product, more energy efficient it will be, resulting in cheaper electricity bill. But naturally, a unit with higher rating of the same tonnage of the same is more expensive than the one with lesser stars.
The star ratings are provided by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). It is determined by a ratio called the Energy Efficiency Ratio (EER) which is the ratio of the cooling capacity of an AC.
The BEE frequently revises the ratings for better and up to date ratings. Furthermore, the ratings also show how eco friendly the air conditioner is, a 5-Star rated air conditioner will release lesser amounts of CFCs and gases in the environment as compared to a less rated air conditioner.
AC with a 5 star rating will cool the same room more efficiently as compared to an AC with a lower rating. It will also consume less power and energy which will result in a cheaper electricity bill. But a 5 star AC will also cost much more than a 1 star AC, therefore only energy efficiency can not be the sole factor to determine which star rated AC to buy.
Factors such as the amount of electricity units used, season of use and time of use also play a major role in selecting the correct AC. If the appliance is to be used every day and continuously during the season then it’s advisable to choose the 5 star AC, since the operating cost of the AC will be much less than a lower rated AC.
The difference in the initial purchase cost can easily be recovered in a matter of few years. Whereas if the usage of the AC is not much then the user can even go for a 1 star AC, since the basic cost will be cheaper and it comparatively will be used for much less hours during the year.
Since everything comes with a cost, a 5 star air conditioner will naturally be costlier than a 1 star air conditioner of the same company of the same tonnage.
The annual operating hours and per unit cost of electricity are the 2 major factors to decide upon which rating Air Conditioner to purchase.
It is typically recommended to go for a BEE 5 star rated AC or further Inverter Tech AC if usage of AC is more than 1000 hours in a year and per unit cost of electricity is more than Rs 5 per unit (if the per unit cost is higher, it is recommended for lower the yearly usage also).
(Also check out our article “When to consider an inverter AC” for more information about energy efficient Air Conditioners.)
Be it reheating your last night’s leftovers, hurrying up on popcorn during movie intervals, or auto cooking ‘gaajar ka halwa’ for immediate guests, microwave ovens have truly given us some amazing hacks to work the kitchen. But a lot of speculation goes around if food cooked in microwave ovens is safe for our consumption? To understand this, we must study how these wonder devices work in the first place.
These new age ovens don’t use any heating coils, grills, or steamers to process our food. Rather they have an instrument called ‘Magnetron’ inside them which is a microwave generator. These are electromagnetic waves, just like radio waves and infrared waves; just of different wavelengths. The microwaves generated from the Magnetron bounces on the reflective insides of the ovens, directed towards the food. These electromagnetic waves’ have a particular wavelength which affects the asymmetrical molecules in the food, namely water, and other molecules with a positive and a negatively charged end.
These affected molecules begin to vibrate when disturbed. They generate friction among one another which leads to thermal energy. Hence unlike OTG machines, i.e. Oven-Toaster-Grills, which employ external heat, microwave ovens heat the food from the inside.
Any style of cooking, be it gas, induction, or oven, doesn’t explicitly ‘harm’ or destroy the essential nutrients present in the food. It is just high temperature or over cooking which can burn the food and break down the minerals in it. Even when we boil vegetables, so much of the nutrients are drained out of the food, compromising on taste and texture. Vitamin-C present in citrus foods is the most susceptible to breaking down in heat. Cooking time in microwave ovens is the least when compared to any other style, say baking, boiling or steaming, consequently ensuring lesser time to heat exposure and successfully retaining even Vitamin C, and other essential minerals.
More so, the electromagnetic radiation stops as soon as one plug out the oven and no radiation are present in the food; and definitely not after you take it out.
Till the time you maintain the cooking temperature and not overcook the food, microwave ovens can provide a safe way to cook nutritious food.
With the digital revolution of the 21st century on the boom, technology seems to get ‘outdated’ very quickly. Competitive market and ever growing demand has only resulted in devices cramping in more specifications and ‘higher’ specifications into simple old technologies and concepts. A twin cooler is better than single. A 6” screen is better than 4.5”. These are some of the many preconceived notions being encashed by brands and manufacturer companies in the various technical fields alike.
The megapixel hype is one of the best examples of this misunderstood trend by the latest camera smart phones and digital SLRs launching being launched in the market every month. The popular opinion suggests “the more the better,” like how the 8MP standard flagship models replaced 5MP and so on, just because “it sounds better.” But when we come to photography, especially, we need to understand why megapixels are not important. Yes, megapixels do affect the quality of photographs in the sense that the more data captured by the more number of megapixels will enable you to stretch-out the final image without becoming grainy, i.e. not compromising on you image quality, but are definitely not the sole determining factor. Camera lens, better electronics, shutter speed and image sensor quality are probably much more important in this respect.
It is not the megapixels but light sensors which result in higher resolution images. These light sensors are like digital ‘films’ which capture the image. The more light that falls on the sensors, the clearer the image is produced, with more details. This is the reason why 20MP cramped in a smart phone camera will not produce as quality images as a 20MP DLR, which has larger sensors than the ones present in the smart phone to collect the image reflection. Hence an 8MP camera with better sensors may give you sharper results than a 12MP camera.
There are also a number of disadvantages of using more megapixels unnecessarily;
So, are megapixels important? Yes, of course they are. Having an image taken from, say a 42 MP camera, even if you end up cropping a large one-third portion from the picture, your resultant image still has well over 20-25MP of data with great picture resolution. More megapixels will indeed give you the added flexibility to experiment with you captures even after the final shot without compromising on the picture quality. But experienced photographers who understand how to use megapixels efficiently may find a camera of 20 megapixels more than sufficient. It all depends upon how you photograph personally, and what use you are looking to make out of the megapixels. But do more megapixels mean better photo quality? No. The sensors’ quality, lighting, optics and speed will ensure a better picture quality than pixel count.
The market for top water purifiers in India is as vast as it could be. From the metro cities to remote villages, the one need that unites all is the need for clean water for consumption. With a massive population of 1.3 billion Indians, supply of potable water, i.e. clean drinking water, is scarce. Also with a diverse geography, from deserts to seas, the quality of water received by households varies majorly. So when we see advertisements and meet sale representatives, how do we judge for ourselves what water purifier we need for our Indian homes? To make an informed choice, past the gimmicky features endorsed, it is primarily essential to study the water which needs to be filtered.
Water supplied from the municipal corporations is usually filtered out of major dissolved metals and impurities like fluoride, arsenic and lead. To take care of the pathogens dissolved, which may lead to water borne diseases, one can opt for UV filters in their water purifiers. They cannot filter out the dissolved salts from the water, but can disable the DNA of the pathogens, only killing them without removing their dead bodies from the water. This is the most efficient and natural filtration process, which eliminates no water, and doesn’t use any chemicals during the process as well.
UF water filters employ membranes to filter out water. Even though just like the UV water filters they are unable to remove the Total Dissolves Salts, i.e. TDS from the water, they can eliminate the dead bodies of the microorganisms successfully. UF filtration process doesn’t run on electricity, which RO and UV water purifier require operating. Hence for areas which face shortage of electricity, if we have access to clean water supply from municipal corporations, filters running simply on UF technology can be the most appropriate choice for water filters in such homes.
In areas along the coast where hard water runs in the supply lines, Infrared filters can come to the rescue, which use heat and light to separate negatively charged water ions, giving them a softer feel. Other forms of Ion Exchange filters similarly ionize the water molecules via the process of electrolysis. Such filtered water is lower in acidity and softer in taste, as the alkaline water is separated from the acidic.
If your home relies on bore wells, or faces shortage of clean water supply, RO filters can be a good choice for water filtration system, which can remove TDS and other harmful pathogens, unlike the UV and UF filters. RO filters use semi-permeable membranes to filter the water and obtain the desired results, but in the process can reject up to three quarters of the water-input, even if clean water supply is maintained. Such amounts of water wastage cannot be afforded by homes troubled by shortage of water. In such cases, if homes are assured of clean filtered water from municipal corporations, one can opt for UV and UF filters, or else Distillation water filters. These water purifiers use heat to evaporate the impure water, and collect the condensed water vapor, filtered out of all impurities.
Informed choice and decision making can gift your family the health they deserve visit our water filter buying guide!
Our bodies are primarily constituted of water; varying between 60-70 percent in men, women, and children. Water forms the base of human life and existence, and therefore it is essential to keep ourselves hydrated with good quality water intake. Just like how healthy machinery requires continuous maintenance and oiling, human body too is a marvelous piece of machinery in which water ensures the smooth functioning of bodily activities.There are many health benefits of drinking good quality water;
Throughout the day as we perspire, urinate and breathe, our bodies lose out their water quantity.. It is held that every individual must have an estimate of 6-8 glasses of water each day. But one may understand that one size never fits all. The recommended intake for women is between 2-2.5 liters of water a day and 2.5-3 liters for men. It is also important to not overdo ones’ consumption, since excess water intake will lead to excessive urination and consequently salt loss from body. The best way to keep your intake under check is to follow your thirst. Human bodies are intelligent and automated machines, and your thirst is usually always the best indicator of your required water consumption.
There are two cooling technologies used in refrigerator models available in market. Both of them have their own advantageous and disadvantages over the other. In this comparative refrigerator buying guide blog we will try to decode them in the simplest manner.
It is the simplest mechanism available for cooling inside refrigerators. The cool conditioned air is dispensed out from the vents without any fans. The air is circulated inside using naturally convection. This causes unequal cooling and freezes the water content in the food items, or builds up frost on the walls of the refrigerator from the moisture levels inside at particular uncirculated spaces inside the refrigerator.
This simpler mechanism definitely costs cheaper too but poses a lot of inconvenience for the users. Not only the refrigerator becomes difficult to clean, the food quality is also compromised. You would have to manually defrost and thaw the foods to get rid of the frost build up and this would affect the food texture heavily.
As the name suggests, this mechanism was introduced to combat this frost build-up problem of the direct cool technology. Frost free refrigerators use cooling fans to circulate the air inside the closed volume, providing even and efficient cooling. You avoid messy frost build up inside the refrigerator volume, save yourself from the manual defrosting processes and enjoy the freshness of evenly refrigerator food.
Features | Direct-cool | Frost-free |
---|---|---|
Cost | Cheaper technology and in electricity use | Are more expensive than direct cool refrigerators and use slightly more electricity to run the fans. However due to use of inverter compressors in newer models these days, this is addressed to some extent too. |
Efficiency | Inefficient and uneven cooling | Efficient and even cooling |
Frosting | Build up of frost inside and crystallisation of exposed food. | No frost is build up and moisture remains content. |
Maintenance | Refrigerator compartments need to be manually defrosted and cleaned. Food needs to be thawed to get rid of crystals formed. | Easy to clean and food is kept fresh and frost free. |
Availability of models | Presently, only available in cheaper and outdated models; single door refrigerators which has lower capacities. | Available in all capacity volumes, latest as well as older refrigerator volumes. |
The world of Air Conditioning buying guide technology is advancing by the hour. With the latest and more attractive features being endorsed by competitive brands, they sure have caught our eye by compare ac online
If you are looking to best ac for home or want to keep abreast with the latest development in the AC technology world, here are the top 8 new technologies in air conditioners;
Digital inverter technology is one of the most important innovations of AC technology. To provide better efficiency, the leading brands have started using the dual inverter technology. It gives an increased operating frequency range which enables to increase the efficiency of cooling inside the rooms.
The inverters come with advanced BLDC motors (Brush-Less Direct-Current motors) which help to maintain the desired temperature with minimal power fluctuations. Other concepts help the inverter to optimize its peak performance even in the extreme temperatures, helping in achieving the perfect cooling for the room and maximize energy saving.
This feature comes with different names like ‘follow me’, ‘iSee” technology, ‘Smart Human sensor’ etc. It detects the number of people inside the room as well as recognizes human absence to optimally cool the room.
Another feature allows the sensor to be placed inside the remote that controls the cooling in accordance to the information received from the remote sensor.
Since the pollution levels have tremendously increased, the manufacturers recognize the importance of air filtration for a healthy lifestyle of the consumer. The PM 2.5 and VOCs are two major hazardous elements which affect the health of the consumer.
The best ac for home unit creates a bio climate inside the room which prevents the ions of hydrogen and oxygen to mix up with harmful bacteria and other airborne agents. Also available are some models of air conditioner with air purifying filters. In an aim to give out non polluted air, some ACs also use multiple stages of filtration through which the cooled air is passed, doubling as air purifiers.
During the rainy season conventional air conditioners not only consume more energy but also make the room uncomfortably cold which leads to health ailments like common cold, severe headache etc.
The AC manufacturers have found out a way from the above mentioned problems with features like Dehumidification, Auto Humid Control or dry mode, which make sure that the air conditioner detects the high humidity outside the room; thus enabling them to deliver dry clean and fresh air without any stickiness even in the most humid regions.
Filters are an important component of the ACs and if ignored, it could drastically reduce the cooling capacity. But the manufacturers have designed a solution for this pestering problem. With features like iClean or Blowclean mode the manufacturers have dedicated a dust box which collects the dust particles swept by the brush or blown by the blower.
The cleaning barely takes 5 to 7 minutes to complete and once it is completed, the brush or the blower comes back to its original position providing the user a hassle free cooling experience.
Many AC manufacturers have developed apps to control the AC using a smartphone. These apps come with features like Wi-Fi Connect technology and Wi-Fi Direct functionality. Connect the AC with the Wi-Fi router and you can easily control the AC from anywhere, including from outside the home.
This can be particularly useful if you wish to have a cooled room ready for you when you are back home after a long workday. Some apps would also give the estimated power usage of the AC and other details, differing in models from brand to brand.
There was a time of conventional ACs with 2-way cooling system. The AC manufacturers introduced functions like the 4D swing function and the Coanda airflow.
These features enable the cool air to blow in multiple directions in the room to ensure thorough cooling, also spreading the air flow in a way that it does not directly hit the people in the room with the help of a bigger fan. As a result, every corner in the room is nearly as cool as the area in front of the AC blade.
With a lot of buzz around the ‘fast technology’, manufacturers have adopted various methods and techniques to cool the room as quickly as possible. The features vary from different brands and come with the names such as Hcool, PowerChill and 3D cool extreme.
Visit our air conditioner buying guide
This technology helps bring down the room temperature to a comfortably cool level in a matter of minutes without compromising on the energy saving aspect.
Chimneys are kitchen essentials, aiming to keep your cooking area free from harmful smoke, heat and odour. To fulfil this purpose, kitchen chimney filters play a primary role at every stage of air handing and cleaning. They collect the grease and dirt suspended in the air while cooking, keeping you and your kitchen safe and clean. Having well maintained and clean chimney filters also improves the efficiency of your chimneys. It is wise to go for filters appropriate to your cooking needs, which are broadly classified into three kitchen chimney filter types, depending on the structure, material and filtering process.
Action cameras are small lightweight cameras with standard features like record, pause and stop, but shoot incredibly wide angles of high-quality images in almost any environment. The biggest advantage they offer is their portability factor. They can be small enough to fit into the palm of your hands but are built to withstand very rough use. Action cameras are fun gadgets to have for sports junkies for recording their adventures in skiing, diving, surfing and gliding, by mounting these cameras onto their gears, or be very well mounted on standard tripods or monopods without the need of carrying them around.
If you are considering buying an action camera but are not sure “What makes a good action camera?” in the first place, here we have listed the top 9 must-have features for any action camera you must consider before buying one.
The advent of technology has established that the smaller and lighter a gadget is, the more mobility and stability if offers. Action Cameras take this into consideration and are usually popular for their three unique shapes as Cube, Bullet and Box, where each one of them is more convenient for certain applications than others.
The action cameras are always made to withstand tough weather and conditions. Either you can buy one with waterproof exterior case for safe housing during outdoor activities, or go for special action cameras built for underwater use which can also withstand extreme pressure metres below sea level.
The image and video quality is the top feature to consider in any camera, and action cameras must be able to provide sharp and crisp shots. 720p resolution cameras have now been replaced by 1080p for good reasons. 4K models have started hitting market shelves, but might be expensive and unnecessary purchases if you don’t own any 4K screen to view the videos.
This is a very important factor to consider since adventure videos can very easily be jerky and lead to haze in video print. There are two types of stabilization offered, where Optical Image Stabilisation is more efficient than the Electronic, but it comes with a higher cost.
The more number of frames that are captured per second, the smoother and seamless video will it produces. But very high frame rate will also use a lot of memory and be more taxing on the hardware, consequently won’t be available in higher resolution cameras. Hence a 60-120 fps camera with 1080p resolution will be a better choice compared to 240fps with 720p.
It is measured in terms of angles it can cover of a given scene. Every action camera has a fixed focal length with wide-angle lens. Some action cameras will allow you to choose between wide, medium, and narrow frames. Very wide angle can also lead to Fisheye-Effect. For those who don’t prefer this aberration, “Remove Fisheye” setting is also available in some models.
Either wireless or wired connectivity options may be available for easy transfer of recorded data from the camera to a Smartphone, PC, TV or the web. This is especially very handy if the camera doesn’t have a screen for instant playbacks.
Having Global Positioning System in-built in your action camera will automatically geo-tag all your images and videos taken, making it easier to locate in online maps for personal records or social-media posts.
More than good storage capability of pictures with respect to the high resolution of your camera, memory cards can also affect the quality of images it is storing. If your memory card is slower than the fps of the camera device, your card will not be fast enough to write the data, leading to dropping of frames and resulting in jerky footage.
Cold temperatures, wireless connectivity, and high resolution camera shoot can drain camera batteries. It is advisable to have enough battery life to sustain a few hours of continuous use, or carry spare batteries, just in case.
Action cameras are designed to be mounted on different surfaces like vests, surf boards, bike handles and helmets. Good action cameras might have universal mounting systems and need not be attached to additional accessories. Else, you can purchase appropriate accessories for mounting on the camera on specific surfaces if they are not included in the standard mounts as sold with camera kit.
It is very important for action cameras to have the essential accessories and mounts which will not only help you attach your camera onto different surfaces like helmets, vest, surfing boards and bikes, but also provide enough support to avoid jerky videos.
We all know how microwave ovens have helped shorten the time we needed earlier for cooking. But microwave ovens not only help in easy reheating and defrosting of foods apart from their cooking aim, but there are also a number of ways in which these versatile cooking devices can be used.
Not just your proteins, but you can thaw your fruits too. Just put your citrus fruits or other items in a small water bath and heat twice for 10 seconds to thaw evenly and squeeze out more juice.
If your oil or honey has crystallized or frozen due to cold, you can microwave it for 30-40 seconds in intervals to obtain a smooth consistency. This is probably the best use of microwave ovens, especially when you use it to dilute the consistency of oil, honey, and cream for beauty routines. They make the product warmer and more comforting, and also easier to apply and be absorbed by the skin.
You can collect some grains in a small sock, like rice, knot it tight and heat it for a minute. It can help with targeted body aches and cramps. You can also prepare a wet pad by soaking hand towel in a water mug and microwaving for 2 minutes. Wet towel heating is highly recommended for cervical pains, and you can simply prepare with this common use of microwave oven.
You can take fresh herbs and chop them in tiny pieces, put them in a bowl and heat for 30 seconds. These homemade herbs can be saved for later and added to food as per taste.
If your gel-based liners and mascaras have dried out, simply heat them in the microwave for 20 seconds and get the smooth finish just like the first apply.
If you are having problem picking out garlic cloves due to moisture, you can roast in the microwave for 2-3 minutes. This will dry the moisture and you can easily pluck out the cloves. This also works with nuts like pistachios, which when heated will crack, and become easier to obtain the nut.
This is a lesser known and uncommon use of your microwave ovens. You can soak in your sponge, brush and even small toy in water with lemon juice or vinegar to disinfect them. You may even add some of it to the used side of your chopping board and heat it for 1 minute.
These top 7 surprising microwave hacks can surely simply your life in unknown ways. Try them now!
Dedicated cameras for photography are complex devices which come with a host of camera features and controls. To throw some light on how the components of a camera affect your shot and frame in their own way, here are some of the features you should look out for on your next camera purchase.
Manual mode – enables you to do more and master the craft with greater. Advanced to professional photographers who have a vivid understanding and experience with these features can play around with settings in accordance to their desired shot. It also comes in handy if beginners want to experiment and learn how each change in setting is affecting their photography.
Auto scenes – for beginners who still are not confident enough to manually control each setting, auto scenes, autofocus and its associated features are the perfect shooting modes to take off from.
Megapixel – high megapixels give you better resolution and cropping margins for your photographs. This is very handy for social media uploads, prints and post-shoot edits, but need not affect the picture quality, per se. Check out “Camera Megapixels” for further details.
Shutter speed – this determines how long the camera sensor is exposed to light. Fast speeds freeze the frames and are essential for action shots, whereas low speeds will allow more light into the sensors and will help in low-light and night photography.
Aperture – the wider the aperture, the more light can pass though the lenses into the camera body. Having a wide aperture in the body will allow you to use lenses with larger range of aperture. It greatly influences the depth of field and low light performance as well.
ISO – it measures the sensitivity of image senor. Large apertures make the camera heavy, and longer shutter speeds might not be favourable, especially if the camera is not mounted on a tripod. In such cases having a larger ISO number will make your camera more sensitive to light.
Auto focus – It is an intelligent feature widely popular in modern cameras, which auto-adjusts the camera to focus the subject. The sensor controls direct the electronic motor systems to zoom-in and out the auto-detected object, to help produce the sharpest possible image at the sensed focal length. Simple point-and-shoot cameras come with a variety of automated features, including auto-focus, whereas DSLRs and MILCs may or may not have this feature, again with the added flexibility of disabling it.
Size and weight – any type of camera, be it compact or one with interchangeable lens has to be of the size and weight you find ideal and comfortable for practical use. Compact point-and-shoot cameras are easy to carry for casual photography. DSLRs and MILCs can be heavy due to body size or the type of lenses you have mounted on it. In those cases you have to consider if the weight f camera is manageable and you can get used to it, and also if you need tripods or extra padded neckbands while shooting with them.
Touch screen – it can just be an additional high-end feature to have. Completely depends upon individual users if they find it easier to browse through menu functions on a touch screen or physical buttons.
RAW shooting – JPEG is the standard format for images but higher models may let you shoot in RAW formats. They don’t typically affect the image as seen on screen but carry up to 4 times the image data as high quality JPEG, and helps in post-shoot edits and photo shops.
Image stabilisation – it helps avoid haze and jerky photos, especially helpful with super zoom lenses which have heavy and will also exaggerate the aberration in images. This feature is available in camera bodies as well as lenses. But certain camera bodies like that of Nikon mostly do not have it. In those cases, go with lens attachments which offer this feature.
Image stabilisation – it helps avoid haze and jerky photos, especially helpful with super zoom lenses which have heavy and will also exaggerate the aberration in images. This feature is available in camera bodies as well as lenses. But certain camera bodies like that of Nikon mostly do not have it. In those cases, go with lens attachments which offer this feature.
Check if the mike can collect the sound from the distances the camera can shoot decently.
Frames per second (fps) – the resolution and picture quality will go to waste if you don’t have a decent frame rate while taking photos. It determines how many frames of images it captures per second, where 24-30 is the normal fps range, and 60 fps will give you great videos of sports. Having good fps will avoid frames from dropping which can lead to jerky videos, hence giving seamless videos.
Zoom – most cameras come with a standard do-it-all-zoom range. The larger the in-built zoom provided, the costlier and heavier it will be. For ultra wide or close-up shots you can use dedicated wide-angle or telephoto lenses respectively if you need to capture footage beyond the standard range.
Viewfinder – DSLRs have mirrors which can reflect images from the lens to the optical viewfinders. They give the most accurate and unadulterated frame-view of the image to be shot. On the other hand Mirrorless cameras are ‘mirror less’ in the sense that they don’t have this feature and hence use an electronic viewfinder of LCD screen to frame the images, which again come with a host of benefits of its own. Also, refer to “Viewfinder vs. LCD screen” to gain further clarity.
Connectivity – wired and wireless, especially Wi-Fi is becoming very common in cameras, credited to the generation of social media and the need to make sharing of posts as easy, and in lesser steps, as possible.
GPS – it can be good feature to have for geo-tagging in social media post, or self records.
Weather-shield – weather proof and dust proof cameras will help you shoot outdoors without worrying about rain and dust clogging your device system. Water proof cameras are specially built to shoot completely submerged into water, and withstand the pressure of water under surface.
These were some of the important features of a good camera that you must look for when buying a new camera.
Not just the content of food, but its cooking method also determines a lot about the quality of nutrition in your diet. Grilling is not just a fun activity; a part of the occasional Sunday brunch. It can also be very beneficial for your food and help you develop a healthy lifestyle.
Why is grilling food a healthier option? Here is a list of advantages of grilling food over other methods of cooking.
Smartphones are probably the most useful devices of our time and naturally have become an inevitable aspect of our daily routines. They have changed the way we work and have made our life easier.
Smartphone apps can help you make the most out of your device in way you probably hadn’t thought of. Here is our selection of the top 7 apps which are a must-have on latest smartphones.
What’s the purpose and benefits of an air purifier?
Pollution of natural resources is a reality and its effects on humankind is inevitable as it is becoming. But while some solutions to land and water pollution are there in the form of organically grown food and purified drinking water, of the many health-conscious practices that we wish to imbibe in our everyday lives, we neglect the very air that we breathe.
Rising cases of causalities caused due to the rise of air pollution in India highlight these as the most common effects of breathing in polluted air;
The lack of awareness for air pollution has its adverse effects on all of us equally. But some of its major effects on our health can be very well taken care of, thanks to the revolutionary air purifiers.
The indoor air in our homes and offices can be up to 2-5 times as polluted and toxic as the air outdoors, primarily due to high concentrations of toxic particulate matter inside closed walls, with lack of air circulation being an additional factor. Breathing-in this air can cause a number of respiratory diseases and allergies.
Considering the fact that we can spend almost 80% of our daily hours indoors, it makes it evident that the need for clean indoor air is urgent and necessary. The lack of awareness among the public about indoor pollution is both shocking and unfortunate, but all we can do, and must do, is act before we start facing the consequences.
The major pollutants which may affect the quality of the air inside your very homes may be;
The air purifier is a simple yet powerful appliance which filters out these pollutants from the surrounding places.
How do air purifiers work? They pull the surrounding air similar to how a kitchen chimney or air conditioner does. Their specially built filters work to trap the particulate matter, germs and odor, expelling out clean, sterile and fresh air.
Needless to say, homes with pregnant women, people with breathing issues like asthma, children and pets need air purification arrangements to be made for a healthier living. But it’ll be wrong to say that not everyone benefits from breathing in air of good quality.
Even if you don’t suffer from any breathing difficulties, allergies or experience high polluted air in your city, having an air purifier will not only ensure that you stay healthy and safe from these diseases and allergies, but also safe guard yourselves from the effects of the slow poisoning air pollution has threatened us all with.
The major benefits of air purifiers give many attractive reasons to buy one the earliest;
Air purifiers improve health by not just sterilizing our homes from micros and allergens. Results have shown that air purifiers help with sleep since while we’re sleeping, our breathing slows down and air purifiers reduce the pressure on our respiratory systems by providing us with pre-filtered and purified air.
When you pay the price for a dedicated clothes drying machine, don’t be surprised by the versatile functions this machine can and will offer you. Understanding dryer settings and functions can be perplexing for new users. This Buyers Guide for Clothes Dryers aims to brief you about the most common Dryer Cycles, Settings, and Features you are likely to come across in your new purchase.
It’s very common to find dryer settings dedicated to handling special type of fabric materials. You may wonder why you need to separate your cotton and silk shirts into different loads. Well, you may like to check your shirt label for instructions. Expensive and high quality silk shirts and delicate cotton wears may require special treatment with respect to the heat exposed to it, affecting its colour and fabric integrity. For such items, it’s best to go for specialised load settings.
Similarly for woollens, which have thicker fibre of softer weave, it’s essential to maintain the elasticity of the material and protect the fibre of the fabric for most insulation from the cold weathers. You may club other clothing materials together, but always, we repeat, always separate your woollens.
Not just your lingerie but lacy outfits and crochet covers need to have gentle drying modes set for the best treatment of your delicate items.
We are sure you won’t be having sensitive items to dry every single day. Rather, on most days you have regular wear and pyjamas you simply need to toss into laundry and get them back fresh and dry. By default, you can always set your appliance in ‘Mixed’ setting and your clothes will be dried for you just fine; not too gentle nor too harsh.
Passing cold air instead of hot into the spinning drum to dry the damp clothes would make a lot of difference. Surely having hot air would efficiently give you faster results, but they can very well damage sensitive and delicate textiles. Check your labels if they recommend any such protocols regarding what temperature to dry clothes in dryer. For such cases, having control over the dryer temperature settings would be handy.
For users who have not very damp clothes, or simply are on the run, your dryer appliance may offer you a Quick program with shorter drying set-times; 15 min for shirts or 40 min for most regular laundry items.
Broadly there are two different types of drying programmes, gentle and intensive. Where regular cotton shirts and light material trousers more appropriately need to have a gentle dry, on the other hand, you would have to opt for a more intensive dryer setting for towels, curtains, sheets and covers and other such items.
As we have seen the trend, different items and different materials require different handling. Just like in dry cleaning, pillow, duvets and comforters too have specialised routines for drying the item without affecting its durability and structure. You can even dry your soft toys in this very drying programme.
One of the most annoying and common issues with smartphones is limited and sometimes short battery life. With our growing dependence on Smartphones, heavy battery discharge is a common issue.
Smartphones use lithium-ion batteries for energy storage. In such battery, lithium metal and lithium ions move in and out of individual electrodes, causing them to physically expand and contract. However, such processes are not completely reversible and the batteries lose their charge capacity and voltage as the number of charges and discharge cycles grows.
Our mobile battery life depends on two factors:
If you too experience certain battery life issues in smartphones, then checkout these 7 tips and tricks to extend your battery life.
You can check in your settings which apps on your phone are consuming the most power. A lot of times its just one or two apps using all the battery in the background. Once you force stop these apps, they automatically save up a lot on phone battery life. Many of these high power consuming apps are killing your phone's battery, therefore it is always better to look out for those.
Normal lithium-ion batteries for mobile phones usually keep 80% of their charge capacity after 300-500 charge/discharge cycles. Unfortunately, batteries rarely produce this level of performance, with charge storage capacity sometimes reduced to 80% levels within only 100 cycles.
However, we can extend future phone battery capacity by limiting how much we discharge our mobile phone batteries. With most battery degradation occurring during deep discharge/charge cycles, it is better to limit the battery discharge during any one cycle before charging it again.
We need to make sure that the temperature to keep our phones is just right. The ideal range of temperature to keep our phone ranges between 0-45 degree Celsius. Any temperature higher or lower than that will negatively affect your phone's battery.
Location service on your phone uses a lot of battery power, and therefore you must make sure to turn off location when you're not using apps that require location services. Some apps that usually use location are SnapChat, Uber, maps, or games such as Pokémon Go.
That shaking of your phone is shaking off a lot of energy, in our case battery power. So it is better you turn off the vibration if you want to make your phone's battery last longer.
The simplest method to save battery life while maintaining full-function is to lower the brightness of the screen. For devices that have an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, you can also use the "light on dark" option for viewing. Not only it is better for the eyes in the dark, it will also help save your phone battery.
If you turn off your cellular network and switch to Airplane mode, it will disable GSM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and GPS functions on your devices. When turning off all these high power consuming functions, the device will use only up to 5% of its usual energy consumption with the screen off.
The introduction of microwave cooking technology has made working the kitchen a cakewalk. If you are a not-so-keen cook who is trying their hand at home cooked food, say for a better lifestyle choice or mere experimental reasons, microwave oven cooking can help you hack the game and even sparkle a new interest in your culinary skills. Using this very technology, there are many recipes you can cook in microwave oven in minutes.
These ovens do come with a choice of auto cook menus which can prepare for you delicious gourmet at the ease of pressing a button. But now if you are trying to up your game a notch, and go past ready-to-eat finger foods and instant cup noodles, go for some home cooking recipe books specially written for microwave cooking. Unlike popular belief, a wide range of cuisines and cooking styles can be pulled off with ease and exceptional taste; from grilling and baking, to continental and even heavy Indian preparations. Also, the food prepared will not consume heavy and gaudy spices, and won’t compromise on the nutrients and texture like other heat-cooking styles. Now that’s a winner deal!
To get you started, here is our selection of 5 top selling microwave cooking recipe guides;
Bring home one now, and start experimenting gourmet!
Proper ventilation and circulation of air is important in any fireplace to keep the surroundings safe from harmful smoke and provide fresh air draft to facilitate the burning flame. In a similar fashion, chimneys are necessary and play an important role in any kitchen, keeping the cooking area free of strong odour, heat and oil reduce. But for the chimney to be efficient and be able to perform well, it is vital to select the appliance appropriate to your needs.
The kitchen chimney must be placed directly above the gas stove to cover the complete area which will expel heat, so that the chimney can take in the hot air rising above and collect the oil and smoke effectively. For these purposes, it is essential to buy a chimney at least the size of the gas stove, or larger, but definitely not smaller. Standard sizes available are of 60cm and 90cm, suitable for 2 to 4 and 3 to 5 burner stoves respectively. To leave room for a gas stove upgrade, you can buy a chimney larger in width than your existing stove.
Ultimately the power and effectiveness of the chimney will be determined by the suction power. The thumb rule for a chimney suction power calculator is to multiply the volume of your kitchen into 10, meaning that the appliance must be able to process 10 times the volume of the kitchen area in an hour. So if your kitchen volume is 40m3, then you at least need 400m3/hr of suction power.
As you will find yourself scrolling through catalogues from different brands and manufacturers, you will notice how these simple and common kitchen appliances have complex classifications and designs to suit every purpose. There are many ways you can classify your kitchen chimney, based on properties like;
On the basis of its external structure and appearance, chimneys can be categorised into;
Three different installation types can also help distinguish between types of chimneys;
All chimneys don’t have the same mechanisms of functioning. Broadly, there are two technologies used in kitchen chimneys.
There are other variables which must be kept in mind which can affect the effectiveness of your kitchen chimney;
While buying a new refrigerator or upgrading from an older one, there are a few things you must keep in mind even before you start browsing your catalogues.
Deciding the correct size of refrigerator is probably the most important decision you’d need to make since all refrigerators more or less serve the same purpose indeed. This decision of yours would be influenced by three major factors.
Can’t stress this enough but refrigerators are long term investments made for at least 10 years kept in mind. If you have a large family or see it gets larger in the years to come, or say the use the appliance getting more in the future where you cook for more than one meal at a time etc., go for a larger appliance.
You may also want to check out the volume distribution of the refrigerator for different storage compartments like vegetable crisper drawers and freezers; they too influence the size of refrigerator you need.
If your have a tendency to store many food items that need deep freezer storage, or you deep freeze few seasonal items for long periods (like mango pulp for example), you can include this while deciding overall refrigerator capacity. In some cases, buyers may even consider a separate deep freezer itself if they have the space and budgets for the same in their cooking areas.
General guide given to new refrigerator buyers;
Number of Users | General Capacity Guide |
---|---|
1 adult | 40-100 Liters |
Bachelors, Couples + child | 150-250 Liters |
Nuclear Family | 250-350 Liters |
4 adults, 2 adults + 4 kids | 250-500 Liters |
Large family, 4 adults + 2 kids | 250-500 Liters |
If you are replacing an already existing refrigerator in the same installation spot, go for an upgrade only vertically. In case you want a higher capacity fridge than your older one, make sure the width of the new fridge isn’t more, just taller in height.
For a newly modeled kitchen or new space for a refrigerator, measure the volume of the available space. Refrigerators advertise internal volume is cubic feet and liters, but the internal capacity is a lot smaller than the actual space volume it occupies.
Leave good margins of 2 inches on all sides and top of the refrigerator. The heat from the fridge needs to be dispensed out so no matter what, don’t miss this step out. It is also important to measure the doorways of your apartment if the refrigerator can be easily brought into the home and installed without making adjustments in the doorframes and surroundings.
If you are placing your refrigerator in a corner spot, make sure you don’t opt for a model that opens doors in two opposite directions. A top/bottom freezer options or single door variant would be the most ideal for you.
If you are tight on space on either sides of the refrigerator, that is when you go for French doors and side by side refrigerators, since you’ll only have a half width of the refrigerator width to swing open.
Even if you think you’ll be able to accommodate a slightly slimmer single sided door refrigerator, keep in mind that you will be required to open the refrigerator doors more than 90 degrees to be able to swing freely and pull out vegetable boxes and shelves for easy access and cleaning purposes.