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Ooni Koda Gas-Powered Outdoor Pizza Oven review

REVIEW – Back in October of last year, I reviewed the Ooni 3 portable outdoor pizza oven. In February of this year, Ooni introduced their new portable gas-powered outdoor pizza oven the Ooni Koda. I really liked the Ooni 3 so you know I couldn’t pass on the opportunity to test out the companies newest addition. After all, what’s better than one pizza oven? Two pizza ovens of course.

What is it?

The Ooni Koda is a gas-powered outdoor pizza oven that can reach temperatures up to 932º in 15 minutes and cook a Neapolitan-style pizza in just 60-seconds.

What’s in the box?

  • Ooni Koda gas-powered pizza oven
  • Stone baking board
  • Ooni Koda Manual and Ooni Essentials Guide with tips and recipes
  • Propane tank gas regulator and hose 
  • Telescoping match holder

Design and features

In a word the Ooni Koda’s design is sexy. Yes, I just called a pizza oven sexy. The black powder-coated carbon steel shell and silver aluminum accented front reminded me of a sports car. The ovens shape is even aerodynamic looking. With Koda, Ooni not only made a pizza oven they designed a functional conversation piece that anyone would be proud to have on their patio or deck.

Koda is Ooni’s first gas-only powered pizza oven. Using gas means you can relax and concentrate on making your pizza.

The control/ignition knob is located on the back of the oven along with the propane tank gas regulator and hose.

There are 3 foldable legs on the bottom of the oven.

The legs are nearly twice as long as those on the Ooni 3, allowing for easier access to the oven while cooking.

Unlike the Ooni 3, the Koda doesn’t have a chimney. Instead, there are heat vents located on the bottom rear of the oven, adding to its overall compact design.

The oven weighs just over 20 lbs, and the portable compact design makes it perfect for any outdoor space.

Ready, set, cook

Koda is literally designed to be used right out of the box. All you have to do is unfold the legs, insert the stone and connect to your gas supply. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

Firing up the oven is easy using the quick ignition knob. All you have to do is turn on your propane tank and twist the knob to ignite the oven. The dial also gives you more control of the ovens internal temperature.

The oven only takes about 10-15 minutes to get up to temperature, thanks to the insulated steel shell and stone baking board. According to Ooni the perfect temp for cooking pizza is right around 752º. I used an infrared thermometer and started cooking my pizza when the center of the baking board reached a temp 755º.

I also turned the control knob down to keep the oven from getting too hot. In my experience using the Ooni 3, I found that if the oven got too hot, it would burn the pizzas toppings.

As far as making the actual pizza is concerned I highly recommend using Ooni’s pizza dough recipe. It’s an easy recipe with the key ingredient being 00 flour. 00 flour is very fine and high in protein, which helps it become stretchy and easy to work with. It also produces a great tasting crust.

And you can freeze any leftover dough balls for next time.

For me, stretching the dough is the toughest part of making a pizza. But like with anything else practice makes perfect. So by the time this summer is over my pizza making game should be on point.

Once the dough is stretched out, and the pizza is topped its time to get it in the oven. Since the Koda cooks so quickly the key is to rotate your pizza about every 20 seconds or so. This allows it to cook evenly and get that nice charred crust. Check out my time-lapse video below.

My first pizza of the season was a rousing success. It tasted fantastic!

The crust was crispy on the outside and soft and chewy inside. I said this about the Ooni 3, and it holds true with Koda. The pizza is as good as any that I’ve ever had from a restaurant.

Making your own pizza from start to finish at home is kinda fun too.

And don’t forget you can also use Koda to cook vegetables, fish, and meats super fast too.

What I like

  • Sexy design
  • Portable and compact
  • Easy to use
  • Makes a great tasting pizza in 60-90 seconds
  • Ready to cook in under 15 minutes

What needs to be improved

  • Pizza peel is not included

Final thoughts

Like the Ooni 3, the Ooni Koda is an outstanding pizza oven. It has a great design, it’s portable, super easy to use and most importantly it makes a great tasting Neopolitan-style amazingly fast. There’s absolutely no better and affordable way to make homemade pizza than with the Ooni Koda. So if you’re a pizza lover or just a fan of outdoor cooking, do yourself a favor and check out what the folks over at Ooni are doing. 

Price: $299
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Ooni.

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Ooni Koda Gas-Powered Outdoor Pizza Oven review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 15, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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Eve Energy Strip power strip review

REVIEW – We are moving closer and closer to having our entire house controlled by our voices between Amazon’s Alexa and Apple HomeKit. Having previously review the Eve Flare portable light, I was excited to also get a chance to review the Eve Energy Strip, another Apple HomeKit compatible device.

What is it?

The Eve Energy Strip is a 3 port power strip with surge protection, overcurrent protection and overvoltage protection, that is also compatible with Apple HomeKit – which means it can be controlled via Siri voice commands.

What’s in the box?

  • Eve Energy Strip
  • Instruction Manual
  • Warranty Info
  • Quick Connect Guide

Design and features

The power strip has a 6.3 ft cord, so plugging it in and then tucking it in behind or under furniture along a wall is pretty easy. It has an aluminum frame and black matte finish on the face of the device. Three buttons with LED indicators allow for manual control of the three outlets, and give a clear indication of whether the plug is currently active or off. There are also separate LED indicators to show proper grounding and surge protection. There is a surge indicator on the side of the unit if a surge protection occurs it will pop out and to reset the unit you just push it back in.

Setup

The first step is to download the Eve app onto your phone. Then it’s a pretty painless app guided set-up that involves plugging in the unit, getting it connected to your wifi and then assigning the individual plugs to the type of device that will be utilized. For us, we put it in the bedroom to control our fan, air humidifier, and sub-woofer for our sound system. Set-up couldn’t have been easier and the app does a great job of guiding you through each step.

Performance

After set-up, it’s simply a matter of telling Siri to “Turn on Fan” or “Turn off Air Humidifier” – whatever item you’ve assigned to the outlets. If you have an iPad that stays at home on the same wifi as the power strip, you can then set it up to turn items on and off while you’re away. This would be highly beneficial if you use this for lighting in an entry or if you leave in daylight & come home after dark. Additionally, you can use Apple HomeKit automation tools to have, for instance, outlets controlling lights to activate when you come home – triggering off your phone connecting to your wifi when you arrive home. Here are some screenshots of our set up:

So from the main “room” menu, you can see each item and its current status. Here you can manually control the On/Off function as well. By clicking on one of the items, you can go into the detail of the overall unit.

Here we get into the meat of the app utility, where you can schedule on/off times, look at consumption & projected cost per day as well as total consumption. Then there is the bar chart showing the usage by hour. There is quite a bit of information pulled into the app for a simple power strip, in my opinion.

Initially, the plug and Siri seemed to have a bit of an issue communicating. Several times as I got ready for bed and told Siri to turn on the fan and air humidifier, it had problems communicating – but this may be an issue with our wifi, so I’m not going to hold this against the product. Over time though, it has become very consistent and reliable with either my wife or me using our phones to activate Siri’s commands.

What I like

  • Easy command use with Siri to activate or deactivate plugs
  • Surge Protection for our devices and surge protection indicator
  • Sleek Design
  • Long cord
  • Manual buttons to turn on/off in case wifi isn’t working or you’re just nearby

What needs to be improved

  • More plugs, having only 3 plugs is a bit limiting
  • Possibly add USB ports as many items are now powered directly via USB

Final thoughts

We love the Eve Energy Strip, it provides us an easy way to control the devices we use every night and provides the surge protection that gives a bit of peace of mind against some of the major storms here in Colorado. Incorporating it into our HomeKit devices and automations was easy as well. The only thing I could find for improvement, I kind of felt I was knit-picking in wanting more outlets and possibly some USB ports. For those looking for more automation and voice control capabilities for home electronics, this is an ideal unit to add to your connected home. Eve seems to be rapidly expanding its product line, and I’m pretty impressed with their products thus far.

Price: $99.92 on Amazon or $99.95 on Tink.us
Where to buy: Amazon and Tink.us
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Eve.

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Eve Energy Strip power strip review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2019 at 10:17 am.

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Tineco A11 HERO Vacuum review


REVIEW – When I first saw the Tineco A11 HERO vacuum, it immediately reminded me of the current similar and very famous brand vacuum that I own and have been using for quite a while. The main glaring difference is that this vacuum is available for half the price. Hmm!! I wonder if its performance is even close. Let’s see!!

What is it?

The Tineco A11 HERO Vacuum is a portable rechargeable battery powered vacuum that is versatile enough to be used for carpets, floors, stairs, couches, blinds, etc. It can also be used for your car.

What’s in the box


1 x Tineco A11 Vacuum Main Body
1 x Extension Tube
1 x Full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush
1 x Mini Power Brush
1 x 2-in-1 Dusting Brush
1 x Crevice Tool
1 x Extra Battery
1 x Powerhouse Storage/Charging Base
1 x Pre-Filter Cleaning Tool & Extra Pre-filter
1 x Hair Cleaning Tool

Design and features

Features

      • Two batteries for a total of 60 minutes runtime
      • Enhanced extreme suction
      • Inside-out beautility
      • Dual charging powerhouse Base
      • 4 stages of fully-sealed filtration system
      • Continuous power mode switch lock
      • Rinse-free pre-filter cleaning tool
      • 450W digital motor 120W suction power
      • 50% larger one-touch-empty dustbin

Specifications


The main components of this vacuum that would be most often used are shown in the first photo below. They are the main body of the vacuum, the battery, and the extension tube. These would be used along with the full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush for general vacuuming of carpets and floors, etc. All other uses would involve adding one of the included accessories.


The following illustration shows the parts/functions of the main body of the vacuum:

The base storage/charging unit has a cable storage capability on the bottom.


The picture below shows the storage/charging base with the main body of the vacuum inserted along with the spare battery, and some of the accessories which in this case are the crevice tool and the pre-filter cleaning tool.


As seen above, the storage/charging base has a built-in clip/slot on the side that allows for the storage of the long vacuum tube extension and attached accessory such as the power brush.


Performance

Having used an expensive famous brand of this type of vacuum for a few years, I have to be honest and say that I did not know what to expect and that I really did not expect much. Unboxing it was very simple and within minutes I was ready for testing on my living room carpet. And, what a surprise!! The first thing I liked was the power button lock that allows you to lock the spring loaded power button in place and to vacuum without having to keep a finger on the button. So, I turned it on, locked the button in place and started vacuuming. It did a pretty good job in the standard mode, and then I pressed the “Max” button for maximum suction, and the effect was just great. This vacuum will suck up just about any dirt and debris in the “Max” suction mode, and with its large size canister, it can take care of a whole lot of square footage without any need to empty the canister. Then there is the feature of the removable battery and the fact that a second battery is included. My problem with the famous brand vacuum that I already own is that when I select the maximum suction option, the charge lasts about 12 to 15 minutes and then I have to place the entire vacuum back on the charger and wait for what seems like forever before it is fully charged and ready to go again. With this vacuum, I can just swap out the batteries, and keep going. I am quite sure that in standard more I can get about an hour of vacuuming out of the 2 batteries collectively, but I always use it in the maximum suction mode which gives me about 15 minutes each.

The next feature that I love is the pre-filter that is reusable and the cleaning tool that you just attach to the vacuum that cleans the pre-filter. And to make things even more convenient, an extra pre-filter is included with the vacuum. Once again, this is an issue with my previously owned famous brand vacuum because I have to wash that pre-filter and leave it to dry and I eventually had to buy an extra one to be able to use the vacuum while the initial one dried.

This vacuum has a charging/storage base that charges both the battery attached to the vacuum and the extra battery in a charging slot at the same time, so there are always 2 batteries at the ready.


The additional attachments perform all of the functions as regular vacuum including sofas and stairs, etc.

To add icing on the cake so to speak, its compact size allows me to use it to vacuum the car and solves the problem that I have been dealing with of finding a vacuum for this use that has enough suction power.

The vacuum is also attractive even when being used. The top half of the main body of the vacuum lights up nicely with blue LEDs as well as the front of the Full-size LED Multitasking Power Brush. With one touch you can switch into the maximum suction mode. You can see the vacuum in action in the video below.

What I like

  • The build quality
  • The removable battery
  • The dual battery charging function
  • The Suction power
  • The filter cleaning system
  • The portability
  • The usability time of each battery per charge
  • The included charging/storage base

What can be improved

  • It does exactly what it is designed to do and what is promised by the manufacturer

Final thoughts

This is the second vacuum of this type that is used regularly in my household. The other of this type is a famous and expensive brand that is referred to as the leader in devices of this type, (I will still not mention the brand but I am sure you can guess). This vacuum has an easily removable/swappable battery while the other brand thas an expensive battery that has to be screwed in and used as what can be considered permanent to the extent that is cannot be just swapped out during vacuuming and replaced so that you can continue. I also love the pre-filter cleaning process of this vacuum that is practical and does not involve washing and drying the filter. The suction of this vacuum is really great and since it is portable, I plan to make it the primary vacuum for the cars in my household. All of the car vacuums that I have tried lack the proper suction, but this vacuum does the trick. I am giving it two thumbs up!!

Price: $299.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Tineco

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Tineco A11 HERO Vacuum review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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SANSI A21 omni-directional LED light bulb review

REVIEW – When I first started writing for The Gadgeteer, I never in my dreams thought that I would be reviewing light bulbs. And now, I’m reviewing a second one from the same company. But SANSI has good products, and their new A21 LED is lighting my office as I type this. 5000ºK is daylight-bright. I’m finding all sorts of things in here that I’d thought I lost.

What is it?

An omnidirectional light bulb that screws into standard light-bulb sockets and shows your world in a whole different kind of light.

Design and features

When I was assigned the SANSI A21 LED bulb for review, I thought “OK, another LED replacement bulb. No big deal.” When I put this into the regular table lamp in my office and switched it on, however, I was floored. This office has never been this bright. But it’s not a harsh, other-worldly brightness. It just looks like we removed the ceiling and the sun is shining in and lighting everything up, but there are no noon-day shadows. It’s really hard to put into words what it’s like to suddenly have a skylight in a room with no construction.


It’s a light bulb. But it delivers a totally different color and intensity of light than traditional light bulbs, and uses less energy, to boot!

What I like

  • Full-range natural light
  • No warm-up or delay – flip it on, and the sun’s out.
  • Not harsh or overpowering

What needs to be improved

  • You have to start keeping up with the time because it can be full sunlight at 3 AM with this thing!

Final thoughts

$25 per bulb sounds like a lot of money, but this light is so natural and relaxing, you find yourself being more relaxed and calm. I can’t wait for winter now – SAD will not get to me!

Price: $49.99 for a 2-pack
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by SANSI.

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SANSI A21 omni-directional LED light bulb review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 14, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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Potensic AW30 (Navigator III) Drone with Camera review

REVIEW – I have been casually shopping for an entry-level camera-equipped quad-copter drone for a year or so. The opportunity to test drive the Potensic AW30 (Navigator III) came at a good time as my sons have recently expressed interest in camera-carrying drones as well. Let’s hope the AW30 fills our needs for a trainer / gateway drone.

What is it?

The Potensic AW30 (a.k.a. Navigator III) is an entry-level drone for kids and beginning enthusiasts. The AW30 packs an onboard WiFi hotspot for relaying images back to a iPhone /iPad or Android device using the company’s proprietary app. It supports video and photo capture and VR display on these devices.

What’s in the box?

The Navigator III arrived in a full color box.

On the inside flap, the charging options are listed (more on this later). No charger is included.

The full kit includes

  • AW30 / Navigator III drone
  • Spare set of propellers
  • Remote control with instructional overlay
  • Phone mount for remote
  • Rechargeable lithium ion battery
  • USB A to micro USB charging cable
  • Multi-language instruction booklet
  • Quick start strip
  • Thank you card

Design and features

The AW30 is similar to other starter drones on the market with fixed position propeller / motor arms, fixed propeller guards, a fixed front-mounted camera, and a removable lithium battery. It includes a remote control which may be used to control the drone or the drone may be flown using the downloadable iOS / Android app. The app supports photo / video capture and live views from the drone’s camera.  The app also supports limited VR capabilities using the appropriate phone mount.

Setup

Setting up the AW30 involved installing the phone holder into the specified slot in the body of the remote and installing 6 AA batteries into the back of the remote.

 

Before flight, the drone’s flight battery must be charged. I used the included cable plugged into a Bestek Vertical Power Cube, which will supply up to 2.4A per USB port based on the demands of the device being charged, to charge the flight battery. Right off the bat, I had trouble getting the cable to seat properly in the battery. When charging the battery has a red LED that lights up. A green LED lights up when the battery is fully charged.

Once charged, the battery is inserted into the bottom rear of the drone (photo shows battery partially inserted).

For the full experience, including video recording and photography requires the downloading of a iOS/Android app to an appropriate device and connecting to the WiFi hotspot in the drone. You must connect to the WiFi hot spot from your device to see live video. The app also includes flight controls that are independent of the remote operating over WiFi.

Before each flight, the drone and remote must be paired and the drone calibrated.

Controls

The controls on the included remote includes two self-centering joysticks and two self-centering toggle switches mounted in the top of the remote in addition to the power button.  The left toggle switch starts/stops video recording if pressed to the left and takes still photos if pressed to the right. The right switch toggles the smart controls, which will allow you to navigate the drone without worrying about what direction it is pointed, when pressed to the left and activates the auto takeoff / landing feature when pressed to the right.

The left joystick controls the altitude and rotation of the drone. The right joystick controls pitch and roll (nose up/down and left/right tilt). The remote will alert the pilot when the drone is flying out of range.

Performance

The piloting experience with the AW30 is much smoother than my last quadcopter. I had previously flown a DraganFlyer III. For those readers not familiar with the older DraganFlyer models, most do not have automatic gyroscopic stabilization or any other flight assistance–you are in complete control, and there is a steep learning curve coming from fixed wing flight.

Flight prep includes

  1. Turning on the remote and then the drone
  2. Pairing the remote and drone
  3. Calibrating the drone
  4. Connecting your phone to the onboard WiFi hotspot (optional)
  5. A quick press of the automatic takeoff button and the drone is airborne

Once in the air, the control trim may need to be adjusted. This is a non-intuitive process that requires using one joystick to go into trim mode and then moving the appropriate joystick to adjust the control trim. This process is much easier using the app controls.

The AW30 is quite nimble and is easy to get moving in any given direction. Like other aircraft and air-cushioned vehicles it doesn’t stop or turn on an dime. I was prepared for this, but the small size of the AW30’s rotors means that it does not respond quickly as vehicles with larger rotors.

My limited time with the AW30 was enjoyable. I was able to successfully fly the AW30 both inside and outdoors without damaging any of the propellers despite quite a few crashes while initially exploring the flight controls and then exploring the flight envelope.

Meltdown

My testing of the AW30 hampered by a battery / cable combination that would disconnect and stop the charging. This seemed to be a problem with the microUSB port in the battery itself. This meant that I would often come back to my workbench to find that the battery had not been charging for the past 2 hours so I had to wait longer to fly again. I was able to temporarily fix this problem by resting the cable and battery at a specific angle while charging.  I also changed to a known-good cable. This worked for several charging sessions. After a test flight one evening, I plugged in the battery into the 2A charger that I had been using and went to have dinner. When I came back the battery was deforming (bubbled) and a strong hot plastic smell, so I quickly disconnected the cable.

We reported this issue to the manufacturer who promised an investigation and sent out a replacement battery. I was in the process of performing a standard out-of-the-box battery top off using a 2A USB charging port and the known-good USB cable. I left the battery sitting on my workbench and walked away to grab a cup of tea. When I returned about 6 minutes later I noticed the hot plastic smell again. When I got over to the battery, the end of the battery had deformed and melted the microUSB plug into the battery charging port. I quickly unplugged the cable from the power supply. After the battery had cooled enough to handle, I examined the battery and cable. After a bit of wiggling, I was able to get the plug loose from the battery, at the cost of the port coming with it. After I separated the port and plug, I was dismayed to discover that the inside of the port was melted.

What I like

Before I had my problems, I was impressed with the

  • Price
  • Ruggedness
  • Support for VR
  • Can operate just from device without need of the remote

What needs to be improved

  • Better quality assurance for the charging cable
  • Much better current / thermal management in the battery
  • Improved trim performance when using the included remote control.

Final thoughts

Initial conclusions

The Potensic Navigator III drone is a fine toy despite the shortcomings in the flight time-to-charging time ratio. However, it shares this same problem with most other small battery-powered quadcopter aircraft. The Navigator III never lived up to the promises of it being a stable video / photo platform, as I could never get the trim dialed in to provide a stable hover, even indoors when our ventilation system wasn’t running. On the plus side, the Navigator III survived many rough “landing” and “encounters” with indoor and outdoor obstacles. The rotor guards protected the rotors from damage, and I’m still using the original rotors after 30 days. The Potensic Navigator III is a good first drone for both kids and enthusiasts to get their feet wet before upgrading to a more expensive and feature-packed aircraft. If you can master stable hovering and control with the Nagivator III, you will have saved yourself lots of trouble and money on replacement parts for your later drones.

Revised conclusions

I cannot recommend the Potensic Navigator III drone due to the persistent issues with safely charging the drone’s batteries. I have had two different batteries self destruct, with the second one taking a USB cable with it.

If Potensic can address the battery charging problem, I will reconsider this statement.

For now, save your money and your safety and steer away from the Potensic Navigator III.

Price: $69.99
Where to buy: Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Potensic.

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Potensic AW30 (Navigator III) Drone with Camera review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 13, 2019 at 11:00 am.

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