Cool tools really work. A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We only post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted. Tell me what you love.
Dual USB/12V travel adapter
I've been using this multi-use car charger in our older camper van for over a year. With two cigarette lighter ports and two USB ports, it is by far the best auto accessory for us power users and road warriors. It comes configured to plug into an unused cigarette lighter receptacle, but can also be installed with either double sided tape (included) or using removable tabs and screws (included) to permanently mount inside a vehicle. I wired ours directly to the Eurovan's wiring to replace the single cigarette lighter port near the driver's seat. Very heavy duty in construction, it's built like a tank. No heat, no troubles. It's made a great addition to the vehicle, which we use frequently during the summer and winter for multi-day trips. Now we can routinely power up our cell phones, window-mounted TomTom GPS and a laptop (with a 100W max inverter). The USB ports have worked great to power everything we've hooked up to it: iPod, cell phones, Bluetooth kit. While most chargers and inverters I've seen max out at 10 or 15 amps, this one handles 20 amps, which is enough for all four devices to charge at the same time. The total power we pull from this charger when simultaneously charging is maybe 10 amps, but it's great to have the option of using a bigger inverter to pull additional power. This unit also sports a removable 20A fuse on the back panel should anything go awry. The instruction sheet is clear and shows how to wire the unit to your vehicle without too much fuss. At under $20, an awesome deal.
-- Robert Cullinan
Multi-Use Car Charger
$16
Available from Amazon
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kwikSynCh Dual USB Charger
Vehicle-Dependent Expedition Guide
Heavy-duty, multi-purpose double stepladder
This is the only big ladder I own. It works great as an extension ladder for painting, cleaning the gutters or reaching any of those high places. Like the Little Gorilla, it can be re-configured as a step ladder, so you can use it anywhere there is no wall to lean against. But like the previously-reviewed Green Bull Double Front Ladder, this ladder also has steps on both sides, allowing two painters to work at the same time (the max capacity is 375 lbs). The Werner definitely offers the best of both worlds. More expensive, yes. But surprisingly lightweight for a ladder this strong. I've had mine for more than 10 years with no sign of wear or tear. My dad is still using the one he bought in the '70s.
-- Dan McCulley
Werner Combination Step/Extension Ladder
$322
(8ft.)
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Werner
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Ladder Levelers
Deep-Step Safety Ladder
Access All Areas
Travel-size, floor pump
The Topeak Turbo Morph is a lightweight frame pump that functions like a floor pump. It has a fold-out anchor for your foot, and the handle also flips sideways into a T-shape. It's also got a hose, so you can easily inflate the tire while it's mounted on the bike. Before getting the Turbo Morph about two years ago, I had a tiny frame pump that was just this side of useless. Most portable bicycle pumps are designed to be used exclusively with your arms/hands. Since they attach directly to the tire, they're cumbersome to use and difficult to get to the full tire pressure. Contrast this to the floor pump in your garage. You anchor it with your feet and use your body weight to power it. Unfortunately, they are also too large to easily carry with you. I tried another "mini foot pump" before the Topeak, but it wouldn't quite work with a Presta adapter. With my other frame pumps, I'd spend more time inflating the tire than I would fixing it, and it would be hard getting the thing past 60 PSI. With this pump, I can get the tire to its full 120 PSI in just a couple of minutes. I have the G model, which has a built-in gauge. More convenient to have a gauge on the pump than to have to carry a separate one. But if you've already got a gauge, then you probably won't want the gauge version. I have puncture-resistant tires, but the key word is "resistant." I still wind up getting a flat a couple times a year. This is well worth carrying.
-- Joe D.
Topeak Turbo Morph Bike Pump
$29
(w/gauge)
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Topeak
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EcoBlast
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ReAir Duster
Converts buckets to air-tight containers
This product turns an empty pail into a more useful item: a resealable pail that's strong enough for stacking and sitting. I started using the lids because I just wanted a seat for my fishing pail. It does more than that, though. Keeps everything inside nice and dry (like my camera). And when I'm done, it will seal up the fish I bring home with no fishy water getting out in my car. The lid has two parts: one snaps onto your pail and a gasket seals it tight. The second part is a removable screw in/out center piece also with a gasket for an air- and watertight seal. They fit 3.5 - 7-gallon pails. I happened upon them in the in the livestock section of my local Farm and Fleet store. So far, I have only used mine for fishing. However, I have purchased several more to use for storage around the house. Just need to get the pails. A local pool company sometimes throws out larger buckets, which I'm hoping to reuse.
-- Dave Friese
The Gamma Lid creates a useful object from trash and works with simplicity and perfection. A hammer and a bit of scrap wood can help secure the outer ring onto the rim of the bucket. After that, the inner disc-shaped lid threads neatly onto the outer ring, leaving you with a solid, easy-to-open, waterproof lid that can replace those pry-off tops that shred your fingertips. I have used these for about five years. You can get free, clean, food grade buckets at most large food store bakeries. At present, I store rice and bulk grains in them (a 20-lb. bag of rice fits nicely into a three-gallon bucket). I have also used them as a food bucket for a big wall climb in Yosemite and on river trips to store food. Stunningly simple and effective.
-- John Godino
Gamma Seal Lid
$8
Available from Amazon
$39
(six lids)
Available from Pierce-Ohio
Manufactured by Gamma Plastics
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Compared with my previous visit to Japan 12 years ago, the most noticeable change I find today is in the bathroom. The "Incredible Squirting Toilet" has achieved almost total market penetration, and not just in middle-income homes. It even appears in fast-food restaurants and in public facilities in railroad stations.
As you lower yourself to the thermostatically warmed seat, a concealed motor whirs briefly, providing your first clue that you are about to encounter a piece of highly sophisticated technology. The toilet then remains silent and passive until you reach the point where you would normally apply paper. Instead, you hit the spray button. A hidden tube extends itself beneath you, and with the precision of a heat-seeking missile, it directs a spray of warm water that simultaneously tickles, stimulates, and cleans the place that needs it most. While its aim is meticulous, you can adjust its penetration by gently flexing your sphincter muscle. The experience is so unexpectedly and uniquely pleasurable, I found myself tempted to visit the toilet repeatedly just for recreational purposes.
Paper is needed only to mop up the water when the spray jet has done its work, but such is the effectiveness of the washing action, you will find no visible trace of fecal matter on the sheets of tissue, and can don your underwear in the happy knowledge that you have been cleaned by the same impeccable Japanese engineering that brought the world Honda motorcycles, 170-mile-an-hour trains, and robotic talking dogs.
Higher-end versions of the squirting toilet eliminate the need for paper entirely, by allowing the option of warm-air drying. They also provide adjustment of the water-cleaning jet, including a pulsatile flow which I found especially pleasurable. And for those in Western countries who are sufficiently uninhibited to allow themselves the pleasures of using this rectal equivalent of a water-pic, I have good news: The squirting toilet is available as an imported item and can be retrofitted to older bathroom equipment (you simply swap out the seat). Toto, the primary Japanese manufacturer, offers the most basic model under the name Washlet C100, and if you browse online you can find it for around US$500. This has only the most basic features; you can pay more for more advanced models, including one that welcomes you by raising its lid when it sees you approaching.
A note for female readers: The squirting toilet has a second tube which can be deployed by women who wish to cleanse their labial areas, but for anatomical reasons I was unable to test this personally.
-- Charles Platt
$755
(model: S300)
Available from Amazon
Manufactured by Washlet
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Toilet Lid Sink
BB-50 Natural Water Bio-Bidet
Toto Ultramax Toilet
I got this great tip from marketing innovator Seth Godin. I think its a good one for anyone putting on a conference or large meeting. Like Seth, I attend many conferences and the time and manner in which the organizers are thanked is not effective or efficient. Seth has a small improvement I plan to adopt:
Approximately 5% of the official welcome speech consists of a litany of thanks. The list is impossible to remember, said too fast and dull. Not only is this a total waste of time for most attendees, it doesn't even satisfy the core objective, which is thanking and rewarding the folks who helped. And it certainly doesn't encourage others to look forward to helping out.
The solution is pretty simple, thanks to Powerpoint and digital cameras.
Prepare for the talk by taking pictures of each person. If they're shy, you can even do photographs in groups of two or three. Good photos, clever photos, funny photos... photos that are interesting are best.
Then, create a new presentation. Put each photo on its own slide, preferably with a well designed ID below it (it should be on a black box, with a nice sans serif font reversed out. Like you see on cable TV news.)
String one after the other. Build a dissolve transition between each one. Program it to put up a new slide every two seconds--don't go too slow!--and to loop the presentation.
Ten minutes before you're due to start, while everyone is finding their seats, run the presentation. It'll cycle 5 or 10 times before you start speaking. When you get up, start your presentation and just dive into the meaty stuff.
Every single person you feature will be famous! "Hey, I saw you in that loop!"
And you won't have wasted your valuable presentation time.
-- from Seth's Blog by Seth Godin
Real movies-on-demand
Real movies the instant you want them have been expected for ... well... at least 100 years. You think of a movie, then you can watch it. This trick has been tried scores of times over the past decades, but never seemed to work. Clunky boxes. Expensive contracts. No choices. Weird constraints. Lousy pictures. But now, finally, the trick works.
The Roku box from Netflix allows you to watch movies on your TV whenever you want to, for no extra charge, in DVD quality. It is a tiny thing that sets up in a few minutes. If you have wi-fi in your household it will link up to that so you can put the box near your TV. For achieving such a complex task it has a remarkably simple interface and no-fuss approach, very similar to an iPod. We were watching a movie within ten minutes of opening the shipping box.
You use a small clicker to control your Netflix queue on your TV. Movies are streamed (no waiting beyond a few seconds at the start) in unexpected big-screen TV quality. I don't know how they do it. It is miles better than the streaming on those little YouTube boxes. There is no noticeable stutter, blobs, lags, or hiccups. But it ain't hi-def, either.
The service is a joy to use. You manage your queue -- adding and re-ording flicks -- on your computer, and the Roku box automatically syncs up. Back at the TV you click through the instant choices, pick one, and in a few seconds the movie starts. You can pause, change movies, and resume the first where you left off.
Here's the kicker: you can watch as many movies (no ads) as you care to. There is no extra charge beyond the basic Netflix monthly (and you can still get them mailed to you as DVDs if you prefer). Ten movies a month or a hundred. Anytime. This thing is dangerous.
Here's the only caveat: so far only about 10% of the total Netflix catalog is available for instant download. But that total is naturally swelling by the day.
The Roku box is cheap at $100. You can watch all the instant Netflix movies for free without it, if you want to hook your PC up to a large screen, or watch on your monitor. Since the Roku is so small and wireless we can move it to our projector and stream movies to the big wall.
It's a nicely done cool tool.
-- KK
Roku
$100
Available from Roku
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True Films 2.0
Roku SoundBridge
Classic guide to low-cost subterranean dwelling
My wife and I had some property, but not enough money to build a house without going into debt. We enjoyed staying in a cave B&B in France and love the Troglodyte dwellings in Trôo, France. After consulting several books, including one by Rob Roy, this book just made the most sense. The methods are so low tech, a bum could make himself a mansion. Other books get into engineering with concrete, steel, rebar, etc., which cost a fortune and don't necessarily function any better and, in some cases, maybe not as well. With this book and the videos, which are a must if you get serious, you really can build a home for the cost of a roll of plastic and a few other items, provided you do the labor by hand and scrounge materials.
Mike explains succinctly what took him years to figure out and you may might never discover otherwise: how to get in light from all four sides, how to protect untreated wood, how to connect the log post and beams together with pins made of low cost rebar, how to evenly compact the earth backfill by hand as to allow nature to finish the job (the backfill also functions as earthquake bracing keeping you tight under the surface rather than hinging at the point where the building meets the ground, a method similar to what Frank Lloyd did to prevent quake damage in Japan). Mike shows how to make a foyer or a gable to keep water flowing around the door opening rather than across it. Skylights are notorious for leaking, even on a conventional house. So Mike invented the "sun scoop," a method I used that allows natural light to shoot right through the full length of the underground complex at different times of the day and year depending on your design and desires. He also shows how to make clerestory windows to let light into the high side of the house through an uphill patio or a wraparound.
I was a bit skeptical at first. How could all of this work and be so cheap? This type of dwelling is not for everyone, but if you do it right it really does provide great shelter. There are engineering tables in the back of the book providing rule of thumb guides and safety information. It won't get you something that will pass a code inspection, but I'm of the opinion codes and building regulations are written in part to provide sales for corporations and taxes for the government. A friend of ours designed a small underground house. She wanted to go with engineers and permits. Last estimate: $1.5 million dollars. And she has yet to get it approved. Sadly, she will never build her dream. This book even has a chapter of strategies for getting around that. Keep in mind, too, this book is not a house plan. You learn how to build nearly any design you want. Just put the safe framing building blocks together in a design that suits you, keeping the important rules and directions in mind. After the basic structural requirements are met, the only limit is your imagination...
We started our house in 2002 and had a very crude shelter within a couple months. I framed in about 2,000 square feet, made about a thousand or so fairly comfortable, and continue to expand into it as we need it. We have a studio apartment area, a master bedroom and two bathrooms, as well as a porch area with a conversation pit, uphill patio, green house and shop. We have added a large garden to raise much of our own food, a carport, wood shed and two-story rammed earth, rock and salvaged boat dock and bridge timber garage. With natural earth temps around 50 at night, only a small fire in the wood stove is required to keep things warm. The roof is a garden. It feeds and shelters us and provides a park-like setting with flowers all around. There is no exterior painting required. Nothing to become an eyesore as the paint chips and deteriorates and the shingles rot off. Sure it takes maintenance and there are issues to deal with but if you build it, you will be intimate enough with it to know what to do.
My home is growing. It's alive. It changes with time and will be here as long as we want it. Or if we leave and no one cares for it, it will someday revert back to the earth from which it came, to be just another one of natures reclaimed gardens.
-- Glenn Kangiser
The $50 and Up Underground House Book
Mike Oehler
1981, 116 pages,
$20
Available from Amazon
More info and videos available from UnderGroundHousing
Sample Excerpts:
Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:
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Will Your Home Survive?
Mongolian Cloudhouses
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