You cannot go wrong with Hallsons. I plan to place an order for fall planting very soon. Others are good: "White Oak" "Plant Delight's" "Hosta Patch". Hallsons just seem to be a little more personal. And knowing that they test for that virus (which I did not know that they did until I read this post)....well it certainly makes them all the more trustworthy to me. I go with the others only when they don't have a specific hosta that I am looking for.

A few thoughts.. 1. OLD FRIDGES. In my twenties I got a 1953 International Harvestor fridge for free. Yes the freezer was small and you had to fill ice trays. However, It ran flawlessly for 10 years and was still running when I moved on for a "better" fridge. Think of that. It ran maintenance free for over THIRTY YEARS! You simply cannot buy a fridge today that will do that. (btw, 66YEARS LATER these are still being traded in running condition on Ebay for $500 bucks or so!) 2. ICE MAKERS. (and thru the door et al.) Talk to ANY repairman and she will tell you that Icemakers and thru door compononets are absolutely the most common repair problem. ESPECIALLY ice makers that are inside the fridge (rather than the freezer) for obvious reasons. (you also give up valuable storage space in the frig) An ice maker in the freezer is best but still subject to failure. However, freezing ice trays is indeed a pain. THE BEST OPTION (compromise). is an icemaker in the freezer that dumps into a tray. 3. ELECTRONICS AND COMPUTER BOARDS. Again, high failure rates across the board I don't need a computer screen on my frig. I need a frig and a freezer/ice maker with good lighting inside. PERIOD 4. THE BEST FRIG. Would be a simple good looking Stainless steel frig with a simple icemaker in the freezer. That's it. I haven't found it! If anyone does let me know! cheers

Yes, when I refer to furnace, I meant the inside air handler. The quote for a matching furnace is $3800, which I am thinking I don't need to spend, since my current air handler (a 20 yr old Rheem) is working.I do have budget restrictions, so am trying to make a compromise to get a good system. I understand that I will not get optimized performance from the heat pump, but I'm thinking it will take a long time to make a furnace upgrade pay off for these reasons: -Quebec electricity is still affordable; I currently pay about $1500 a year for my 2 storey house -the 5 companies I called (all selling different brands) all stated there was no need to waste money when the current furnace still works, although they could sell it if I wanted it -the heatpump won't work at optimum efficiency, but it will still be a lot more efficient than what I have today, so should still see savings -the aircon will only be used for 3 months of the year -the furnace takes over heating when it gets colder than -10C, which is about 4 months of the year I admit I have not done any calculations to confirm my theory, but I will attempt to do so shortly. Have been out of town last week. My current furnace is a 20KW model, which does heat up in increments. The thermostat quoted is the White Rodgers IF70.

Hello, You are using circular logic to disprove fact. It does not take a math major or an engineer to read a percentage and extrapolate the outcome. Political advisors do this on every major decision. Managers should be doing this daily. The college I attended required every student that graduated to have these tools. The college had 30,000 student when I graduated. The only people that use circular logic, are those that try to prove an unproveable statement. I see circular logic with vague conjectures daily in TV advertizing. Every brand of truck claims that they are the largest seller of trucks in Texas? Chevrolet, Dodge, Ford, Toyota, Isuzu. They could all be the biggest seller in a specific category, but TV advertizing omits the specifics. The specification could be so specific that it may be Females between 21 and 26, Black, with 3 children and a dog that are Catholic, that attend church on Saturday at 8:00pm. I told you where to find the data, and you still try to disprove the published data. I am a generalist with work experience in several engineering fields. I have worked with chemicals, and developed a patentable product for composition roof leaks. I developed a mechanical manufacturing process that has 3 patentable areas. I developed a Automobile battery Tester that I presented to a major tool company. I designed and built a retrofit kit that changed telephone pulse dialing to tone dailing for a foreign government. I designed and built a LED microscope light source for a Canadian jewlery lab. I tried to obtain research money from the DOE to develop a solar energy generator. I developed a sales organization that sold Plumbing parts, that made the company a million dollars in 1975. I designed built and tested several energy saving devices for HVAC. I designed multiple products, built prototypes, sold them. I designed and built motor speed controls, I designed and built a 3 phase generator for a customer. I designed and built improvements to automobiles. I designed and built construction products. I designed and used a tool to automatically center the hole in bearing construction used in production of conveyor rollers. This was part of a collection box for Automobile batteries. It had multiple patentable points. I designed self lubercating conveyor wheels. I designed and built a high voltage power supply tester used to train electronics technicians. I have worked with LED lighting and currently designing replacement lighting. I ran out of money, so I am attempting to find a backer. I am also currently working on a high efficiency water heat and cooling system. I will attempt to sell the concept to a local manufacturing company in January. This will be the 3rd contact and presentation. I wrote specific use software, used in ship design, boiler sizing, and Manual J calculations/ sales contract that ran on a Radio Shack model 12 computer. 1978-1982 I worked on Mainframe DSP signal processing hardware used in Seismic Interperation of geologic formations. (Oil and Gas) When the programmers wrote communications software, I troubleshot it and determined why it would not work. This company is now a billion dollar company with offices all over the world. I am omitting several areas that I did not make a profit in, but this should satisfy your attempt to find my skill level. The reason that Dupont used a 50% replacement was because this is a maximum condition. 4% is not a reasonable reduction in capacity. Maybe in America when selling to HO's and uninformed people. Japan strives to maintain a 1% or less reject or loss ratio. As stated previously, 4% on a hot day equates to an uncomfortable environment, that soon fails to cool. It really doesnt matter. After multiple additions of f410a, the result is degraded capacity. Many techs never find the leak, and continue to add freon. This normally falls below the minimum standards specified by the EPA. Many techs add freon to systems regardless of the need, because the bill is larger. I am suggesting that every service call is a chance to add freon to the system. This increases the loss of cooling capacity. In Hot climate, the ambient causes a major loss when using todays method of sizing systems with Man J. Trying to meet Texas size standards for new construction is almost impossible using normal design technique. 4% will kill a new system quickly in over 100f degree days, and require yearly addition of Freon to the system. I have found many systems that leak during the winter, from bad schrader valves. Most techs don't care, they gas and go. I have supervised construction in the USA and Canada. I have supervised production manufacturing and several other production lines. I owned and operated a service company for 10 years. I have installed many machines all over the USA. For this site I have posted 14 topics of interest as a FAQ editor? Kinda mind boggling isnt it?