Remember, too, when considering bulbs, price isn't the whole story. Be sure you're getting a bargain on the size -- a low nominal price isn't a bargain if it's on tiny, starter bulbs that won't give you a good performance, IMO. All reputable companies will state the diameter of the bulbs -- compare it to other companies' prices on the same size and quality/grade. You can get decent bulbs at local stores sometimes, but you do have to be careful there. Many times they are very small. And, sometimes the quality is bad, diseased or whatever. I buy both locally and through mail order, and overall I'd say buying from someone like Van Engelen or Brent and Becky's gives you the best quality. But it definitely pays to pick up bargain bulbs on clearance late in the fall. Last year, I found bulbs for about 80% off at Meijer, a regional superstore chain in the midwest. Not the best bulbs in terms of size, but for $1 a bag for roughly 10 tulips or 25 crocus it was a real bargain. Dumped them all in the ground or pots just before Thanksgiving, and they did fine this spring.

Like any other, similar, product the toxicity, whether it is a carcinogen, whether it will disrupt your reproductive system, or whether it is an endocrine disrputor is unknown due to a lack of adequate studies. Aside from that it is a very expensive product, not something the average homeowner really needs to spend money on. Very carefull application of this product on those "weeds" will be necessary since this is a very braod spectrum plant killer and will kill off, for a short time, anything it contacts. A similar product was sprayed on the "weeds" growing in our church parking lot 6 weeks ago and the "weeds" are growing in again.

FWIW.....my RO water comes out at 5 or 10 TDI depending on location. Personally, I have always preferred Hinkley & Schmitt's bottled water which is, basically, RO water with added minerals and reads about 25-30 TDI. Other vendors' waters have about the same TDI but taste different to different palettes. Many people think RO water tastes flat, kinda like distilled water does. Many people -- including me -- prefer this minerals-added "drinking water" version taste-wise. All I can say is I much prefer my RO water to unprocessed tap water at my location because we have miserable tasting tap-water. Exactly what your processed water will taste like after adding this additional module is something only you can evaluate. I agree with justalurker....give it a shot and see what you think. At this moment I'm considering upgrading my own Kinetico RO unit (18 years old and working OK, except no more parts) with the new K5. My intention if/when I change over is to try their mineral-adding module also. However, I have no idea -- and they don't either -- whether I will like it. Individual taste at work. Kinetico's module costs about $90 so it's a serious consideration. It will need to be good for me to continue using them.

One good place to start is with this idea that a kitchen needs to be remodeled every five years and of course necessitating all new appliances. Ironic you should speak of refrigerators. I just replaced mine a few weeks back. Yes, it seems that it should last more than 28 years, and yes it's possible it could have been repaired but repair costs would likely have been near the cost of replacement. Sometimes, though it's better to repair than replace, but that's another topic. I did some thinking about cost comparison between the two refrigerators. Neither were bottom of the line, obviously nowhere near top of the line. In 1982 I paid about $675 (plus tax) for a refrigerator, the cheapest available about then IIRC was around $500-$550. I don't recall if I paid extra for delivery and disposal. I might have but since I don't remember I won't include it. This was 1982 dollars which according to The Inflation Calculator puts it at $1480.92 in 2009 dollars. So if I bought a comparable one, which I did, I should expect to pay $1480.92 and possibly more for delivery & disposal. I bought one for $380 (plus tax), including delivery which means I could buy nearly four for the price that I paid for my old one. Practically speaking, this means that if this lasts more than seven years, and I have no reason to believe it won't, I'll be money ahead by comparison. Plus it supposedly uses "much less" electricity about which I'm skeptical but waiting to see how the bills compare down the road. Even discounting any allowance for different dollars, it was nearly $200 cheaper than my last one. It's missing one feature I fear I might miss, but has a few other features I like and were only available on much more expensive models back then. Water heaters OTOH, are troubling to me. I don't see any reason why a water heater life should be 1/4 - 1/2 of what it was only a few decades ago. But it comes down to a simple thing. We in North America seldom buy for quality, despite what we purport. We buy for price and always try to get it cheaper, or at least the illusion of it being cheaper, that illusion for which many will pay any price.