Plexiglass is not the material for an outdoor filter. While many aquariums are made from it they are not exposed to the conditions of the outdoors. It would rapidly deteriorate. In addition the view of the inside would not be very attractive. All that yuck in the scrubbies would be on display. The scrubbies could have stayed in the Skippy. Bacterial activity ended when the temperature dropped. The bacteria is definitely dead now. I assume you removed the stopper so snow melt won't be a problem. The yuck you mention might very well have been colonies of the good bacteria. They are not known for their beauty. In the spring I would allow them to dry out after shaking the yuck off and rinsing well. Then just put them back in the filter. New colonies of bacteria will develop soon but if you want to start them up more quickly you can add bacteria from a bottle. Watering tanks like the Rubbermaid tank come as small as 50 gallons. They can take all sorts of weather in stride. The rounded corners avoid 'dead spots'and the whirling water feeds the bacteria very nicely. You can always order new materials on the internet. Sandy

UPDATE: Well...I sent the Floormate back and went out and bought a Hoover MaxExtract 77, which is supposed to be a multi-floor cleaner. Paid $389.00 for the thing and after I read the blurbs on the box, was very excited that it would work even better - until I tried it last night on my hardwood floor in the kitchen. It has a squeegy thingy on the extractor nozzle that is supposed to suck up nearly all the water and leave the floor almost dry. So far, so good, until it put down a huge puddle of water on the forward stroke and only sucked up about half of it, no matter how many times I went over it. It was a huge amount of water and solution to put down on a hardwood floor and I ended up having to use a towel to get the rest of the water off the floor. The scrubbing brushes also badly streaked the floor. Not happy! If I have to use a towel to blot the water off the floor, then I don't need a $389 floor cleaner! Huge bummer..... After much colorful language and frustration at my disappointment to what I thought was the answer to my floor cleaning prayers, I got out my trusty Rubbermaid Reveal spray mop and microfiber pad, mixed up some PolyClean solution for the spray bottle, and went to town. I let the floor airdry and then got out my Bona mop and went over it again with the Bona spray. It was clean, shiny and looked great. I haven't solved the situation with my tile floors yet, but I think I'll be taking the Hoover MaxExtract back today and scrubbing them by hand until I find something that works better. I wish Dyson made a hardfloor/carpet cleaner. If they did, it would work as well as their vaccuums! I have two - the Animal 41 and a smaller canister vac for cleaning my hard floors and stairs and love them both. I use them instead of the whole house vac with hide-a-hose that we installed then we built this house 3 yrs ago. Maybe I'll send a letter to Mr Dyson with a suggestion for his next project!

I mainly use an OXO brush. It has a little holder/drainer that it sits in. My scrubbing pad and Brillo/SOS pads sit in a flower pot under the sink with the draining dish underneath. I occasionally put the OXO brush heads and scrubber through the DW. I should do it more often but about the only time I hand wash is if I need to wash something while my DW is running. I do try to remember to pop it in there if I'm turning my DW on at night after all kitchen work is done for the day. Maybe I'm missing something about the bacteria issue. Don't you all rinse your dishes in hot water when you're done hand washing them? I know they say to keep your hot water tank at 120 for energy savings and due to potential burns but we keep ours at 140 as that is hot enough to kill bacteria. When I hand wash dishes, I rinse them with all hot water so the water is at 140, or pretty darn close, and will kill any bacteria left on the dishes by the scrubber or brush. I also use the sprayer to give the brush and scrubber and good, hard rinse. If you google around, there is evidence that certain diseases, like Legionaire's, thrive in hot water tanks set around 120. But a 140 tank of water is hot enough to kill them. We rarely get sick around here. I've actually been pleasantly surprised that we haven't gotten sick more often lately since we had a 5 year old move in with us last summer and she started K-grade in the fall. People warned us that we would get sick from all the germs the kid would bring home from school but it hasn't happened. She has had plenty of colds but the rest of us haven't caught them. I wash my hands in the water as hot as I can stand it. Just short of scalding temp. So maybe that is helping with spread of sickness, too? I dunno. Food for thought, I guess.

Initially, my designer recommended placing the free-standing tub filler off-center, in the corner, at the end of the tub (where my feet go) and it was plumbed that way. Then the designer changed her mind, and decided that the faucets should be centered at the end -- so I paid for plumber and tile setter to make the change. I considered having the faucets placed behind the tub, between the back wall and the tub, which would make it easier to add water when I'm in the tub, but then I would need to reach over the tub to fill it before entering. And designer said it's best to "show off" the exposed pipes on the filler. I just realized that there are black "spots" on my tub -- paw prints from the 10-year old cat I adopted this summer -- luckily, her prints wash off easily.