Aleko AC1400 Electric Sliding Gate Opener – Review

The Aleko AC1400 gate opener is a worth buying considering the price range and the durability issues. The convenience to purchase online offered me great help and support. The easy slider gate opener has the chassis made of aluminum alloy offering a lightweight and minimized frictional wear and tear hassles. What I really liked about the Aleko AC1400 Electric Sliding Gate Opener is that the installation process was very easy and took very less time. However, you will require some basic equipment to set it. These necessary hardware parts are affordable and are readily available at the local stores.

As regards the technical specifications, I am really happy with this AC powered slider gate opener that operates on the 120V AC power. The product offers the same efficiency to that of any motor running on 1.5 HP. The durability and enhanced user experience of this gate opener model is guaranteed by heavy-duty motor support that can open the gates up to the weight limit of1400 lbs having a maximum length of 50 ft. The company offers the essential hardware support inclusive of the chain measuring 20ft along with the chain mounting equipment. The specifications and support system is strong enough, supporting over 100 remotes.

After 1 year and four months of comfortable usage, I am convinced that the product is going to offer supreme performance in the coming time too. However, it is essential to organize some maintenance work that is not only recommended but also affordable. The company offers an extended warranty of 2 years so you do not have to shell out a single penny during the period. The pricing is great and very budget friendly. You do not have to shell out the money on maintenance costs so it is worth high ROI. People in the damp and moist climate may have problems with the rusting issues but that can be solved with a little bit of DIY caring and maintenance.

The product is lightweight so you can easily install it all alone without taking any help from the professional technicians. However, I would recommend calling a technician since the sufficient instructions are not provided and can cause problems for the people who have not used these gate opener systems before. I personally prefer ordering a PSB for the installation work. In case you are planning to install it all on yourself, then take some time in hand, as it can be time-consuming affair to arrange the things. Take special care to install the magnets properly. They control the operation of the motor and stop it where and when it should. To get the things done perfectly and ensure long duration performance, it is better to call a professional electrician to complete the process.

Barring some small hassles related to the installation issues, the Aleko AC1400 gate opener (like MIGHTY MULE 560 )is a great product to use, guaranteeing superb performance, and low power consumption. The budget friendly gate opener, the motor offers power saver convenience too. The two remotes are provided in the blue box storing the motor. The company offers great customer support. In case of any problem, you can directly contact them on the helpline numbers.

FLASHLIGHT

A flashlight ( for example: SUNJACK LIGHTSTICK ) is a portable, battery-operated device used for illumination. A typical unit consists of one or more dry cell batteries arranged in a line inside a battery compartment that forms the handle of the light. The flow of electricity from the batteries to the bulb at the front end of the light is controlled through a switch mechanism placed between the batteries and the lamp.
History

Practical, portable light sources have been sought throughout history. Torches and candles were early sources of light but these were largely replaced with lanterns as people learned to burn various animal and mineral oils. However, it was not until the nineteenth century that electricity was harnessed to create light. The modern battery powered flashlight was created in 1898 by Joshua Lionel Cowen, the original owner of the American Eveready Battery Company. Cowen originally developed an idea for a decorative lighting fixture for potted plants. His fixture was composed of a metal tube with a lightbulb and a dry cell battery. Cowen passed his idea to one of his Eveready salespersons, Conrad Hubert, who turned the metal tube, lightbulb, and battery into the world's first flashlight and started selling the batteries and the flashlight. In the last hundred years, advances in technology have resulted in flashlights with hundreds of different styles and features. For example, flashlights are now made with rechargeable batteries that can be used multiple times. Other lights are designed for special operations, such as working underwater or in high-temperature conditions.

Design

The most common flashlight design is the simple household light that consists of a tube-like handle that contains the batteries. This handle is affixed to a threaded head assembly that houses the bulb mechanism. These units operate on standard batteries and provide a typical light output. Special designs are required for industrial or professional use. These lights are made from heavier gauge materials, and are more durable. They are also intended to produce a brighter beam of light. Flashlights with brighter beams are used by the police, firefighters, and the military. Camping lanterns are larger units, usually powered by heavy duty batteries. These frequently use fluorescent tubes as their light source because of their greater energy efficiency, however, this type of bulb does not cast as strong or directed a beam of light. Furthermore, the increased size and weight of this type of lantern limits its portability. Novelty flashlights are designed for use by children. These tend to be made of lightweight plastic and are notable for their visual design. The body of the light may be adorned with decorative plastic overlays that increase the child-appeal of the unit. Their designs are often based on favorite characters from popular cartoons or children's books. Finally, there are a variety of specialty lights designed for particular uses. For example, snake lights, flexible tubes that can be bent or twisted to provide light in hard to reach places. Others are designed to be small enough to fit on a key chain to illuminate keyholes.

Factors to consider when designing flashlights include light output, durability, and the ability to operate in special environments. Battery life is also an important factor, and some lights are designed to be plugged into an electrical outlet to be recharged or to maintain a charge until it is needed. Other lights use special bulbs, like the new generation flashlights built with light-emitting diodes. These are not as bright as conventional incandescent bulbs, but their power consumption is so low that they can last hundreds of hours on a set of conventional batteries, as compared to a few dozen hours for incandescent bulbs.

What it take to repair a roof?

Gone are the times when finding a damaged roof fixed was a Herculean job, and was convinced to give folks many a slumber less nighttime. Today yet, instead of being forced to be concerned about obtaining the roof fixed, a lot of folks find themselves spending many a slumber less nighttime locating the 'right roof repair contractor' for doing the work.

Now, one may wonder, what makes making a roof repair Bronx NY contractor this kind of serious occupation. Well, the solution is easy. Each roof repair contractor has his own ability and fashion of fixing the roof that sets him apart in the others. The truth is you could state that a number of options you've got while choosing the roof repair contractor, are as varied as how many options you've got while choosing the roof for you personally house. Additionally, as your option depends substantially on the type of the roof which you should get fixed, choosing a great roof repair contractor on your own could be a Herculean undertaking.

This can be especially true in the event that you should get your roof fixed promptly. In the event, the damage caused to the roof is an extreme one, for example, a flow, and also you desire to get it fixed when you are able to, you might possess a fairly rough time getting the roof fixed. Nevertheless, in case your roof isn't too severely damaged, you are able to afford to invest some time doing your research and checking on the possible contractors.

This is why everyone should be careful about making this decision otherwise one can be easily mistaken and make the mistake over and over again. For more information use Google or any other search engine system as it will be easier to find a solution to the problem if you try to do a little research by yourself sometimes.

In case your roof must be fixed promptly, you better be ready to discover your roof repair contractor charging you a premium for the occupation. This can be clear, because only like getting any job done fast, even finding a roof fixed immediately will certainly run you more. Thus, it is crucial that you consider every one of the benefits and drawbacks before hand, and judge carefully in case you must get your roof fixed at an urgent notice, or in the event that it is possible to do without one. Handling your requirements along with your contractor's program could lessen your prices.

When you're buying roof repair contractor, attempt to locate yourself one who has enough expertise working using the exact same stuff as the materials found on the roof which you need to get fixed. It is because different forms of roofing material must be fixed and dealt with otherwise. The truth is it's not unusual to determine a roof repair contractors refusing to repair a specific sort of roof because he's accustomed to fixing a specific type of roof just. As an example, to get a roof repair contractor who comes with the fixing of roofs of composite shingles, fixing a roof of tiles or wood shingles are often quite hard a job. We have to remember that different forms of roofing materials have to be dealt with otherwise, plus they frequently need different adhesives or in fact even an alternate variety of tools when they've been to be installed or fixed.

Nevertheless, you'll find times when individuals find it almost impossible to get roof repair contractors who could work depending on the required program, inside certain time period. For instance, in case there's been a serious thunderstorm or such a weather condition in a specific place which is really capable of ruining the roofs of several houses, then the excessive interest in roof repair contractors in precisely the same time, make finding a roof repair contractor tough for some time. In such circumstances, it is wise which you request the contractor to take out a while, and at the very least install tarps, or any make these temporary repair to be able to stop the leakage issues etc for some time till they have been free to make do the long-term repair occupation.

Phase II of Gibson City downtown improvements to get under way

GIBSON CITY — Mayor Dan Dickey highlighted a number of projects he hopes to get completed in his city in 2017 during last month’s meeting of the Gibson Area Chamber of Commerce.

Among them is Phase II of the city’s downtown improvement project. It calls for the replacement of overgrown trees; the installation of new benches, trash receptacles, planters and sign posts; concrete sidewalk repair and replacement; and the installation of a new sound system and speakers.

Expanding Wi-Fi to the downtown area is also planned for this year, Dickey said.

“We currently have Wi-Fi in the North and South parks, and people love it,” Dickey told the group in The Sandtrap’s banquet room. “Having Wi-Fi downtown would just be a natural extension of that.”

Dickey said he is also working to set up a “Gibson City App,” which would give users of mobile devices a quick and easy way to access information about the city and all it has to offer.

“I had a meeting this morning (about the app), and I’m pretty excited about it,” Dickey said. “Apps are used more than webpages, and it’s going to continue going that way. If you have the app on your phone, everything going on in your town that week or that day will be on there. I think it’s going to help a lot.

“What it means is that on your iPhone or Droid, there would be an app on there that says ‘Gibson City,’ and it’s going to have all of the information on all of the (town’s) events, schools, churches, civic organizations, businesses, etc.. ... So you can go down to, say, ‘parks,’ and it would give you directions on how to get there.”

Dickey said he hopes to hire somebody to manage the city’s website and upload information to the app. Dickey added that the city would rely on input from the chamber of commerce and local businesses to keep the app up-to-date and current.

Dickey said he thinks having the app would be “tremendous for our community — and cutting-edge.”

“I don’t think anybody else around here has an app, so we would be the first,” Dickey said.

Dickey said Phase II of the downtown improvement project is also in the works. Phase I involved replacing the downtown area’s lights with energy-efficient ones.

“There was a lot of underground infrastructure that also went in when we put the lights in,” Dickey added.

Dickey said works who were replacing the lights said some of the old lights “just broke” when they touched them.

“So several of those lights were ready to come down probably in the next ice storm,” Dickey said. “So I think it was time that we did that.”

The replacement of overgrown trees will be part of Phase II.

“They’re actually starting to buckle the concrete,” Dickey said about the existing trees lining Sangamon Avenue. “These trees really shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t have been planted there. So we’re going to replace them with a smaller tree  — maybe a Cornelian Cherry Dogwood or a couple of others that we’re looking at.

“We’re going to put costs together and go to the council and see if we can get this to happen.”

Dickey said how the existing trees will be removed and new trees installed remains to be seen.

“Part of the problem is these (existing) trees are so big, if you cut them out, you’ve still got the roots (under ground),” Dickey said. “And there’s a lot of underground infrastructure there, so you’ve got to wait three, four or five years before you can get (the roots) out of there.

“So we came up with an idea, where we could maybe go with concrete planters where the trees are (currently), so it would bring it up so we have three of four feet of soil where we could actually plant trees in the planters. That would also help keep them up higher (off of the ground), so you’re not running into them (when walking by).”

Dickey said the new trees could help with the implementation of outdoor seating downtown. Dickey said he has been working with several local businesses to implement outdoor seating, a measure authorized by the council last year.

“The council has already approved allowing tables and chairs outside, so we can, on a nice summer night, go outside and have our meals out there,” Dickey said.

Dickey said he would also like to add a new sound system and speakers for the downtown.

“I’m sure you guys have seen other towns where they have, like, street music, where people just play music,” Dickey told the chamber members present. “That sound system would allow us to do that.”

Also included in Phase II would be new concrete planters and curbs and the installation of landscape rock. Trash receptacles, benches, planters and sign posts would also be replaced.

Dickey said he hopes the improvements will not just benefit the downtown area, but all of Gibson City.

“I think the downtown is important for every business, because if you get somebody to go to the downtown, they’ll actually pass every other business (on the way) twice, to get to the center of town,” Dickey said. “So it benefits every business in town.”

Another project that is expected to be pursued in 2017 is the ongoing separation of the city’s sanitary sewers and storm sewers.

“We started that project maybe eight years ago, and we’ve got about four or five more years to go,” Dickey said. “So we’re pretty much on schedule. Eventually, our storm sewers and our sanitary sewers will be totally separate, independent.”

Dickey said the sewer separation project hopefully will increase the sewer plant’s capacity to handle new housing and new businesses.

“So we’re pretty excited about that,” Dickey said.

Dickey, who is running for mayor in this April’s election against Ward 3 Alderman John Carlson, said he and the city council’s priorities each year include maintaining a balanced budget, which includes keeping the city’s taxes low and “living within our means” by not borrowing money.

“All of our debts are paid; we’re totally out of debt,” Dickey noted. “And I think we have close to $1.2 or $1.3 million in the bank.”

Dickey and the council also consider infrastructure improvements a top priority.

“We’ve really tried to focus the last 10, 12 years on doing a lot of infrastructure (work),” Dickey said. “We’re doing a lot of the sewer separation so far ... and we’ve been doing a lot of street projects. Some of the streets (that have been repaired recently) hadn’t been touched in probably 60 or 75 years.”

Economic development also is a priority — perhaps the most important of all, Dickey said.

“We’re going to start hopefully keying in and focusing on economic development, and the beginning of that was basically the downtown,” Dickey said. “We’re going to focus on that area.”

Filling the void
During a question-and-answer session following Dickey’s talk, he was asked about any progress made recently to replace businesses that have closed recently, including the Alco store, Pizza Hut and Gibson City Meats & Deli.

“Alco, the problem there is the people who own that building, they want too much,” Dickey said. “They want way too much for that building. And until that changes, I don’t think (the situation is) going to change.

“As far as Pizza Hut, they shut down not because of anything Gibson City did, but because the Pizza Hut (corporation) wanted (the franchisee) to spend a lot of money on that property, and they just decided it wasn’t worth it. The good news is we’re going to have a new Mexican restaurant moving in here in the next few weeks.

“As for Gibson City Meats & Deli, we do have another business looking at that (site). That’s all I can say.”

Dickey said plans for a new hotel in Gibson City are being worked on, as well.

More housing needed
Following Dickey’s presentation, the chamber of commerce’s president, local real estate agent Ryan Minion, said Gibson City has a particular need for more housing.

“And I don’t just mean houses for sale but new development housing,” Minion said. “Everyone wants to be closer to Champaign and Bloomington, and we have the perfect placement with three highways coming through town and being 30 minutes from Bloomington and Champaign. And we have all the amenities that any small town needs to have.

“Nearby, Fisher is growing like crazy, and Mahomet is growing like crazy. The closer you get to (Champaign and Bloomington), the faster (your town) grows.

“But we just don’t have anyone looking to develop land here, unfortunately. A small, three-bedroom, two-bath housing community would go like wildfire. And if we did that, then we would have more (property) tax revenue coming in to the city; and we’d have more consumers shopping at our stores.”

Harvest Fest moved up
Minion also updated the chamber of commerce about plans for the city’s annual Harvest Fest.

Minion said the festival will cover portions of two days this year, rather than being a one-day event. It will also be held in September this year, instead of October.

The dates of this year’s event are Friday, Sept. 8, and Saturday, Sept. 9.

With the date moved up, Minion said, “it should be warmer, and we should be able to avoid any conflicts with harvest season, any conflicts with the Cubs and Cardinals in the playoffs or the youth football playoffs, and we should also avoid homecoming (festivities).”

Minion said the Harvest Fest website should be live soon.  On the site, people can view a tentative schedule of events.

“We’ll be adding more as we confirm things,” Minion said.

So far, six bands are lined up to perform on a stage set up downtown. The headliner for Saturday night is the Feudin’ Hillbillies.

Among the changes festival-goers can expect this year are a different location for the stage and beer tent in order to “keep it a more intimate environment,” Minion said. The location of the vendors may also be rearranged in order to “get more foot traffic” to them.

Events from past years that will be held again this year include the beer stein-holding contest, the children’s scarecrow costume contest and the bags tournament.

Sponsors for the festival will be sought in upcoming weeks, Minion said.

Find Your Career ‘Sound’

Imagine a studio soundboard — that big deck of knobs and sliders that sound technicians use to mix each track into the best sounding music.

What if you could do that to your job — tune aspects of it until the harmony it created was an exact match for your soul?

Of course, I’m not giving you a free ticket into whatever CEO chair you want, but I am going to help you dig deep in yourself to determine if a CEO chair is what you even want.

I want you to start by forgetting specific jobs, specific companies, or specific people you sit next to on the bus whose lives and outfits you think you want to steal. We need to operate from a clean slate.

Now, we’re going to brainstorm a bunch of job attributes that will become your own personal career-sound. For example, an easy one is Pay. It becomes one of your sliders, and you can move it from high to low. Let’s go ahead and put that all the way up to maximum. Great, this is easy.

Next let’s pick some more. Commute. Easy again — set that one to zero. But let’s get more interesting. What about Peer-dependence — how much your work requires teams or others — with a slider from lone wolf to constant peer interaction. That’s more interesting. Let’s add internal vs. external-facing, technical vs business, individual contributor vs manager, and creative vs logical. Ah, now we’re starting to get some unique sound!

If You Do These Things Every Day, You’ll Become Smarter

“A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

Getting smarter takes time and genuine commitment. You need to work hard at it. Knowledge builds up, like compound interest says Warren Buffett. And he couldn’t have said that any better. You get to cash in when the time is right. All of us can build our knowledge but most of us won’t put in the effort.

We all differ in our abilities to solve problems, learn, think logically, understand and acquire new knowledge, integrate ideas, attain goals, and so on. But when you put your mind to it, you will work better, smarter and faster.

Intelligence is always work in progress so you are never too late to add to what you already know.

The good news is, you don’t have to learn everything in hours, days or even months. The focus should always be on progress.

The simplest, most direct way to be smart is to build deep knowledge about things you care about. Building knowledge of an area improves your memory, thinking, and decisions about that topic. You can gain knowledge faster about a topic you care deeply about than a random topic.

But if they are not really the kinds of things you are interested in, then you will be hard pressed to devote time and effort to learn much. One thing that most people seem to agree on is that reading is near the core of how to be smart. Don’t get in the way of your own learning. Most people don’t really think much about how they learn.

The world is changing fast and new ideas pop up everyday; incorporating them into your life will keep you engaged and relevant. It pays to crave and keep an open mind. Incredibly smart people aren’t always born that way, but rather are constantly working to improve their intelligence.

You have every opportunity to improve and enhance your way of thinking. Choose smart and stay curious.

Start getting curious about almost everything

Some people are naturally curious and others are not. Your learning should not stop at school, college or your job. Life-long learning has a lot to do with your success than you think.

Nothing beats a curious mind!

The number one way to expand your mind is through questioning everything. It’s certainly much easier to accept information that comes to us, instead of questioning it and being susceptible to having to think. Have you ever wondered why a flower is a certain color, why someone said they like us, where someone got a percentage from.

As is usually the case, asking ourselves questions, leads to more questions, and then some more. Sometimes we do get reasonable answers, but it’s important to note that the mere act of asking expands our minds and allows us to try on an infinite number of paradigms.

A new question, brings a new outlook, which potentially changes everything we know about the world.

“Don’t think about why you question, simply don’t stop questioning. Don’t worry about what you can’t answer, and don’t try to explain what you can’t know. Curiosity is its own reason. Aren’t you in awe when you contemplate the mysteries of eternity, of life, of the marvelous structure behind reality? And this is the miracle of the human mind — to use its constructions, concepts, and formulas as tools to explain what man sees, feels and touches. Try to comprehend a little more each day. Have holy curiosity.” — Albert Einstein

Be willing to try new things

Here is a short fascinating story of Steve Jobs’s youthful calligraphy class. After dropping out of school, the future Apple founder had a lot of time on his hands and wandered into a calligraphy course.

It seemed irrelevant at the time, but the design skills he learned were later baked into the first Macs. The takeaway: You never know what will be useful ahead of time. You just need to try new things and wait to see how they connect with the rest of your experiences later on.

“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future,”.

In order to have dots to connect, you need to be willing to try new things.It pays to break some of your routines sometimes. Try consciously breaking one of your habits, just for a moment. Eat a different breakfast. Take a different route to work. Sleep in the opposite direction. Read fiction.

Get out of your comfort zone once a while. You will always get the same results if you never push the boundary. If you expect something different, change things. Change how you work. Don’t do what you’ve always done.

Expose yourself to different world views

Be genuinely curious about other cultures, languages or how things are done differently by others. Different cultures could have a big positive effect on your own ideas. Read about other industries. Find out how work is done in different markets. Get out of your own perception for once. Be open to discussions that does not share your world view.

Read books on topics you usually ignore. Unconsciously, you are are more likely to search, find and read about everything you know something about. It’s a way to protect and reinforce your beliefs, perceptions and opinions.

The only way to get out of your own world view is to step outside your perception and embrace new knowledge.

Get fascinated by a lot things. If you can’t get fascinated, you won’t care enough to really learn something. You’ll just go through the motions. How do you get fascinated? Often doing something with or for other people helps to motivate me to look more deeply into something, and reading about other people who have been successful/legendary at it also fascinates me. Allow yourself to wander.

Reflect on your learning by writing

You soak up a ton of information and patterns, and you can put that into action, but when you sit down and reflect on what you’ve learned, and try to share that with others (as I’m doing right now), you force yourself to think deeply, to synthesize the knowledge and to organize it, much as you do when you teach it to others. Blogging is a great tool for reflection and sharing what you’ve learned, even if you don’t hope to make a living at it. And it’s free.

Writing expands our vocabulary, which has been shown to be directly correlated with success. Any career that involves people (that’s all of them isn’t it) is based on solid communication with a firm grasp of vocabulary and knack for self-expression.

Commit to lifelong learning

One of the best ways to gain knowledge is self-education. Period. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop. As long as you are genuinely interested in what you are studying, don’t stop. Make the most of your time and get the best education you can can offer yourself.

People who take the time and initiative to pursue knowledge on their own are the only ones who earn a real education in this world. Take a look at any widely acclaimed scholar, entrepreneur or historical figure you can think of.

Formal education or not, you’ll find that he or she is a product of continuous self-education.

Lifelong learning will get most of your questions answered.

You don’t even have to commit long hours everyday to learning. Whatever time you decide to put in your own education, stick to it.

What are the most interesting topics you wish to know more about. The goal here is to find as many sources of ideas and knowledge as possible. Brain Pickings is a good place to start. It’s one of my favourites. And it’s free. Go subscribe and you won’t be disappointed.

Find other blogs blogs, websites or online courses that can broaden your horizon. Read expert opinions about topics of interest on Quora. It’s a game-changer in the world of question and answer websites. Look for answers to some of your most important questions at places people normally ignore.