Ethan Walker

Most sharpening advice is written for a 56 HRC stainless chef’s knife, and it quietly falls apart the moment you point it at an S90V folder or an M390 fixed blade. On those steels the advice reverses: the stones everyone recommends barely cut, and the only thing that restores an edge in minutes is a … Read more

A magnetic knife holder is a rail or block with rare-earth magnets inside that grips kitchen knives by their steel blades, either mounted above a counter or freestanding on the countertop. Are they a good idea? Yes, with one caveat: magnet strength has to match your heaviest blade, and you must attach and remove knives … Read more

A 1970s car sitting in a two-car garage can come out with orange rust blooming across the fenders, and the cardboard box of Christmas decorations in the corner can come out fuzzy with mold. Neither of those problems comes from rain leaking through the roof. Both come from warm, humid room air meeting a cold … Read more

If you want one dehumidifier that handles most basements, bedrooms and laundry rooms without crossing the 200 dollar line, the Midea 22 Pint is where we would start. It pulls 22 pints of moisture per day out of up to 1,500 square feet, runs at 47 dBA, carries an ENERGY STAR label and is backed … Read more

For a bedroom, anything above 45 dB is too loud to run overnight. The quietest bedroom dehumidifiers land between 24 and 35 dB on their low or sleep setting, which sits below a whisper and under the hum of a refrigerator. Compressor models that pull serious water sit higher, usually 40 dB and up, and … Read more

Most of the mini splits sold online advertise heating. Very few of them are built to keep a house warm when the temperature outside drops into single digits. If you are shopping for the best mini split heat pumps for cold climates, the number on the box that matters most is the lowest outdoor temperature … Read more

The short answer on the best DIY mini split systems for homeowners: MRCOOL builds the only true tool-free pre-charged line sets on the U.S. market, Zone Air pairs a pre-charged system with U.S.-based support and inspection, and the rebadged Midea platform sold as Senville, Pioneer and Blueridge gives you the same compressor hardware under a … Read more

Most rooms over 500 square feet fall into the 12,000 to 18,000 BTU band, and that range is where the best window air conditioners for large rooms separate themselves from the small-room crowd. A 10,000 BTU box will run all afternoon in a 550 sq ft living room and never reach the thermostat setting, which … Read more

The best garage heaters for cold winters come down to how much heat your space loses on the coldest night, and the Comfort Zone CZ220BK 5,000W ceiling-mount heater handles a typical insulated two-car garage at 17,065 BTU with a hardwired 240V supply. For an uninsulated garage or a workshop over 1,000 sq. ft., you need … Read more

The best natural gas garage heater for a home shop is the Modine HD45AS0111 Hot Dawg, a 45,000 BTU power-vented forced-air cabinet that clears the floor, mounts overhead, and covers roughly 700 square feet of insulated shop space. If your shop is larger or uninsulated, step up to the 50,000 BTU Mr. Heater F260550, which … Read more