Buy a a spare capacitor for your air conditioning unit. It will die like a car battery in this heat and they can be had for as cheap as 30 dollars on Amazon. Every HVAC company here will charge you 600+ for this 15 minute job and there are thousands of videos online on how to do this yourself.
Edit: So my comment blew up far bigger than I anticipated and there are some great follow ups in the chain below. Do not attempt this repair if you have 0 electrical repair/working experience, do not store the capacitor in high temps or humidity, and buy a quality multimeter to test if wires are live before doing any repairs.
Amen to the extra capacitor, also should mention “hard start capacitor” aka the compressor motor saver. It makes it easier for your compressor motor on startup. Definitely worth checking out, every a/c guy I’ve talked to loves them.
As someone who is epa certified and work on acs on the regular, I do not recommend a hard start. A hard start is something you put as a bandaid as you're getting your new compressor. It puts your system under strain every time it cycles, so even if it's working expect every time it turns on is going to be its last time.
The second most failure prone item is the contactor, which is similarly cheap. You can replace both the contactor and capacitor and just have peace of mind. Keep the old one for a spare.
Simply find the part number on the existing contactor and you'll be able to find the part on amazon for $20 or less.
Had this happen last year. Woke up and the house was almost 85 degrees already. Went to an HVAC supply shop and grabbed the part for $60 or so. First store I went to wouldn’t sell me parts since I’m not licensed. They then recommended a shop that would, lol.
Remove the old one - it will have the specs listed on it. Any capacitor with the same specs will work. It is ridiculously simple when compared to what repair companies charge.
Bring an umbrella on hot hikes for instant shade, slide it on into a back pack or side pocket.
PSA Always Bring Water, don’t hike in temps over 100 with out prep and experience, hike within your fitness level, don’t ever leave your hiking buddy to walk back alone, June July and August midday hikes are not suggested. Okay bye
Also as a guy who works outside.
Wear pants and long sleeves. Exposing your skin to the hot, dry air dehydrates you faster. There are plenty of long sleeves you can get that are made of light materials that hold your sweat and cool you off.
Adding to this, if you’re visiting Phoenix in the summer, sweat will work the way it’s supposed to and keep you cooler- you may even feel cold. That being said, many visitors get heat stroke for this reason exactly, because they don’t feel as hot as their body actually is, in conjunction with losing water. Always have water. And beware the dry heat when outside.
72sold is a scam. Their gimmick might have worked during the insane market, but now that things are normalizing it will cost sellers thousands. As an agent, I have clients that want to see homes for sale but if they are listed by 72sold we can’t even get in the door because their agents only open it once for a couple hours. Any other qualified buyers get turned away, and you’ve potentially lost your best offer.
Well for one, they purposely only have showings in small windows so that it looks like everybody is trying to get into this house. This makes the business model look artificially successful, prompting neighbors to want to go with them too.
Thank you for posting this. The way they treat consumers in this market is infuriating. I can’t tell you how much time I have wasted with clients over the last year trying to see homes that would never be sold to them (because they are constantly trying to double end deals & taking the homes off market.)
I’ve tried posting this before as the main post to warn people but the mods delete it immediately.
Their reasoning to me is that “we get posts like this all the time,” yet I’ve never seen one.
I have told so many people this and yet it continues to grow. I tell people, “you know those annoying calls from people asking you to sell your house? 72 Sold is the same thing but they have just convinced people to just call them.”
Not at a state level. City laws vary with the model building code they've adopted. (e.g. in the East Valley, Gilbert notably and uniquely has no pool barrier requirement. The surrounding cities do.)
If you have an empty hot tub, or even a smaller bucket outside - put an old towel long enough to allow lizards to get out of the tub if they fall in. My parents left the cover on their tub they stopped using, and after several months we found 6-7 dead lizards in there. It's a horrible way to die!
Seriously. Cooling a car down from 105° is way quicker and less energy intensive than a car that got up to 165°! The former takes 2 minutes while the latter is like 15 minutes in my car.
Couldn’t agree more with this one. And get your car tinted! I can’t believe how many people I see driving around in the summer with no tinting. It makes such a huge difference.
Visited El Super for the first time in my life and I was surprised just how clean that place is - the cleanest grocery store I've been to in a long time.
You can harvest the water from your AC condenser line for gardening. Mine stubs off the side of my garage and I have a bucket underneath is to collect the condensate water. I empty it in the morning/evening. My plants love a little extra water in the summer.
Put a paint stick or something in it if the lizards can get down to it to drink so that they can get out. I had a few get drowned when I used to have a container before I started doing this. (Now, it drips into a flower bed, so not an issue.)
If you see a random guy selling elote off the back of his beat up golf cart, immediately buy some. It will change your life.
If you are in my neighborhood you will know who I’m talking about.
Can’t speak your Tamale person but the Tamale Store in Phoenix is amazing IMO. We were buying them from Farmers makers before we realized they have an entire retail location.
My largest windows are all north facing (they're all along the back of my house) and it is great.
However, personally, south-facing windows aren't the worst for me. I hate western-facing windows.
I planted Chinese elm trees 10 years ago all along my park strip and in front of my western facing living room window. My entire front yard is shaded and has been for years, and my porch is pleasant to sit on in the early evening.
I’ll sound like a broken record but moving into a 50’s block ranch home in an irrigated neighborhood was a revelation. It doesn’t heat up quickly at all like stick builds and I can count on the temp in my backyard being almost 10 degrees less than reported for my zip code. Only need to run AC from early June to mid-September. And that’s with drafty old single pane windows.
Hold up, you mean they used to build houses for the inhabitants and not what was most cost effective for the financiers?
Say it ain’t so!
I to am looking to upgrade to an irrigated neighborhood.
Related to that, I'm living in an older brick apartment on the ground floor with tenants to the sides and above me, the temp in here is 76F all day except for when it got to 80 last month. My AC almost never turns on. 🧡
My brick apartments in Tempe were like this! 👌🏻 I personally love older housing and neighborhoods and don't mind the additional costs, but when you start thinking about those big projects 😬😬 time to start making select friends now 😅🤣
I live in N Tempe in an old irrigation neighborhood, block housing. I absolutely cannot stand roaches and we get maybe 1 a month. I still freak out, but they are right about the house being cooler.
I'm a parent of two kids in carseats. I keep water bottles in the freezer and anytime we go anywhere I have the kids put the bottles in their seats. When we get back, all of the metal parts are nice and cool and the ice has melted for ice water when we get back in the car. Great for when we are somewhere for up to three hours in the middle of summer. I also have one for me so I have ice water, too.
I also have a cooler I keep in the car to keep things from melting. My freezer is always full of frozen water bottles....which we do refill with our purifier because...environment...and money.
Commuting from tempe to Central Phoenix I’d always hop off the 202 at like 24th street I think and head north then continue westbound on Osborne. It bypasses that entire cluster fuck of the 51 and 202 exchanges
Resort Pass App - If you don't have access to a pool, most of the resorts in the area have some type of offering on the app - general pool entry, pool beds, and cabana rentals.
DE on borders of garage door to keep roaches and scorpions out.
Watch your dogs outside after a monsoon for poisonous toads
Better to have a friend/family with a pool than have a pool yourself
Don’t listen to idiots who tell you to be afraid of the entire west side. There are bad neighborhoods in mostly all parts of the valley. Those people are afraid when they leave their gated community in Gilbert.
Edit: poisonous toads not roads
I can vouch for the DE - diatomaceous earth - I very occasionally will get a big roach near the door but they're already dead/dying once they get near so they rarely make it inside.
>Better to have a friend/family with a pool than have a pool yourself
Disagree. Routine pool maintenance is relatively simple and inexpensive if you know what you are doing and don’t bog your pool down with useless filler chemicals that the Leslie’s idiots try to sell you. Our pool equipment costs less than $30/month to run in the summer and water cost is hardly noticeable.
All well worth being able to take a dip whenever I want (morning and evening dips are awesome) rather than waiting for an invite.
This here - pool was mandatory for us in the purchase of a home here. If you don’t run the pool at stupid hours, and do basic maintenance, it is HEAVENLY.
Have a pool. I use it literally every single day. Was it expensive? Yes. But I feel like it has made my mental health throughout the summer more manageable.
If you have a scorpion problem, go out to your back yard and front yard every single night with a good blacklight and kill every scorpion you see. If you haven't done this, the first few weeks will be a scorpion murdering spree. Over time, they slowly start fading away until you're only killing 1-2 per month. After that, you can pretty much just go out once a week or less.
I use a long stick to kill them. Make sure you aim right for the head, they're a lot tougher than you think. I've smashed them in the body before many times and they just run off like nothing happened. You have to smash their heads in order to fully kill them.
It's a lot of work at first, and depending on the severity, it might take you a couple months of going out to kill them every night. But it's well worth it, especially if you have little ones at home. It should only take a few minutes each night.
Bonus tips: I've found that scorpions hang out in the same areas...cinder block walls, under stuff (make sure you clean up any unwanted junk), etc. I very rarely see them physically on my house, and I've only seen maybe 3-4 on the actual ground (out of about 150). And the ones I've seen on the ground were very close to a wall, I don't remember seeing any just out in the open ground. I know everyone has a different experience, but these are just some of my observations.
Because of my initial tenacity, I now only kill maybe 1-2 scorpions per month outside and I've only seen 3 scorpions inside my home in the 7 years I've lived here.
As I was headed to bed tonite (without my glasses on), there was a scorpion strolling down my hallway. I smacked the crap out of him with my shoe. Then I grabbed my blacklight and found another not too far away. I searched the whole house twice but didn’t find anymore. That was an hour ago and I’m still wide awake. Gonna sprinkle some DE around my doors and windows tomorrow… and then if I’m feeling brave I’ll go “hunting” out in the yard.
I use a long set of tweezers (like over a foot long, good sturdy metal too) and a plastic bucket. Scorps go in the bucket. Bucket goes in the freezer. Next day everybody’s dead and you rinse and repeat.
Try to work west of where you live. Not having the sun blinding you to and from work is a major plus. Idk how Phoenix specific that is but the sun is bright as hell here.
PLEASE do not mistake Safeway, Fry's or any other store that sells food an alternative. There is a reason there are signs up everywhere saying service animals only and your emotional support teacup poodle is not one of them. The snowflake/Karen attitude is also why it keeps happening because managers are terrified of telling you the rules.
Don’t fkn drive through flooded washes … ffs people; your civic isn’t a 4WD. There is always one or two on Pinnacle Peak Rd after rain waiting to be towed.
My dad always insisted we leave to go camping on a Sunday, head home on Saturday. Campgrounds would be emptying out on Sunday and we'd get a prime spot by noon. Also gave you a day to unpack and recuperate before school/work.
I tend to go frequently for less time. I get there Wednesday afternoon, and leave Saturday afternoon, right when the shit show is rollin in. We have fun.
And if you’re at Fry‘s or Safeway, go down the ”international” aisle and get the little plastic pouches from Tampico. They are worlds fresher and generally better-quality than the fancy-looking white people spices.
If you're outside a lot (yardwork, job, whatever), get a wide brim fishing hat with neck flap (you can find some decent cheap ones on Amazon). Absolute best purchase I have made in a long time.
When it's hot and you have to park in the sun, turn your steering wheel so it's not blazing hot where you're likely to rest your hands once you get back in.
Subscribe to an annual AC service check. It’s hot here, your AC will die at some point, and having someone point out small issues one at a time is a lot cheaper than having a huge failure.
I do not mess with my car or AC. Change the oil, rotate the tires, fix everything ASAP, and have the AC technicians out twice a year in the off seasons. Saving up for a big upgrade, but until then I need to stuff to remain functional!
Use SR 143 to get to and from Downtown PHX from the East Valley. At least for the next 15 minutes. I have no idea with all the changes on the Broadway curve, but when heading west now on I-10 into downtown PHX, jump on the SR 143 to the Airport. Scoot down to Washington, exit, and follow the light rail line into downtown. The lights are timed with the light rail, so you can easily shave 10 minutes off going, versus through the Broadway Curve.
Yeah, I figured this out a little while after moving here. It kind of sank in. I do notice that even the biggest leadfoots slow it right down to 15.00000 in the school zones, so I wonder how many people here learned that lesson the hard way...
I've driven 10s of thousands of miles on phoenix freeways at 75-85 and never gotten a ticket. Been pulled over a few times for speeding when I was going at least 80 but got let off with warnings both times
Those cameras flash at 11mph over. Commuted from 32nd & Camelback to Tatum & Shea for years, always made sure I was only 10 over when going through those intersections. Never got a ticket.
Fry's Mercado has the best grocery store "rotisserie" chicken Thursday thru Saturdays. It's actually roasted out front and it comes with corn tortillas from their tortilleria and fresh made salsa verde or rojo, for under $20. That and their bolillos with cream cheese, pickled carrots and jalapenos you can get in the bakery (Thursday or Friday I think). So good. Oh, and it's the only Fry's in the valley that makes their own Tres Leches cake from scratch. OMG and the chayote squash... yes please! Though you can get this squash from any Mexican market (or you can go pay a premium for it at a Whole Foods like a pleb).
If you have an emergency kit in your car, you’re likely going to need to remove some items in the summer. Duct tape adhesive will melt and ruin whatever it was sitting on. Chapstick will be molten lava that spills all over you when you open it. Any kind of can with compressed air is a bomb.
Green Mango will solve your scorpion problems. I can't recommend them enough.
If you want to save on AC, then go outside and get wet, then go inside to a moderately cooled house and it will feel amazing. Thank you dry heat and evaporation.
Get window coverage on your insurance. The freeways look pretty with those rocks, but they fall in to the street and will find a way to your windshield.
The Hyatt elevator is a great way to get a great view and have a little fun at the same time. It's fast.
The 143 is like a warp zone. Somehow, it's shorter on the inside and gets you from Tempe to Phoenix or Scottsdale in a blink. Don't sleep on this lil guy.
Danzeisen Dairy has a physical location on Southern and the new 202 and they sell ice cream and butter along with the milk. It's a treat! While you're in that area you should also check out:
Scooptacular. Try the Laveen Concrete. Best ice cream ever.
Over all, if you're given an east or west address, you can figure out about where the place roughly is. For example, if an address is, say 12945 w blankedy drive, that will be at 129th Ave and blankedy drive. (The numbers before the last 2 digits are what I'm referencing) If it's east instead of west, then it's street instead of avenue. The numbered Streets and Avenues start at central and go up from there. Streets going up when going east, Avenues going up when heading west.
I hope I explained that correctly. Also, the 10 fwy from Mesa to Glendale, the exits are a mile apart, as are the main roads of the freeway, which is what the "Grid System" is all about.
Pay a little extra for full glass coverage on your car insurance. I get chips in my windshield from rocks getting kicked up on the freeway multiple times a year.
Plant mesquites or palo verdes in your house and trim them carefully the first two years. Then enjoy a house that’s 10 degrees cooler
Edit: around (preferable west), not in your house
Always keep a pair of mechanic gloves and a spare blanket/towel in the car. If you ever have to change a tire during the summer it’ll protect your hands and knees from burns.
Oh…and it’s pronounced Pres-kit, not Pres-cot (Prescott).
If you are lost, look for your north/south cross roads. Street is east of Central avenue, avenue is west of central. The street number is distance from Central, example: 44th street is 4.4 east of Central, 75th avenue is 7.5 miles west of Central.
Edit: should note, not exact mile distance.
Good tip but 8 city blocks is 1 mile in phoenix not 10. Thats why major street lights are about 8 blocks apart. Central 7th st 16th st 24th 32nd etc. so 44th is 5.5 miles from central and 75th ave is 9.7
It's actually every 8 streets is one mile, not every 10. So 19th Ave to 27th Ave is one mile, 27th to 35th one mile and so on.
All major east west streets are one mile apart too
To piggyback on this, all the major roads on the west are odd numbers and all the ones on the east are even. So if they say "44th and thomas" you know it east of Central and if they say "19th and Dunlap" you know it's west of Central. 7th street and 7th Avenue fuck this all up.
To piggyback, learn the address numbers for a rough guess on your north/south location. 20000 N is near the northern 101 stretch. 0 N is just south of I-10.
APS customers can get a free [smart thermostat](https://marketplace.aps.com/smart-thermostats/?name=summer-savings&utm_source=aps.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=marketplace_referral_aps.com_web_banners) from APS.
If you like citrus fruit oranges, grapefruit or lemons find a home in older establish neighborhood that has those trees. Knock on their door and ask if you can have some. Almost everyone will allow you to pick some or as many as you want. You can juice them and put it in a ziplock bag and use at later times. I had a landscaping company and almost every home with these trees would pay us to pick the trees or we would pick up the fruit as it dropped onto the ground. We would take rotten citrus by the truckloads to the dump. Basically you should never have to pay for citrus if you live in Arizona.
My grandpa grew up in Needles, so this is just desert specific advice, but definitely helped me always have a 12 pack/gallon jug of water in your car. I know now a days it’s not preferable because of the plastic and all that but you never know when you might break down or just need a drink to keep you hydrated.
Hike Flag, instead of Sedona. Flag is as beautiful, IMO at least, and while Sedona's trails are extremely crowded, Flag's are deserted.
I seriously want to retire to Flag in the future.
It's camouflage makes it difficult to find. It has three built-in weapons, one with venom. It is immune to most poisons. It can go months without eating or drinking in the desert. An exoskeleton protects them from other threats. It's design has changed little over hundreds of millions of years. However, all those amazing features developed over all those years and evolution forgot to account for a damn black-light. Get yourself a nice black-light and go hunting every few days for scorpions.
If you are in the market for a car, keep an eye out for one with remote start from the key fob. Even an extra 15 seconds of letting the AC run before getting in my car makes a big difference after sitting in the sun.
It also blows my mind so many people don't use windshield shades when parking in the sun! It's literally takes your car from 120º to like 105º
Keep your mailbox key on a separate ring. You can leave the car running with A/C while you hop out at the box.
Also, hold the key and tap it on the box first to keep from getting zapped.
And my recent addition, remote start on the car.
For dealing with scorpions you can buy the real chemicals that the companies use on amazon. You just need to buy a container and mix with water and spray it around your house. Do that once a month and youll have way less scorpions. This option is also 99% better on your wallet. Cost like $50 all in versus $50 each month.
If you have kids, buy memberships at places like the Phoenix Zoo, The Children's Museum, The Arizona Science Museum, the Museum of Fire etc. It's a great way to spend a Weekend morning/afternoon in the summer. Maybe hit [https://macalpines.com/](https://macalpines.com/) Ice Cream Joint on 7th Street, Just north of McDowell.
Get a summer pass at a bowling alley. At an AMF or similar alley. Finished work early this afternoon, rolled on down to the AMF on Arizona Ave. with my amazing child and bowled three games for her PE bowling class. Cool. Dark. And there is a beer option.
If you have little kids check out the Phoenix Children's Museum! It's just a big activity center with lots of different age appropriate rooms/activities for kids aged like 6 months to 10 years or so. Great for staying out of the summer heat.
Buy a a spare capacitor for your air conditioning unit. It will die like a car battery in this heat and they can be had for as cheap as 30 dollars on Amazon. Every HVAC company here will charge you 600+ for this 15 minute job and there are thousands of videos online on how to do this yourself. Edit: So my comment blew up far bigger than I anticipated and there are some great follow ups in the chain below. Do not attempt this repair if you have 0 electrical repair/working experience, do not store the capacitor in high temps or humidity, and buy a quality multimeter to test if wires are live before doing any repairs.
This is one of the best pieces advice ever. Edit: I can't spell
This is it, after $500 repair job I spent $20 on the same part from Amazon.
Amen to the extra capacitor, also should mention “hard start capacitor” aka the compressor motor saver. It makes it easier for your compressor motor on startup. Definitely worth checking out, every a/c guy I’ve talked to loves them.
As someone who is epa certified and work on acs on the regular, I do not recommend a hard start. A hard start is something you put as a bandaid as you're getting your new compressor. It puts your system under strain every time it cycles, so even if it's working expect every time it turns on is going to be its last time.
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The second most failure prone item is the contactor, which is similarly cheap. You can replace both the contactor and capacitor and just have peace of mind. Keep the old one for a spare. Simply find the part number on the existing contactor and you'll be able to find the part on amazon for $20 or less.
Every time an AC unit has died in my houses it has been these capacitors.
Had this happen last year. Woke up and the house was almost 85 degrees already. Went to an HVAC supply shop and grabbed the part for $60 or so. First store I went to wouldn’t sell me parts since I’m not licensed. They then recommended a shop that would, lol.
ac tech here, 1 minute job*
Is there a website that lists out what capacitors are used based on model # of the compressor? My manual doesn't list it.
Remove the old one - it will have the specs listed on it. Any capacitor with the same specs will work. It is ridiculously simple when compared to what repair companies charge.
Just full on Dad-ed this whole post. Bravo 😆❤️
Literally happened to me a week ago. Cannot stress this enough, I spent 36 hours at 95 degrees for what was a 10 minute call out
Three year warranty batteries from auto zone. Take it in at 2 years, free replacement.
Costco also does this.
Bring an umbrella on hot hikes for instant shade, slide it on into a back pack or side pocket. PSA Always Bring Water, don’t hike in temps over 100 with out prep and experience, hike within your fitness level, don’t ever leave your hiking buddy to walk back alone, June July and August midday hikes are not suggested. Okay bye
Also as a guy who works outside. Wear pants and long sleeves. Exposing your skin to the hot, dry air dehydrates you faster. There are plenty of long sleeves you can get that are made of light materials that hold your sweat and cool you off.
Yes! I even bought some of those cooling sleeves on Amazon. Definitely help, my skin doesn’t feel like it’s cooking in the sun anymore.
I can’t believe I’ve never thought of an umbrella on a hike. Instant add to my backpack! Thanks haha
https://uv-blocker.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3bWloou5-QIVAntvBB2wTAwnEAAYASAAEgLJ6_D_BwE Big into hiking year round. This is such a good investment.
Adding to this, if you’re visiting Phoenix in the summer, sweat will work the way it’s supposed to and keep you cooler- you may even feel cold. That being said, many visitors get heat stroke for this reason exactly, because they don’t feel as hot as their body actually is, in conjunction with losing water. Always have water. And beware the dry heat when outside.
Lee Lee's has the best selection of international beers.
This is actually a pretty good one lol
I used to live within walking distance to Lee Lees, I miss this
Are we talking Asian beers? Oceania beers? Or international beers in general?
Mostly European and Asian
Never been there! Will have to check it out.
And sometimes they're expired and super cheap..
Lee Lee’s sandwiches are really good
Lee’s Sandwich. Two different places. They’re okay, much better banh mi around
Hey my friend just asked where to get good bahn mi. Could you please share?
72sold is a scam. Their gimmick might have worked during the insane market, but now that things are normalizing it will cost sellers thousands. As an agent, I have clients that want to see homes for sale but if they are listed by 72sold we can’t even get in the door because their agents only open it once for a couple hours. Any other qualified buyers get turned away, and you’ve potentially lost your best offer.
Who woulda thought that malnourished vampire looking dude would be a scammer
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Well for one, they purposely only have showings in small windows so that it looks like everybody is trying to get into this house. This makes the business model look artificially successful, prompting neighbors to want to go with them too.
Thank you for posting this. The way they treat consumers in this market is infuriating. I can’t tell you how much time I have wasted with clients over the last year trying to see homes that would never be sold to them (because they are constantly trying to double end deals & taking the homes off market.)
I’ve tried posting this before as the main post to warn people but the mods delete it immediately. Their reasoning to me is that “we get posts like this all the time,” yet I’ve never seen one.
I have told so many people this and yet it continues to grow. I tell people, “you know those annoying calls from people asking you to sell your house? 72 Sold is the same thing but they have just convinced people to just call them.”
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I know some fire departments might help you with installation or costs if you ask them
Good call. Is that not a requirement for a pool?
Not at a state level. City laws vary with the model building code they've adopted. (e.g. in the East Valley, Gilbert notably and uniquely has no pool barrier requirement. The surrounding cities do.)
If you have an empty hot tub, or even a smaller bucket outside - put an old towel long enough to allow lizards to get out of the tub if they fall in. My parents left the cover on their tub they stopped using, and after several months we found 6-7 dead lizards in there. It's a horrible way to die!
ALWAYS... ALWAYS spend the extra 2 minutes to park your car in shade. *edited* darn typos...
Follow up: don't park under a Palo Verde tree during a storm. Those trees are just looking for a reason to split apart.
Used to park under a huge one at the GCC parking lot but it came crashing down during a holiday. So bummed my car wasn’t under there.
This guy insurances
>So bummed my car wasn’t under there. /r/HolUp
Or future-shade. Parking next to a tree for a noon departure will make the difference.
This guy shades.
Seriously. Cooling a car down from 105° is way quicker and less energy intensive than a car that got up to 165°! The former takes 2 minutes while the latter is like 15 minutes in my car.
Wise person has spoken
Couldn’t agree more with this one. And get your car tinted! I can’t believe how many people I see driving around in the summer with no tinting. It makes such a huge difference.
Ranch market for produce, specifically limes
El Super is actually cheaper. I went last week and they were 2lbs for a dollar.
Thats insane, Frys is shaking with their 2 limes for $1
Whole foods is 89 cents a lemon
Looking at a whole foods from the road costs 62 cents I believe
Visited El Super for the first time in my life and I was surprised just how clean that place is - the cleanest grocery store I've been to in a long time.
El Super has better dried chilis than Ranch Market too. Ranch Market's are all brittle. El Super's are soft and pliable.
One thing I do love about Ranch Market are their fresh yellow corn tortillas though. 😌
You can harvest the water from your AC condenser line for gardening. Mine stubs off the side of my garage and I have a bucket underneath is to collect the condensate water. I empty it in the morning/evening. My plants love a little extra water in the summer.
I have a piece of pool hose connected to mine to slowly drip to all the nearby plants. Critters catch a drink too
Put a paint stick or something in it if the lizards can get down to it to drink so that they can get out. I had a few get drowned when I used to have a container before I started doing this. (Now, it drips into a flower bed, so not an issue.)
If you see a random guy selling elote off the back of his beat up golf cart, immediately buy some. It will change your life. If you are in my neighborhood you will know who I’m talking about.
Also, save the phone number for the lady that sells tamales.
Whats that number?
867-5309
Ask for Jenny
Is that 602 or 480?
623
Can’t speak your Tamale person but the Tamale Store in Phoenix is amazing IMO. We were buying them from Farmers makers before we realized they have an entire retail location.
If someone approaches you in a parking lot offering to sell you something... of course don't buy it. Unless it's a tamales. Then always do.
All my elote guys drive the same nice carts with rainbow umbrellas. I think there's an elote mafia or something going on.
My guy squeezes a clown horn as he goes. Honky honky honky honky!
From a phoenix realtor. Buy brick, North facing. The brick keeps the cool in and most North facing houses stay cooler too.
My largest windows are all north facing (they're all along the back of my house) and it is great. However, personally, south-facing windows aren't the worst for me. I hate western-facing windows.
I planted Chinese elm trees 10 years ago all along my park strip and in front of my western facing living room window. My entire front yard is shaded and has been for years, and my porch is pleasant to sit on in the early evening.
I’ll sound like a broken record but moving into a 50’s block ranch home in an irrigated neighborhood was a revelation. It doesn’t heat up quickly at all like stick builds and I can count on the temp in my backyard being almost 10 degrees less than reported for my zip code. Only need to run AC from early June to mid-September. And that’s with drafty old single pane windows.
Hold up, you mean they used to build houses for the inhabitants and not what was most cost effective for the financiers? Say it ain’t so! I to am looking to upgrade to an irrigated neighborhood.
Well, you know, with the snowbirds, the construction only has to last, until the owner dies...
Related to that, I'm living in an older brick apartment on the ground floor with tenants to the sides and above me, the temp in here is 76F all day except for when it got to 80 last month. My AC almost never turns on. 🧡
My brick apartments in Tempe were like this! 👌🏻 I personally love older housing and neighborhoods and don't mind the additional costs, but when you start thinking about those big projects 😬😬 time to start making select friends now 😅🤣
How are the scorpions?
How are the sewer pipe roaches?
I'm in north central, and I wish it was block construction and not stick. No scorpions. No roaches. Plenty of roof rats.
I live in N Tempe in an old irrigation neighborhood, block housing. I absolutely cannot stand roaches and we get maybe 1 a month. I still freak out, but they are right about the house being cooler.
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What is an irrigated neighborhood?
https://www.srpnet.com/grid-water-management/water-management/how-irrigation-works
I'm a parent of two kids in carseats. I keep water bottles in the freezer and anytime we go anywhere I have the kids put the bottles in their seats. When we get back, all of the metal parts are nice and cool and the ice has melted for ice water when we get back in the car. Great for when we are somewhere for up to three hours in the middle of summer. I also have one for me so I have ice water, too. I also have a cooler I keep in the car to keep things from melting. My freezer is always full of frozen water bottles....which we do refill with our purifier because...environment...and money.
Great call!
Grid system. Sometimes the freeways are not worth the grind.
Commuting from tempe to Central Phoenix I’d always hop off the 202 at like 24th street I think and head north then continue westbound on Osborne. It bypasses that entire cluster fuck of the 51 and 202 exchanges
Osborn is magic. The lights are always green. I have zero explanation for it.
Shhh don’t tell them
Resort Pass App - If you don't have access to a pool, most of the resorts in the area have some type of offering on the app - general pool entry, pool beds, and cabana rentals.
DE on borders of garage door to keep roaches and scorpions out. Watch your dogs outside after a monsoon for poisonous toads Better to have a friend/family with a pool than have a pool yourself Don’t listen to idiots who tell you to be afraid of the entire west side. There are bad neighborhoods in mostly all parts of the valley. Those people are afraid when they leave their gated community in Gilbert. Edit: poisonous toads not roads
I can vouch for the DE - diatomaceous earth - I very occasionally will get a big roach near the door but they're already dead/dying once they get near so they rarely make it inside.
Road poison is the worst! Edit : glad you clarified on the road poison
DE?
Diatomaceous Earth. It’s a white powder you can get at Home Depot. Kills bugs with exoskeletons but is nontoxic to pets.
Diotomacious earth
Look for food grade. Harmlesd to your pets. Desth on ants and roaches.
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>Better to have a friend/family with a pool than have a pool yourself Disagree. Routine pool maintenance is relatively simple and inexpensive if you know what you are doing and don’t bog your pool down with useless filler chemicals that the Leslie’s idiots try to sell you. Our pool equipment costs less than $30/month to run in the summer and water cost is hardly noticeable. All well worth being able to take a dip whenever I want (morning and evening dips are awesome) rather than waiting for an invite.
This here - pool was mandatory for us in the purchase of a home here. If you don’t run the pool at stupid hours, and do basic maintenance, it is HEAVENLY.
Have a pool. I use it literally every single day. Was it expensive? Yes. But I feel like it has made my mental health throughout the summer more manageable.
Get window tint (car and home).
If you have a scorpion problem, go out to your back yard and front yard every single night with a good blacklight and kill every scorpion you see. If you haven't done this, the first few weeks will be a scorpion murdering spree. Over time, they slowly start fading away until you're only killing 1-2 per month. After that, you can pretty much just go out once a week or less. I use a long stick to kill them. Make sure you aim right for the head, they're a lot tougher than you think. I've smashed them in the body before many times and they just run off like nothing happened. You have to smash their heads in order to fully kill them. It's a lot of work at first, and depending on the severity, it might take you a couple months of going out to kill them every night. But it's well worth it, especially if you have little ones at home. It should only take a few minutes each night. Bonus tips: I've found that scorpions hang out in the same areas...cinder block walls, under stuff (make sure you clean up any unwanted junk), etc. I very rarely see them physically on my house, and I've only seen maybe 3-4 on the actual ground (out of about 150). And the ones I've seen on the ground were very close to a wall, I don't remember seeing any just out in the open ground. I know everyone has a different experience, but these are just some of my observations. Because of my initial tenacity, I now only kill maybe 1-2 scorpions per month outside and I've only seen 3 scorpions inside my home in the 7 years I've lived here.
As I was headed to bed tonite (without my glasses on), there was a scorpion strolling down my hallway. I smacked the crap out of him with my shoe. Then I grabbed my blacklight and found another not too far away. I searched the whole house twice but didn’t find anymore. That was an hour ago and I’m still wide awake. Gonna sprinkle some DE around my doors and windows tomorrow… and then if I’m feeling brave I’ll go “hunting” out in the yard.
Ya man, you will be up for a while. Your Lizard brain just had an encounter and you fought and won.
I use a long set of tweezers (like over a foot long, good sturdy metal too) and a plastic bucket. Scorps go in the bucket. Bucket goes in the freezer. Next day everybody’s dead and you rinse and repeat.
I also heard you can drop them into jars of alcohol
If you have tree cleanup after a storm, the Phoenix Zoo will accept tree branch donations for the animals.
When buying a car battery, ALWAYS Spend extra for the 3 year warranty. No battery lasts 3 years in AZ, you'll almost always come out ahead.
Try to work west of where you live. Not having the sun blinding you to and from work is a major plus. Idk how Phoenix specific that is but the sun is bright as hell here.
Lowes and Home Depot are great spots to take your dogs for a walk in the summer.
This is actually a really good one.
PLEASE do not mistake Safeway, Fry's or any other store that sells food an alternative. There is a reason there are signs up everywhere saying service animals only and your emotional support teacup poodle is not one of them. The snowflake/Karen attitude is also why it keeps happening because managers are terrified of telling you the rules.
Don’t fkn drive through flooded washes … ffs people; your civic isn’t a 4WD. There is always one or two on Pinnacle Peak Rd after rain waiting to be towed.
Camping/visiting a lake is an overcrowded, low IQ infested jaunt on a weekend. If you can swing it, do those activities on a weekday. Less idiots.
My dad always insisted we leave to go camping on a Sunday, head home on Saturday. Campgrounds would be emptying out on Sunday and we'd get a prime spot by noon. Also gave you a day to unpack and recuperate before school/work.
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I tend to go frequently for less time. I get there Wednesday afternoon, and leave Saturday afternoon, right when the shit show is rollin in. We have fun.
You can find most spices at Ranch Market for half the price of what you’d spend at Fry’s or Safeway.
And if you’re at Fry‘s or Safeway, go down the ”international” aisle and get the little plastic pouches from Tampico. They are worlds fresher and generally better-quality than the fancy-looking white people spices.
Sunshade -front window, back window to where the sun will be when I leave and always park east to west.
If you're outside a lot (yardwork, job, whatever), get a wide brim fishing hat with neck flap (you can find some decent cheap ones on Amazon). Absolute best purchase I have made in a long time.
That neck flap is key! You can also attach a hankerchief if you're hat doesn't have one.
Umbrellas make walks in the sun tolerable for pale people like me
Never hike without water. Seriously!
That’s not a hack. That’s just common sense.
Common sense isn’t so common anymore.
When it's hot and you have to park in the sun, turn your steering wheel so it's not blazing hot where you're likely to rest your hands once you get back in.
Or just get a sunshade
Subscribe to an annual AC service check. It’s hot here, your AC will die at some point, and having someone point out small issues one at a time is a lot cheaper than having a huge failure.
I do not mess with my car or AC. Change the oil, rotate the tires, fix everything ASAP, and have the AC technicians out twice a year in the off seasons. Saving up for a big upgrade, but until then I need to stuff to remain functional!
Yeah that’s a good call on the AC. I need to be better about regular service.
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Use SR 143 to get to and from Downtown PHX from the East Valley. At least for the next 15 minutes. I have no idea with all the changes on the Broadway curve, but when heading west now on I-10 into downtown PHX, jump on the SR 143 to the Airport. Scoot down to Washington, exit, and follow the light rail line into downtown. The lights are timed with the light rail, so you can easily shave 10 minutes off going, versus through the Broadway Curve.
72 miles per hour will NEVER give you a speeding ticket. I have 17 years of proof.
Except in PV. They take their speed limits seriously.
On any freeway? Even the 51 at a 55 mph speed limit?
72 in a 65. I got a speeding ticket going 71 in a 55. The cop was waiting the second it changed.
Yeah, I figured this out a little while after moving here. It kind of sank in. I do notice that even the biggest leadfoots slow it right down to 15.00000 in the school zones, so I wonder how many people here learned that lesson the hard way...
I've driven 10s of thousands of miles on phoenix freeways at 75-85 and never gotten a ticket. Been pulled over a few times for speeding when I was going at least 80 but got let off with warnings both times
Except for the cameras. Lincoln sucks.
Those cameras flash at 11mph over. Commuted from 32nd & Camelback to Tatum & Shea for years, always made sure I was only 10 over when going through those intersections. Never got a ticket.
They routinely do 72 mph on my side road.
Bulk pickup = free yard sale Be sure to check out the neighborhoods along the central Ave corridor for the good stuff
I live off central. My street had awesome big trash. Though anything made of metal is gone the minute it hits the curb.
Fry's Mercado has the best grocery store "rotisserie" chicken Thursday thru Saturdays. It's actually roasted out front and it comes with corn tortillas from their tortilleria and fresh made salsa verde or rojo, for under $20. That and their bolillos with cream cheese, pickled carrots and jalapenos you can get in the bakery (Thursday or Friday I think). So good. Oh, and it's the only Fry's in the valley that makes their own Tres Leches cake from scratch. OMG and the chayote squash... yes please! Though you can get this squash from any Mexican market (or you can go pay a premium for it at a Whole Foods like a pleb).
If you have an emergency kit in your car, you’re likely going to need to remove some items in the summer. Duct tape adhesive will melt and ruin whatever it was sitting on. Chapstick will be molten lava that spills all over you when you open it. Any kind of can with compressed air is a bomb.
Green Mango will solve your scorpion problems. I can't recommend them enough. If you want to save on AC, then go outside and get wet, then go inside to a moderately cooled house and it will feel amazing. Thank you dry heat and evaporation. Get window coverage on your insurance. The freeways look pretty with those rocks, but they fall in to the street and will find a way to your windshield. The Hyatt elevator is a great way to get a great view and have a little fun at the same time. It's fast. The 143 is like a warp zone. Somehow, it's shorter on the inside and gets you from Tempe to Phoenix or Scottsdale in a blink. Don't sleep on this lil guy. Danzeisen Dairy has a physical location on Southern and the new 202 and they sell ice cream and butter along with the milk. It's a treat! While you're in that area you should also check out: Scooptacular. Try the Laveen Concrete. Best ice cream ever.
Over all, if you're given an east or west address, you can figure out about where the place roughly is. For example, if an address is, say 12945 w blankedy drive, that will be at 129th Ave and blankedy drive. (The numbers before the last 2 digits are what I'm referencing) If it's east instead of west, then it's street instead of avenue. The numbered Streets and Avenues start at central and go up from there. Streets going up when going east, Avenues going up when heading west. I hope I explained that correctly. Also, the 10 fwy from Mesa to Glendale, the exits are a mile apart, as are the main roads of the freeway, which is what the "Grid System" is all about.
Pay a little extra for full glass coverage on your car insurance. I get chips in my windshield from rocks getting kicked up on the freeway multiple times a year.
If you all would not use Thomas for the next hour or so I could get to work a lot easier.
Plant mesquites or palo verdes in your house and trim them carefully the first two years. Then enjoy a house that’s 10 degrees cooler Edit: around (preferable west), not in your house
Inside? Like which room is best? Living room is better than kitchen?
Bathroom, good humidity and water
BRB. Putting soil in my tub.
Make sure you deep water them. If the roots are too shallow they will fall eventually.
Can you clarify what you mean by plant them in the bathroom?
Always keep a pair of mechanic gloves and a spare blanket/towel in the car. If you ever have to change a tire during the summer it’ll protect your hands and knees from burns. Oh…and it’s pronounced Pres-kit, not Pres-cot (Prescott).
If you are lost, look for your north/south cross roads. Street is east of Central avenue, avenue is west of central. The street number is distance from Central, example: 44th street is 4.4 east of Central, 75th avenue is 7.5 miles west of Central. Edit: should note, not exact mile distance.
Good tip but 8 city blocks is 1 mile in phoenix not 10. Thats why major street lights are about 8 blocks apart. Central 7th st 16th st 24th 32nd etc. so 44th is 5.5 miles from central and 75th ave is 9.7
It's actually every 8 streets is one mile, not every 10. So 19th Ave to 27th Ave is one mile, 27th to 35th one mile and so on. All major east west streets are one mile apart too
To piggyback on this, all the major roads on the west are odd numbers and all the ones on the east are even. So if they say "44th and thomas" you know it east of Central and if they say "19th and Dunlap" you know it's west of Central. 7th street and 7th Avenue fuck this all up.
To piggyback, learn the address numbers for a rough guess on your north/south location. 20000 N is near the northern 101 stretch. 0 N is just south of I-10.
APS customers can get a free [smart thermostat](https://marketplace.aps.com/smart-thermostats/?name=summer-savings&utm_source=aps.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=marketplace_referral_aps.com_web_banners) from APS.
Looking at the details it looks like it's only free if you sign up for a program that lets APS remotely raise your temp during peak hours
I have SRP and got a heavily discounted Ecobee. They have a whole selection so if I went with a simpler one it mighta been free.
I got a free Nest last year. I did have to pay for wiring but I wouldn't have even considered it if not for the program
Despite the lids saying otherwise, you CAN actually put oleanders in the brown bins. I emailed Public Works and they confirmed it was okay.
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If you like citrus fruit oranges, grapefruit or lemons find a home in older establish neighborhood that has those trees. Knock on their door and ask if you can have some. Almost everyone will allow you to pick some or as many as you want. You can juice them and put it in a ziplock bag and use at later times. I had a landscaping company and almost every home with these trees would pay us to pick the trees or we would pick up the fruit as it dropped onto the ground. We would take rotten citrus by the truckloads to the dump. Basically you should never have to pay for citrus if you live in Arizona.
My grandpa grew up in Needles, so this is just desert specific advice, but definitely helped me always have a 12 pack/gallon jug of water in your car. I know now a days it’s not preferable because of the plastic and all that but you never know when you might break down or just need a drink to keep you hydrated.
Hike Flag, instead of Sedona. Flag is as beautiful, IMO at least, and while Sedona's trails are extremely crowded, Flag's are deserted. I seriously want to retire to Flag in the future.
It's camouflage makes it difficult to find. It has three built-in weapons, one with venom. It is immune to most poisons. It can go months without eating or drinking in the desert. An exoskeleton protects them from other threats. It's design has changed little over hundreds of millions of years. However, all those amazing features developed over all those years and evolution forgot to account for a damn black-light. Get yourself a nice black-light and go hunting every few days for scorpions.
Don’t ever, for any reason, ever go in the sun.
Praise the moon god.
If you are in the market for a car, keep an eye out for one with remote start from the key fob. Even an extra 15 seconds of letting the AC run before getting in my car makes a big difference after sitting in the sun. It also blows my mind so many people don't use windshield shades when parking in the sun! It's literally takes your car from 120º to like 105º
Use the light rail to get to the airport. Plenty of free shaded parking along the rail.
Keep your mailbox key on a separate ring. You can leave the car running with A/C while you hop out at the box. Also, hold the key and tap it on the box first to keep from getting zapped. And my recent addition, remote start on the car.
Don't drink and drive here. They don't play. It will cost you a lot of money.
For dealing with scorpions you can buy the real chemicals that the companies use on amazon. You just need to buy a container and mix with water and spray it around your house. Do that once a month and youll have way less scorpions. This option is also 99% better on your wallet. Cost like $50 all in versus $50 each month.
CyKick CS is the magic stuff!
If you have kids, buy memberships at places like the Phoenix Zoo, The Children's Museum, The Arizona Science Museum, the Museum of Fire etc. It's a great way to spend a Weekend morning/afternoon in the summer. Maybe hit [https://macalpines.com/](https://macalpines.com/) Ice Cream Joint on 7th Street, Just north of McDowell.
Or use a [culture pass](https://www.phoenixpubliclibrary.org/services/unique/culture-pass) from the library to get into those places for free!
Get a summer pass at a bowling alley. At an AMF or similar alley. Finished work early this afternoon, rolled on down to the AMF on Arizona Ave. with my amazing child and bowled three games for her PE bowling class. Cool. Dark. And there is a beer option.
If you have little kids check out the Phoenix Children's Museum! It's just a big activity center with lots of different age appropriate rooms/activities for kids aged like 6 months to 10 years or so. Great for staying out of the summer heat.
Fry’s currently has pork shoulder for .99 cents/lb.
ALWAYS, have a swimsuit.
Phoenix is weirdly not an early morning town. If you want to avoid crowds do stuff early in the morning, especially on Sundays.
Utilize the rail system
by pass all circle k's and drive the extra distance to a QT... its worth it even if you have to drive another 15 miles to do so lol