What's the best product you ever owned?

[DWalt]

The battery on my Swiss Army wristwatch died today. I went to the battery store to get a new battery which I took home and installed. I got to reflecting on that watch. I've had it for close to 20 years, and it has been a constant in my life for all that time and we've been through a lot together. Reliable, accurate, and rugged it certainly is, and I admire its clean and uncomplicated utilitarian appearance. All in all, it is so satisfactory I don't believe I will ever want another watch so long as this one stays running.

So which of your physical possessions (no guns please) you have ever owned were you completely satisfied with, attached to, and couldn't easily be replaced in your heart? Cars, cameras, tools, etc.

 

[Lee Barner]

right off I can think of two: my buck 110 and a pair of bushnell 8X30 binoculars that I got 50 years ago for my 16th birthday. they have both been on several continents with me and have served me well. rarely ever get them out of the drawer and use them but I would feel incomplete without them. lee

 

[Kanewpadle]

A Samsung microwave. We bought it in 1986 and gave it away in 2007. Still worked good.

 

[Fishslayer]

An ebony Frank Paradise pool cue. 21oz, the usual MOP & exotic wood inlays, I was told it was actually a snooker cue as the tip section was a bit longer & thinner than a regular cue. The tip itself was noticably smaller than most.

I traded a wrapping lathe & cash for it when I was 18 & lost it in a PCS move when I was 38.

I was bad to the bone with that cue. After I lost it (left it on a bus) I never found a suitable replacement & pretty much gave up serious pool after that.

 

[Rustyt1953]

My Boston Scientific pacemaker.

 

[Wingmaster]

before I got into my current occupation, I was a mechanic. I have some Snap On tools that I bought over 30 years ago. I used some of them every day for about 15 years and occasionally for the last 15 years. They have an unconditional lifetime warranty but that really doesn't matter much, because I have very seldom used the warranty.

The best quality item I own.

Wingmaster

 

[johngalt]

My HP 15c calculator, bought in 1987, is near the top. I think it is on the 3rd set of batteries.

 

[Grip_Maker's_Wife]

My wedding ring. It is the most beautiful ring I have ever seen, but more than that it means the world to me.

I also have a necklace with a pendant of my mom's thumb print. I wear that close to my heart.

 

[bountyhunter]

I bought a 32" Sony Trinitron TV back in 1995 that I got about 17 years of good service out of........

But before you run out and buy a Sony: the new 55" Sony Bravia I bought to replace t lasted 13 months before the screen completely blew up. Thank God I had bought the extended warranty, Sony's warranty was 12 months.

 

[ralph7]

My 2000 Gmc Sierra

I have a little single cab stepside with the 5.3 that now has about 130k on it. It is a great little truck that runs as good as it looks. I had a car load of young guys follow me into a store parking lot trying to buy it from me to no avail.
I feel like the old guy with the cool old car that keeps getting pressured to sell, but I won't.

 

[mtelkhntr]

An old International Harvester freezer. It weighs as much as pickup and has never missed a beat in over 60 years

 

[Marshwheeling]

BMW R75/5, bought new in 1972 for $2200, about the price of a Harley Sportster or a VW Beetle. I rode it hard for 35 years. All I ever had to do to it was replace fork seals, set the valves, replace mufflers and fork bushings. In 200,000 miles, I never did engine repairs, or even removed the cylinder heads.

I toured on it, commuted, did weekend rides, and garnered trophies in vintage MX and vintage trials. It embarrassed more than a few sport bikers on gnarly Wisconsin coulee roads.

It was an expensive bike for its time, but I got much more than my money'so worth. It doesn't owe me anything.

 

[Onomea]

My HP 15c calculator, bought in 1987, is near the top. I think it is on the 3rd set of batteries.

I have an HP 12C I also bought in 1987 and which is also on its third set of batteries...

 

[scatter shot]

Best product ever owned?

Thermacell. Works better than advertised.

 

[TTSH]

Crazy but true...

... it was a basic, no-nonsense Ford Festiva that I bought brand new for chump change and which got me through some of the worst and tightest years of my life with outstanding fuel economy and rock solid reliability. It never let me down and cost me practically nothing to own. I got close to 190,000 miles out of that car and then sold it to a woman who used it successfully as her "island car" on Martha's Vineyard for many years thereafter.

I'd buy another one today in a heartbeat if they were still available.

 

[ChattanoogaPhil]

Most useful product ever is an iPhone. Nothing even comes close to the daily uses and versatility.

Being able to monitor and makes stock trades while away from home is like a gift from the Gods. Any of you guys remember having to stop at a payphone to call your broker?

Having a high definition camera in my pocket has allowed me to take so many memorable pics and videos that I would have never had otherwise. I've taken more pics with my iPhone in the last few years than with conventional cameras over the previous 40 years.

To video call with the kids and see my little granddaughter is absolutely priceless. That's worth the price of the phone and service right there.

Various stuff...
Car radio, GPS navigation, e-mail, text, Net, music player, flashlight, clock, timer, notebook, phone book, calendar, level, ballistics calculator, price matching at retailers, on and on and on.... I can even use the iPhone to make phone calls too.

As far as the heart... that's a small pocket knife gift from dad when I was a kid.

 

[Salty RI]

right off I can think of two: my buck 110 and a pair of bushnell 8X30 binoculars that I got 50 years ago for my 16th birthday. they have both been on several continents with me and have served me well. rarely ever get them out of the drawer and use them but I would feel incomplete without them. lee

,
As I started to read this thread, the first thing that came to mind was my Buck 110, I carried that knife for over forty years, I couldn't tell you how many rabbits I cleaned and skinned with that knife, one day I opened it and it wouldn't close I bought a new one but it's not the same.

 

[Watchdog]

...which of your physical possessions (no guns please) you have ever owned were you completely satisfied with, attached to, and couldn't easily be replaced in your heart?

Easy choice for me. My 1990 Toyota 4Runner that I bought new in April, 1990...this will mark our 26th year together.

Lots of memories associated with this truck...ladies, friends, and dogs...places it's taken me, from the swamps and bogs of Georgia, through the mountains of Tennessee and West Virginia, to the UP in Michigan with its tremendous scenery and snowfalls. It's never let me down. Not once. I've taken good care of it, and it's taken good care of me. I did get stuck in it once...in a snow-covered ditch up around Haslett, Michigan...my fault, not the truck's. A friendly guy on a big John Deere (nothing runs like a Deere) yanked me out. He wouldn't accept any money, but I had some beer in the cooler, so we shared a cold one together, there in the snow and the 5-degree temperature. That was back in '93...where has the time gone?

It still wears its original paint. It has the 3.0 V6 and a 5-speed manual transmission. Other stuff, if anyone's interested, includes a 4-inch Trail Master suspension lift, Rancho heavy duty torsion bars, shocks and steering stabilizer. Heavy duty skid plates from Northwest Off Road Specialties in Bellingham, Washington. We ride on Dick Cepek tires and Mickey Thompson wheels. I put Warn manual hubs on it. It also now has a brand new Kenwood stereo system including a sub with its own separate amp.

It'll be seen to even after I'm gone. It's in my will and it'll go to the young son of a good friend of mine.

It's been a good ol' truck.

 

[olcop]

A Thermos bottle
i have owned one for over 50 years,---when you put something in it hot---it stays hot,----when you put something in it cold----it stays cold.
And, I have never understood how, without a programable memory chip,
it knows the difference.
olcop

 

[sheepdawg]

A 1950s Craftsman vise. My dad bought it in 1954, the same year I was born. It now sits in my work shed and still works as good as the day my dad set it up. A nuclear bomb could go off above it and all it would do is clean 61 years of crud off of it.