Upgraded Honda City stock Goodyear Excellence 185/55R16 tyres to Michelin Energy XM2 Plus

The stock Goodyear Excellence 185/55R16 tyres of my Honda City had worn out by 70%, and I had shortlisted the following 3 models as their replacement:

• Michelin Energy XM2 Plus
• Goodyear Assurance Triplemax 2
• Continental UltraContact UC6

Before I was able to made up my mind, one of my tyres was found to have a nail poked in it, so I was forced to replace them a little bit earlier than my planned date.

The tyre shop informed me that they didn't have stock that fit with the wheel size of my car for some of the brands, and I ended up taking Michelin Energy XM2 Plus to be the replacement.

When looking for new tyre, I look for the following 4 criteria: cost, comfort, performance and lifespan.

Cost

This Michelin Energy XM2 Plus costed me RM200 each (including installation), which is within my budget.

There are of course better tyres with higher cost, which are beyond my selection.

Comfort

This Michelin Energy XM2 Plus is apparently softer than the stock Goodyear Excellent. The car is now less stiff when crossing road bumps, and also less road noise produced when running on the road, especially on cemented road.

Performance

Handling and traction is pretty good. Braking is very responsive. I haven't tried braking on water surface yet, as there is still no raining since I changed the tyres.

Lifespan

This tyre is made with full silica thread compound, which is said to have longer lifespan than rubber tyres. It is advertised to be able to last for over 100,000km mileage. Michelin provides a 6 years manufacturer warranty to it.

This means that as long as it is not poked by nail or damaged by accident, I can expect to use it for many years.

All in all, I am pretty satisfied with this Michelin Energy XM2 Plus tyre. It is value for money and performing up to expectation.

Boost x Prudential free special COVID-19 life insurance coverage

Boost e-wallet has just launched a "Boost Cares for you" campaign to provide free special COVID-19 life insurance coverage by Prudential, made available to Boost Premium e-wallet users who enrolled for it in their app.

This free COVID-19 insurance coverage is eligible to Boost users who are:

• having Premium e-wallet with verified personal details.
• aged between 18 to 55.
• limited to the first 200,000 enrolments only.

The coverage will start from the date of successful enrolment until 30 April 2020. The coverage is funded by Boost and free for members who successfully signed up for this campaign.

To sign up, open Boost app, then tap on the Boost (second) icon on the top menu, tap on More, scroll down the page to Insurance section, and select COVID-19 with the Prudential logo. Then, accept the terms & conditions and submit for processing.

The coverage of this special COVID-19 life insurance include:

• RM1,000 payout to your family upon death (all death reasons are covered, except suicide)
• RM5,000 coverage upon diagnosis of COVID-19

You will be entitled to this coverage despite having an existing medical condition.

For existing Prudential insurance policy holders, if you are already covered for the special RM5,000 COVID-19 coverage under Prudential insurance, you cannot claim double with the COVID-19 coverage under this Boost campaign.

Upgraded my Bacfree BS-1 drinking water filter element from Swiss-Tech to pH-Tech

I have been using Bacfree drinking water filter for more than a decade and it is still functioning very well.

All the years, I had been using Swiss-Tech filter element, which I would replace with a new one after using it for more than a year.

This time, I decided to upgrade the filter element to pH-Tech, because I found out that there is not much price different between Swiss-Tech and Multi-Tech, and that the Multi-Tech is selling at the same price with pH-Tech.

The differences among Swiss-Tech, Multi-Tech and pH-Tech is summarized in the table below:

Basically, Multi-Tech has all the functions of Swiss-Tech, plus an additional function to remove Chloramine in the water. You can read about the danger of Chloramine to our body and health here.

Chloramine can be removed from the water by boiling it for more than 20 minutes. However, my family has been drinking water directly from the Bacfree water filter over the years!

pH-Tech has all the functions of Multi-Tech, plus additional mineral stones to make the water slightly alkaline, and convert the water into mineral water.

When I installed my Bacfree drinking water filter many years ago, Swiss-Tech was the best filter element available, and there were some other filter elements with less functions, which now Bacfree has stopped selling.

Now that I have discovered the availability of pH-Tech filter element, and its price is pretty close with Swiss-Tech, there is no doubt for me to upgrade my Bacfree filter element to pH-Tech from now onwards.