Technology Connections

Alec Watson's channel is about the engineering inside ordinary household things, and it will change how you use some of them. His heat pump videos explain why moving heat beats making it, and his famously long dishwasher videos explain why the machine works better when you run the hot tap first. Other subjects include toasters, the popcorn button on microwaves, LED Christmas lights, pinball machines and the Betamax and VHS format war. The tone is dry, thorough and occasionally cranky about bad design. Choose it if you like knowing why an appliance behaves the way it does, not just which one to buy.