Thermacell LIV 2.0 Review: Taking My Yard Back
Thermacell LIV 2.0 Review: Taking My Yard Back
Thermacell LIV 2.0 评测：夺回我的庭院
WIRED Rating: 8/10 WIRED 评分：8/10
TIRED (Pros): Improved repeller design improves coverage and speeds startup time. More visible on/off indicator. Two cable ports on each hub dramatically improve installation flexibility. 优点： 改进的驱蚊器设计提升了覆盖范围并加快了启动速度。开关指示灯更醒目。每个集线器上的两个电缆端口极大地提高了安装灵活性。
TIRED (Cons): Upgrades are modest on the whole. More expensive than ever. Now requires professional installation. 缺点： 整体升级幅度较小。价格比以往任何时候都贵。现在需要专业安装。
Four years ago, I moved back to Texas from California. After two weeks of living here, I realized we were going to have to do something about the mosquitoes. In the 25 years I’d been gone, they seemed to have grown larger, more intelligent, and much thirstier. My skin had become a bepoxed nightmare within days. 四年前，我从加利福尼亚搬回了德克萨斯州。在这里住了两周后，我意识到我们必须对蚊子采取行动了。在我离开的 25 年里，它们似乎变得更大、更聪明，也更贪婪了。几天之内，我的皮肤就成了布满蚊子包的噩梦。
I immediately embarked on a mission to do something, anything, about the problem, quickly resorting to paying a local company to send a guy with a pesticide-blasting cannon strapped to his back to the house once every three weeks. The cannon, used to blast all the foliage on the property, was expensive—four figures yearly—and very effective at warding off bugs … for a mere 48 to 72 hours after each spraying, after which it would wear off and the mosquitoes would return with bloodthirsty vengeance. 我立即开始寻找解决办法，最终不得不花钱请当地一家公司，每三周派人背着杀虫喷雾炮来家里一次。这台用于喷洒院内所有植被的喷雾炮价格昂贵——每年花费四位数——而且驱虫效果非常显著……但每次喷洒后仅能维持 48 到 72 小时，之后药效就会消失，蚊子又会带着嗜血的报复卷土重来。
It took two years for me to find something better, and I wrote about it extensively for WIRED. Thermacell is a leader in mosquito abatement, and its LIV Smart Mosquito Repellent System is the company’s top-tier product. While it produces various small-scale repellers designed for personal use, LIV is a different animal that is installed semi-permanently around the area you want to protect. You fire it up when you need it, then shut it down when you’re safely inside. 我花了两年时间才找到更好的方案，并为 WIRED 撰写了详细报道。Thermacell 是蚊虫治理领域的领导者，其 LIV 智能驱蚊系统是该公司的顶级产品。虽然他们生产各种用于个人使用的小型驱蚊器，但 LIV 则完全不同，它被半永久性地安装在你想要保护的区域周围。你需要时开启它，回到室内安全地带后再将其关闭。
Now two years after that review, Thermacell has upgraded most of the LIV components (only the cabling remains the same) and dubbed the system LIV 2.0. The company recently provided me with all the new hardware so I could test whether and how the technology had improved. 在那篇评测发布两年后，Thermacell 升级了 LIV 的大部分组件（只有电缆保持不变），并将该系统命名为 LIV 2.0。该公司最近为我提供了所有新硬件，以便我测试这项技术是否有所改进以及改进程度如何。
Similar Story, Updated Look
故事依旧，外观焕新
Conceptually, you won’t find any big twists in LIV 2.0. The brains of the system include one or more Wi-Fi-connected control hubs. These plug into wall power and connect via lengths of cable to multiple pesticide-emitting repellers laid out in a daisy chain, which you arrange in a perimeter around the area you’re trying to protect (in my case, the swimming pool). Repellers can be placed up to 20 feet apart from each other, and each contains a replaceable vial of the chemical metofluthrin, which mosquitoes detest (though, take note, it doesn’t typically kill them). With the original LIV, I used two hubs and five repellers to ring my pool. This year I added a sixth repeller to enhance coverage in one corner where I worried mosquitoes were sneaking through a hole in the vaporous fence. 从概念上讲，LIV 2.0 没有什么大的变化。系统的核心包括一个或多个连接 Wi-Fi 的控制集线器。它们插入墙壁电源，并通过电缆连接到多个以菊花链方式排列的驱蚊器，你可以将它们布置在你想要保护的区域（以我为例，是游泳池）周围。驱蚊器之间的距离最远可达 20 英尺，每个驱蚊器都包含一个可更换的甲氟醚（metofluthrin）药剂瓶，蚊子非常讨厌这种化学物质（但请注意，它通常不会杀死蚊子）。在最初的 LIV 系统中，我用了两个集线器和五个驱蚊器环绕我的游泳池。今年，我增加了一个驱蚊器，以加强一个角落的覆盖范围，因为我担心蚊子会从“蒸汽围栏”的漏洞中溜进来。
The v2 hubs look very much like the original ones, with a circular design that features only a single button on the front that can be used to power the unit on or off (handy in case Wi-Fi isn’t cooperating). A hub can now handle up to 10 repellers (up from 6) and now features two cable terminal posts, so repellers can branch out from the hub in two directions instead of just one. In other words, you no longer have to locate the hub at the beginning of a run, which can add some much-needed flexibility depending on where your power outlet is located. The only other major change of note is that the mounting bracket has been slightly redesigned, so you’ll need to drill at least one new screw into your wall if you are replacing the old system with the new one. v2 集线器看起来与原版非常相似，采用圆形设计，正面只有一个按钮，可用于开启或关闭设备（在 Wi-Fi 连接不畅时非常方便）。一个集线器现在最多可以控制 10 个驱蚊器（之前是 6 个），并且现在有两个电缆终端接口，因此驱蚊器可以从集线器向两个方向延伸，而不是只有一个方向。换句话说，你不再需要将集线器放置在布线的起点，这根据你电源插座的位置增加了急需的灵活性。另一个值得注意的主要变化是安装支架经过了微调，因此如果你要用新系统替换旧系统，你需要在墙上至少钻一个新的螺丝孔。
The new repeller design is more exciting to talk about. While it maintains the overall cylindrical design of v1, the styling and operation have been updated. First, the LED status ring that indicates whether the unit is on (or warming up or cooling down) is much easier to see, so you can easily tell at a glance if the system is running, making it less likely to accidentally leave it running for hours when you don’t need it. The bigger news, however, relates to a new hatch on top of the repeller that flips open when it’s warmed up and operational. This new design allows the metofluthrin vapor to rise upward from the repeller instead of simply seeping out laterally, potentially improving airborne coverage of the chemical. 新的驱蚊器设计更令人兴奋。虽然它保持了 v1 的整体圆柱形设计，但造型和操作都进行了更新。首先，指示设备是否开启（或正在预热/冷却）的 LED 状态环变得更容易观察，因此你可以一眼看出系统是否在运行，从而减少了在不需要时意外让其运行数小时的情况。然而，更大的新闻是驱蚊器顶部的一个新舱门，它在预热并开始工作时会自动翻开。这种新设计使甲氟醚蒸汽能够从驱蚊器向上升起，而不是仅仅向侧面渗出，从而可能改善化学物质在空气中的覆盖范围。
The chemical repellent hasn’t changed—it’s still 5.5 percent metofluthrin—but Thermacell is now marketing it as effective against not just mosquitoes but also midges/no-see-ums, thanks to updated EPA guidance. Midges are the one plague we seem to avoid in my area, so I haven’t been able to test those claims specifically. Also, as I mentioned in the previous review: Make sure you wear gloves when handling the metofluthrin capsules, as it can create a lasting numbness upon contact with skin. 驱蚊化学成分没有改变——仍然是 5.5% 的甲氟醚——但得益于美国环保署（EPA）的最新指导，Thermacell 现在将其宣传为不仅对蚊子有效，对蠓虫（midges/no-see-ums）也有效。蠓虫似乎是我所在地区唯一能避开的害虫，所以我无法专门测试这些说法。此外，正如我在之前的评测中提到的：处理甲氟醚胶囊时请务必戴上手套，因为它接触皮肤后会产生持久的麻木感。
Finally, there’s a new app to run all of this, and it’s a significant improvement over the original LIV mobile app. A scheduling system and timer are handy, and you can even use the app to change the color of the LEDs on the LIV repellers. The app can be a little finicky—it tends to take a few seconds for power state changes to be reflected—but in months of testing this summer, I’ve found that it works well most of the time. What’s missing? Despite promised Alexa support—which vanished abruptly over a year ago—the company says it is still in the works. 最后，有一个新的应用程序来运行所有这些功能，它比最初的 LIV 移动应用程序有了显著改进。调度系统和定时器非常方便，你甚至可以使用该应用程序更改 LIV 驱蚊器上 LED 的颜色。该应用程序有时会有点小毛病——电源状态的变化通常需要几秒钟才能反映出来——但在今年夏天的几个月测试中，我发现它在大多数情况下运行良好。缺少了什么？尽管之前承诺过 Alexa 支持——该功能在一年前突然消失了——但该公司表示该功能仍在开发中。
Baby Steps
小步快跑
Ultimately, I think the overall effectiveness of the system has improved, though only slightly. A big part of that is that the new top-mounted repeller hatch helps the system warm up faster, not just creating a more effective barrier but doing it more quickly than the older system. With LIV 1.0 I often waited a half hour… 总的来说，我认为该系统的整体有效性有所提高，尽管幅度很小。很大一部分原因是新的顶部驱蚊器舱门有助于系统更快地预热，不仅创造了更有效的屏障，而且比旧系统更快。使用 LIV 1.0 时，我经常要等上半小时……