Went through the exact same thing last month. Charged $80 flat for a simple laptop tune-up that took 20 minutes felt guilty about it. Then the next day spent damn near 3 hours at one house doing a whole home network overhaul with a new router, two extenders, and a printer setup. Same $80. My gut tells me per device is the way to go even if it means losing some of those quick gigs. You end up way less frustrated when you're actually getting paid for the real work you put in.

Heard from a few people that Gaia drains battery faster than something like AllTrails if you're downloading maps for offline use. In my experience, it's not terrible on a full charge with a fresh phone, but if your battery is already a few years old it can really take a hit. I remember reading a guy's story on a long hike in the Sierras where his phone died by noon because he had Gaia running and tracking his route the whole time. So I'd say it's fine for day trips but bring a power bank if you're out for more than a few hours.

@ellis.jennifer I used to grab any random fluid too without thinking twice until I wrecked a good pump the same way. That mistake really made me pay closer attention to what I was putting in there.

Legit same thing happened to me on my first big Arduino shield build. Thought I was just bad at soldering until I grabbed some decent rosin flux and suddenly everything flowed perfect. That stuff is basically magic for getting those stubborn joints to actually wet properly.

Use compressed air on the filter like @harris.emma said. I heard a guy on a podcast claim he taps the filter with a rubber mallet first to break up the big chunks, then finishes with the air. That middle step seems to save some wear on the pleats compared to just blasting it.