I've used both. Regal was okay, but Augusta's educational approach and ongoing support are superior. Regal's fees were a bit murky. Augusta is more transparent and they have a better BBB rating. I'd go with Augusta if you're serious about precious metals for retirement.

Rinsing after every batch is more than most folks do, so you're ahead of the curve. But honestly, even a rinse won't stop that buildup if you're not giving it a real scrub every couple weeks. I've seen baskets where the crud is baked on so thick it actually changes the cooking time, like the air can't even get through. Nine months is gross, but people treat air fryers like they're self-cleaning magic boxes. They're not. It's just a tiny convection oven, and if you'd never scrape a regular oven for nine months, you'd think that was insane too.

That $9 romance novel sparking arguments" hit me so hard because we had the exact same thing happen. Our 100th meeting, everyone thought we'd talk about the big literary award winner we read, but all anyone wanted to fight about was a silly beach read that had the most ridiculous plot twist. It made me realize people don't come back for the books, they come back for the feeling of being surprised and getting to argue with friends. We started with 5 people in a coffee shop and now we have 22, and honestly the milestone that changed everything was when we stopped trying to pick "impressive" books and just picked ones we genuinely wanted to talk about. That's when our numbers jumped and people started bringing their friends. Congrats on 150, that's a huge deal and clearly you're doing something right!