The Great 'Which gadgets were your biggest waste of cash?' Hunt

Lum

On this topic, you might find this tumblr amusing:

http://theworstthingsforsale.com

Includes such gems as:


A plastic ice cream maker that cracks as soon as the liquid freezes and expands


A plastic snowball maker


A pushchair for cats and small dogs


A fake (american) plug socket to hide your valuables in, that apparently you open by inserting a metal key into the plug socket... better hope you got the right one!


Something that will train your dog to do it's business indoors rather than in the garden


A £70 gold plated slinky

I think you get the idea.

purpleweasel

Lum wrote: »

Cat water fountain - The pump is so noisy the cat is wary of it, so I turned the pump off and then all he did was rub his head on it.

that's such a cat thing to do! Only thing they will reliably drink out of is the muddyish puddle outside the back door, i find...

re. breadmakers - i use mine for making & rising the dough then take it out to bake in a normal tin. Makes good pizza base that way

Lum

purpleweasel wrote: »

that's such a cat thing to do! Only thing they will reliably drink out of is the muddyish puddle outside the back door, i find...

I just can't get him to drink water at all, instead we have to get him cat food that includes jelly so that every other feed he will eat the jelly for moisture and leave the food. :mad:

Losinmoney

• hand operated Bond knitting machine. I only made one sweater, found dragging it along wrecked my shoulder. But I sold it on for three quarters of what I paid for it
• hand held steam cleaner. I used it to clean the kitchen tiles and they fell off!
• wallpaper steamer. Hire this instead, it costs the same and you don't need to store it in the garage for years, as I have!
• leaf sweeper. What's wrong with a brush, quieter and takes the same time? Sold on for three quarter cost again. Buyer delighted.
• bicycle. Only buy it if you know you love weaving through the traffic...
• rechargeable batteries and battery chargers. Such a faff unless you use looads of batteries
• roof bars. Only buy if you love loading stuff up on car roof. Again only used these once, load came loose (don't even ask!). Sold on. Buyer delighted.

There is a pattern emerging here. Should I buy that food processor? Noo I hear you shout. I'll bet I'll only use it once and sell it on!

pulliptears

i'll probably be ridiculed but....an iPad.

I bought it to read on, or at least thats what I told OH. In reality it was a gadget I desperately wanted. As it turned out, it was too heavy to use as an ereader and too bright. As I already had a MacBook Pro it wasn't used for browsing either and any apps I wanted I had on the Mac anyway.

It's sat for 2 years as a glorified iPod plugged in to a set of speakers and very rarely used.

Losinmoney

And..

• water sandals. What's wrong with flip flops?
• sewing machine, unless you love sewing and will use it enough
• butter curler
• meat slicer - such a faff to clean
• shoe trees. Does anyone bother with these after first few times?
• photo albums - I have 14 in my cupboards now waiting to be used...
• tape head cleaner - are they doing anything at all when you run them?
• any window cleaning gadget
• chess computer
• skype - my family always ring from their mobiles on the hoof
• digital photo frame
• tagine - used once
• lasagne dish - huge and used twice
• wok - even huger and used 6 times
• needle threader - do they ever work?

.... I could go on and on.....

Losinmoney

...

• cordless scewdriver
• Maglite torch. Far too heavy
• lawn edging tool. A strimmer is better
• lawn spiker. Requires strength of 10 to push into clay soil
• cast iron casseroles and pans. Far too heavy, esp when full
• fence paint sprayer. It goes everywhere.

I'm stopping now.

Mr_Toad

Lum wrote: »

I just can't get him to drink water at all, instead we have to get him cat food that includes jelly so that every other feed he will eat the jelly for moisture and leave the food. :mad:

Patience grasshopper.

I bought one for my moggie and he wouldn't use it, he was happy to sit and watch it though. He too would drink from puddles or the tap if left running.

I just left the fountain where it was and one day after he'd studied it very carefully for nearly four months he started using it! :T

Mr_Toad

jaybeetoo wrote: »

A disc camera - the quality of the photos was rubbish (very grainy).

Sony mini disc - great idea at the time but was made obsolete by MP3 players.

I bought a mini disc for my HiFi when they first came out along with a Sony mini disc car radio and a mini disc walkman.

A great idea, mini CDs in a protective case, perfect for the car, better quality sound than tape and smaller than a CD.

I still have the Hifi one and lots of music on disc but time and progress marches on and all my music is digital these days. I have a radio in my car that connects to my phone for hands free and also my iPod so I have my complete music collection available.

Mr_Toad

As for the best gadget.

It has to be a clockwork torch. I have several and keep one in the car.

Hands up all those people who keep a torch in the car and the one time you need to use it the batteries are flat? A wind up torch puts an end to that.

Some people don't get torches but I live in a village and the last street light is by the last house and after that you can't see your hand in front of your face if there's no moon.

I remember trying to convince a work colleague, city dweller, that he had no idea what darkness was.