If True, the Democrats will be really embarrased! | Main | Gadgets worth the money
January 24, 2004
Confessions of a Gadget Queen
As I have mentioned before, I have a failing for buying all kinds of kitchen gadgets and appliances. To be honest, I'll buy almost any gadget or appliance, if it looks cool enough.
Sometimes I screw up. I bought a very expensive Hoover Wind Tunnel vaccum cleaner - the one without the bag and with a Hepa filter, and it is a giant pain in the ass. Dirt gets stuck in the hose that is between the beater bar and the place where the dirt is supposed to go on a regular basis. Then John has to take it all apart and put it back together (because he has more patience with things like that than I do - not that he does it with a smile on his face). I had an earlier version with the Hepa filter only with bags, and it did a great job - I just wore it out with all our critters shedding all over the place.
Another bad purchase was a rotisserie. What a mess to clean up. It is hard to put the chicken or whatever in it, and though it does a great job of cooking, it is such an ordeal to clean all the parts that I only used it once. It is going to the GoodWill - maybe someone with more patience than I can use it.
I thought that this would be a really nice thing to have - but it is hardly a true convection oven - it actually takes longer to bake cookies in than a conventional oven. It has already gone out in the trash. Worthless POS!
Now, though, I see that Cuisinart has a convection oven out - but I'll check reviews before I buy that one!
This grill was a big mistake too - I should know by now that you can't make a good appliance that is supposed to do 5 tasks well.
Next time, I'll talk about cool things that really work as advertised that I have purchased.
Posted by Beth at January 24, 2004 1:01 PM
Comments
I wondered about that; thanks for saving me the trouble. ; )
Posted by: Key at January 24, 2004 2:33 PM
It has been the collective experience of posters to alt.dumpster that discarded vacuum cleaners are worth dragging home, as most only need unclogging and the rare "broken" ones only need a belt.
Posted by: triticale at January 24, 2004 4:53 PM
Triticale - I once managed a small appliance repair shop - including vacuums. As a result, I know how to fix everything from electric razors to coffee makers to vaccuum cleaners. It took us four years, but we blew the motor on the old one. I can replace beater bars, belts and even the fans, but a motor is way beyond my ability.
Posted by: beth at January 24, 2004 5:05 PM
I can replace a motor - but at that point I'd just rather replace the vacuum.
Posted by: John of Argghhh! at January 24, 2004 5:40 PM
My mother managed to trash the motor of an Electrolux, after 20 years, by vacuuming up a batch of straight pins. We had a vacuum in the office of the fab shop where I worked whose innards were totally chewed up by the steel chips we tracked into the rug. Maybe these are so exotic that they send off "pass this one up" to all the dumpster divers, because there are certainly plenty getting thrown out when merely clogged.
Posted by: triticale at January 25, 2004 9:59 PM
I just tried the scunci steamer - I found it not worth the storage space (or the $84 my mom paid for it)! Makes a ton of steam, very impressive-looking, but I get better results from my bottle of degreaser and a little elbow grease!
I sure wish it worked, she is now eating the $25 S&H they charged, plus whatever it costs me to ship it back to the company.
Ugg.
Posted by: kris at February 24, 2004 4:08 PM
oops, posted to the wrong thread...sorry!
Posted by: kris at February 24, 2004 4:11 PM