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Original poster

World's worst inventions

29 replies

Jaggerdagger · 18/03/2022 22:12

  1. Printers. Never found a good one. On my 5th in 5 years and it's just broken.
  1. Those cloth hand towel contraptions in public toilets that you have to yank all the way round, and it's soggy from everyone else's hands.
OP posts:
EssexLioness · 18/03/2022 22:13

Nuclear weapons

Original poster
Jaggerdagger · 18/03/2022 22:15

@EssexLioness

Nuclear weapons
Quite.
OP posts:
EssexLioness · 18/03/2022 22:39

Sorry I suspect you were going for a more light hearted approach! I agree re the hand towel thingy, just gross 🤢

Margot78 · 18/03/2022 22:44

Umbrellas! Bs hurl themselves inside out at the slightest poof of wind, you can’t share one with someone without getting your eye poked out, walking at an angle or getting dripped on and they’re also the slowest things in the world to dry. There has to be some better ideas in the universe.

threecupsofteaminimum · 18/03/2022 22:50

Husbands

SiobhanSharpe · 18/03/2022 22:50

I'm a sucker for kitchen gadgets and have had many many useless ones over the years.
A garlic peeler that didn't.
A complicated tomato processor thingy when we had a glut of home-grown toms. You fed whole tomatoes in and it mulched them up with skins and pips coming out of one bit and the flesh and juice in another. The kitchen rapidly resembled a mafia bloodbath.
A rotary cheese shaver. Yes, really. It was difficult to assemble, and gave you wafer thin cheese curls that tasted of soap.
And then there was the 'electric' ice cream maker that took six trays of ice cubes and half a pack of salt to produce about 250 grams of slushy ice cream.

ClariceQuiff · 18/03/2022 22:52

Spiral vending machines. Unless you enjoy the fairground-esque game of buying three different chocolate bars you don't want in an attempt to find one that will fall down at the right angle to knock down the stuck bag of crisps you originally paid for.

elizadoalittle · 18/03/2022 22:54

Mondays

XenoBitch · 18/03/2022 22:58

Juicers.
I went through a health kick and bought one. A total pain in the ass to clean up. You are talking about 9 different parts. And you use so much fruit/veg for a little bit of juice.
Nowadays, I just use a high speed blender with some water and squeeze the pulp through a nut milk bag. Far easier clean up.

SylviasMotherSaid · 18/03/2022 23:00

Microsoft Teams video calls

WormHasTurned · 18/03/2022 23:03

There’s a loo roll dispenser called something like “perfect one” where it’s a big round dispenser and I assume the idea is you pull out one sheet…? Expect the bastard things get stuck so you can’t get any bloody loo roll out and it’s not like you can open them because they lock at the top! Serious design flaw

AnnUumellmahaye · 18/03/2022 23:05

Soup makers, why bother just use a big pan.

Kpo58 · 18/03/2022 23:11

Parentmail. I have no idea what the point of this app is. It sends emails about school to the app, whilst copying the email to your email address and sending an email saying that you have a new email in parentmail.

It's like an unsortable email box that helps you loose any important information that you may need.

TokenGinger · 18/03/2022 23:13

@AnnUumellmahaye

Soup makers, why bother just use a big pan.
Ohhh I beg to differ on this one. I used to think just use a big pan, until my DP bought a soup maker and I'm a convert.

I used to make it in a pain, then transfer over to a blender, end up burning myself in the process and have a pan and a blender to clean.

Now I just chuck a load of veg, water and stock cube in the maker, walk away for 19 minutes and it's perfectly smooth. It also has a keep hot function so I can put it on when I'm making a brew in the morning before I start work and the soup is ready and blended when I come down for lunch.

Longdistance · 18/03/2022 23:13

Not an invention, but mosquitoes. Tossers!

Gingernaut · 18/03/2022 23:14

Those Dyson hand dryers (and the numerous knock offs), where you have to stick your wet hands between two sides of a dryer and dip your hands up and down to dry them.

They're expensive, so minimal numbers are put in public toilets, they cut out unless your hands are 'just so' between the sides and the water simply dribbles to the bottom and then down the walls.

Many women seem to just pull out reams of toilet paper instead and, because these dryers are supposed to cut down on cloakroom waste, find there are no bins. So they leave manky balls of toilet paper all over the sinks.

TokenGinger · 18/03/2022 23:14

@Kpo58

Parentmail. I have no idea what the point of this app is. It sends emails about school to the app, whilst copying the email to your email address and sending an email saying that you have a new email in parentmail.

It's like an unsortable email box that helps you loose any important information that you may need.

Yes! 😂 They may as well just send the email to my email address!
FrasierCraneDay · 18/03/2022 23:16

@Kpo58

Parentmail. I have no idea what the point of this app is. It sends emails about school to the app, whilst copying the email to your email address and sending an email saying that you have a new email in parentmail.

It's like an unsortable email box that helps you loose any important information that you may need.

Oh my good god yes! Drives me crackers
Original poster
Jaggerdagger · 19/03/2022 05:40

@Margot78

Umbrellas! B**s hurl themselves inside out at the slightest poof of wind, you can’t share one with someone without getting your eye poked out, walking at an angle or getting dripped on and they’re also the slowest things in the world to dry. There has to be some better ideas in the universe.
Yes, yes. One hundred times, yes!
OP posts:
Original poster
Jaggerdagger · 19/03/2022 05:43

@WormHasTurned

There’s a loo roll dispenser called something like “perfect one” where it’s a big round dispenser and I assume the idea is you pull out one sheet…? Expect the bastard things get stuck so you can’t get any bloody loo roll out and it’s not like you can open them because they lock at the top! Serious design flaw
One sheet of loo roll? Demonic. I try to save as much as I can but I generally néed at least 3/4 squares for a little wee!!
OP posts:
balalake · 19/03/2022 07:53

Certain words in the English Language

Literally
Big
Little

GoodnessTruthBeauty · 19/03/2022 08:09

Self serve check out. Unless you only have a couple of items it can be awkward and I hate knowing that this is all in aid of making more profit for the company, less jobs for humans and another opportunity of friendly human interaction during the day eliminated. Its the atomization of society. Profits and machines over humanity.

Fernandina · 24/03/2022 14:03

The potato ricer. It is supposed to make preparing mash so much easier. Nope. Not only do you need Popeye's biceps, you then have to wash the thing out, and it is a lot more of a nuisance than a plain and simple masher.

Corned beef and other meat tins with a little key to open them by twisting a small strip of metal round the side. Awkward, fiddly and clearly designed to increase the sales of plasters.

Aroundtheworldin80moves · 24/03/2022 14:06

Housework

christmassausages · 24/03/2022 15:49

Don't know what type of towel rollers you mean. When you pull the towel the used bit rolls around to the 'dirty' roll part and you get a new clean bit to dry your hands on.