To ask what household items were a complete waste of money?

[Ladymayormaynot]

Have just read expensive items worth every penny thread & interested to see what others have regretted buying. I'll start off with steam mops, I've had 3 all useless & binned. Garden strimmers again I've had 3 makes and none of them any good. The last was a Gtech which promised so much including free blades for life. Hidden in the small print was the £2.99 delivery cost per packet of 20. By the 2nd use I had used 10 blades as the kept splitting. It was returned for a refund.

I love my Shark steam mop! Hate my fancy waffle maker thing. Who needs waffles anyway? Pancakes are just as delicious and no wanky holes to worry about.

JML Phoenix Gold Iron - Biggest pile of shite and the worst iron I have ever owned.

Serves me right for replacing things when they are not really needed; thinking an "upgrade" would be better. Have been known to buy 2 irons in the same week, as got the model I liked the look of, and then saw the higher spec version, and got that too.

Terrible and so so wasteful, however, always make sure the unwanted appliances go to a good and much needed home, so they never go to landfill.

To those slating the George Foreman . I love mine! It's a lifesaver as I don't have a microwave or toaster- I can cook meat, fish and make toast/toasted sandwiches dead easily (no scrubbing the grill pan, yay) and no hassle to clean if you use the included scraper thingy and dunk the removable plates into the sink.

Am on my third one now- only thing that annoys me about my new one is that no model in the range has the auto shut off/timer function anymore so I have to hang around it and wait rather than do something else and come back to a lovely gooey toastie when I hear the beep...

Wastes of time: steamer (yep, pan and colander works fine) and my Vax steam mop-just not all it's cracked up to be.

I've had an ice cream maker on my wishlist for years. ..why don't people like them? It will cheer me up if they're no good, and stop me getting one. Do you have the expensive freeze themselves ones or the ones where you have to freeze the bowl separately ?

A thermobloodymix. unwanted wedding present.

Neckless I had the freeze the bowl separately one, so any ice cream making had to be premeditated - only had a small freezer at the time so it also took up more room than I really had while pre-freezing.

Gave it away to a friend with a bigger freezer who has used it a few times.

I do make ice cream - but no churn ice cream. It's pretty good. But only a couple of times a year...

Any gardeners out there who can recommend a grass strimmer/edger? I've had a Flymo, Black & Decker and a cordless Gtech. The wire/blades always snap after about 5 yds so there was constant faffing about rethreading the darn thing. I live in hope but maybe it's just me doing something wrong with all of them.

Neckless I have a pre-freeze icecream maker, too. Got it with petrol points so definitely bottom of the range. The bowl lives permanently in the chest freezer.
The cream freezes to the sides and the rotating paddle's sweep gets shorter and shorter until you're left with a twitching paddle in a puddle of milk and a rock-solid shell. By which time the bowl is beginning to thaw, too..
It does make a very good bottle cooler, though!

ladymayormaynot battery strimmer below - it uses blades not a wire - use it on my allotment - only lasts about 20 mins but that's about as long as I can be bothered with. I find the blades last well - unless you keep hitting it against things.

bosch

My microwave also broke around 4 months ago, never got round to replacing it and I haven't missed it either
I haven't replaced ours yet that broke in February and since then only once has my DS wanted to buy something that needed to be done in a microwave.

Spiraliser. Well, I liked the results but nobody else did so it has been used the grand total of once.
I also had one of those pre freeze ice cream makers. I got fed up of it clogging up valuable freezer space I took it out. I got fed up of it cluttering up the place so I chucked it. It was dh's idea, he used it about three times and hasn't yet noticed it's gone.
I threw it away about three years ago.
Sandwich toaster - didn't have enough space to make a decently filled sandwich. Pointless.
Flexible cake tins - so flexible they wibble as you get them out the oven so the cake breaks. You have to use a solid baking tray under them and it's still a total PITA to get the cake out. Metal with loose bottoms every time.
Those white surfaced frying pans - just shit. Short lasting expensive shit.
We bought one of those Karcher window cleaning vacuum things. It's been used once as it's a massive faff.
DH just uses massive shears to edge the lawn, he's also given up on strimmers.

electric slicer.
it's a pain to clean and therefore in the last corner of the cellar.

Thanks 80s Waistcoat, I'll have a look at Bosch. l'm optimistic .

I can't believe there are so many breadmakers on this list. I use mine several times a week. We rarely buy bread because it's so easy to make a loaf.

My waste of money is an electric coffee grinder. It's too much faff to get it out and clean it afterwards.

Breadmaker

Steam cleaner pointy end thing which ''blasts away grime''

2 huge veg terrines (sp?)

The first and last of the 3 were gifts. All 3 have been given to charity passed on to someone who i knew could use them.

OH and a yogurt maker from QVC. Not that it didn't make yogurt, it was just one thing too many to be doing in a day.

OK so now i've read it - yes:

The flexable cake tins (charity)
The slow cooker (charity)
and
The massive and v.expensive cross trainer bought online! How could i forget that?! (Languishing in my mums garage for 12+ years )

My bike. I saw a retro shopper bike in chazza shop, dh bought it for me as a gift, I fell straight off it and knackered my knee, it still has no feeling in it.
Pasta machine, juicer. This thing I bought dh where you could plug in a hard drive and watch films on the tv. Never used.

I would also like to add our fancy microwave which is also an oven and a grill - it's enormous
I heat cups of tea in it and beans.
DH always says 'it's useful at christmas' I've never used it at Christmas (except to reheat tea). Especially the oven part it takes ages to heat up

I dream one day it will die and I can buy a tiny microwave

A slow cooker
Car hoover (looking at you, dh)
patio pressure washer (I'll use it, said dh. No, he hasn't.)
coffee maker

Cross trainer. I bought it on a black Amazon sway. Essentially remodeled the house to accommodate it. Used it may be 4 times

Heat pump dryer made by Samsung. Cost me £800. And none of my washing comes out dry.

Juicer - we bought an expensive one on a health food fad. It makes beautiful juice but it's a nightmare to wash and is too big for the worktop so it now lives in a cupboard ...somewhere.

Exercise bike - we bought a spin bike off the internet that is so uncomfortable it makes exercise torture. It is now the place the kids hang their school ties on the landing.

Steam mop - such a hassle. It lives under all the wellie boots in the hall cupboard.

I disagree with Bread Maker as I use mine every week, as we make our own pizza dough. We also use our smoothie maker a lot as my teens like making milkshakes in it.

I don't think I've seen any Nutri bullets on the thread (maybe one). Is that because a) nobody buys them, b) they're actually really good or c) everyone's too embarrassed to admit they're rubbish?