Poorly designed things that make using them difficult?

[Whatisthisfuckery]

Spice jars, who in hell has designed the dimensions of spice jars? What measurement of spices does one usually find in a recipe? Teaspoons. What can you not quite fit in a spice jar? A fucking teaspoon. Whose bloody bright idea was it to design a jar that makes it hard to dispense the most common measurement of the ingredient contained within?

Ahh, that’s better, I needed that rant.

Go on, rant away. What poorly designed thing makes you angry inside?

@TalktotheFoot

Washing machines that don't actually WASH the clothes IN water, but just make them slightly damp and then smack them around in the drum for two (or three or four) hours. That's not how you get things clean. All it does is ruin your clothes because everything is rubbing against everything else all the time instead of being cushioned by soapy water.

And no, it isn't eco-friendly, because the laundry doesn't come out properly clean, so you end up having to wash it twice.

I want a washing machine where the load isn't pummelled to death, but sloshes about in bubbly water, and the dirt gets washed off.

Washing machines used to work perfectly. And then they went and fucked it up.

Mine collects a lot of soap around the door, it is full of froth, even when I don't add detergent to the wash. I do this because the machine is incapable of rinsing the soap out due to not using enough water.

A one hour wash with plenty of water can't be worse than 2 x 3 hour washes with barely a drop.

If you run a wash with towels and no detergent, there is a very good chance you will have a very frothy wash and still have soap filled towels at the end of it.

One of the reasons machines washed properly before about 2014/15 is that there were sulphates added to detergent which are no longer permitted. The other reason is the 'eco' machines are not fit for purpose, they call them washing machines, but they don't wash.

[quote WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll]@Frozenintime

Try this:
If that's not your model, search YT for the actual model number and 'beep'.

We had the same with our Bosch washing machine, which is otherwise brilliant, apart from its insistence that emptying it after the cycle has finished is the single most urgent thing you have to do in your life. One beep would be fine, but once every couple of minutes is horrendously irritating. Imagine specifically designing a useless feature for your product that is so infuriating for so many people - and not even having a clear way to disable it - that people have to work out the solution (pressing three random buttons in a random order or whatever) and then make YT videos to save your customers' sanity.[/quote]
Jesus yes, this. We have the same problem with our Miele. The alarm just won’t stop, repeating every minute until you go and switch the bastard off. What makes it worse is that there is a setting in the menu that allows you to turn the alarm down through four volume steps (loudest = brain haemorrhage, quietest = container ship klaxon) but not switch the sodding alarm off.

Maddening.

Re: Morrisons, that stupid island of random pork pies, bits of cheese and packs of other stuff was copied from the large Tesco at Watford after it was refurb'd. It used to be a good store, had a selection of everything you wanted, and then they wrecked it. It is now full of stuff you don't want and nothing you do with those stupid counters that block the way.

Not all Morrisons are the same though, we have proper belts where you can get a full shop on. However you do need to know where things are or you keep having to go round the store time and time again because it is a muddle. I know not to bother with the random deli counter and just go to the normal ones. I don't want left over reduced pakoras and stale re-wrapped slices of cheese that no-one else wanted, or pots of manky olives so I follow my list carefully and pass it by.

This is probably minor by comparison but every time I empty the bin, I wonder why do makers of drawstring rubbish bags make the drawstring almost the same colour as the bag so you have to fiddle about finding it? There you are, I said it was minor. But it gets to me every time.

@pliudev God yes, the palest of yellows for the drawstring I mean what's wrong with red or blue? I'm guessing there must be a single bin bag manufacturer in the UK that supplies all retailers and invested in a shit load of yellow dye several years ago!

@TeaAddict235

a Henry hoover: poor stability and spends most of time in operation on its side.

Henry is the biggest drama queen! Will melodramatically fall over at the sight of a table leg! And doors? Don't be silly. He is magnetically drawn to the casing, face first!

@Jaundicedoutlook on the thoroughly modern Miele like the W1 the silencer option lives in settings. One of the choices is volume : key down to lowest level then next choice is off if I recall correctly.

I had to hunt down the silencer for our Bosch microwave too re YouTube.

Who actually wants the functionality of an eternal beep? Do they do any user research on this stuff?

all the damn bloody things aforementioned

[quote PopAyetheSailorMam]@Jaundicedoutlook on the thoroughly modern Miele like the W1 the silencer option lives in settings. One of the choices is volume : key down to lowest level then next choice is off if I recall correctly.[/quote]
Oh - ours is a W1 and I have only ever been able to switch it to the lowest volume setting but not off. I’m going to try that again tonight, as it’s annoyed the pants off me for over a year.

Cling film. Everything about it. Nasty whispery stuff that I just cannot use successfully...

@moonlight1705

New scissors where you need a pair of scissors to open the bloody packaging. That's the whole point of why I'm buying it and don't want to accidently severe a finger by using a knife to try and get in.

Saw a life hack thing the other day saying open those packs with a tin opener - not tried it yet but worth remembering. I hate the door latches in my DPs house (barn conversion) none of them work the same and I end up slamming every door in frustration multiple times. Luckily we are moving to new house soon with “proper” doors!

@bassetlaw

Cling film. Everything about it. Nasty whispery stuff that I just cannot use successfully...

Put it in the fridge. Much easier to use.

@Bamaluz - re the toothpaste, there's no need to pull the foil off. Turn the lid upside down and you'll see a point. Stab the foil with the lid and the job's a good'un. Tomato purree and many tubes of ointment work the same way.

No, it doesn't have the pointy bit on the lid, you're supposed to peel the foil off but it doesn't come off cleanly.
And piercing it doesn't leave a clean hole for the too toothpaste to come through either because of the plastic film on the back of it.

The design fault that enrages me is my frying pan's handle, which conducts heat extremely well. I have to use oven gloves to pick it up. I invariably forget and grab hold of a handle that is as hot as hell. What idiot would design such a thing?

Public toilets with a sensor on the wall behind you that you wave your hand at in order to flush.

Not so great if you happen to move slightly when sitting on the toilet, and set it off while you are perched there mid flow.

Friend has a downstairs loo that self flushes if the bowl gets too full.

The amount of near heart attacks I've had whilst sat on that thing when it suddenly flushes!

I work in Morrisons. I get my shopping delivered from Tesco. Think that says everything 😂😂

@bassetlaw

Cling film. Everything about it. Nasty whispery stuff that I just cannot use successfully...

Do you deploy the tabs that are hidden in the box end to assist in keeping the rowdy article in its box ? They don’t press them in for you for hygiene purposes ... spoiler alert press tabs also on foil boxes. Eco ( anti single use plastic ) me says buy/make some beeswax wraps or purchase silicone lids instead. Soooo liberating.

99 %of modern packaging - it's all terrible - impossible to get into when you want to but always let's you down at the worst possible moment and spills - flour sugar biscuits cat litter........ And on and on......

Really thick conditioner in long, thin, fairly rigid bottles. Impossible to shake out with wet hands and so much gets wasted.

@AlanThePig - I used to work in pharmacy. If you ask, they should be able to decant all your tablets into bottles. We used to have a couple of people we did this for as we frequently had no choice in which brand tablets (and therefore packaging) we could get. If they're a decent pharmacy they shouldn't have any issue with doing this for you.

Bulldog Gin Bottles!
So dark you can't see how much gin is left in there 😂

Every time I used to be on a busy tube it infuriated me that the hanging straps were so high up. At my tallest I was a shade over 5’3” but have shrunk with age to about 5’1”. Still not that far off an average woman’s height! I always think they must have been designed by a man for a man.