Expensive items bought that disappointed/didn’t live up to the hype?

[Theroadnottravelled]

Mine is a cordless Dyson vacuum. Cost loads, has a poor battery, doesn’t pick up well, so overrated. Gets rave reviews - why?? My next one will be a Henry ;-) My other is overpriced, average pub/cafe grub when out as a family. Such a waste of time, money and effort. Sorry, I’m usually more upbeat…

I wish I'd known that 4 battery packs ago

La Mer Crème de la Mer.
No different to Nivea and so expensive.

Anything Bosch. Just ordering a new Washing Machine today after the pricey Bosch has died after only 4 years. Machine repairer who advised has recommended Beko! We're going for it

Now, my AEG tumble dryer on the other hand is going strong after almost 21 years. MIL bought it when DS1 was born- she was right to insist on choosing it as she rates AEG.

Pub food, any type of pub even the posh ones always serve bland and bloody boring food. Pubs are one of the places I would always avoid.

I would agree with this 99% of the time. Occasionally you get a decent foodie pub where things are made on the premises, but most are dreadful....

Dyson hair dryer

I suspect it depends very much on where you live / visit. I’ve had family visiting recently (and they’re real foodies like me) so have taken them out for various pub lunches and the food has been outstanding (which is why I chose those specific pubs). They visited for 10 days and we were in London, Kent and East Sussex.

A reasonably expensive (well into 4 figures) sofa with feather cushion pads (it was Sofa Workshop, who aren't around any longer). We splurged on it after I sold my house and was 'merging' with DH and felt unusually wealthy! It was really attractive in the showroom - camel-backed, tight covers (WHY?? we already had one tiny DS and I was about to get pregnant with another one!) and these delectable squishy seating pads filled with feathers and down. Sinking into them was like taking my bum to Heaven for a day trip.

To be fair, we were warned by the saleslady (whose job, I think, solely consisted of plumping feather cushion pads every hour) that if you opt for the luxe feather pad option, YOU HAVE TO PLUMP THEM DAILY. She actually grilled us on how motivated we were and if we were 'the type of person who plumps cushions a lot'. (We aren't) We were invited to try the hybrid pads (foam with thin feather casing, WHY DIDN'T WE GET THOSE) and just foam, but having tasted the feather pads, we were hooked.

We started with good intentions and plumped. A lot. Because you didn't just need to plump first thing in the morning and maybe once in the day. No no, you needed to plump pretty much every time you wanted to sit down. All good, we thought.

Obviously this tailed off. And if you don't plump several times a day, the feathers gradually compact. Eventually it feels like you're sitting on a sack of set cement. The tight covers bear the marks of having two messy children. The arms have been catted. (neither of those things are the fault of Sofa Workshop, RIP.)

Loads of trial & error hugely expensive moisturisers which clogged my pores & made my skin break out in underlying red spots. I now use a cheap fragrance free baby moisturiser with brilliant results,no clogged pores & no break outs.

My Samsung washing machine, it was the only one that fit in the narrow gap in my kitchen, but I REALLY miss my old Bosch machine from my old house. The Samsung machine just doesn't seem to wash very well, and it weirdly locks in a really rubbish spin for most of the washing programs I use, meaning I'm endlessly running a wash, then having to run a second spin as well.

We've been dissapointed by Bosch/Siemens washing machines here too. I had a Siemens machine in our last house which was great but we had to leave it when we moved, so I ordered a Bosch thinking it would be good; it was anything but. Would'nt register the door as being closed so often wouldnt start, it took at least 6 attempts on some days, one day I had to turn it off for an hour before it would eventually start, the engineer was very dismissive and claimed I'd been leaning on the door when loading it which caused the hinge to drop (something I've never done) and when he replaced the door hinge the fault persisted and DP ended up replacing it.

Our Bosch oven, hob, cooker hood and dishwasher on the other hand have been generally really good so far though, bloody jinxed it now though, haven't I?

We bought a Dyson fan once, it was no better than our other fan which was £25. DH contacted the company who advised that there was a higher spec model than the one we had bought - would have been £600! The Dyson fan went straight back anyway and another lower price one purchased.

👏🏼😂

Dishwashers - we had a Bosch at one point, no better than the indesit which lasted for ages. A couple of years back we invested in a Miele for £££. A baby slug crawled inside (up the pipe I presume) and electrocuted itself shorting out the circuit board. Would have cost around £400 to replace it. Another cheap dishwasher was purchased.

You need to move to North Worcestershire! Suppose it depends on what someone considers bland food but the majority of places we go to the food is home
made.

I’m a veggie and use the air fryer for roasting vegetables & fruit, mini traybakes, baking marinated tofu/tempeh before adding to salads or stir fries, small parmigianas, cauliflower wings, felafel, gnocchi, stuffed vegetables amongst other things. Basically everything I’d use a hot or roasting oven for but don’t due to cooking smaller quantities. I’d never turn on the big oven to roast one pepper or aubergine or one stuffed vegetable.

Have a google for “vegetarian recipes air fryer” or similar for ideas.

Obviously if cooking large quantities it makes sense to use a full sized oven but if cooking for one or two the air fryer is surprisingly useful.

Luckily I bought it in the sale but most of the time it’s offline or gets stuck!

Neff combination oven, microwave and grill. First one was replaced after the enamel bubbled.
Second one has been virtually rebuilt with new thermostat, fan and element. Still doesn't get up to temperature and heating is patchy. Fan rattles, but only intermittently. Will need to get them out again before the warranty is up.
My Neff Hide & Slide oven (like the ones on GBBO) has been fine though.

I have had iphones for years. I always have a case on them but they have fallen, bounced, been sat on...etcet and never had any damage touching wood

me too @godmum56 - to be fair I had a few cracked screens before screen protectors but I’m struggling to see how dropping it 20cm on to a fluffy carpet would have broken a screen!

mmmmm I am thinking a porkie here

This. I dropped mine down a flight of concrete steps at a train station once from near the top. OK, it was in a case (open faced) and had a screen protector but it bounced off multiple steps and was fine when I picked it up.

Gosh and ours is going strong and it’s about 7 years old! I love it!

Reusable nappies. So so disappointed, I got a Bambipur bundle of 5 for 30-something £ (big reduction from £100!) and one single one to avoid paying shipping, think it was £46 in total. Very excited when they arrived and then despite having read the washing instructions before purchasing, DH pointed out that washing them separately, at 60 degrees, long wash, extra rinse cycle, non bio detergent without coconut oil, all uses far more water and energy than our normal eco low temp eco detergent bulk washes. We even considered handwashing them!

I'm returning them unused but still have some new condition ones ordered from Vinted that I'll try to use occasionally. Researched and apparently reusables only reduce the carbon emissions of nappies by 25%! And depends on the needs of your area - reusables are worse for water use and pollution because of detergents, and reservoir droughts are in the news currently.

Looked at biodegradable nappies, bags and wipes - apparently they are only biodegradable if they're composted, and on a landfill they're equivalent to the normal disposables!

I am going to try using Bambino Mio cloths (think one side is terry cloth and one bamboo) with a tail bath for wet nappies at home and see how I go from there. Apparently you can wash them at 40 degrees, and they're a lot more efficient than normal wipes. I'd like to get to use them out and about where possible as well, bringing a bit of baby wash with me, as most baby changes have a sink.

I've also joined some local climate action groups and written to my MP about climate related issues - just trying to figure out what changes I can make. But the nappies are a real disappointment.

@ridl14 I can't see how all those disposable nappies going to landfill are better than traditional terry nappies.
I used to put nappies in a bucket of Napisan, rinse, then wash at 40,
As did everyone I knew .
I passed mine on to a friend when DC was about 18 months (toilet training was much earlier in those days), who subsequently passed them on again.
Your £46 would buy disposables for how many years months ?

Agree , we had one but after a few uses gave it away via Facebook marketplace .