Have you ever had a highly coveted and widely advertised kitchen utensil after the purchase turned out to be a complete disappointment? I have, alas, yes. More often than not, such "acquisitions" were very quickly sent to the trash can, but the memory of them still remained.
So I can't show everything (I found only one artifact in the pantry), but I think I can tell you.
First place (for price, not disappointment) grill pan.
I know that sneakers and tomatoes will fly at me now, because a grill pan is a completely tolerable budget solution, if there is no "normal" grill, and many people use them, do not complain. I myself used such a frying pan for quite a long time, and, whatever one may say, there are no particularly fond memories of it.
It is very difficult, almost impossible, to precisely control the heat, especially if you have an induction hob. Well, yes, it seems - what is difficult? Choose the heating mode and that's it! But in reality, grilling has a lot of nuances. And simply reducing the heat is not always appropriate. A simple decrease (let's say from 6 to 5, numbers for example) may be too strong.
Well, the heating of the frying pan is far from uniform. There are areas where the product burns, there are areas where the heating is too low.
I admit that there are grill pans with an ideally conductive and heat-distributing bottom... but alas, I did not come across them.
As a result, I bought a Tefalev optigril (I'm not overjoyed at it), and the grill pan is a thing of the past as far from perfect and confirmation that it would be better for me to immediately attend to the grill, and not spend money on such ersatz.
The second place (and the first in the degree of disappointment) is the spring knife. Sorry for his appearance - 15 years in the closet did not give him beauty.
I don’t remember what it’s called correctly, but at one time this thing was advertised in all the "TV shops". Both in English and in Russian speakers. True, it cost some absolutely crazy money there ...
So I bought this knife at Metro. I even remember the year of purchase - 2005. Used only once. Because it is almost impossible for them to finely chop the onion (a knife was bought for this very purpose), the onion sticks to the blades and no limiter is able to completely clean it off them, so it's easier to take an ordinary knife and chop finely them. Chop the garlic - you know, with a knife faster than an ordinary one... Chop the nuts? And it's easier to do with a simple knife!
Products under this knife behave either according to the principle "catch me if you can", if small pieces, or "peel me off the blade, maybe it will work."
The third place was shared by two devices: a manual food processor and a manual grater in the form of a meat grinder.
Both were bought in 2005 together with a knife in Metro, brands, alas - I don't remember. My Braun food processor (still alive, although a year older) was a little annoying then: storing it on the countertop would take up space and add cleaning (it is necessary to wipe it all over at least once every three days, otherwise it is sloppy), bowls (two pieces) and nozzles (the kit included two juicers) - take up a large volume in cabinets, and if you put it in a box and take it out of the pantry every time, it took too much time.
The grater broke on the first evening when I tried to grate the carrots in it. The handle that needs to be twisted has just broken off.
The knife of the handheld harvester was so dull that it got stuck in products that had a density slightly higher than thawed butter. The whisk did not whisk anything. The only thing that could be done in it was to squeeze the greens, but, honestly, it's better to shake the bunch over the sink like a sprinkler than to dry the salad in such a centrifuge! Water remains on the leaves early... and, for some reason, they lose crunchiness.
After getting to know these "achievements", I appreciated the excellence of "Brown" and no longer buzzed about the fact that it takes up a lot of space.
What disappointments did you have?