Which appliance purchase was your worst mistake?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone that enjoys cooking.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
I've got a mini, George Foreman-esque clamshell grill. It works fine considering I only paid about $7 for it, but the thing's impossible to clean. The cooking surfaces can't be removed, the drainage from the surfaces routes soapy water into the elements when the device is opened for cleaning, and it takes up a buttload of space considering it's cooking capacity is just a little less than one IQF chicken breast.
 
Did anyone, anyone in the world fall for that plastic tube gadget thing that you could pour hot water in and add your pasta, then let sit on the counter and it cooked the pasta to perfection????

I still have a bread maker that I use when I'm pushed for time - but, I just use the mix, knead & rise features. Then I remove the dough and play with it. I never cared for the crust or texture of the bread when I tried baking the dough in the machine.

Oh ya, we picked one of them up to see what they were all about. It does work but not necessarily something that I would be making use of frequently as I prefer the old-fashion way.

As for the bread makers, I have one and use it on occassion. It works quite well and I've never had any issues with it. I may try and do the bread using the KA mixer now that I have it. However, I don't have time when it comes to making bread so it is just as easy to put stuff into the bread maker and let it go.
 
About the only thing I don't use is one of those Blooming Onion makers. Not because it doesnt work, but because I cant afford a heart attack just yet ;) The quickest to break was our mixer. We specifically bought a brushed stainless steel one that should have been of good quality (it came highly rated). It bust on the first use. They replaced the part that busted, and it busted again after the third use. We returned it and went with one half the price. That was two years ago and it works great to this day.
This is from way way back, but:
We do have an over the stove microwave with built in exhaust fan. The fan can be set to either exhaust out the vent to the outside, or re-directed to the underside of the microwave thru two filters there. Unfortunately the door has busted and it now thinks it is always open. I dont know if I should see about repairing it or just getting a new one?
 
The George Foreman grill (actually it came free with a drum of sheep drench for tapeworms!) but it's a **** of a cleaning job. It was the model before the one with removeable cooking plates. Who could be bothered!!

Oh ya I remember those. We had that one and then we were given the newest one for a gift from my parents. It gets used frequently and hopefully we'll get an outdoor grill set up this year. My husband does the cooking of the steaks every weekend otherwise, it doesn't get used.
 
We bought a nice highend Maytag side by side refrig. about two years ago and bought the extended warranty with it. At the time we were trying to sell the house and a new fridge (and a new wood floor) really made the kitchen look great. We had the house on the market for 7 months when a nice near full price offer came in. Unforunately, the offer was with the fridge. After 7 months, we said what the heck, have the fridge. But I sure wish we hadn't bought the extended warrenty.

We are now in the process of buying a new house (we moved to another state and rented for a year to figure out exactly where we want to buy) and of course it doesn't have a fridge, so we are in the process of buying a new one. Costco has a Samsung side by side that looks pretty nice ($1100), but I don't know anything about Samsung fridges (got a Samsung cellphone that works great.) We went to Sears this weekend and looked. The wife likes one of the GE Profile models ($2000). I kinda like a Kitchenaid thats a bit less money($1500). We ended up saying that the model we decide on will be determined by how much money we have left over after closing (we will be paying cash for the fridge- tired of bills - everything cash from now on (except the mortgage)).
 
Something that I didn't purchase (came with the house) but falls under the category of 'what were they thinking???' is my built-in oven/microwave combo. My oven went bad- needs a new controller, which would be around $300 with installation- in a 16yr old oven I couldn't see spending that much $. But to replace it, I had to also purchase a microwave (not built in) with a trim kit to make it LOOK built in, so even with purchasing a used oven (because a new one just like it would have been over $1000- just for the oven- an entire micro/oven combo would have been over $1900) this project is costing us $800 plus tax. Whew!
 
Back
Top Bottom