Are there any common household items or products that you think are designed incredibly poorly?
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I had to get a stupid round one because it was the only one with a 10" rough-in (distance from wall to toilet drain), standard is 12".
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If we're also talking about vehicles... I'm about average height (~180 cm) but have long-ish legs, and this means that I simply don't fit well into the driver's seat of most cars. Even with the steering wheel adjusted all the way up, seat slid all the way back and reclined all the way forward, my legs are hitting the steering wheel and yet I can barely reach it with my hands. Because of this, I sometimes have to take my shoes off while driving.
Also, almost every car has some annoying things like your oil plug; simply because a modern combustion engine is really quite complicated and there's not enough space under the hood to give every component a convenient place. E.g. my Delica has the starter located below the engine and quite far back, so it's mostly covered by the engine protection plate. Good luck banging on that starter relay if it sticks in the off position and refuses to start, while you're stuck in the mud! However I do agree that making periodic maintenance painful, like in your case, is way worse.
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I don't know what "other countries" you're talking about, but where I'm from, a "can opener" looks like this:
(I've been using one just like this for my entire adult life, and guess what - it's ok!)
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Same. I should really learn to use a simpler one, but I love this model and it still seems rock-solid to me after years of use. The best part is not ending up with sharp, dangerous edges on the lid!
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About cars, and not necessarily designed poorly, but definitely designed by a man for men: cars that, by default, automatically, immediately unlock all doors when the engine is turned off. A man might be car jacked or robbed, a woman might be car jacked, robbed, or raped.
(Of course men can be raped too, but it's not as likely to happen by a strange woman threatening violence than a woman is to be raped by a strange man threatening the same.)
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Office chairs, no, but massage chairs have.
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Same. Then I had to hear an endless stream of whining for over a year because my other half likes the old style for reasons. It got so bad I bought them a shit one for Christmas, and now I'm faced with the stupidity of having 2, but the sadness that I'm gonna end up putting the good one in the donation bin because reasons.
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Honestly my bigges complaint with extra layers is when the manufacturer decides that nobody needs to use modifiers with them.
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Every thing permanently installed in a house should IMO be designed to support one human of weight from above, especially in a room that will have a wet slipery floor.
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Ok so my father makes his own wine, at home from kits/concentrate. He makes a lot of wine and drinks a lot of wine (and gives a lot of wine away as gifts)
One day he called me, and he was so excited. Like if he wasn't a 61 year old man I would have guessed he was going to announce his pregnancy.
"You won't believe it! The wine place is selling bags now!!! So I can put my wine in bags and put those in boxes!!!! Omg why didn't I think of this?! Think of all the time saved with corks and recorking!"
It was a happy day for him, certainly.
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Oh, there's a few engines like the Northstar and the Toyota 5.7 where the starter is actually under the intake manifold, effectively inside the engine. The amount of stuff you need to take off to even see the starter would make your eyes water.
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those hooks are perfect for hanging two t shirts on, or a zippered/buttoned clothing, or even skirts
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I redid the bathroom when COVID hit (was walking around home Depot the day before the shut down frantically buying 3 of everything so I had a chance to do this without being able to make the customary mid-project visits)
The toilet we got was not the one I wanted, it was 4 or 5 on our list of "toilets the Internet says are good " and boy howdy the Internet was wrong. This toilet wouldn't flush piss. I'm not kidding I didn't notice at first but a couple days into "man this toilet didn't like to flush our shits, they must be mighty" I had a pee that was dark enough that once I flushed I read like "wtf". 3 flushes for the water to be "clear" as I could tell.
This isn't a 2 button eco toilet.
I ended up finding a guy online who had extended the tube inside the tank to be just shy of the rim, thus allowing the tank to fill up more and more water to be sent down with each flush. Whatever eco feature it had in sure it's now among the worst water waster in town.
And it's still a terrible toilet. It has some sort of extra funnel port in the front that I guess some of the water flushes through to help direct the shit and water down the pipes. But it gets dirty and is unreachable with every toilet brush I've tried, and not visible even if you jam your head down as close to the water as you can and look back. This means that the flush stops working and then I have to go in with disposable chop sticks and chip away and the shit fossils blindly until the port is clear again.
Yes I tried soaking with green goblin and leaving the blue duck to soak, still need to physically mine the area clear....
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Cars are designed by people who don't do maintenance themselves.
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to add to this, non removable cords just need to die, there is almost never significant cost to make the cord tetachable and it allows the user to replace the cord after it inevitably gets eaten by a vacuum or breaks of metal fatigue.
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Had an old Isuzu truck that to start, I sat in the drivers seat with the passengers seat up exposing the engine. Had a long steel rod that I would feed down thru the motor and bang on the starter motor why cranking the keys.
Sometimes it started straight away, sometimes it took 5 minutes of banging to get the pig to fire. Good Times.
Woke one morning to start work, went to hop in and saw someone smashed the drivers quarter window. Reckon they tried to start it but must have assumed it had a kill switch.
Pity they didn't steal it, as the insurance payout would have been way more bucks that it was worth.
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I can't find anything that matches your description of US can openers on DDG, do you happen to have a pic? Can't picture it
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The parabolic bottom causes fridge water to shoot up and out causing a mess.
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Leave the one tong hanging out. Ie. Straddle the side. Assuming youre not one that cares about aesthetics.
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Thats a standard can opener, they are describing a Magican, aka the "Limerick machete", those edges are lethal :
