Are there any common household items or products that you think are designed incredibly poorly?
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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.
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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US can openers. In other countries, they cut the sides of the can not the top, so the lid has no chance of falling in while dulling the edges. It also allows them to be much smaller and easier to use.
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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I've had these dual wall glass mugs at home for a few years. So civilised.
https://www.house.com.au/products/baccarat-barista-cafe-double-wall-thermal-glass-mug-2-pack
The parabolic bottom causes fridge water to shoot up and out causing a mess.
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I have that and they still are a removed to get in or out of a crowded tool jar. Then I always bump that end switch and they pop open in the jar.
Leave the one tong hanging out. Ie. Straddle the side. Assuming youre not one that cares about aesthetics.
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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
Thats a standard can opener, they are describing a Magican, aka the "Limerick machete", those edges are lethal :
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I bought this can opener after watching a Technology Connections video, and I kinda love my can opener.
Thats seems similar to what I'm talking about. Like the second one in the video on the page I linked.
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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
Second one in the video on the page I linked in my comment.
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The glue gets weaker when it's heated. They use the same film for oven meals as well. It comes off fine when you finished heating, but it's a pain in the arse when cold.
is it a good idea to microwave that plastic container, though?
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I switched to using a microplane (or similar super fine grater) for garlic a few years back, it's far easier to clean and I like it for ginger, nutmeg, hard cheeses etc.
I should get used to that with my grater. I either press with huge amounts or just do the old smash and rapid micro slice.
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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.
I think the actual code re: that is those big metal handle rail bars that have to be attached to studs (ADA compliance maybe?).
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I'd tend to chalk that up to user error, if you're putting enough force on your toilet paper holder to pull it off the wall you're doing something besides just pulling toilet paper off of it or maybe you installed it with the world's shittiest drywall anchors
Drywall anchors are basically useless.
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Drywall anchors are basically useless.
It really kind of depends on the type of anchor and the intended use
The most common little plastic ones that you're probably picturing are pretty bad in most cases, but some of the heavier duty ones are pretty damn strong if used properly
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I think the actual code re: that is those big metal handle rail bars that have to be attached to studs (ADA compliance maybe?).
yeah, but it is nice if the towel rack is screwed into studs so it can be used as one in a pinch.
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You know you're supposed to use the bidet after you're done pooping, right?
Yeah, but how long do you have to dampen your crack in order to feel the equivalent clean of two dry wipes?
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I have a truck where the oil drain plug is directly over the axle. I have to strap an offset funnel under the drain to get it to not splash all over the fuck, and of course, it's not easy to get that stay put so inevitably I have oil everywhere. Same truck has the oil filter tucked up where I need a special oil filter wrench with a ratchet and extensions to remove it, and when you pull the filter out, you have to tip it so it spills the oil inside everywhere.
I had an idea a long time ago of a website where you can crowdfund a private investigator to find engineers that do shit like this, and a crew to go over to their house and beat them halfway to death.
Why stop there?
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I've taken to using an old cake pan, a desk fan, and a towel. Fill up the pan with water, stick one end of the towel in the water, drape and clip the other end to the fan and let it sit running for a few days. Before the towel gets gross, toss it in the laundry when it's dry and grab another towel
This is how the humidifier I used in the 90s worked. Tub with water, vertical sponge and a fan blowing over the sponge. I'm sure these are still out there but the little misters they call humidifiers now don't work well.
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For example, I'm incredibly confused about how you're supposedly to measure liquid laundry detergent with the cap. At least the kind that I have sits on it's side, so if you measure it with the cap it just leaks everywhere and makes a mess.
Or at my parents house they have a bag of captain crunch berries that has a new design, where instead of zipping along the top of the bag like normal, it has a zipper in the front slightly beneath the top. That way when you poor it you can't see what you're doing cuz the bag is in the way. Like what the heck who's idea was that?
I have this drive if you look at the image you can see that the rear panel has a little semi circular nib of plastic at the bottom. It serves no purpose, but what it does do is make it nearly impossible to plug the DC connector in. You can't quite tell from the image but it's perfectly places so that you can't fit the requisite number of fingers needed to securely hold the plug and push it in to the cavity where the inputs of the panel are located. It actively encourages the otherwise pretty unlikely scenario of making only partial or near contact with connector and not quite properly plugging it in a dangerous idea from a safety perspective but also a great way to lose a bunch of data by having it lose power or short out during operation. It's one of the most exquisitely designed inconveniences hell's engineering department could have possibly developed.
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Some toilets have a perfectly round bowl so they don't stick out as far and take up bathroom floor space - and they work fine, but only in bathrooms that anticipate the vast majority of its occupants to be equipped with a vagina. For those of us rocking a penis, those fucking toilets are horrible - sitting on that damn thing requires you to contort your junk around like some sausage-Houdini as you're sitting, so that you can guide it through the remaining 2 square inches of open space not occupied by your legs or ass. Then when you're actually seated, you still have to sit there and awkwardly hold the thing so it stays pointed straight down.
Fuck up any part of that, and the tip of your dick hits the seat or the inside of the bowl.
...and they must be like $3 cheaper than an oval toilet or something, cuz 99% of US apartments seem to be equipped with the round, vagina-only toilets.
Oval bowls are the way. No matter what's in your pants, it gets the job done without the significantly increased biohazard risk.
I guess in fairness, the problem isn't with their design, it's with the people who purchase the toilets treating them as sex-neutral when no the fuck they aren't!
I never really considered it was because the toilet might be rounder and less oval but I have definitely noticed those toilets because for some reason they're ALL like that in every workplace and commercial building in this one suburb of my city. I have no idea why just that suburb decided they really enjoyed the idea of everyone having their penis touch the toilet bowl. I work freelance and because of agglomeration, most companies in my industry all set up shop in that particular suburb so I got to experience a wide gamut of different buildings who all made this same bizarre and infuriating choice.
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Zwillings Four star is great!
Zwillings Henkel? I was debating a Henkel, wusthof, or Japanese of some sort.
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Do you have a multi use one? Some can invert the flanges into itself to become sink plungers.
Maybe, all I know is that I haven't had a lot of luck with it.
