Equipment You Hope Will Break Soon

[Chris Amirault]

Three days ago, the non-stick surface on our Hamilton Beach waffle iron/grill started to blister. We don't use the thing enough to replace it with anything special; you know, recession, all that. We'll go cheap -- probably this Black & Decker one, in fact. Wish I didn't have to replace the thing.

But there are some things I want to break.

Last night, our lousy Cuisinart blender, which I've endured for far too long, finally bought it. The base plate in which the blades are set cracked, oozing red wine all over the place. (Red wine, you say?) That leaves only one blender in the house.

Fortunately -- but also unfortunately -- it's a vintage Osterizer with a stainless steel blender jar. It's lost its front plate, so I don't know what labels the buttons had, and the base looks like it barely survived a thermonuclear event. But this thing blasts through most everything I give it, and it will probably outlive me. And if that happens, I'll never be able to make the case for a Vita-Mix or Blendtec.

Surely you've got a piece of equipment that you can't justify tossing but can't quite stop plotting against.

[David A. Goldfarb]

The Braun hand blender. I mean, it seems to work well enough, and I don't really use it that often since I have a nice Waring bar blender for most of what I have to blend, but I've had it for something like 20 years, and it seems like that when I want to use a hand blender for something that a hand blender does best like blending a soup in the pot, I wish I had something a bit more powerful.

[cbread]

I await the failure of my much unloved refrigerator. It is too small and has a top freezer. Bending down all the time to get to the items in the bottom seems user hostile. The freezer compartment is poorly laid out and makes it hard to access most of what's in there. I want very badly to get a bottom freezer unit with drawers for the freezer section. At least I did get one thing right with my current unit. It has no ice maker in the door.

[nakji]

My blender, too. It's a no-name brand, but I use it every day. In fact, if I'd known how much I was going to use it, I would have bought something better. Like a Vita-mix. Now I just have to wait it out. At least it only cost me ten bucks.

[Badiane]

Wow...that's really something I would never do. Okay, I might wait for the fridge to die, because they aren't cheap...but waiting for a ten dollar blender to croak off so I can buy a new one? I think not. Off it would go. I'd just leave it in a box on the curb marked with a $10 sticker. Someone would 'steal' it in about 90 seconds. Same goes for the hand blender. I admire your frugality.

[David Ross]

My crappy Sear's Kenmore stove/range. The oven is o.k., but pulling and pushing the racks in and out is a pain--like nails on a chalkboard only it's metal against metal.

The stupid reason I bought the glass cooktop (because I thought it would be easier to clean), turned out to be 11 years of ongoing arguments with that damn cooktop. Is it easier to clean? Sort of. Sugar burns on the glasstop and is virtually impossible to clean, and the elements never really give you the heat and regulation you find with a gas cooktop.

I almost used the recent burnout of one of the elements as an excuse to trade-in the buggar. But instead, I shelled out $90 bucks for a replacement element, (very much more expensive than regular electric range elements). It's a terrible love (I need hot food), hate (I hate the damn thing) relationship.

[nakji]

Wow...that's really something I would never do. Okay, I might wait for the fridge to die, because they aren't cheap...but waiting for a ten dollar blender to croak off so I can buy a new one? I think not. Off it would go. I'd just leave it in a box on the curb marked with a $10 sticker. Someone would 'steal' it in about 90 seconds. Same goes for the hand blender. I admire your frugality.

Well, it's more about not being able to afford the replacement I want than not being able to forgo the ten dollars I spent on the first one.

[andiesenji]

I would like to see the last of the InSinkErator Evolution Pro Excel 1 HP Garbage Disposer I had installed when my Hobart dishwasher was taken out.

I was talked into getting the optional "cover control" which is a PIA of the first rank.

It is a great disposer, it grinds everything, including chicken bones, pineapple tops and other stuff that won't go through most disposers. It is also quiet.

But I absolutely detest that cover control. I'm the only one that usually uses it, no children so it is not necessary for safety. (Unless I become senile )

After I got it I remembered that 40 some years ago I had an InSinkErator that had the same control (I didn't want my kids sticking hands in the damn thing) and I didn't like that one but had totally forgotten about it.

[Snadra]

My crappy Sear's Kenmore stove/range. The oven is o.k., but pulling and pushing the racks in and out is a pain--like nails on a chalkboard only it's metal against metal.

The stupid reason I bought the glass cooktop (because I thought it would be easier to clean), turned out to be 11 years of ongoing arguments with that damn cooktop. Is it easier to clean? Sort of. Sugar burns on the glasstop and is virtually impossible to clean, and the elements never really give you the heat and regulation you find with a gas cooktop.

I almost used the recent burnout of one of the elements as an excuse to trade-in the buggar. But instead, I shelled out $90 bucks for a replacement element, (very much more expensive than regular electric range elements). It's a terrible love (I need hot food), hate (I hate the damn thing) relationship.

Part of the reason I want to switch from gas to induction when we move is because I HATE cleaning around the burners and trying to keep grease & food from blackening the burners themselves. I keep thinking that glass MUST be easier to clean than these gas burners (not to mention the number of times I gouge my hand on the ignitor when I've taken all the burners off for cleaning).

Waiting for things to go kaput in order to get something better requires balance. I made the mistake of putting up with a set of knives from the discount shop that my inlaws gave me for Christmas for almost three years before I went out and bought something decent. I don't know why, as the knife set was absolutely awful, with tiny serrations that made it impossible to cut pretty anything and collected meat fibres on them and we had the money to get at least one decent knife. But somehow my frugal self kept saying "make do, make do".

On the other hand, I am (im)patiently waiting for my 15 year old Moulinex foodprocessor/blender to die so I can replace it with a sturdier Magimix. The Moulinex does its job absolutely fine, and really shouldn't be replaced until it dies, but that doesn't stop me from obsessively checking out all department store sales and eBay, just in case an unmissabel bargain comes up!

But I am excited to report the bowl to my icecream maker seems to have sprung a leak and I can justify buying a new one in time for next summer (if not this summer what with this insane heatwave!) - this time with a compressor instead of a freezable bowl I think.

[runwestierun]

I have a new Artisan Kitchenaid mixer that I purposely leave plugged in during electrical storms. I had a perfectly good old Kitchenaid mixer that had about 200 more watts than this new one, but the new husband thought he could make it fit under the counter and sadly took a metal saw to it one day when I wasn't home. It didn't work, and he bought this one as an apology. It won't even knead dough. It has a glass bowl. It sucks so much but it's new. And it was a gift from the new husband. Lightning is my only hope.

[Corinna]

The Braun hand blender. I mean, it seems to work well enough, and I don't really use it that often since I have a nice Waring bar blender for most of what I have to blend, but I've had it for something like 20 years, and it seems like that when I want to use a hand blender for something that a hand blender does best like blending a soup in the pot, I wish I had something a bit more powerful.

Same here. I also think a cordless hand blender would be handy.

[gfweb]

I have a new Artisan Kitchenaid mixer that I purposely leave plugged in during electrical storms. I had a perfectly good old Kitchenaid mixer that had about 200 more watts than this new one, but the new husband thought he could make it fit under the counter and sadly took a metal saw to it one day when I wasn't home. It didn't work, and he bought this one as an apology. It won't even knead dough. It has a glass bowl. It sucks so much but it's new. And it was a gift from the new husband. Lightning is my only hope.

Lightening for the mixer or the husband?

[Chris Amirault]

I have a new Artisan Kitchenaid mixer that I purposely leave plugged in during electrical storms.

Now that's the sort of effort I'm talkin' about!

[Mjx]

. . . .

I keep thinking that glass MUST be easier to clean than these gas burners (not to mention the number of times I gouge my hand on the ignitor when I've taken all the burners off for cleaning).

. . . .

A glass cooking surface is easier to clean, IF--and ONLY IF--you use a scraper (the kind with a razor blade in it); you have to be careful to not let the edges scratch the pretty surface, however. On the other hand, it gets dirty-looking far more easily than any other sort of stove, since every tiny bit of muck you get on it shows on its highly polished surface, including water drops, if you have hard water. I love our stovetop, but it spends a lot of its time looking filthy, since the amount of time between cleaning and using is seldom long (ours isn't an induction model, just a plain glass-ceramic one: the tepid 'Eh, they're probably okay, at least if you keep a foot/30cm between the edge of the burner and yourself' conclusions of the various scientific studies I read didn't inspire much confidence).

If you have fantasies of being able to simply wipe down the surface, you may want to think twice about this.

[Anna N]

I hope I am not tempting fate as I really cannot afford a new refrigerator. But it really is the bane of my life. It has wire shelves that now dip toward the centre. It has a top freezer which seems to slant forward. The two crisper drawers will each hold one large lettuce and very little else. Long vegetables, even celery has to be cut down to fit! I have hated it since day one but it was a case of little money at the time. The new fridge style I would like would cost 3 times as much so it ain't gonna happen any time soon. Still.......................................

[Special K]

Another vote for the death of a refrigerator. We thought it had died earlier this year, but the guy who came out soldered together a make-shift replacement part. Maybe it won't last!

[lancastermike]

Not to rub it in, Anna but we just got one of these and I really like it alot. Internal ice maker that works great, none of that thru the door stuff that always breaks.Samsung Fridge

[runwestierun]

I have a new Artisan Kitchenaid mixer that I purposely leave plugged in during electrical storms. I had a perfectly good old Kitchenaid mixer that had about 200 more watts than this new one, but the new husband thought he could make it fit under the counter and sadly took a metal saw to it one day when I wasn't home. It didn't work, and he bought this one as an apology. It won't even knead dough. It has a glass bowl. It sucks so much but it's new. And it was a gift from the new husband. Lightning is my only hope.

Lightening for the mixer or the husband?

Both are new but I like the mixer alot less. Lightning for the wimpy mixer! Oh where is Zeus when I need him?

[Anna N]

Not to rub it in, Anna but we just got one of these and I really like it alot. Internal ice maker that works great, none of that thru the door stuff that always breaks.Samsung Fridge

That brought on a serious case of fridge-envy. However, I don't think I could fit a French door fridge in the space available. It would be nice not to be bending down to check the crisper drawers. As one matures these things start to matter.

[DanM]

Is it okay to admit that I would love a small black hole to open under my kitchen and suck it in whole? It would be nice to start over. The items I would like to see die are the 24" harvest gold Kenmore oven and maybe the cooktop.

Dan

[OliverB]

First my crappy JennAir stove. Somebody should tell them that heat rises, so a down draft vent makes little sense with pasta pots or anything taller than 2 inches. And those coil heating elements? I thought those died with the 1950es....

Then my tiny appt size fridge please, so I have an excuse to remodel the enclosure and get the largest fridge only (with ice maker) unit I can find. I don't need or want a freezer in the kitchen, it's in the garage.

And after that I'd not mind my wife's college age blender to go. It works just fine, but I want an excuse to buy one of them fancy schmancy make soup in me and turn ice to snow blenders - even if I probably only use a blender once a year. I promise, I'll use it more often!

Other than that, I can't complain about my kitchen, actually, I really can't complain at all, despite the cheap cupboards the former owner put in and the horrible "we'll replace that right away" blue tile wall paper that we've been living with for some 16 or so years

NOTE: if you buy a house and don't like something, rip it out before moving in a box of tissues, let alone everything else. No matter the cost, do it NOW.

[OliverB]

oh, and that mixer, that might just have "walked off the counter" while mixing something (like air) and crashed and created a lot of mess (of hot blended air) everywhere and it took me for ever to clean up (while reading a book in the sun) and now we sadly need to buy a new one, one that does not and will not ever "walk".

Just saying what would be happening here, hehe

[Snadra]

NOTE: if you buy a house and don't like something, rip it out before moving in a box of tissues, let alone everything else. No matter the cost, do it NOW.

That is a lesson I had to learn the hard way. We did redo the kitchen a few years ago, but time passes sooner than you'd think and before you know it you're fixing it up for sale instead if fixing it up for your pleasure.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Snadra (log)

[ScoopKW]

The fridge. If that fridge was alive, I'd sprinkle arsenic over it's food. Die, refrigerator. Die.

Hate, hate, hate.

And I hate the company that made it. They will never see my business again. I don't care if GE straightens up and makes non-garbage again. They've lost me forever.

[Dianabanana]

I have a new Artisan Kitchenaid mixer that I purposely leave plugged in during electrical storms. I had a perfectly good old Kitchenaid mixer that had about 200 more watts than this new one, but the new husband thought he could make it fit under the counter and sadly took a metal saw to it one day when I wasn't home. It didn't work, and he bought this one as an apology. It won't even knead dough. It has a glass bowl. It sucks so much but it's new. And it was a gift from the new husband. Lightning is my only hope.

Wait--he what? Took a metal saw to it how? I'm looking at my Kitchenaid and not really seeing anything . . . saw-able.