worst consumer product

nd rain

to

don't

the

considered a creme brulee torch?

-Lasse

In the UK you can spot them by the "Design Centre Award" tag. I always reject any item that has 'won' one of these award. Even if the design mistake isn't immediately obvious, it will soon become apparent when you try to use the product.

A couple of examples below:

A car ice scraper that had so many blades that each one fouls the other. It also has a tapered handle that slips out of the user's grasp.

A washing machine hose tap that fits so close to the wall that it is impossible to screw on the hose end nut. We had to chisel away part of the wall.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~ 
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply) 
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

A BBQ on gas isn't a BBQ. A reall BBQ uses charcoal.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply 
indicates you are not using the right tools... 
nico@nctdevpuntnl (punt=.) 
--------------------------------------------------------------

How about a hand washing sink faucet with the outlet so close to the back of the bowl you can't get your hands in under the water stream? You want to take that designer and slap the shit out of him/her.

Tom

Or the faucets that you push a button and the water only runs for two seconds.

BBQ?

And burns meat. I like rare steaks. ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

Q

ts

the BBQ?

ur leg.

..

burned meat is the cooks fault, not gas or charcoal

-Lasse

wind.

That reminds me of a lighter my dad had. Don't know if it was platinum wire, but as soon as you opened top to air, I would ignight.

Greg

BBQ?

Even charcoal does not make a BBQ unless you add wood chips for smoke. Smoke makes BBQ, and not fat burning smoke.

Greg

Only on remote jobsites.

Proper burnt offerings are documented in Leviticus: Note that proper sacrifice requires two barbeques per day. The actual offering was in the form of the smoke. If the offering did not burn completely, or did not produce a pleasing smog, the offering was not accepted, resulting in divine irritation and dire consequences.

Starting the barbeque was never a problem because the fire was expected to be burning continuously: The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Well, if you're going to have the smoke on full time, this article suggests a dehumidifier. :)

I'm not making this up!.

Link:

Have you submitted that to "Made by Monkeys" in Design News?

I've read many of these over the years and just shake my head, "what was product management thinking?"

I bought a 4 cycle Ryobi weed whacker two years ago. Found shortly afterward that the unit had to be stored horizontally otherwise oil in the sump hydrolocks the piston. Can't run it in arbitrary positions either or the engine won't oil properly.

It's louder and has to be really revved up to do any useful work. After one year of use, I opened it up and stretched the garter spring holding the clutch together. Now I can do useful cutting at high idle. They tell you to adjust the overhead valve after so many hours but don't tell you how to change the timing belt (service center only). Not a bad tool all in all (especially after I modified it) but nobody was talking about the downsides when I bought it. Oppie

leg.

Or wood.

There are wood pellet grills that work wonderful. I remember my first pizza made on that thing, i am never going back to other methods.

?-)

That's some of my favorite reading.

Many of the small engine tools are going from 2 stroke to 4 stroke and learning from the experience. The motivation is that 4 stroke engines will meet the new and stricter emissions specifications, while 2 stroke is dirty no matter how they build it. Some vendors are still trying to use 2 stroke engines: However, I suspect that in the long run, the regulators will again tighten the emissions specs making 2 stroke unusable.

The big problem with 4 stroke is that it delivers less power per kg than 2 stoke. To keep the weight down, 4 stroke engines use premixed fuel instead of an oil pump, needle bearings, etc. Stihl has a method of operating a chainsaw in any position by using the fuel/oil mix as a lubricant: However, all this is fairly new and patented technology, that some of the cheaper brands (i.e. Ryobi) probably haven't licensed.

It should NOT be louder. All the 4 stroke machines I've run are quieter than a 2 stroke (at the same power level). However, you're correct that it has to be run flat out in order to deliver the necessary power. With 2 or 4 stroke engines with identical displacement, the 4 stroke will be gutless.

Sounds like it was misadjusted out of the box. The clutch is suppose to engage at just above low idle.

Kinda sounds like rush to market. My guess(tm) is that they didn't have time for such niceties like serviceability.

Nobody had any experience. 4 stroke small engine powered tools have only been available for less than a year.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

[...] [...]

We run both 4-stroke and two-stroke machines for canal clearance work and the sound of the two is distinctly different. In order to develop the same power, the four-stroke has to have a bigger cylinder volume, which means that the expansion chamber of silencer (muffler) has to have a larger volume to give the same pressure drop.

If the silencers were the same size, a four-stroke would, in theory, give higher pressure exhaust pulses than a two-stroke of the same power. However, it gives those pulses less often (and the high frequency components of each would be attenuated by the same amount); so whether the lower frequency exhaust note would be considered louder or quieter is a matter of opinion.

--
~ Adrian Tuddenham ~ 
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply) 
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

Agreed. Here's a video comparing weed cutters: "Brand New 2011 STIHL FS - 90R (4-MIX) Review" They're both noisy, but I consider the 4 stroke to be less obnoxious, especially when running at full power. The FS-90R delivers slightly more power (0.95kW versus 0.90kW). One thing I've notices is that the

2 stroke can be operated over a range of engine RPM's, while the 4 stroke is either at idle or full speed. My guess(tm) is that this has something to do with emissions, where the engine is optimized at a specific RPM. List prices are $289 for the FS-70R and $350 for the FS-90R.

--
Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
150 Felker St #D    http://www.LearnByDestroying.com 
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com 
Skype: JeffLiebermann     AE6KS    831-336-2558

Weeds? Around here, in the desert, we call them "natural desert vegetation" ;-) ...Jim Thompson

--
| James E.Thompson, CTO                            |    mens     | 
| Analog Innovations, Inc.                         |     et      | 
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems  |    manus    | 
| Phoenix, Arizona  85048    Skype: Contacts Only  |             | 
| Voice:(480)460-2350  Fax: Available upon request |  Brass Rat  | 
| E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com |    1962     | 
              
I love to cook with wine.     Sometimes I even put it in the food.

I guess that "Design", with a capital D means eye appeal. Form over function isn't restricted to the UK.

--
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence  
over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." 
                                       (Richard Feynman)