What is the worst machine or device you have ever owned or had to use? For me that's easy. When I was 11 our lawnmower conked out and for some reason my mother insisted that we get an electric mower. I don't know why. It's not like she was ever going to use it. Not even once. So we got an electric mower. I think it was a Sunbeam. And by electric mower I don't mean it was cordless. Cordless electric tools didn't exist in those days. You had to plug in a long extension cord. There were two hooklike things on the mower handle to wrap the cord around. I think you were suppose to unwrapped the cord as you mowed away from where it was plugged in and then wrap it back as you mowed in the direction of the power source. I never once did it that way. Too much trouble. I would unwrap the cord as I mowed toward the back of the yard and then have to constantly toss the cord to the side so I didn't run over it. More than once I thought about just running over the cord. I hated that thing. But my Dad would have just got mad and then bought a new cord. And I wasn't sure that if I did it I wouldn't be electrocuted. Not only did I have to use that monstrosity, because we didn't have a regular gasoline mower like everybody else I didn't have anything I could use to earn money by mowing other people's yards. Instead of having one single whirling blade the mower had two small side by side blades. After the first summer and sometime early in the next year's grass mowing season one of the blades quit working. I don't know why. There was only one motor. Anyway it never got fixed and now the mower only cut half as much grass per pass so it took twice as long and twice as much work to finish our yard. By the 4th year that I would have had to use that spawn from hell we had moved to a new house. I never saw the Sunbeam again. My Dad had gone and bought a new gas mower. To be sure it was a push mower and not the riding kind that I wanted but still better than the Sunbeam.
My mom was a consumer relations executive who promoted electrical appliances. Companies would send her new electrical devices to try in the hope that she would endorse them. We were the first people in town to have a microwave oven in the 1960's. It cost about $2,000 and weighed over 100 pounds. It did not get endorsed for a while. Some of them were practical and cool, like the first electric toothbrush, the self-cleaning oven, electric carving knives, and the electric skillet. Some real failures were the electric washrag, the automatic hot dog cooker, the countertop dishwasher, and the combination breadbox/kitchen radio (the radio sucked with no FM and breadboxes had been going out ever since plastic bags).
The electric washrag sounds like a device made to commit suicide. We had one of those hot dog cookers. It didn't work. My Mom also had an electric potato peeler. The potato rotated while a blade peeled it in very thin strips. It worked OK but it took about 3 times longer for the peeler to peel a potato than doing it by hand.
in 73 I bought a red 64 Triumph TR4 convertible for $5oo. Great looking car. I spent almost as much time trying to get rides to the parts store or waiting for parts I had ordered as I did driving it. 6 months later I sold it for $800 and bought a beige 4 door 66 Dodge Coronet for $225. Had a few dents and most certainly didn't look cool but everything worked including cold cold air. I drove it for over 200,000 miles.
I have always bought really good stuff, that is why I am near indigent this late in the game. I once bought a boat that my existing truck a) could not tow and b) could not stop. I panicked and bought an early Dodge Dakota. It did everything kind of, but nothing well. Had it about a year and traded it for a Silverado.
