10 Kitchen Gadgets to Skip (And What to Use Instead)
Every guide on this site names something to skip. This is the collected list: the ten kitchen gadgets that come up most often in the skip section, why they fail, and what to use instead. None of them is a scam. Most of them do the job they claim to. They fail on the second question, which is whether they do it better than the tool you already own, and whether you will still be using them in a year once the novelty and the cleaning have both had their say.
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1. The multi-blade vegetable chopper
The viral one, with the grid of blades and the box underneath. It dices an onion in one push and then takes four minutes to clean, because onion is wedged in every one of the sixty-four squares. Soft vegetables squash rather than cut, and the grid dulls quickly. Instead: a sharp chef’s knife and five minutes of practice. Our knife sharpening guide is where most people’s chopping problem actually lives.
2. The garlic press
It works. It also holds a clove’s worth of pulp in the holes that has to be picked out with a toothpick every single time. Pressed garlic is also harsher than chopped, because crushing releases more of the sulphur compounds. Instead: smash the clove with the flat of a knife, peel, and chop. Faster including cleaning, and it tastes better.
3. The avocado tool
A three-in-one for splitting, pitting and slicing avocados. A spoon and a knife do all three, and the tool cannot be used for anything else, so it lives in a drawer for the twice a month you need it. Instead: the knife and spoon you already own.
4. The egg slicer
Ten wires that cut a boiled egg into neat slices, which is a job you do a handful of times a year and can do with a knife. The wires stretch and snap, and it does not clean well. Instead: a knife. If you make egg sandwiches weekly, a pastry blender does it faster and is useful for pastry too.
5. Single-use electric appliances
The quesadilla maker, the hot dog toaster, the popcorn machine, the egg cooker, the electric can opener. Each one does a job a pan, a pot or a hand tool does, and each one takes a cupboard’s worth of space to do it. The test is simple: could a frying pan do this? If yes, the appliance loses. Instead: the pan. For popcorn, a lidded pot and two minutes of shaking.
6. The banana slicer
It is on this list because it is on every list, and because it is the clearest example of the problem. It slices a banana. So does a butter knife, in the same amount of time, and the butter knife also spreads butter. Instead: any knife.
7. The herb stripper
A plate with holes; pull the stem through and the leaves come off. It works for thyme and rosemary and mangles everything else. Holding the stem and running your fingers down it does the same job, and thyme is the only herb where that is even slightly tedious. Instead: your fingers.
8. The oil mister
A pump spray for oil, sold as a healthier alternative to pouring. The pump clogs within a month, the mist is uneven, and the amount of oil saved is a teaspoon. Instead: a small bottle with a pourer spout, or a pastry brush. If you want a spray, the aerosol cans work, though they cost more per litre.
9. The pre-filled spice rack
Twenty jars of spices you did not choose, stale by the time you open them, in a carousel that hides half of them. Nobody needs twenty spices on day one. Instead: twelve you will actually use, bought as you need them. We wrote a whole guide to the first spice rack.
10. The knife block set
Six to twelve knives in a block, of which you will use two. The block takes counter space, the knives are individually mediocre because the money is spread across all of them, and the block itself is hard to clean inside. Instead: one good chef’s knife and one paring knife, and a magnetic strip or in-drawer holder. This is the first item in our first kitchen essentials list for a reason.
The pattern
Almost everything on this list fails for one of three reasons. It does one job that an existing tool already does. It is harder to clean than the tool it replaces, so it quietly stops being used. Or it takes up space out of proportion to how often the job comes up. If you are about to buy a gadget and it fails any one of those, the drawer will win.
The reverse is also true. The gadgets that do earn their space, a scale, a thermometer, a good pair of shears, all pass the same three tests. That is what our under-$25 list is built from, and why every list on this site names a loser.
