Unnecessary kitchen gadgets: a reference There are a lot of advertised tools and electronic gadgets for every field; the kitchen is no exception.

In my experience, there are a lot of useful tools for specific purposes (a garlic press, for example) but there are also a lot of seemingly useless ones.

A useless gadget or tool is defined as one that


does not actually help make the task it was designed for easier
may cost more than the proper tool or set of tools (or the technique)
unnecessarily complicates preparation
may incur injury or increase likelihood of injury
something that gathers dust and never gets used


So, list any that you have encountered and warn others to steer clear of, and include the reason why. This is a community wiki.
For reasons I have yet to understand, my parents once bought me what I would have to describe as a manual food processor.  I am not talking about a hand blender, nor am I talking about a chopper (which is what you'll find if you try to google "manual food processor").  It is literally a crank-operated, plastic-encased device that looks like a very small food processor.

To date, I have never found a use for it.  The only reason I even took it out of the box was because the box took up too much space in my cupboard.  I have no idea what this... thing... can do that an ordinary food processor or hand blender can't do about a thousand times better.  I guess, if I ever really need to purée some tuna in the middle of a nationwide blackout, I'll be prepared.

Because I no longer have the box, I have no idea what the name of this product is.
I received this gift over 5 years ago. The guard labels are still on the blades - a testament to just how useless this product turned out to be.