5 Portable Kitchen Gadgets Tested By Design Expert | Well Equipped | Epicurious

I'm Dan and I've been designing kitchen gadgets for more than 40 years I'm going to test some portable gadgets and see if I can find a way to make them better you want to look like that a little more give it something that you'd be able to push against maybe a handle and two rollers these are the gadgets I am going to test Heinz ketchup packet squeezer crunch cup portable bag slicer and resealer sorry kit pocket size Cutlery and chopsticks Heinz Ketchup packet squeezer its purpose in life is to squeeze every drop of ketchup out of a packet it is also a cute keychain let's see how effective it is now I need a packet so I've got a ketchup packet here and I've got a portion of the device the gadget where I'm going to stick this in pull it across and hopefully it's going to cut that corner open and it did although I spilled a bit now my next step is to start feeding this in and I'm going to have to line this up with a slot I'm going to start to roll I've got some ketchup on my hand but let's see how we do with getting the ketchup out go go go go go go now of course when we're at the very end I'm going to get some ketchup into the gadget and I drove a bit of cleanup to go and I have squeezed out ketchup into the bowl on my fingers and onto the gadget let's try that again this time I'm going to line things up so it goes a little more smoothly this time I'm going to try cutting the entire top off let's see if that works um no this doesn't work because really this only fits the corner so I guess it's designed to cut the corner now I am going to insert this into the slot okay a second time around it was a lot cleaner tastes like ketchup let's see if these hands can catch up to the packet squeezer so let's give this an Effectiveness rating I'm not going to go very high I mean I guess in terms of Effectiveness it did squeeze out the ketchup but it took a little bit of work it was a little bit wasteful I think in Effectiveness I'm going to go right down the middle I'm going to give a three out of five I don't think we need a left-handed oil test because as you saw I was using both hands to do this and there's not a lot of force in doing this but there is a bit of accuracy that's needed that said I'm not sure I'm going to learn anything by oiling up or making my non-dominant hands slippery and trying it again let's talk about usability I thought this was way too fussy as I pulled this open it was a little sloppy I was getting some ketchup already on my hands when I'm slicing this and the other usability issue is that in order to get the packet to align with the roller I've got to look really closely and see when this Gap is really visible and it's not easy to see at all so usability two out of five it's got its curiosity aspect to it and honestly I was looking forward to trying this let's talk about a read design and I'm kind of curious to see what I'm going to have to say about this so one thing that would be relatively easy is I would make this inner roller a different color so that it's really really visible when you have this in the right position to insert the back end of the packet so even though the rollers on the inside it is round and circling here I would even put an indicator here that would make it really really obvious that the slot is aligned and it's time to insert the packet there's no reason for this little slot Arrow where you actually start the packet to be so small I think I would enlarge that and maybe even change the three-dimensional shape of this so that it slides in more easily by itself I'd also do something to make this a little more finger friendly so that this piece will pop out more easily so that you can clean it if you really need to get all that ketchup out of your packet I think I would make something that probably has maybe a handle and two rollers so that you're pulling it through like an old washing machine and it would be a much more simple device it's not that difficult to tear open the corner of the packet I would just make two rollers that are kind of passive rollers and feed them in and pull it across in terms of washing this or cleaning it everything is hidden in here honestly I would rethink this thing significantly now I don't think this is necessary I'm not giving it any better than a one it's kind of cute it has its Amusement Factor if you use it once but I don't think you use it more than once crunch Cup this is the crunch cup it's purpose in life is to allow you to eat cereal On The Go without the need of a bowl or spoon this is probably designed for people who can't decide what goes in the bowl first the cereal or the milk let's see how effective it is so let me explain how it works cereal goes in here milk goes in here it's actually two parts here to the cap if you look very closely there's a fill line on here foreign screw that piece on Stick this in I'm going to trust the line I think we're ready to walk around the house and have Fruit Loops my milk to Fruit Loops proportion isn't quite right I'm going to try my technique and I may have to actually block some of the milk pouring out until I get enough Fruit Loops into my mouth so let's give that a try I don't know how it looks but it doesn't feel that graceful I'm noticing I really have to open my mouth wide to get any Fruit Loops in there and also do some tongue blockage on this little spout here that's going to release the milk it's not giving me an immediately great first impression it's also curious I think that it doesn't really cover up the top so in a way it's portable but you have to be careful you have to walk around like you're walking around with a basically an open cup and I'm not actually sure I would want to walk down the street with this let's compare the crunch cup with putting your milk and cereal in a more standard travel tumbler stand back surprising to me that actually worked better what you could also do is do that and bring a spoon and I guess that would really be my choice let's give it an Effectiveness rating I've got to go night high on this one because I think it is very odd to have an open container that's not really portable or at least if it's portable you've got to be careful you don't spill it without the aid of a top I think this is not as portable as I would expect Effectiveness two out of five I don't really think you'll be walking around very far with it I don't think it makes sense to challenge myself left to your righty or you know make my left hand slippery because it's no real Force involved here so in terms of usability it's just too difficult to get the right ratio of milk which means the milk May pour in your mouth you've got to block that little spout with your tongue just didn't want to work as well as you may think and I can't go much better than a two out of five that's talk about a redesign one of the issues I'm finding is that the zero is not pouring out as well as it should I would wonder if this inner surface this inner part would want to be instead of a straight cylinder if this would actually want to be a cone but you really have to tilt as far up to get cereal to pour out so if you really want to keep the milk and cereal separate I would try angling this which means that when it tilts this here is going to flow more freely and then well I would rethink the shape of the spout because I really had to open my mouth wide to catch all that cereal coming in so I would make this more of a spout but what I would certainly do is give this some sort of lid that would actually allow you to walk around with this without spilling it and I think that lid just needs to seal off this little seal here where the milk comes out and the rest of it I think is pretty easy to contain so I would make this really a lot more portable so let's talk about a buy rating for the life of me I can't figure out why they did not create a cover for this some sort of cap or lid I don't think I can recommend the crunch cup to too many people I think it's a lot of plastic that can be better served in other ways so I would give this a one out of five you'll thank me later portable bag slicer and resealer so in front of me is the portable bag slicer and resealer it promises to help you open your snack bags and then reseal them let's see how effective it is so I've got a bag of chips and I'll explain to you what's going on here there is a slide switch here that's going to expose a knife that seems a little dangerous the way they do it here it is battery operated and it looks to me like what happens here is something slides this way and I believe once these contacts are made it's going to apply some heat to reseal the bag I'm going to expose this enough so that the heat unit is exposed and there's a little click here and because I know to be resealing this I'm going to try to slice it open pretty carefully and let me make sure that's open well let me open let's assume I'm only eating one chip that never happens I think what I'm going to do is pull this in and let's see if I go across what's going to happen so I can feel this a little warm it applied some heat and it has reconnected the open path here I unfortunately am no longer able to get a chip but it definitely resealed who would have thought let's try this again with a tiny bag of Lay's chips I'm going to carefully slice the bag open eat this chip so let's try that and I went pretty quickly that and let's go quickly in the other direction but you know what happened that time I lingered a little bit and I burned through the bag now instead of the battery powered version of back sealing I'm going to double this over and use a spring clip foreign [Music] I think I would go with the clips folding the bag over two or three times I think it's going to seal it without any problem so let's talk about an Effectiveness rating I can't fault it too much there I think in terms of sealing the bag again it takes a couple of tries to get your Technique down but I would give that four out of five it's not that it didn't work it definitely resealed the bag left the alrighty I don't think I need to do a left-handed oil test I think it actually has some faults with either hands so let's talk about usability there are like enough faults on this that I don't think is very usable so for instance sliding this piece to expose the heating element it's supposed to snap into place but it's not easy to slide there's nothing here really you can push against it's not that well designed also in terms of identifying itself it doesn't anywhere identify itself what it is or what it could possibly be used for which is important if you have this sitting around the house or in the drawer and also I think usability of this blade is just all wrong and the fact that it actually is not that easy to push with your thumb and and pull it out so you may get the idea that I'm not going to give it a very high usability rating I'm going to give it a 2 out of five so let's talk about a redesign and a redesign one of the first things I would do is do something different about this razor blade button first of all it's not really meant to slide easily because there's just a little bit of texture here and you're pushing that way it Springs back so there's really no reason to be able to pull it back but if there was some way to interlock it so you cannot slide it open accidentally if there's some second action that you could do that would be something that I'd work into it I would put a shape in there that would allow your finger to easily push that way in terms of locking it there are a number of ways you can do that it could be a second action it could be a second piece here it could be a press and lock thing the other thing I would watch is this piece this battery piece that is meant to slide needs to be pushed open so so this part clicks open and this can push open but there's nothing here really to push against so I would give this either some sort of curvature shape so you have something to grab against as you push it back and forth or you can do that same thing from this direction give it something here that you'd be able to push against and if it was a shape like this you'd be able to push this way and close it up that way one other thing I would look at is whether or not there's more of a visual indication of where the edge of the bag may want to sit so I would think that maybe along the top here there'd be some graphic that would tell you or give you an indication of how far you really should go to seal up the bag and so if there was a indication there the bag would be able to sit like that and the heating element would be far enough in so that you're not falling off the edge of the bag so for a buy rating I'm giving it a one out of five I know I gave it higher ratings for Effectiveness because it is effective it does airtightly seal a bag I just don't know if you need it this does not exactly have my seal of approval Ari okay this in front of me is the re kit this gadget claims to use the art of origami to transform itself into six different kitchen tools let's check its Effectiveness I have a pan of scrambled eggs here so the tools it comes with is a tiny spoon which needs to be held together this is a slightly larger spoon and when it comes together there's a magnet although the magnet is a little weak to hold it together here's a larger spoon same thought the magnet holds it together here is a spatula that we're going to use for the eggs it's got two magnets that should hold itself together this one is a strainer and this last one is a larger scoop so what I'm going to use is the spatula version seems a little floppy but let's try it and I'm not sure it's going to scrape but it will work like a shovel to get the eggs onto the plate can I now use one of these to eat I will try the maybe I'll try the smaller size one and take a bite it's not like they don't work let's compare the utensils in the ore kit to the actual utensil counterparts foreign [Music] there it seems a little more secure and just a little less likely to drop it off the spoon but these certainly work let's give it an Effectiveness rating we didn't do any like tough work with it like scraping the pan and I don't think it's up to that I'm also a little concerned that once I magnet these together they flop open if I was really going somewhere on a camping trip or something I'm not sure I would want to have my dinner or lunch depend on these I think there may be some better options for you out there so I will say they work better than I expected but I did not have high expectations so in terms of Effectiveness I would give this no more than a two out of five I don't think I need to uh test myself with my left hand on these because they are what they are they're really passive devices for usability also not really high I think it worked again with the uh task I was going to do if it's going to be something soft and something that these floppy silicone things can handle then maybe it's okay maybe this has some advantages because it is they are so portable they don't take any any three-dimensional space they do fold flat you may not even need to carry all six of them depending on what you're doing again I wouldn't trust the camping trip with these so I would give them no better than a two out of five let's talk about a redesign and I'm going to use the spatula as an example of some thoughts because this one really would take the most Force if you're really going to try to cook with it not do this with it so first of all an easy thing to do would be to use stronger magnets so I would look at ways to incorporate some stronger magnets in here so I would increase that so that they hold together it may also be possible to make the silicone a little bit thinner so that they would the magnetic force would be a little stronger against each other but in either case I would strengthen these magnets this becomes a little floppy right here because this is also a folding point so the point at which it folds that needs to be thin enough to bend but when it comes into just two Dimensions like this it's going to do this naturally so I don't have an instant solution for that the other thing I would consider again if I was going to scrape something I would think about incorporating either a edge on this adding a harder piece of plastic here to the edge or possibly making this entire piece overlaying the silicone with a hard piece of plastic so you actually have a scoop that you could push on and that won't flop up this way given the constraints or the fact that these are designed to be things that fold flat like this and it's using the silicone to do it I think they could use some help to be more effective and more promising as they are they kind of fall flat so let's talk about a buy rating trying to find a need for people to have this and if you really really need utensils that fold flat this could be for you at least it could be a partial solution but I think these need to be improved before I can actually recommend them so I'm going to give it a generous two out of five Aura kit you're designed to travel have a nice trip bye bye pocket size Cutlery and Chopsticks in front of me is the pocket size reusable Cutlery and Chopsticks this kit contains collapsible utensils and Chopsticks and comes in this handy little metal case Okay so let's sort out what we have so the knife the fork and the spoon are easy to identify now I've got a couple of closely related shapes here there are a couple of grooves on this which I am going to pretty well assume are the Chopsticks I'm going to assemble by screwing in Chopsticks first knife Fork spoon I have in front of me a bowl of noodles and what I'm going to do is see how I can do with the Chopsticks but uh they are usable and they are chopsticks and that would work and I could shove this into my mouth try the fork I'm not sure if you noticed that but spinning a fork when you have a very round silvery handle it's not that easy it's nothing really to grab on as you're spinning you just have to squeeze a little harder I think there's a compromise in terms of usability of the utensils that you end up with because the diameters of all of these are rather small and completely round not the easiest to use utensils it sure beats a plastic knife so that is working I think the real question comes down to is how portable are these once they are folded up and supposedly portable as opposed to how portable would a knife Fork spoon and Chopsticks be anyway in terms of working I think they work in terms of the effort to put them together I think a sleeve would actually save some space let's compare those with their full size and solid counterparts [Music] I do see a difference in terms of usability that given the choice I would prefer to use these let's talk about Effectiveness and for Effectiveness what I want to look at is how much space are we actually saving if this is just about the size and shape and volume of the already assembled utensils or even utensils you already have in your house and this is the portable size I don't see a major advantage it's going to take some time I don't think it's worthwhile I'm going to give it a one out of five so it's time for the left-handed oil test and what this does is it highlights any deficiencies in design I'm going to be using my left hand slippery I'm right-handed I don't know if I can even use chopsticks left-handed what I suspect is because this is completely round I'm going to have trouble spinning this say I've got no action there at all if I compare this with a standard Fork I can spin this one if spinning was a thing you want to do with a fork I am out of luck trying to spin this Fork so I would consider that in the design of Cutlery and I'm not sure what we're really gaining in terms of making these collapsible or round or portable same will certainly be true the Chopsticks although you don't spin Chopsticks but I don't know if I'm going to be able to use any chopsticks Lefty but I do feel that these days are just a little bit squarish on the ends these are just a little bit more stable in my hands the other thing I'll try is how difficult it is to either tighten or loosen these I'm going to try to break this down and I can do that if I squeeze hard I can get some friction on these it's kind of slippery going the other direction I'm not going to be able to tighten them very much so let's talk about usability I just don't think you're going to want to grab these in place of things that you already own so let's give it one out of five sorry guys so let's talk about a redesign and again I'm not that thrilled about disassembling these or screwing these apart I'm wondering if instead of a screw mechanism and having these handles so small I think I would look for something look a way to design this with a more substantial handle not completely rounds either squarish or oval in shape and a little bit wider maybe even flatter and look for a way that these can snap together this way probably what that means is some sort of release button here or something that would help them snap together and release when needed but again I don't see it anywhere though I'm saving volume and doing this but that's what my suggestion would be for a redesign for the design of the case I would just make this an envelope let's say it'd be half the size of a chopstick probably going to have a flap and probably a snap and this will fold over to the snap here and this would contain the utensils so I think a soft case would make a lot more sense with this redesign case closed so let's talk about our buy rating one of the goals in the manufacturers or designers creating this was to be more sustainable so that you're not using disposable utensils so at the same time give them a little bit of weight so that they have a little more quality feel to them those goals are all fine and good but you can do that by grabbing the knives and forks you already have and just wrapping them in a napkin or finding some sort of envelope or container that you can slip them into and traveling with them taking them with you that way but for most of the world not an elegant solution one out of five so typically I'm well equipped we choose gadgets that we are a little skeptical about very often what we're looking for is some happy surprises like wow that worked better than I thought not today today I've got a range here of disappointments and we just have to be honest about these ultimately what we learned in this episode that none of these gadgets are worth replacing the things that you may already have in your kitchen [Music]

2022-12-31 14:49

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