# Stupidest product design you’ve experienced **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621 "2023-03-25T02:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 106
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2101 "2026-05-26T00:21:07Z")
Not your fault, but that AI-written article in nigh to incomprehensible. If it was written by a human, which I 99% doubt, said human knew exactly nothing about appliance design except some of the words used in the industry. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2102 "2026-05-26T00:50:39Z")
My fault for not reading it more carefully before posting. Sorry, everyone. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2103 "2026-05-26T11:40:23Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Out of curiosity, what happens if you turn the oven light on? I’m wondering if something to do with opening the door is making the motherboard glitch and reset? No problem. Oven does not turn off. I have to reset the temp and everything. And then press start if I open the door. It’s not a big enough deal to try to get it repaired if it is a fault. I don’t think it is, I think it’s an idiotic safety ‘feature’ that some low level engineer ‘cooked’ up. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2104 "2026-05-26T11:44:43Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I don’t think it is, I think it’s an idiotic safety ‘feature’ that some low level engineer ‘cooked’ up. I don’t know why stupidity like this is always blamed on “low level” engineers, while my own professional experience and that of fellow engineers taught me that such “improvements” almost always come from the higher suits, non-techies and marketing. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2105 "2026-05-26T12:01:48Z")
It might even be something mandated by some regulator someplace. And since these devices are made for worldwide sales, the feature has to be in every oven made. But is perhaps disable-able if one has the right knowledge or tools. > **Similar idea in another product, but kinda long-winded. You knew that.** > > US law mandates that every car sold in the USA that has a info display screen must display a warning to drivers to never look at the screen while driving. Which warning has to display for IIRC 30 seconds after every start. But can have a [cancel] button displayed that you can push to make it go away faster. > > Of course other countries have no such laws. The car maker’s solution is that the display or not of the nag screen is controlled by a toggle in the car’s factory software load. Every car worldwide is able to display the message, but it’s only enabled on cars for the US market. And there is no feature in the driver UI to change that toggle. Because US law requires it not be readily disable-able. > > But: anyone armed with the right software and a bit of skill can delve into the car’s computers, and flip the toggle. Which will stay flipped until your computers are reset to factory standard, get a major software update, or are replaced with new hardware. 😈 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2106 "2026-05-26T12:16:18Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I don’t know why stupidity like this is always blamed on “low level” engineers, while my own professional experience and that of fellow engineers taught me that such “improvements” almost always come from the higher suits, non-techies and marketing. Ah, you’re probably right. Unless some ‘lower’ level person thought they would get a ‘gold star’ for thinking of such a thing. I have experienced such things that you speak of in the programming world “You wanna do what???” But mostly they where afraid of us. We pretty much held the keys to the kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2107 "2026-05-26T14:20:13Z")
enipla, do you mind posting the model number? I honestly can’t imagine an oven intentionally turning off every time you open the door. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > I don’t know why stupidity like this is always blamed on “low level” engineers, while my own professional experience and that of fellow engineers taught me that such “improvements” almost always come from the higher suits, non-techies and marketing. Indeed. If anything, engineers expect users to be too intelligent, and make things less automated than the user-interaction folks would like. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2108 "2026-05-26T15:18:23Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > OK. This takes the cake. > > Bought a new house. The oven is an LG. Fine. Heat it up start cooking, and then open the door to see how things look. Close the door. > > The oven turns OFF if you open the door. Just because you wanted a peak at things. I come back a half hour later and the oven is OFF. > > Makes for some late night dinners. GRRRR. > > Oh, and I have to enter ‘Cook time’. I’m the damn cook, I’ll take care of that. So, if you preheat the oven then open the door to put the food in, it doesn’t turn off? But if you open the door while the food is cooking, then it turns off? And this is while you have the timer set? Or not? Or both? I agree that is very weird. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2109 "2026-05-26T16:42:31Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > It’s not a big enough deal to try to get it repaired if it is a fault. I don’t think it is, I think it’s an idiotic safety ‘feature’ that some low level engineer ‘cooked’ up. Could be both - apparently, some oven have a feature that turns them off if the door is left open “too long”. Is your oven electric? - supposedly they all have an auto shut-off that’s shuts the oven off after 12 hours or so. Could be a defect and your oven is doing it after a few seconds/minutes rather than many hours. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2110 "2026-05-26T18:45:06Z")
I donno. Not worth making it work. I’m in the kitchen anyway. I’ll just keep my eye on it. I’ve a Samsung refrigerator in the new house. Ice maker does not work. I called for help. A ‘kit’ to fix it would be $830. Um… no. That visit cost me $180. Oh, and this is a long one. I bought a Samsung Frame TV. I like it, it plays art. Anyway the guys that attempted to install it couldn’t do it. Note that this has a recessed outlet right behind the TV made for a TV. It was insane. They tried to go though the wall to come down to a different outlet. WHAT? They said “What do you want me to do?” I said “I want you to leave. Now” Idiots. I got that straightened out. But it was an afternoon at Best Buy to do it. I want to charge people for my time figuring out their screw ups. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2111 "2026-05-26T19:21:40Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I’ve a Samsung refrigerator in the new house. Ice maker does not work. I called for help. A ‘kit’ to fix it would be $830. Um… no. That visit cost me $180 Our ice maker went out a few years ago (Whirlpool side-by-side). I ordered a replacement from Amazon (back when I was still buying from them) and watched a couple YouTube videos on how to swap it out and it was easy-peasy. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2112 "2026-05-26T19:43:04Z")
Thanks, mine not so much. I also watched videos. Note that I have about $10,000 of tools in my garage, and I’ll work on anything. Um… No. One appliance company wouldn’t even look at it. The other said you can order the parts for $820. Best of luck. I think there may be a class action suit on this. But it came with the house, I didn’t ‘buy’ it. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2113 "2026-05-26T19:49:14Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > One appliance company wouldn’t even look at it. The other said you can order the parts for $820. Best of luck. We had the same issue a couple years back with our Samsung washer. Nobody wants to work on them anymore. Even the shop that had previously worked on it no longer did. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2114 "2026-05-26T21:46:08Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > One appliance company wouldn’t even look at it. The other said you can order the parts for $820. Best of luck. But I don’t think that has anything to do with not being able to fix it, rather than getting tired of customers getting mad at them when they explain that, on top of the $180 (which you still have to pay, even if you don’t do the repair) to come out there, it’s another $800-$1000 to fix. At that point they aren’t likely to get the job since most people would rather just pony up a few extra dollars and replace the entire fridge at that point. Kinda like electricians that won’t take a job replacing a single light switch or a contractor that won’t come out and patch a small hole in your drywall. If they charge the ‘right’ amount, it’s going to be insulting, if they charge what a homeowner thinks is reasonable, it’s not worth their time. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2115 "2026-05-26T22:24:54Z")
This isn’t a new problem. I remember as a little kid, so early-mid 1960s, the adults joking that a new Chevy cost $5K. But if you bought all the parts to assemble one from the dealership’s parts counter it’d be $25K = 5x as much. For sure increasing component integration means the modern fridge consists of 6 eyewateringly expensive sub-assemblies, not 700 discrete individually fairly cheap tidbits. ---
**Author:** ![dougrb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/76d3ee/32.png) [@dougrb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougrb)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2026, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2116 "2026-05-26T23:55:17Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But if you bought all the parts to assemble one You could just work there and sneak out the pieces in your lunch box for FREE. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2117 "2026-05-27T00:51:20Z")
> [@dougrb](#): > > just work there and sneak out the pieces in your lunch box for FREE. Johnny Cash has a song about that. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uErKI0zWgjg/maxresdefault.jpg "Johnny Cash - One Piece at a Time (Official Audio)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uErKI0zWgjg) ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2118 "2026-05-27T02:03:19Z")
I had never heard of this song. So fun. Yaay! ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2119 "2026-05-27T02:15:18Z")
Oh, it’s a GREAT song. I heard it for the first time maybe ten, fifteen years back and I’m glad I did! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2026, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/2120 "2026-05-27T03:58:13Z")
Ice makers are the Achilles heel of modern refrigerators, and if you read fridge reviews, they are the subject of a large percentage of the negative comments. It used to be that most ice makers were modular units that were mounted inside the main section of the freezer, and if they went bad, you could easily replace them. I did that on a ten-year-old fridge about ten years ago. The next new fridge we bought had the ice maker built into the door, presumably to leave more space in the freezer. But in addition to not being able to store much ice, that meant it was completely unique to that model, and if it went south you were screwed. Fortunately, that didn’t happen while we owned it. But that concern made me look closely at the ice makers when I was buying a new fridge five years ago. Most of the units I looked at did not have easily replaceable modular ice makers, but the one I bought did. It’s still going strong (knock wood). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=105) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=107)