The Handy Switch, pitched in infomercials by the zombie late Billy Mays, is theoretically a cool product. It’s a wireless light switch that you can install and plug in anywhere. It would be very useful were it not for its unfortunate tendency to burst into flames.

Consumer reporter Mitch Lipka, who buys and tests products for WalletPop, managed to get a Target Halloween flashlight yanked off shelves earlier this month when his caught fire. Then his Handy Switch was recalled for similar reasons. Luckily, it wasn’t in use in his home because the thing didn’t work in the first place.

I admit that I did like the idea of it — giving consumers a cheap way out of solving the problem of not having a light switch in the right place. But my wife — who has already expressed her concern over the probability that nearly anything I bring into the house is capable of causing some kind of property damage — made me feel bad about testing it in one of the kids’ rooms.

Luckily, my Handy Switch didn’t work at all. If it was still on that bedroom wall today before I learned of the recall, I would have been guilt-ridden.

See, cheap Chinese-made crap saves us all from its dangerousness by its own poor quality.

Can a guy just avoid a burning product for like a month? This time it’s Handy Switch [WalletPop]

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