Grout Bully, Rollie Eggmaster, Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch, Lexus IS 250 Make List Of Year’s Worst Products
Our colleagues at ShopSmart recently published an expansive round-up of the year’s best products, which is all really good and helpful information. But what picqued our interest was the magazine’s shorter list, covering everything from questionable infomercial products to big-name luxury brands, of the worst products on the market in 2013.
Some of the spotlighted “Losers” in the January issue of ShopSmart include:
The Grout Bully
You’ve probably seen the infomercial, where this product magically turns filthy tile grout bright white (or a number of other colors, if that’s your desire), but ShopSmart says it’s really nothing but “Wite-Out for gross grout” that’s just masking the filthy reality.
The Rollie Eggmaster (apparently also known as the Rollie Vertical Cooking System)
Cooking an egg is pretty easy and doesn’t really require much in the way of specialized cookware, but if you want to spend $30 on a heated tube that slowly turns a traditional breakfast food into egg-on-a-stick, then we guess this might be the device for you. Tip: Any product that talks about how simple it is to use, but also requires a special cleaning brush, maybe isn’t so simple to use.
The folks at Rollie know that you have secretly been craving warm egg on a stick for years.
Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch
While we enjoy NFL reporter Jay Glazer’s inside info on pro football, his mixed martial arts training system, which is apparently just some gloves and tension bands, hasn’t gotten much love from the Consumer Reports family. First, CR testers found that Perfect Punch was repetitive, inadequate, and may have negatively affected users’ punching form. Now it’s made ShopSmart’s worst of the year list. While the product says you can get ripped in just 15 minutes a day, ShopSmart says “the only thing you’ll be ripping is your hair out.”
Lexus IS 250
So far, all the products we’ve mentioned from the worst-of list have been of the late-night infomercial variety, but here’s a car that isn’t just prime-time, but a well-known luxury sports sedan that will set you back around $36K. ShopSmart’s take on the car doesn’t exactly slap a red-ribbon on it, calling the IS 250 “a super-cramped, stiff-riding car without much get up and go.”
Some other products making the worst of the year round-up include, Sherwin-Williams Duration Home Interior Paint, Rust-Oleum NeverWet, the Sandra by Sandra Lee 53156 blender (which could “barely crush ice”), and the $150 EarHero earphones, which are marketed as the “world’s safest earphones,” but which scored an astoundingly low 6 out of 100 for “sound quality… so bad that all you’ll hear is your own voice screaming because you paid $150.”
You can check out the entire best and worst products list in the January issue of ShopSmart.
Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.
