We all love the idea of making our lives easier and gadgets often promise this plus they also look pretty cool sitting on our worktops.
Whilst some gadgets are just mind-boggling stupid others do in fact have a use, here we take a look at 10 essential but quirky gadgets every home should have.
TEFAL TOAST & EGG
The Tefal Toast n’ Egg is an unusual gizmo but actually rather ingenuous. It’s a two-slice toaster with a pot at the end designed to cook eggs either poached or boiled.
Although the idea may at first seem a little “studenty”, give it a chance: it actually makes a family breakfast pretty efficiently. You can boil four eggs at a time and, while they’re cooking, produce an army of soldiers. The Tefal Toast n’ Egg comes with a number of contraptions to go on the egg cooker: a mini frying pan, a warming tray, and a holder for boiling up to four eggs. Thankfully, they all stack together when not in use, so you don’t need to budget cupboard space with them.
USEFUL RATING: 5
BRUNO SMARTBIN
The Bruno smartbin combines smartphone technology and trash! With a hidden air pump at its base it detects when you’re sweeping dirt into it and sucks it up into the trash bag eliminating the need for a dustpan. Its app lets you set a trash day reminder and alerts you when it’s low on trash bags.
USEFUL RATING: 4
EMBER MUG
Tired of your hot drinks getting cold before you get around to drinking them? the Ember Ceramic Mug promises to eliminate this problem. A temperature-controlled mug, Ember uses an integrated heating element to keep your hot drink at the perfect drinking temperature until you’re finished.
Available in black, white or copper. From the outside, it looks much like a regular mug, but there are tell-tale differences. First, there’s an LED at the front that glows to show you the charge status of the mug. Connected via an app to your smartphone You download an app, you sync it via Bluetooth, you pour your liquid, and you set your mug to the correct temperature that corresponds to the liquid you’re drinking on the app.
Hey presto hot drinks all day... Looks cool, but really is it necessary?
USEFUL RATING: 3
SPREADTHAT! HEATED KNIFE
We've all had that moment when the butter is just to hard to spread, SpreadTHAT! has come us with a solution with its heated knife which softens butter for quicker, easier spreading by carrying heat from the palm of your hand to the edge of the blade through a superconducting core.
Use the serrated edge to shave off fine curls of butter straight onto your toast, and then gently draw the blade over them for a smoother, more even layer of butter right out of the fridge. No waiting, no clumping – just a better slice of toast, made easy.
USEFUL RATING: 4
