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Why Most Kitchen Gadgets Are a Waste of Money
The UK kitchen gadget market sells a lot of things that exist to be gifted and forgotten. The spiraliser collecting dust. The egg cooker that requires the same attention as a saucepan. The smoothie bullet that somehow produces more washing up than a blender.
After years of testing kitchen appliances and making very expensive mistakes, I’ve developed a strict test before I’ll buy or recommend anything: it must save meaningful time at least twice per week, and the result must be genuinely better or faster than the alternative. Everything below passes that test with cooking for a family of five.
1. Air Fryer (5–6 Qt) — £70–£110
The appliance I recommend first to anyone with a family. Faster than the oven for everything from chicken thighs to chips, better results for crispy food, and cleanup in 2 minutes. The single appliance that has changed my weeknight cooking most significantly.
Specific recommendations: Cosori Pro II 5.8-Qt (~£90) for families of 3–5; Tower T17021 (~£50) for smaller households or budget buyers.
I’ve covered air fryers in depth across this blog — the point here is simply that no kitchen gadget list for families is complete without one.
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2. Instant-Read Digital Thermometer — £10–£15
The most underrated kitchen tool for anyone who cooks protein. One probe, five seconds, and you know with certainty whether chicken is at 75°C or still at 65°C. This eliminates the “cut it open to check” method, which destroys the presentation and wastes the steam and juices.
I use mine every time I cook chicken, pork, lamb, or fish. My children eat correctly cooked food instead of guesswork food. The peace of mind alone is worth £12.
The Thermapen is the best, but genuinely expensive at £65. The ThermoPop at £25 is excellent. Budget options exist at £10 that work adequately.
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3. Instant Pot Duo 6L — £90
The pressure cooker that makes rice, stocks, stews, soups, and curries in a fraction of the conventional time. Hands-off cooking that frees you to manage children, homework, or the inevitable spillage while dinner looks after itself.
Full review on this blog. Short version: the learning curve is one week, and after that it earns daily use (rice) and weekly use (stocks and batch cooking).
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4. Decent Food Processor — £50–£90
“Decent” is the key word. A £25 mini processor doesn’t chop onions, it bruises them. A proper food processor with a large bowl and a sharp blade processes a week’s worth of vegetables in 10 minutes that would take 40 minutes by hand.
For family cooking at volume — batch bolognese, homemade soups, weekly food prep — a proper processor is transformative. I use mine every Sunday.
Specific recommendation: Braun FP3020 (~£55) for the best price-to-quality ratio. Magimix for those who want to invest once and keep it forever (~£300+, not under £100, but worth mentioning).
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5. Hand Blender (Stick Blender) — £20–£40
For soups, sauces, and baby food, a stick blender inserted directly into the pot saves the transfer to a standing blender, the burning hazard, and the cleaning of the blender jar. Under £40 for a decent model.
Braun MultiQuick 5 (~£35) is the one I’ve owned for four years and the motor is still going. Blends large batches of soup in 30 seconds, cleans in 10 seconds.
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6. Digital Kitchen Scales — £12–£20
Baking is impossible without precise measurement; good savoury cooking is significantly better with it. Measuring by weight rather than volume is more accurate and faster — one bowl, weigh ingredients directly in, no separate measuring spoons for everything.
The Salter Aquaweigh is waterproof and dishwasher safe — meaningfully useful when you’re covered in bread dough or have just spilled an egg. Under £20.
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7. Salad Spinner — £15–£25
This sounds absurd as a kitchen essential, but if you serve salad with meals more than twice a week, a salad spinner changes how you do it. Wet lettuce dilutes dressing and goes limp quickly. A 15-second spin produces dry leaves that hold dressing properly and stay crisp in the fridge for 3–4 days wrapped in a clean towel.
OXO Good Grips (~£25) is the one everyone recommends and the one I actually use. The push-button mechanism requires no coordination.
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8. Jar Opener / Multi-Opener — £10–£15
The most frequently used item in my kitchen drawer that no one talks about. A proper gripper-style jar opener opens every lid I have ever encountered, instantly, without the struggle that makes weeknight cooking 2% more infuriating than it needs to be.
Under £15. Zero learning curve. Saves approximately four minutes of wrestling with pasta sauce jars per week.
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What I Tried and Returned
Spiraliser: Beautiful courgette noodles that my children refused to eat. Now in the garage.
Electric can opener: The manual one is 5 seconds. The electric one is 15 seconds of setup + 15 seconds of operation + 30 seconds of cleaning. Pointless.
Rice cooker (standalone): The Instant Pot does rice better and I only have so much counter space.
Avocado slicer: It is a knife. You already have a knife.
Egg cooker: Requires the same attention as a saucepan. Does not actually save time.
The Rule I Apply to Everything
Every kitchen gadget should earn its counter space by saving more than its cost in time or improving results meaningfully within its first month of use. If you can’t point to a specific weekly meal where it made a clear difference, it belongs in the garage.
The 8 items above all clear that bar. The rest: either genuinely too expensive, too situational, or genuinely replaceable by basic equipment you already own.