Friday Fun: A kitchen appliance that vastly overperformed?

OK, this should be an easy one. I would say our rice cooker/steamer. It was Yan Can Cook brand, from a local Bay Area Chinese chef with a public TV cooking show. i figured it was good for six months, tops. We've been using it to steam broccoli on a weekly basis for a decade now. It even makes decent rice, at least for a simple non-fuzzy-logic cooker that cost next to nothing. I'm sad to get rid of it, but the nonstick coating is finally starting to wear off and I don't care to ingest teflon.

It looks like this one, but it's a 9 cup model: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tedmills/458243651/

So what's your kitchen gadget that punches way above its weight?

juicer.jpg

First thing every morning the juice of half a lemon goes into a glass of spring water then into me.

[Robin Garr]

Hmm ... probably a cheap stick blender that I got at Walgreen's. I use it a lot, and it must be 10 years old.

A very old chrome mixmaster that my mom used when I was a kid. I has to be around 70 years old. I remember her using it every Christmas to make Tom and Jerry batter. That poor thing would lug along mixing up that batter until it was thick and delicious. It came to live with us after mom died, and I used it for everything even making Tom and Jerry batter. Then came the day, it just started to feel tired, and I wanted a newer make with more power. So, it resides in the garage now because the boys in the family don't want me to get rid of it, yet neither of them will take it home.

Can I mention one that completely UNDERperformed? It's not really an appliance, either, but a gadget... We didn't have a can opener here in Maine, so I just picked up a decent looking one, brand: GoodCooks at the grocery store. I think it was about $8.00 and it worked to open exactly two cans. After that, the crank refused to turn. Kinda makes me mad.