Most useless appliance addition?

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Vacuum massagers... and I suppose "messagers" too

I've never heard of a vacuum that could take messages? Did it answer the door, or just the phone? :)

Anyway, seriously; the massager that's with my Kirby, at least, is a large pad that fits the sander attachment and would be rotten for any sort of lewd purpose. I have heard tell of a specifiaclly /Swedish/ massage attachment, though, that fit the bill...
 
Most useless *appliance* addition

If a radio counts, then it would have to be a VEHICLE sound-system with a remote control.

If that does not count then how about Braille lettering on the DRIVE-THROUGH ATM (Automatic Teller Machine). The kind on the driver's side that is not useful to a passenger.

"Sanitize" options on dishwashers are pretty lame as well. One touch in putting the dishes away, and they are no longer sanitary. If one is that germ-phobic perhaps a UV light in cupboard/cabinets (with glass shelves) is in order. And vast amounts of counseling/therapy may be a nice addtion as well.
 
UV light in the cabinet

I can remember when barbers and hairdressers all had those glass-front cabinets with the UV lights in them and the big red cross emblem on the front. They were supposed to put their scissors and combs in them. I see them turn up now and then in antique stores. Now that I think about it, I wonder if the UV bulbs they used actually did any good.
 
UV Bulbs

I have a late-1960s Jet-Spray beverage dispenser (the kind that lemonade, etc. is marketed in and dispensed from in restaurants) in my bar. Below the nozzle is a drip-tray which is not connected to a drain, so any beverage which drips into it just sort of stays there.

Behind the front panel is an odd little lamp which has most of its light directed down into the drip-tray, but which also shines through a clear plastic window on the front of the machine. The window is marked, "Ultra Violet."

In normal use, there's usually some lemonade or orange juice in the drip tray, and in the corners where the light doesn't shine it turns brown and ugly, but where the light reaches it stays relatively unspoiled-looking.

I'm sure that this bulb hasn't been replaced in over 30 years, but it's clearly still doing what it was designed to do.

-kevin
 
Mold is the fear-inducing buzzword of the decade......

UV lamps are also sold to kill germs in the air-stream of forced-air heating and cooling systems.

If the contractor had not politely refused to install one (takes too much time... I had a central cooling system put in FROM NOTHING existing [not even ducts or an air-handler] in one day), I would have had it installed in the air-stream just AFTER the cooling coils. My logic is that if anything grows on the coils, it will be dead before it hits my nose.

 
There was a chain of cafeterias in the midwest that fancied themselves "buffets". They had big foofy funeral parlor drapes and huge chandeliers, and a waitress carried your tray to your table. As befitted a place so grand, they also had toilet seats with UV lights in them. If I recall correctly, they were on the underside of the seat, so that when you put the seat down, the surface of the bowl would be sanitized.
 
UV Toilet Seat thingamajigs

The UV toilet seat lamps I recall were mounted in a metal box on the wall, above the toilet. The toilet seats were of the "U" shaped, spring-loaded variety which would flip up automatically when you stood up.

There was a switch somewhere that would automatically turn on the UV light when the seat would rise up into the "U" shaped opening on the front of the box.

-kevin
 
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