There are few things that frustrate me more than products that are made to mislead or outright lie to consumers.
I still have a resentment for ColdHeat soldering irons that claimed to only work when the tip came in contact with metal, which operated through inductive heat.
However, they were extremely ineffective and could never get hot enough to make the solder melt into the two metal surfaces. I used the ColdHeat soldering iron three times before it was put in a drawer and forgotten about for years. It wouldn’t be so bad if the manufacturers hadn’t made so many unreasonable promises about its capabilities and features. Advertisements can be misleading, so it takes an informed consumer to know that they need to do their due diligence when it comes to verifying if a piece of marketing is telling the truth or not. For instance, a lot of people are duped into buying those tiny “personal air coolers” under promises that it will revolutionize the HVAC industry and put air conditioner companies out of business. I wish I was exaggerating with that last claim, but it’s actually one of the common pitches that all of these companies use. The devices are nothing more than a cheap and tiny evaporative cooler, or “swamp cooler.” The little computer fan inside isn’t even strong enough to truly mimic the effects of a real evaporative cooler. That’s the worst part, it’s not an air conditioner and it’s not technically an air cooler either. It’s a cheap piece of plastic that isn’t worth $10, let alone $30 or $60.