Products are usually well thought-out. After all, companies are investing time, money, and other resources into developing them. But even though they are created to satisfy a specific need, things happen and products can evolve into something else entirely, taking on new forms and applications.
To learn more about these examples, Reddit user u/EpicEllis2004 submitted a question to the platform, asking what are some of the products that have drifted away from their main purpose. Turns out, it's a topic that really interests people. In just a week, the post has received over 34K upvotes and 14K comments, providing quite a few interesting insights into consumerism. Here are some of the answers.
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History Channel... as far as I am concerned the secret relationships between aliens and the illuminati do not qualify as "history"
The toilet lid of a toilet. Seen too many not even know you're supposed to put the lid down before flushing. Microscopic fecal matter flies everywhere otherwise. Apparently this isn't common knowledge.
This. So many arguements about putting the toilet seat up/down when honestly, everyone should just close the lid once they’re done. The particles spread up to 6 m (19 ft) otherwise.
Slinky, the toy. It was originally designed during WW2 to help sensitive instruments remain steady on ships... to counter the effects of pitch, roll, and yaw. The engineer working on them knocked one off his desk accidentally, saw the way it moved from the table to the chair, to the floor, and a new purpose was born.
On a side note... during the Vietnam War, when the Slinkys were metal, radio operators would carry them through the deep jungles. If they couldn't get a good signal in the jungle mountains, they'd sling a Slinky high into the tree limbs while holding onto one end. It created an instant antenna extension that they would attach to the radio.
Q-tips. The only thing they are used for is the one thing you are explicitly told not to use them for.
The warming drawer on the bottom of all our ovens, which is used as pan storage for exactly %100 of oven owners.
'All ovens' is rather a claim being made! Mine is a built in oven so has cupboards all around it - the floor standing ovens are so inconvenient! Why bend to put something in the oven when you can have it at waist height?
Load More Replies...Indeed not. They're built in. Perhaps some countries have more of a trend towards one type or another. The wall ones are so much easier to use - no bending to stick a heavy dish in!
Load More Replies...I have *never* owned or used an oven that has these drawers. I don't think they are anywhere near as ubiquitous as some people think they are.
Wondering if it is a country specific preference for free standing ovens for some reason? UK trend is towards built in ovens.
Load More Replies...This is not universally true -- the storage drawer under my oven barely gets warm. Snopes says: "A brief overview of the ovens available at HomeDepot.com showed that 87 models were available with a built-in storage drawer, while another 19 featured a warming drawer." https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/what-is-the-bottom-drawer-of-an-oven-really-for/
This is crazy, the ovens are the pan storage. That bottom drawer is for storing laddles, oven mitts, coffee mugs, lost tv remote, unopened groceries extra pans
In meat-loving Argentina, the bottom part of most stoves contains a grill. Cocina-con...dcd91b.jpg
Not had a freestanding oven in years. Have a built-in 'wall' double oven and so its hot even a question I had considered. Pans go in the cupboard below it.
Load More Replies...I think...( I could be wrong, that happens a lot, lol) that originally, that was how that drawer came to be-as a warming drawer. And it makes sense-the oven is, right on top of that drawer, everything is already metal-insulated; I would guess it would be perfect place to let bread rise, would it not? But all I have ever seen is it's used for pan storage. Would older ovens really make a difference? Stove is still on top of the oven...where I live, I have a glass top oven.( hate it. Never get one. Trust me). This glass top oven has a "warmer spot" in between the "stovetop eyes", but it also has a drawer. I am gonna go preheat my oven to 350, right now, and see if my drawer gets warm, because this is going to drive me nuts-I gotta do it. If anybody is curious, I will let u know what I find out shortly.
Ok-I am mind blown. The drawer was not warm. Not even a teeny tiny bit. Anywhere. It was cold. Holy s#@&. This one really surprised me. There must be one hell of an insulator in between the oven and drawer. This is an oven, I would guess, from the last 20 years? Or 15? Anybody have an old oven and decided to try this?
Load More Replies...Not all have a warming drawer. Mine has a storage space underneath and not a drawer.
No, just wrong. However this "fact" keeps being posted in every other "What peaople don't know..."
When was young, the bottom drawer on my moms stove was a Broiler. And she used as such for many years.
99% I removed my pans yesterday because the drawer kept coming off the track lol.
My warming drawer was so shallow it was useless for keeping food warm.
Bottom drawer of my oven is for storage. I read the owner's manual
That' because they are always incredibl dirty. I don't know why, i cleaned it often enough, but I sure as hell don't put food in there!
I have an old home so no built in and mine is free standing but the drawer on the bottom is just that. A drawer.
The issue is that it's not intuitive. Heat rises. Why put a warming drawer on the bottom? Also, I tested how warm it gets down there and it's not enough to keep the food warm.
That is not a warming drawer, it is a broiler. If you want to cook a steak properly, that is where you put it. 1) It heats up quicker, 2) it heats the top of your steak first, making for a nice sear, 3) It is hotter for faster cooking. Because it is hotter, you need to reduce the cooking time, otherwise it burns.
My dad told me about how it USED to be a warming drawer, but removed that feature recently. I've reached in there to grab a pan while the oven was on, and it wasn't even warm.
There are ovens with a warming drawer, but at least mine isn't even warm so it is for storage.
most ovens it's not a warming drawer, it's a dust and dirt filled space under the oven. I would not put food in it.
Added bonus - Ignored purpose of the "%" symbol. Originally intended to follow the number rather than leading it. It's used improperly for "%100" of this post.
My kitchen has a separate unit drawer under the oven, but it's not connected to the oven at all, and doesn't get warm at all. I wish I had a plate warmer!
The warming drawer never worked. It scorched or did nothing. In my experience.
Warming drawer or broiling drawer... depending if its gas or electric.
If oven drawers were meant to keep food warm, God wouldn't have invented microwaves
Super glue was meant to be a temporary method of stitching a wound. It was used that way during the Vietnam War. Tell people today to super clue their cuts shut, however, and most will think you're crazy
Apparently paintball guns were invented for foresters/loggers/park rangers to mark trees (for cutting etc.) without having to approach each tree.
Wonder how many minutes it took after the initial product release that 1st forester thought that it would be funny to shoot Mike on back.. Maybe hours but definetly not days..
Snuggy was originally designed for wheelchair users. Outerwear designed for walkers is cumbersome to take on and off for wheelchair users so snuggies were designed to help with this.
Ketamine is for horses and not for Saturday night.
It's been approved for use as a human sedative, it's used in operating rooms and ICUs. And remember those Thai kids that were trapped in the flooded cave? Each kid got a shot of Ketamine before the final rescue, it kept them quiet as heroic spent hours dragging them to safety through a dangerous flooded cave.
WD-40 was developed as a rust preventative (it’s even in the initials: “WD” means “Water Displacement”). Nowadays people use it to lubricate mechanical parts.
Pipe cleaners,
Use them for all sorts of arts and crafts as kids. It wasn't till I owned a tobacco pipe and went to buy them that it actually clicked
Oh my Jesus Christ. I haven’t thought about these since I was in primary school. Back then, I assumed the ‘pipe’ in pipe cleaner referred the things that ran along the walls of my house and I didn’t question it. It’s only now, reading this as a fully grown adult, that I realise it’s not that kind of pipe at all. That update has been pending for decades!
I think people already know this but the neck on the beer bottle is actually supposed to be held so you don’t warm your drink too fast.
No thank you. I don't trust my clumsy hands to hold it steady at the neck.
Gloveboxes were originally meant to store gloves because people used to drive with gloves on for some reason.
People used to drive with at the very least - gloves, dust coats, goggles, and hats on, if not full face masks. Because cars didn't have roofs or windows and the roads weren't paved, anyone who drove the first cars was going to get all the dust, mud, or weather in the world in the face.
Minoxidil was originally developed to treat high blood pressure and people reported unusual hair growth all around the body, since it promotes blood flow to the skin pores. They came up with a topical version and voila, millions of people smear that sh*t on their scalps and beards everyday and its the one of the only clinically proven ways to cure baldness.
Microsoft Excel/Google Sheets used as informal databases instead of as a data analysis tool
Facebook... originally intended to help college students meet, now used to control political behavior.
Zuck started it for dude-bros to rate the "attractiveness" of female students. So...It went from shitty to shitty in a different way, really.
Load More Replies...Lots of medical products had entirely different intentions! Dramamine was originally meant to combat hay fever, but turned out to be exceptional at preventing nausea (which is good as it's useless at preventing hay fever). Spironolactone was being tested for blood pressure uses until they realized that it acts as a testosterone blocker (it does actually affect blood pressure, but barely compared to more traditional blood pressure medications). Pharmaceuticals is basically an entire industry of "not what I was going for but let's roll with it".
Skin So Soft (S.O.S.) from Avon was a beauty product, but was found to be an excellent mosquito repellent
Should I say autotune software. I think it was invented to improve the mistakes made after recording, now it's used to enhance voice and sound quality, and hide flaws of the singer and musicians.
Coke was a soft drink before,now I use it to clean my toilet and sink.They're quite cheap.
Coke actually started out as a medicine and was developed by a pharmacist. It originally contained cocaine but that was removed in the early 1900's and became a drink.
Load More Replies...And canola (rapeseed) oil was originally developed as an industrial lubricant too - the petrochemical industry shut that down fast!
Load More Replies...Here in India, 'Clinic Plus' is still sold and promoted as a shampoo but is an amazing bike and basin/bathroom cleaner.
BoredPanda. It was created for art/photography and such and now it contains a lot of posts shaming people.
It seems like you pushed a Qtip a lot too far in your ear.
Load More Replies...Facebook... originally intended to help college students meet, now used to control political behavior.
Zuck started it for dude-bros to rate the "attractiveness" of female students. So...It went from shitty to shitty in a different way, really.
Load More Replies...Lots of medical products had entirely different intentions! Dramamine was originally meant to combat hay fever, but turned out to be exceptional at preventing nausea (which is good as it's useless at preventing hay fever). Spironolactone was being tested for blood pressure uses until they realized that it acts as a testosterone blocker (it does actually affect blood pressure, but barely compared to more traditional blood pressure medications). Pharmaceuticals is basically an entire industry of "not what I was going for but let's roll with it".
Skin So Soft (S.O.S.) from Avon was a beauty product, but was found to be an excellent mosquito repellent
Should I say autotune software. I think it was invented to improve the mistakes made after recording, now it's used to enhance voice and sound quality, and hide flaws of the singer and musicians.
Coke was a soft drink before,now I use it to clean my toilet and sink.They're quite cheap.
Coke actually started out as a medicine and was developed by a pharmacist. It originally contained cocaine but that was removed in the early 1900's and became a drink.
Load More Replies...And canola (rapeseed) oil was originally developed as an industrial lubricant too - the petrochemical industry shut that down fast!
Load More Replies...Here in India, 'Clinic Plus' is still sold and promoted as a shampoo but is an amazing bike and basin/bathroom cleaner.
BoredPanda. It was created for art/photography and such and now it contains a lot of posts shaming people.
It seems like you pushed a Qtip a lot too far in your ear.
Load More Replies...