5 Unique Kitchen Gadgets for Under $100

Paper Towel Holder with 4 USB Ports ($50)

This is the Towlhub, an ordinary-looking paper towel holder with a missing vowel. Look closer, and you’ll notice four USB ports you can use to charge your gadgets. Be careful! Gadgets and water generally don’t mix, so watch those wet hands when you’re reaching for a paper towel.

An extra $40 gets you a version that packs two Bluetooth speakers. Oh, and the topper for both versions doubles as a wine stopper. As far as kitchen-based convergence devices go, this one’s got a lot of the bases covered.

[SkyMall]

Two-in-One Tablet Mount/Stand ($29)

Tablet holders are everywhere, but this $29 jobber from CTA Digital is unique in that it sports an under-cabinet mount configuration that easily transforms into a counter-top stand configuration in a flash.

The neck rotates and pivots up, down, left and right, and is made of aluminum. The clamp doohickey adjusts from 6 to 8.5 inches in width, which should accommodate most 7- to 10-inch tablet models (7- to 10-inch tablets are measured diagonally, remember).

[Amazon]

Kickball Ice Cream Maker ($35)

You ever try to make your own ice cream? Too much stirring. It’s all stirring. Stir, stir, stir, until now I don’t even want ice cream anymore.

You can take the stirring part out of the equation with this $35 kickball that you fill with ice cream ingredients. Once everything’s packed in, lace up your cleats, head out to the yard and kick the ball around. After about 20 minutes of family fun, you’ll have a pint of ice cream to stuff into your gullet. Best of all, you won’t feel guilty — a fair to middling amount of exercise went into making desert, no?

[Hammacher Schlemmer]

Selfie Toaster ($75)

You could make boring old toast in a boring old toaster or you could make toast with your face on it. Why would you choose the first option?

Sure, this toaster on its own probably isn’t worth $75. But remember the part about your face getting burnt into every piece of toast consumed in your house for as long as the toaster lasts. That’s the gift that keeps on giving — wholeheartedly at first, with the euphoria gradually diminishing with each subsequent conversion from bread to hot, face-burned bread.

[Burnt Impressions]

Touch-Free Faucet Kit ($48)

This thing isn’t much to look at — unless you’re into lumpy, bulky faucet accessories — but for less than $50, it’ll let your ordinary faucet work like one of those fancy, expensive, touch-free faucets you always see on those home renovation shows.

A sensor on the kit detects when your hands are present, letting water flow out until you remove them. There’s also a manual override feature that’ll let you run water for up to three minutes, at which point it’ll shift back to automatic mode. The kit uses four AAA batteries and attaches to most standard faucet heads that sport removable aerators.

[Amazon]