I found a 36-in-1 multitool that absolutely belongs in your kitchen drawer – here’s why

Kelvin Tools 36-in-1 Multitool

looks a bit… how do I put this… strange. A bit Fisher-Price (yes, they made one). But after being asked a few times to take a look at it, I caved, and I’m glad I did.

I’ve already said this once, but I’m going to say it again. The Kelvin 36 looks a bit odd. It’s rather bulky, there’s a lot of plastic, and what metal there is is shiny, and there’s what looks like — and actually turns out to be — a hammer on one end.

It’s also big. It measures a hefty 5.5 by 2.2 by 1.5 inches and weighs a stout 12 oz. Too big to comfortably carry in a pocket. In fact, it looks too big to hold (and I have hands that take L to XL gloves), but once I started using it, it oddly felt quite ergonomic. I even asked a few other people to try it, with hands ranging from S to XXL, and all agreed that the design worked.

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All in all, it’s rather a strange bit of kit. It even comes supplied in a tin rather than a box, and there’s no belt pouch. And before I started testing this, I could hear my brain saying, “You’re going to hate this,” and, “This is dumb.”

I’m not the target audience

But the more I used the Kelvin 36, the more I realized that I’m not the target audience for this tool. The target audience is people who didn’t grow up on MacGyver and don’t realize that they need a multitool in their lives.

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As the name suggests, 36 tools make up the Kelvin 36.

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That’s a bizarre combination of items, but then it hit me — this isn’t a multitool that you carry around with you, it’s a multitool that goes into a kitchen drawer and is pulled out when you want to assemble some flat-pack furniture or put up a picture.

For those who want an even more compact urban multitool, there’s a Kelvin 23, with 23 and 17 tools, respectively.

ZDNET’s buying advice

At $80, the Kelvin 36