If you think you get what you pay for when you buy sunscreen, you might be in for a surprise. Our less-sunburned cousins at Consumer Reports recently put a dozen sun-protection products to the test and the ones that came out on top were also among the least expensive. [More]
Store-Brand Sunscreens From Target, Walmart, Walgreens Outperform Higher-Priced Options In Test
By May 23, 2013
Watch As Consumer Reports Goes Drifting In $90,000 Tesla S
By May 9, 2013
Earlier today, our test-track-lovin’ kin at Consumer Reports surprised an awful lot of people by announcing that the completely electric (and completely expensive) Tesla S scored the highest in its latest automobile ratings. But what may surprise even more people is that the seemingly button-down auto-test folks at Consumer Reports also know to cut loose… and go drifting in a $90,000 car. [More]
saving moneyCan you replace a cracked smartphone screen yourself? Yes, and there are plenty of tools, kits, and online tutorials available to help you. Should you do it? Maybe, say our colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports, armed with pentalobe screwdrivers and lab coats. [More]
How To Save Money By Not Using Your Health Insurance
By April 30, 2013
We’ve covered the topic of low-cost generic medicines in the past, helping a reader save more than $300 in out-of-pocket expenses every year by filling his prescriptions at a discount store and not using his health insurance. That’s just one person, though. Can this plan work for everyone? Our sibling publication Consumer Reports deployed their nationwide network of secret shoppers to find out. [More]
powerDo you turn your printer off when you’re not using it? You might be wasting electricity…and ink. Our watt-measuring colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports Electronics note that letting your printer enter standby mode often uses less power than turning it off or on. For inkjet printers, the toll also includes ink: some models slorp a bit more ink when priming the jets to print when you turn the printer on rather than letting it wake up from standby mode. [Consumer Reports Electronics]
Will The Edge Of Glory Really Let You Slice A Tomato WIth A Credit Card?
By April 3, 2013
Have you always dreamed of slicing vegetables with the sharpened edge of a plastic credit card? Yeah, us either. But pitchman Anthony Sullivan does just that in the ad for the Edge of Glory, an inexpensive, small, and easy-to-use gadget that claims to sharpen any knife in your drawer. Is it worth $10.99 plus shipping and handling? According to tests by our super-sharp siblings down the hall at Consumer Reports, the answer is “maybe.” If you only have cheap knives. Or want to chop your food with a credit card. Which actually works. [More]
There Is Always A Best Way To Cook A Frozen Pizza
By March 26, 2013
Looking to get the best culinary experience out of your frozen pizza? That’s not an oxymoron. The smell of tomato sauce and cheese is drifting down the hall from our colleagues at Consumer Reports, who compared the same pizza when cooked in a conventional oven and a microwave oven. Their goal was to figure out the optimal way to cook frozen pizzas for optimal texture and tastiness. [More]
Consumer Reports Tests Prove: Generic Twinkies Not As Good As Original
By March 8, 2013
Since negotiations broke down between management and workers and the mass-consumption snackery Hostess liquidated, American consumers have been left bereft and Twinkieless. No one really cares about Wonder Bread, but Twinkies hold a special place in our national imagination, even for people who haven’t tasted one of the hydrogenated delights in decades. But are the generic Twinkie-ish cakes you see on store shelves worth your time? [More]
Perhaps You Would Like A Fridge With A Built-In Sodastream Or Hot Water Dispenser
By February 15, 2013
Many of our friends and readers are big fans of the Sodastream, a device that lets you make your own sweet (or not-so-sweet) fizzy beverages at home. What if you could combine a refrigerator water/ice dispenser with the at-home carbonation technology of the Sodastream? Don’t rush to the patent office: Samsung has already introduced that product. It hits stores in April. [More]
If You’re Looking For An iPhone 5, Consider Going No-Contract
By January 25, 2013
If you’re looking for an iPhone 5, do you want to pay an extra $450 now, or an extra $1000 over the next two years? Buying an unlocked phone and using a no-contract carrier can give you sticker shock initially, but you can save quite a bit of money in the long run. Our number-crunching colleagues down the hall at Consumer Reports looked into it, and found that if you can pay for your new phone itself out of pocket, going unlocked and contract-free is a much better deal. [More]
Should You Take Back That GPS You Got For Christmas?
By December 27, 2012
You might have ripped the wrapping paper off a shiny new GPS unit earlier this week, but should you keep it? A well-meaning loved one might have bought you a new one this week, but that doesn’t mean that they chose the best one for your needs or that you should keep it. How do you know whether the unit you have is the best for you? If only there were an entity out there that tested different models side-by-side and published the results…Oh, right, that would be our elder sister publication, Consumer Reports! [More]
Putting Jay Glazer’s Perfect Punch And Other Infomercial Workout Systems To The Test
By December 27, 2012
If those jeans you got as a gift this holiday season don’t fit because of the all the food you devoured in the last few weeks, you might be tempted to buy one of those exercise devices advertised on TV. But some of these products aren’t worth the price — or effort. [More]
Ford & EPA Try To Figure Out Why C-Max, Fusion Aren’t Getting Advertised MPG
By December 14, 2012
Following last week’s announcement that Consumer Reports’ real-world fuel-economy testing of Ford’s C-Max and Fusion hybrid vehicles showed these cars are not getting the 47 mpg touted by the car maker, both Ford and the Environmental Protection Agency have said they are looking into the matter. [More]
Move Over Santa: Consumer Reports Issues List Of Naughty & Nice Companies
By November 21, 2012
They’re making a list and checking it twice, and you’re about to find out who’s naughty and nice. Get it? Because Consumer Reports is coming to town? Or rather, it’s issued its annual list of the companies it considers to be bad little boys and girls and those who are to be held up as examples to the rest of’em. Let’s get to it [cue gleeful rubbing together of hands]! [More]
Ford Continues To Sink Toward Bottom Of Consumer Reports’ Reliability Ratings
By October 29, 2012
In 2010, Ford was among the top 10 auto brands in Consumer Reports’ Annual Auto Reliability Survey, with more than 90% of its models rated average or better by CR readers. But in the two years since, the shine has gone off the Ford brand, and in the newly released survey, it now comes in next to last place. [More]
Consumer Reports: A 4-Year-Old Can Break The Emergency Trunk Release On 2013 Lexus
By October 12, 2012
Our benevolent benefactors over at Consumer Reports are nothing if not very, very thorough when testing just about anything you can buy. So thorough, in fact, that CR’s auto extraordinaire Jake Fisher ran one very important test — the “How will my kids play [supervised] in this car?” test — and uncovered a major problem with the trunk escape lever on the 2013 Lexus ES and GS. His 4-year-old was able to snap it off. Whoops. [More]
So There's Arsenic In My Rice… What Can I Do About It?
By September 19, 2012
Earlier today, we told you about the Consumer Reports study that found varying levels of inorganic arsenic — a known carcinogen — in a wide variety of rice products. Since so many of us chow down on rice in some form on a regular basis, should we be worried? [More]
Consumer Reports Investigation Finds Arsenic In Variety Of Rice Products
By September 19, 2012
Rice is one flexible little grain. It’s found in cereal (hot and cold), baby food, rice cakes, crackers, pasta, vinegar, syrup, flour and beverages. But a new Consumer Reports study of 60 rice products found varying levels of no one’s favorite ingredient: Arsenic. [More]
