Consumer Reports - C/D?

what do you think of the venerable product testing publication? vital resource, or something less?

actually i don't give a shit, can someone bum me a login? i need to get an air conditioner.

LOVE consumer reports

dude i can give you a free air conditioner if its still in my basement and i forgot to throw it away

is it a POS? not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but i feel like being anal about efficiency and quietude and all that.

no if we still have it its only like a year old or something - let me call K and see if its still there

oh sweet.

Useful thread!

crushing disappointment time, K already loaned it to someone. we'll be getting it back in a month, but by then you will already be dead from heat and not need it anymore i suppose

indubitably!

nah it's ok, i think i'd rather have one of my very own, all things considered.

im just sad because this means the goddamn thing is coming back in a month. maybe i'll air condition the garage.

This magazine sucks.

Two years ago, they ranked Milwaukee's Best as the best beer in America.

WTF.

What were they comparing it to?

Will have to go look, but several beers that should have out-ranked it.

milwaukee's worst
milwaukee's medium

Pabst Silver Ribbon

America*

defined as Milwaukee

i like their ethics but yeah, they consistently pick mediocre stuff on the basis of what seem to be rational criteria. I feel like if they got people who are real connoisseurs of the thing they're reviewing, they could improve their methodology, but is there such a thing as an air conditioning geek?

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3469/is_30_52/ai_77713624/?tag=untagged

^^^they do beer reviews

I like when they compare cars, or electronics, or cameras...good for when you end up actually having to buy one of those things, helps me pretend I'm kind of informed or know what I'm looking for. Oh and I love the section at the front about the product recalls. I dont' know why. Feeds my outrage a little.

I could live without the throwaway comparisons "which sports drink is the best value"..."which fast food restaurant has the best service"...

feel like if they got people who are real connoisseurs of the thing they're reviewing, they could improve their methodology

i dunno about this, sommeliers are frauds and sheep

how bout dudes who really love booze then?
for their pork test, they just got random people, not people who love pork, and everyone ate tiny bites, which is no way to consume pork.

i probably just wouldn't pay attention to their stuff on food at all.

but does anyone have a login?? rly need a good AC unit

two years old:http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2008047253_airconditionerconsumerreports12.html

I imagine you won't get a terrible unit if you get their pick, but maybe a repairman might know better.

They've always been leftist populists (don't know if they still are, though). That may be a reason for them preferring solid mediocre stuff. Anyway, someone's probably going to post some of their late Seventies/early Eighties HBO specials, which pushes them into an easy C all by themselves.

I always picture these people in Yonkers wearing polyester, square rimmed glasses and sensible shoes. Classic, of course.

When I was a child, my most very favorite magazine was "Zillions: Consumer Reports for Kids." It's like if MAD was made more boring by Consumer Reports, and had sincere product reviews in it. I sent "Zillions" so much fan mail (most of which was letting them know I thought they were too hard on some or another company or product – they must have hated me). They mailed me a sticker of their logo, and I waited for years to find the perfect object to affix it to. This never happened, and I lost the sticker.

I could talk about this magazine for hours.

hahahah oh man, the only time i've needed to check out CR in the last ten years was for buying an air conditioner. If their end-result is questionable, at least the informational material they present about how they arrive at their conclusion is useful.

I read an issue recently where they rated all the "As Seen on TV" items. Ped-Egg did well, Mighty Putty was a flop.

i love them, they are the anti-wired.

I have seriously contemplated getting a subscription. My wife kind of hates CR, because I get fixated on the ratings and ignore other qualities like appearance and style. I'm all into research and hyper-rational consumer decision-making, while she prefers a more visceral approach.

if he buys something electronic, which is rare, my dad always crows that "this (x) was ranked first in consumer reports!"

i bet a lot of people do this, just buy whatever CR ranks first

My best friend's mom will read CR for +2 years before she makes a decision about appliance replacement.

The UK has a superior version of this called 'Which?'

Consumer Reports is the party organ of the slave masters.

Consumer Choice is not freedom. It is letting the slave pick out what chains he wants to wear. Real freedom is not a choice made by an individual, but a collective acting in unity.

that reminds me, it is also much cheaper than adbusters

I think CR rated party organs in April 2010. You should check it out.

xpost

btw to the original poster, I don't know how good the library system is where you are, but when I was looking for stroller ratings I was able to search Consumer Reports through my library's website and access the articles for free.

online, that is.

When I was a child, my most very favorite magazine was "Zillions: Consumer Reports for Kids." It's like if MAD was made more boring by Consumer Reports, and had sincere product reviews in it. I sent "Zillions" so much fan mail (most of which was letting them know I thought they were too hard on some or another company or product – they must have hated me). They mailed me a sticker of their logo, and I waited for years to find the perfect object to affix it to. This never happened, and I lost the sticker.

I could talk about this magazine for hours.

― fear mongrels (Abbott), Friday, August 13, 2010 2:21 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark

yes! I was trying to remember what free version of consumer reports I was reading as a kid.

everything I know about the differences between cantilever and side-pull brakes for bikes I learned from CR. I remember being super disappointed too when the bike CR recommended wasn't available at my toys r us.

www.trustedreviews.com is pretty good for tech stuff, imo.

i used whatcar reviews to point me towards my last investment decision, what i read changed my mind completely and two years into ownership it was invaluable and accurate advice.

I would summarize CR this way:

Strengths: They do not accept advertising. They try hard to arrive at objective measurable criteria for evaluating products. They reveal their test methods. They introduce their reviews with useful overviews about the entire product category, often explaining how the guts of it work, or various manufacturing processes that can affect quality. I always learn something from these introductions.

Weaknesses: In spite of their earnest efforts, their test criteria are sometimes baffling, incomplete or unimportant - the result of overly geek-centered analysis. The types of products they test are heavily skewed toward luxury items. Or, when they test lowly commodities, like beer, they end up with ridiculous results, like picking Old Milwaukie as the overall best buy. They are scrupulous about telling you the exact model number of the item tested, but the product cycle is so fast these days, if you don't buy the product within three months of the review, you can never find the recommended model for sale anywhere.

Conclusion: While CR may be the best available source of objective "scientific" product reviews and ratings, they have signifigant weaknesses which all too often render their advice nugatory. While you can gain some useful information from them, they fall far short of their goal.

Rating: Slightly above average.

^ i did not find this review helpful

nugatory!

nugatory sounds like a delicious chewy treat

Old milwaukee truly is awesome!! It takes balls to taste all that beer.

You can buy a one-month membership to their on-line archives. We did that when we bought a vacuum cleaner, and if we ever want to make another purchase of durable goods, we can just reactivate it for another month.

(or look at it online for free through the CPL website)

(I didn't know you could do that at the time that we bought the membership. Which I think we let you use for something, too, so put that in your library archives and smoke it.)

yall the comments on consumer reports articles are a hilarious and terrifying window into the tragically broken critical thinking skills of everyday people

to me its funny that the wirecutter has made a business out of having a consumer reports subscription and publishing the results for everybody to see