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I always feel way back in my mind that maybe there might be some favoritism going on.(for profit of course). But I have never heard or read of anything like that going on. Consider that for the right money anything can be bought. To have your product on top of list is going to mean some good sales and profit. What do you think? Right now I am thinking about buying a carpet cleaner and am going to check consumer reports to see what they recommend. Maybe there are some other agencies that do reporting on products also.
To answer the question, "do you have confidence in consumer reports mag?", yes I do. They would have just too much to lose being swayed by big bucks. If it ever came out that they were, CR would be toast.
You might not agree with their assessments but I believe they are honest and above board. We follow their ratings and choose many of the products we buy based upon CR's findings.
I always feel way back in my mind that maybe there might be some favoritism going on.(for profit of course). But I have never heard or read of anything like that going on. Consider that for the right money anything can be bought. To have your product on top of list is going to mean some good sales and profit. What do you think? Right now I am thinking about buying a carpet cleaner and am going to check consumer reports to see what they recommend. Maybe there are some other agencies that do reporting on products also.
I'd recommend checking amazon.com/ They have about the biggest selection of nearly everything, with averaged ratings & the essays from individual users.
One problem with Consumer Reports is they don't test most models as too expensive & time consuming. When they do publish the ratings, many models have been discontinued. They may give you the new model replacement, but haven't had time to test to know if it is better, worse, or the same.
No. They have done reviews on paints and rated differently when no changes in the paints were made between the two reviews. I've been a painting contractor for over 50 years and have used their top rated paint. It was barely as good as one major manufacturers second line paint. Either their methodology needs work or someone is getting paid off.
My only beef with Consumer Reports is the aforementioned discontinued products conundrum. But, because there are some products that do require lengthy testing, and because manufacturers are so good at planned obsolescence, this is easily understandable.
I also think they waste too much time and effort rating products like peanut butter or dish soap. If you don't like a certain brand of peanut butter, you're out $2.49.
But trust their ratings? Generally, yes.
products
Quote:
Originally Posted by nickerman
I always feel way back in my mind that maybe there might be some favoritism going on.(for profit of course).
Consumers Union is a non-profit organization. It doesn't do anything "for profit".
Quote:
Originally Posted by DFBonnett
They have done reviews on paints and rated differently when no changes in the paints were made between the two reviews.
Everyone thinks different paints perform differently; every surface yields different results. I love Sears paints; CR routinely rates them toward the middle of the pack. Oh, well ...
CR is indeed a non-profit and they limit donations to $10k or some minuscule level like that (except for bequests & charitable annuities).
However most of their reports are just summaries of complicated (often Subjective!) tests with certain aspects of a product given more weight than others. It's not simply an observable test like checking for food stain particles on a plate in a dishwasher or measuring the stopping distance of a car. They consider subjective things like ergonomics or ease of application, which are affected by personal bias. And how can you even "rate" food items? My ideal spaghetti sauce may be totally different than theirs. They're appointing themselves judge & juror like Gordon Ramsay.
I think CR articles succeed the best in identifying flailing products which don't make par because of some flagrant design or application flaw. Like they recently called out a Calphalon blender with a blade that repeatedly broke crushing ice cubes or some no-name Euro dishwasher that clogged & overflowed onto the kitchen floor.
Location: Finally escaped The People's Republic of California
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The only problem I have with CR rating system is so much of it is personal preference. They say something like " the location of the on/off switch is in an awkward place" when I'm thinking that's where I'd put it...
You see a lot of this in Thier auto testing. Where a tester might prefer one brand over another in almost all tests... Sometimes the testers personal preferences show thru.
I'll always remember when my father in law was looking for a new truck, he was a brand F man so he went and got brochures from Brand F and Brand C and then highlited ever spot that Brand F was better... I asked him to read everything not highlighted, he ended up buying Brand C....
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