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Consumer Reports used to rate individual products and sometimes manufacturers with rankings and try to estimate TCO/repairs, but when I subscribed to the digita

Consumer Reports used to rate individual products and sometimes manufacturers with rankings and try to estimate TCO/repairs, but when I subscribed to the digital subscription to lookup gas water-heaters and gas tankless water-heaters, there were zero reviews. Maybe they've cut-back to just rating cars and TVs? I don't know. Are Bosch and/or Miele any good still? Also, Kirby vacuums eat Dyson's for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks.

milleramp 7y ago
I have noticed that CR recommends Kenmore appliances higher than other reviewing sites. CR is supposed to be unbiased but I have noticed this trend over the past decade. Also on devices that I am very familiar with and have tested for my day job, I also don’t understand their reasoning. Besides this I continue to be a subscriber, their work on promoting consumer safety and privacy is a good thing.
- computator 7y ago
  > CR recommends Kenmore appliances higher than other reviewing sites. I’ve noticed that too, but I’m still inclined to trust Consumer Reports more than any other review site. CR has real labs, real scientists/technicians, real methodologies for their tests, and they get their funding from grants, subscribers, donations, and not from advertising. With respect to Kenmore getting higher marks than they sometimes deserve, I think it might be because Kenmore contracts out everything they make. So for one year, in one market region (say, USA vs Canada), for one particular appliance, the appliance is fantastic but next year they’ve contracted it out to someone else and it’s awful. So my theory is that the Kenmore “brand” has far greater variation from year-to-year or region-to-region than brands that actually make their own products.
m463 7y ago
I used to trust Consumer Reports. But when print became online (which I subscribed to for a few years) they added tracking to their website. They used to have a strict no-advertising no-manufacturer-cooperation policy. Putting google and cdn links on their website is basically compromising and selling out.
- gruez 7y ago
  The point of a "no-advertising no-manufacturer-cooperation policy" is to prevent conflicts of interest with regards to the review content. I fail to see how putting google/cdn links on their website does that. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "compromising and selling out"?
  - m463 7y ago
    So imagine this: - someone subscribes to consumer reports as a disinterested third party. - he starts investigating midsized cars - every advertisement he sees after leaving cu is for midsized cars. I think giving advertisers and manufacturers access to the paying customers of consumer reports is a conflict of interest. If they are getting money only from the customers, what possible reason would they have to put googletagmanager links throughout the site (among others)?
    - gruez 7y ago
      >If they are getting money only from the customers, what possible reason would they have to put googletagmanager links throughout the site (among others)? I think you're being too cynical here. It's possible that they found that GTM was the best "tag manager" for their needs. The only other "tag manager" I know of is adobe, and they don't even have pricing listed, which makes me think they're pretty expensive as opposed to google which is free. I'm not aware of any program where google pays sites to have gtm/ga installed on their sites, so I doubt they're making money off of it.
      - m463 7y ago
        I'm not trying to be cynical, but I am pointing out their behavior. The example I gave was not complete. They load adobe too (through demdex). Actually, when I unblock their page, I see googletagmanager.com, demdex.net (which is adobe) and monetat.net. Their privacy policy both explains that they don't accept money from advertisers, yet it also explains how the advertisers can target you and how to (laboriously) opt-out with each advertiser. There is also an Ad choices link at the bottom of their main page.
toomuchtodo 7y ago
Bosch quality is still very good.
- SpikedCola 7y ago
  +1 for Bosch. Their service/repair documentation (eg. [0]) is especially fantastic. [0] https://www.frontloadbearings.com/bosch-800-plus-series-dishwasher-service-manual/ https://www.frontloadbearings.com/bosch-800-plus-series-dish...
  - toomuchtodo 7y ago
    "For engineers, by engineers" if you will.
- yumraj 7y ago
  Only if they are made in Germany, like washer, dryer and dishwasher. Avoid their, made in China, microwaves and vacuum cleaners like a plague, speaking from personal experience.
PenguinCoder 7y ago
Miele is among the best, in my experience. Great value and longevity.
- Maximus9000 7y ago
  There was a vacuum repair tech AMA on reddit many years back. That post was insanely popular. People are hungry for this type of information (if it's actually honest). He too was a big fan of Miele (for vacuums). https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_repair_technician_and_i_cant_believe/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_re...

milleramp 7y ago

I have noticed that CR recommends Kenmore appliances higher than other reviewing sites. CR is supposed to be unbiased but I have noticed this trend over the past decade. Also on devices that I am very familiar with and have tested for my day job, I also don’t understand their reasoning. Besides this I continue to be a subscriber, their work on promoting consumer safety and privacy is a good thing.

computator 7y ago
> CR recommends Kenmore appliances higher than other reviewing sites. I’ve noticed that too, but I’m still inclined to trust Consumer Reports more than any other review site. CR has real labs, real scientists/technicians, real methodologies for their tests, and they get their funding from grants, subscribers, donations, and not from advertising. With respect to Kenmore getting higher marks than they sometimes deserve, I think it might be because Kenmore contracts out everything they make. So for one year, in one market region (say, USA vs Canada), for one particular appliance, the appliance is fantastic but next year they’ve contracted it out to someone else and it’s awful. So my theory is that the Kenmore “brand” has far greater variation from year-to-year or region-to-region than brands that actually make their own products.

m463 7y ago

I used to trust Consumer Reports. But when print became online (which I subscribed to for a few years) they added tracking to their website. They used to have a strict no-advertising no-manufacturer-cooperation policy. Putting google and cdn links on their website is basically compromising and selling out.

gruez 7y ago
The point of a "no-advertising no-manufacturer-cooperation policy" is to prevent conflicts of interest with regards to the review content. I fail to see how putting google/cdn links on their website does that. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "compromising and selling out"?
- m463 7y ago
  So imagine this: - someone subscribes to consumer reports as a disinterested third party. - he starts investigating midsized cars - every advertisement he sees after leaving cu is for midsized cars. I think giving advertisers and manufacturers access to the paying customers of consumer reports is a conflict of interest. If they are getting money only from the customers, what possible reason would they have to put googletagmanager links throughout the site (among others)?
  - gruez 7y ago
    >If they are getting money only from the customers, what possible reason would they have to put googletagmanager links throughout the site (among others)? I think you're being too cynical here. It's possible that they found that GTM was the best "tag manager" for their needs. The only other "tag manager" I know of is adobe, and they don't even have pricing listed, which makes me think they're pretty expensive as opposed to google which is free. I'm not aware of any program where google pays sites to have gtm/ga installed on their sites, so I doubt they're making money off of it.
    - m463 7y ago
      I'm not trying to be cynical, but I am pointing out their behavior. The example I gave was not complete. They load adobe too (through demdex). Actually, when I unblock their page, I see googletagmanager.com, demdex.net (which is adobe) and monetat.net. Their privacy policy both explains that they don't accept money from advertisers, yet it also explains how the advertisers can target you and how to (laboriously) opt-out with each advertiser. There is also an Ad choices link at the bottom of their main page.

toomuchtodo 7y ago

Bosch quality is still very good.

SpikedCola 7y ago
+1 for Bosch. Their service/repair documentation (eg. [0]) is especially fantastic. [0] https://www.frontloadbearings.com/bosch-800-plus-series-dishwasher-service-manual/ https://www.frontloadbearings.com/bosch-800-plus-series-dish...
- toomuchtodo 7y ago
  "For engineers, by engineers" if you will.
yumraj 7y ago
Only if they are made in Germany, like washer, dryer and dishwasher. Avoid their, made in China, microwaves and vacuum cleaners like a plague, speaking from personal experience.

PenguinCoder 7y ago

Miele is among the best, in my experience. Great value and longevity.

Maximus9000 7y ago
There was a vacuum repair tech AMA on reddit many years back. That post was insanely popular. People are hungry for this type of information (if it's actually honest). He too was a big fan of Miele (for vacuums). https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_repair_technician_and_i_cant_believe/ https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1pe2bd/iama_vacuum_re...