> 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 oth

> 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.