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The US has Consumer Reports, which is similar I think... but yeah, only works for major product categories.

vlovich123 5y ago
There’s also the NYT WireCutter which tried to do a good job isolating it away as an independent review source that you can trust.
- short12 5y ago
  That fell to complete shit a while back. They are not wrong but I would ignore their rankings and focus on the review aspects
  - ghaff 5y ago
    I find Wirecutter and Consumer Reports are pretty reasonable for product categories where I just want a reasonable choice and don't necessarily have deep knowledge and preferences myself. And, yes, it's worth reading why they picked something. But if I were buying an interchangeable lens camera or a computer I might read their recommendation but I'd look elsewhere also. For a sprayer for a hose? I'm sure their recommendation is fine.
    - fmajid 5y ago
      No, for hoses they recommend ones with the archaic brass threaded fittings common in the US instead of the far superior Gardena type.
- hnov 5y ago
  Some of the WireCutter’s picks were fairly terrible, which makes sense: testing diverse categories of products is too expensive for affiliate links to cover. I’ve gifted dashcams on their recommendation that shot beautiful QHD but had MTBF measured in single digit months. The TP-Link C7 Archer was kind of a turd and within a stone’s throw of a decent router price-wise.
  - seanp2k2 5y ago
    I’ve written extensively about this recently, but these days with $300+ “gaming” routers using crappy sweatshop software on whatever Atheros router SoC, many users would be much better served with legit SMB routing / switching / wifi systems that are available for around the same price.
    - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
      I've always found anything tagged as "gaming" to be lower quality and more expensive than the business machines. ==== This message sent from a Thinkpad business machine that I use for gaming (and ML, theoretically).
      - bobthepanda 5y ago
        I mean this is a known thing in general; the best kitchen supply stuff you can buy is often stuff intended for commercial use, because it quite literally goes through the wringer with near-constant usage over long periods of time. The problem is finding a place that sells commercial things to individual buyers. That, and sometimes what a commercial kitchen needs is vastly oversized for a regular house; you're probably going to set off your residential fire alarm very often with a massive commercial range designed for woks, for example, unless you also upgrade the ventilation, etc.
    - kayodelycaon 5y ago
      I didn’t know what good Wifi until I switched to using some TP-Link Omada equipment. If you run your own controller, you can set up a small network (router, PoE switch, and AP) for less than $300. Hardware controller is ~$90. A controller isn’t strictly necessary, but I don’t recommend doing a standalone setup. Downside? It’s business class equipment and you need some idea what you’re doing. It’s not plug-n-play. Also, it’s layer 2 only. If you want mDNS across vlans, you’ll need to run a reflector. (Not difficult. It’s built into avahi.)
    - bentcorner 5y ago
      I switched to Unifi access points and a wired router and switch and am much happier with the result. The consolidation of router, switch and access point means you can't upgrade individual parts. It's the modern equivalent of the TV-VCR combo and most consumers don't realize they actually can be separated.
- michaelmrose 5y ago
  Bought a pair of audio-technica headphones based on their review. Sound quality was as described but it was so uncomfortable I returned it 5 minutes after picking it up. It was described as comfortable for long wear but it had a hard band with little padding and was uncomfortable for any duration.
  - thirdsun 5y ago
    Comfort is a pretty subjective thing. Your experience, while valid, is merely a single data point and it would be quite premature to disregard the review or even the whole outlet based on it.
- greggman3 5y ago
  My experience with NYT product reviews is pretty awful. I wish I could be more concrete. Tried to look in my history but I could have sworn at least one article was just effectively, "top 10 most popular on Amazon", with quotes from user reviews. Maybe I'm getting my sites mixed up.
  - KarlKemp 5y ago
    Yes, you are definitely confusing something. And someone.
  - derbOac 5y ago
    I believe you're thinking of The Strategist, which is through New York Magazine. That's basically their thing, to summarize Amazon reviews for you and filter through a product category based on that. I also don't really see much of the value in it, but I suppose I can see how someone might.
xiphias2 5y ago
I’m a subscriber to consumer reports, but as it put Tesla Model 3, the most successful car in the past few years on the back as the least reliable, I feel that I can’t trust its results to be 100% independent reviews. I don’t have a Tesla, but if something grows so fast where people pay a significant amount for it, it can’t be that bad.
- KarlKemp 5y ago
  Tesla is well known to whip cars with sometimes dozens of minor issues. It’s a new company and these processes need time and experience. The reliability data also is likely sourced from outside, such as the AAA, insurers, or any other place where car trouble data naturally accumulates.
  - xiphias2 5y ago
    I see...it's interesting that they can get away with it while growing so fast
    - maxdo 5y ago
      Tesla got it's fair share of issues, but they fix them and detect them fast. They adamant about security. Only Tesla and Volvo got their own testing facilities. Last recall of backup camera is actually a positive call. On a very small group of cars they got this issue. They called it a defect and recalled an entire batch ( 500k cars) to fix a potential issue.
- aix1 5y ago
  I don't know anything about how reliable or not Model 3 is, but surely reliability != popularity?
  - xiphias2 5y ago
    It’s the growth that’s staggering. What I read is that older car companies changed the rating to include small software bugs in the entertainment system. As Tesla has much more non-essential features, these while these small bugs are not that important for the end user, can bring the ratings down vs other cars that don’t even offer the feature.
awslattery 5y ago
Rtings is my go-to for most things. Been satisfied with several purchases researched there.
mcguire 5y ago
For kitchen tools, there's America's Test Kitchen reviews (from Cooking magazine, IIRC). It's a limited segment but high quality. On the other hand, it has the same problem as Consumer Reports: they only test and review a single model which will probably be out of production before you need one. On the third hand, if one manufacturer consistently gets good reviews (OXO Goodgrips, for example)...
- MartinCron 5y ago
  Cooks Illustrated is the name of the magazine, and I recommend it to anyone who ever spends time in a kitchen. Some of the purchases I have made with their guidance have been (trivially) life-changing.
  - mcguire 5y ago
    You are absolutely right! Sorry about that --- I zoned out on the magazine's name.

There’s also the NYT WireCutter which tried to do a good job isolating it away as an independent review source that you can trust.

short12 5y ago
That fell to complete shit a while back. They are not wrong but I would ignore their rankings and focus on the review aspects
- ghaff 5y ago
  I find Wirecutter and Consumer Reports are pretty reasonable for product categories where I just want a reasonable choice and don't necessarily have deep knowledge and preferences myself. And, yes, it's worth reading why they picked something. But if I were buying an interchangeable lens camera or a computer I might read their recommendation but I'd look elsewhere also. For a sprayer for a hose? I'm sure their recommendation is fine.
  - fmajid 5y ago
    No, for hoses they recommend ones with the archaic brass threaded fittings common in the US instead of the far superior Gardena type.
hnov 5y ago
Some of the WireCutter’s picks were fairly terrible, which makes sense: testing diverse categories of products is too expensive for affiliate links to cover. I’ve gifted dashcams on their recommendation that shot beautiful QHD but had MTBF measured in single digit months. The TP-Link C7 Archer was kind of a turd and within a stone’s throw of a decent router price-wise.
- seanp2k2 5y ago
  I’ve written extensively about this recently, but these days with $300+ “gaming” routers using crappy sweatshop software on whatever Atheros router SoC, many users would be much better served with legit SMB routing / switching / wifi systems that are available for around the same price.
  - disgruntledphd2 5y ago
    I've always found anything tagged as "gaming" to be lower quality and more expensive than the business machines. ==== This message sent from a Thinkpad business machine that I use for gaming (and ML, theoretically).
    - bobthepanda 5y ago
      I mean this is a known thing in general; the best kitchen supply stuff you can buy is often stuff intended for commercial use, because it quite literally goes through the wringer with near-constant usage over long periods of time. The problem is finding a place that sells commercial things to individual buyers. That, and sometimes what a commercial kitchen needs is vastly oversized for a regular house; you're probably going to set off your residential fire alarm very often with a massive commercial range designed for woks, for example, unless you also upgrade the ventilation, etc.
  - kayodelycaon 5y ago
    I didn’t know what good Wifi until I switched to using some TP-Link Omada equipment. If you run your own controller, you can set up a small network (router, PoE switch, and AP) for less than $300. Hardware controller is ~$90. A controller isn’t strictly necessary, but I don’t recommend doing a standalone setup. Downside? It’s business class equipment and you need some idea what you’re doing. It’s not plug-n-play. Also, it’s layer 2 only. If you want mDNS across vlans, you’ll need to run a reflector. (Not difficult. It’s built into avahi.)
  - bentcorner 5y ago
    I switched to Unifi access points and a wired router and switch and am much happier with the result. The consolidation of router, switch and access point means you can't upgrade individual parts. It's the modern equivalent of the TV-VCR combo and most consumers don't realize they actually can be separated.
michaelmrose 5y ago
Bought a pair of audio-technica headphones based on their review. Sound quality was as described but it was so uncomfortable I returned it 5 minutes after picking it up. It was described as comfortable for long wear but it had a hard band with little padding and was uncomfortable for any duration.
- thirdsun 5y ago
  Comfort is a pretty subjective thing. Your experience, while valid, is merely a single data point and it would be quite premature to disregard the review or even the whole outlet based on it.
greggman3 5y ago
My experience with NYT product reviews is pretty awful. I wish I could be more concrete. Tried to look in my history but I could have sworn at least one article was just effectively, "top 10 most popular on Amazon", with quotes from user reviews. Maybe I'm getting my sites mixed up.
- KarlKemp 5y ago
  Yes, you are definitely confusing something. And someone.
- derbOac 5y ago
  I believe you're thinking of The Strategist, which is through New York Magazine. That's basically their thing, to summarize Amazon reviews for you and filter through a product category based on that. I also don't really see much of the value in it, but I suppose I can see how someone might.

xiphias2 5y ago

I’m a subscriber to consumer reports, but as it put Tesla Model 3, the most successful car in the past few years on the back as the least reliable, I feel that I can’t trust its results to be 100% independent reviews. I don’t have a Tesla, but if something grows so fast where people pay a significant amount for it, it can’t be that bad.

KarlKemp 5y ago
Tesla is well known to whip cars with sometimes dozens of minor issues. It’s a new company and these processes need time and experience. The reliability data also is likely sourced from outside, such as the AAA, insurers, or any other place where car trouble data naturally accumulates.
- xiphias2 5y ago
  I see...it's interesting that they can get away with it while growing so fast
  - maxdo 5y ago
    Tesla got it's fair share of issues, but they fix them and detect them fast. They adamant about security. Only Tesla and Volvo got their own testing facilities. Last recall of backup camera is actually a positive call. On a very small group of cars they got this issue. They called it a defect and recalled an entire batch ( 500k cars) to fix a potential issue.
aix1 5y ago
I don't know anything about how reliable or not Model 3 is, but surely reliability != popularity?
- xiphias2 5y ago
  It’s the growth that’s staggering. What I read is that older car companies changed the rating to include small software bugs in the entertainment system. As Tesla has much more non-essential features, these while these small bugs are not that important for the end user, can bring the ratings down vs other cars that don’t even offer the feature.

awslattery 5y ago

Rtings is my go-to for most things. Been satisfied with several purchases researched there.

mcguire 5y ago

For kitchen tools, there's America's Test Kitchen reviews (from Cooking magazine, IIRC). It's a limited segment but high quality. On the other hand, it has the same problem as Consumer Reports: they only test and review a single model which will probably be out of production before you need one. On the third hand, if one manufacturer consistently gets good reviews (OXO Goodgrips, for example)...

MartinCron 5y ago
Cooks Illustrated is the name of the magazine, and I recommend it to anyone who ever spends time in a kitchen. Some of the purchases I have made with their guidance have been (trivially) life-changing.
- mcguire 5y ago
  You are absolutely right! Sorry about that --- I zoned out on the magazine's name.