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> You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well You can't research good appliances either online, because the SERPs are stuffed with SEO-e

> You can't even buy appliances designed perform their function well You can't research good appliances either online, because the SERPs are stuffed with SEO-ed blogs and sometimes industry magazines, monetized with Amazon affiliates or other networks, with titles like "5 best dishwashers in 2022". Unless you know someone in the industry or offline with knowledge you don't know what to buy. This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins. There's no adblocker for this problem either. Google is complacent with their fat ad revenue and monopoly on search and doesn't care.

the_snooze 5y ago
I feel like "scale" on the Internet has gone completely off the rails and has become just worthless "noise." Sure, anyone can post and sell whatever they want, but you lose all notions of reputation and trust. It all becomes a shouting match among those who can ad-spam and SEO their way to the top. Those shitty fly-by-night randomly-named Chinese brands on Amazon come to mind.
- wldcordeiro 5y ago
  See also Youtube/Spotify/etc view/listen/impression farms. It really does make it so much noise, you can pretty much guarantee any large scale account is using these too and bot followers because it's an arms race for attention.
williamdclt 5y ago
The only solution I found to that is to bypass google completely and directly go search on Reddit, where real humans have human opinions (sometimes HN, too).
- SamBam 5y ago
  And unfortunately, you're never really sure on Reddit, either. I found I was too willing to put those, what, 5-10 voices telling me to pick a certain brand up on a high pedestal, because they seemed like real people. They didn't sound like advertisers. But, honestly, how hard is it to fake 5-10 accounts to push your product, or buy high-karma accounts? My go-tos are sites like Wirecutter, where it seems like the hit to their reputation would be too high to be blatantly bought-out, even if they'll generally only hawk products that can be bought on Amazon or other sites that give them affiliate money. They're not always perfect, but I trust that they're trying to do what they set out to do.
  - BuckRogers 5y ago
    I'm a Consumer Reports + self-investigation guy (using all sources). I do use Wirecutter but I put low weight on their ultimate recommendations. I use them to find what else is out there. The main issue with most review sites is that they're kids. Companies like NYT/Wirecutter don't want to pay old men that are experts in manufacturing. They hire kids with little life experience to review something like a washing machine. They haven't had 2 or even 1 washing machine in their entire lives. They wouldn't even be capable of doing a teardown. Let alone identifying which parts are quality vs not. Unless of course your main qualification is not trying to find something that is built to last. Which is the hardest thing to get these days. Finding garbage like electronics and software is easy. Everyone wants to sell you software rather than high quality manufactured goods. And I want the least software possible as I'm very anti-technology for a software developer. My research sources would be roughly in this order: 1. Consumer Reports (teardowns, can't beat this method. You pay them directly, if interested in least conflict of interest) 2. Wirecutter (good for a free source, but puts near-zero weight on reliability) 3. Amazon reviews (can find some old timers reviewing there but always keep in mind that most people aren't very intelligent. They maintain nothing and won't skim a manual) 4. Reddit (a lot of zero life experience kids on that, meaning generally anyone under 40) 5. Then whatever else you can find on the web
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      To be fair(er) to WC, most of their review introductions typically mention interaction with people with longer histories in whatever the relevant business is, so it's clear that they recognize their outsider status. How much interaction they really have with these niche experts and what impact it has on their reviews, I don't know.
    - hackerfromthefu 5y ago
      Let me share a resource with you, where an experienced community with skin in the game review products under the context of bargain hunting! www.ozbargain.com.au Looking past the bargain and location aspects, this site is super useful for understanding products in greater detail
  - 5y ago
- qzx_pierri 5y ago
  Consumer Reports does a great job at giving honest reviews. They go through multiple steps to ensure manufacturers don't know they're purchasing their products as well (to avoid getting beefed up 'review units'). And no, their service is not supported by ads - You have to pay for a subscription. Consumer Reports needs to be mentioned more IMO. Because even on reddit, there are companies that offer advanced stealth-like astroturfing campaigns for products/services. The counterargument is that Consumer Reports could be intruded by corporate shills, but their reputation is solid and they've been around for a long time. Link: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
  - rootusrootus 5y ago
    I use CR, but they do miss the target sometimes. They extrapolate a lot between models, sometimes farther than I think is justified by saying they are 'similar'. And occasionally they make really boneheaded recommendations that I just don't understand. On their recommendation I bought a Samsung washer and dryer pair, which both broke within the first 12 months. A bit of research on the appliance forum, and it turns out that all the repair guys say pretty much the same thing -- don't buy Samsung appliances, they're unreliable crap. As someone who owns three Samsung appliances (the third being a refrigerator), I wholeheartedly agree. Never again. Refrigerators are notoriously unreliable regardless of manufacturer, but Samsung really sets the bar pretty low.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      wirecutter on samsung refridgerators seems like one the fairest assessments i've seen: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-refrigerator/#other-major-brands https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-refriger...
    - throw10920 5y ago
      So they're definitely not perfect - but it seems like they do far, far more research than the average online source, and are far more reliable, more consistently reliable, and have a much wider array of tested devices (as opposed to a blogger who might test a bunch of products in one specific category). We can do better than CR - but right now, afaict they're the best we have.
- andai 5y ago
  4chan's /g/ for tech gear and /diy/ for bigger gear is great for that sort of thing. There's "generals" for common subjects like headphones, PC building etc, and "stupid questions thread" where you can ask about anything. Do note that 4chan can be very offensive and politically incorrect, you need a bit of a thick skin to get along there.
armchairhacker 5y ago
I type "reddit" after the query and Reddit usually has good recommendations. Yes, advertisers can and do try to invade subreddits posing as "real" users to promote sham products. But I haven't seen this actually working: sometimes Redditors recommend products which are way too expensive (still good quality, but the extra price really isn't worth it), but if someone recommends a genuinely crappy product, they get downvoted and replies saying "don't buy this"
- Nowado 5y ago
  I do this too, but that behaviour has zero way of noticing false negatives.
- gzer0 5y ago
  I used to type “reddit” after my searches to look for genuine and real reviews, but even that is now being gamed. Advertisers and shady affiliate marketing schemes have caught on and nearly every search result I try is now filled with junk, upvote farmed nonsense with fake accounts using similar naming schemes.
  - ffwszgf 5y ago
    This is 100% the case when I was looking for a VPN recommendation. So many of the Reddit threads were blatantly astroturfed.
    - stjohnswarts 5y ago
      Another think you'll see a lot of is bots looking for "listical" and blog info so some side hustle person can piece together an article on something they know next to nothing about. By the way, while I have you here, have you considered extending your used car's warranty?
    - Abrownn 5y ago
      Most of the VPN discussion/coupon subs are literally run by the VPN companies themselves. r/VPNCoupons and r/VPN are run by Surfshark, for example. Nord and CyberGhost also run astroturf rings for themselves too.
hattmall 5y ago
One market where this has always been a problem is tools. So almost 20 years ago we were told in shop class that the industry magazines and reviews were basically all paid for by manufacturers. The solution we learned was to always buy the cheapest option first. If it breaks or fails to meet your needs understand how and why and then move on to a more costly tool that you can demonstrate is better in the specific way you need it to be. Of course thats not always practical or feasible but for the majority of items it really is.
- NovaS1X 5y ago
  This is why I really appreciate YT channels like Project Farm.
  - Baeocystin 5y ago
    That guy gives masterclasses on fast, efficient data presentation with every video. I really appreciate his approach.
- 9dev 5y ago
  This strategy is smarter than it sounds at first. If you don't have any obvious criteria for comparison available, failing fast and iterating on that is a way to come up with criteria by yourself.
  - kuboble 5y ago
    It requires a strong character to throw away things when they don't work well. I bought the cheapest drilling machine and it is so bad I end up borrowing one from a neighbor when I need to drill something. But I can't make myself to throw away the useless one.
    - ratww 5y ago
      I’m also unable to throw things away, but I do give things away or sell at a fraction very often. It’s also a fun past time. I don’t have anything useless at home anymore.
Bendy 5y ago
And I learn that Google is actually upset that its search results are suffering degradation by rampant, runaway SEO—they reap what they sow, and at everyone’s expense. Such brought to mind The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner as the web faces its own environmental collapse: “You…treated the world like a fucking great toilet bowl. You shat in it and boasted about the mess you’d made. And now it’s full and overflowing, and you’re fat and happy and black kids are going crazy to keep you rich. Goodbye!” Adblocking isn’t simply convenience it’s life-preserving.
rq1 5y ago
Try: Best dishwashers 2022 -amazon All websites with affiliated links disappear. You’ll most likely end up on Reddit but sometimes make some good discoveries.
- TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
  I have yet to find a question Reddit has a good answer for, so I also add `-site:reddit.com` if my query has been SEO'd into a page full of their spam. The net-net of all of this is that I buy a lot more stuff from brick and mortar stores now, where they've done the curation, and will only carry the stuff that sells best per square foot, and minimizes their returns.
  - ianai 5y ago
    Pretty much my approach too. The one channel became too horrible so switch back.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
visarga 5y ago
> This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins. I think Google dropped the ball on their search objectives in this department. Why is it so bad at helping us search products? If I specify something with 2-3 conditionals why can't it match all the clauses, filter out fake reviews, out of stock, not shipped to my region and such? They don't want to help us find what we want to buy, they want to sell us what the advertisers have to sell, and the two don't match. They want to sell us things we don't need, this is the reason we never buy anything from the ads and their whole industry is a scam.
lowbloodsugar 5y ago
consumerreports.org does exactly what you want, but you have to pay for it. if you don't want to pay for it, then you get what you pay for. google isn't complacent. google has a large number of paying customers that aren't you. you don't live in a socialist utopia. you live in a world where things cost money. you can pay for the information you want, or someone else can pay for you to have the information they want you to have.
14 5y ago
This is something I had to teach my dad. But he believed it thoroughly until he had a few high purchase items fail outside of warranty. My advice to him has been look for customer reviews and he suspicious of the positive ones and aware of all the negative ones. My other advise is buy from a reputable distributor like Costco who makes returning something incredibly easy.
BuckRogers 5y ago
The answer to deceptive online reviews is Consumer Reports. While the web initially made CR not worthwhile, as time progressed it's once again very valuable. I would never buy any appliances without paying for a subscription first. I'm doing this myself before I buy a treadmill. I want the most reliable one, not the most tech features, and while my hunch is Sole is the one for me based on their warranty, I'm going to confirm with CR before dropping $1,600 on one. The problem is that people plug their ears and put blinders on to avoid spending $30 for teardown advice from an outfit like Consumer Reports. Too cheap for their own good.
sidewndr46 5y ago
This was my experience when trying to buy a new fridge. Due to the design of my kitchen, there is a very narrow choke point leading into it. There is no door. As a result I have to very careful when shopping for fridges. Mostly simply will not fit. Almost everything about fridges nowadays wants to promote the virtues of the amazing new features associated with them. After hours of searching, I narrowed it down to 3 models. All were the most basic fridge & freezer combo I could find. Exactly one of them was in stock, so I got that one.
annoyingnoob 5y ago
I love the 'best of' sites that only have Amazon links. If its not on Amazon it must not exist and could not possibly be the best, right? But some brand from China you've never heard of will be on the list.
rsync 5y ago
"This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins." I agree with you but there's a simple shortcut you can employ: purchase commercial/industrial models that you see being used in industry. Gym equipment is a good example: your local, serious weightlifting gym is probably using Hammer Strength plate-loaded machines and Rogue frames/racks. Cooking: Look in the commercial kitchen of a high end restaurant - that's where I first saw my commercial microwave being used.[1] TV: NEC P461 commercial display - I found the model number by climbing behind the arrivals/departures board at the airport. [1] https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-multi-ovens/commercial-microwave-ovens/ne-21521 https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-m...
- freedomben 5y ago
  This is great advice. This is what I did when I was looking for a heavy bag and other equipment. I looked at what the dojo had and bought those.
- elkos 5y ago
  But how the industry pulls that off? They do open calls for equipment and buy in bulk?
  - yunwal 5y ago
    It's the market for lemons problem. If it's your job, it's worth it to learn all you need to know to differentiate between junk and quality. If you're buying one of the 75 different appliances in your home, you'll probably just look at a review site, which can easily be gamed by companies selling junk.
  - taneq 5y ago
    The industry has large, potentially repeating customers, who use the equipment until it fails and who often have the resources to sue if a supplier screws then over too badly. This moves the risk/reward sweet spot for vendors towards the “provide good product for fair price” end and away from the “build shoddy malicious crap and spend your money on advertising.”
sho_hn 5y ago
Speaking of which, anyone know what happened at The Verge? It may not ever have been a bastion of great journalism, but these days 30-50% of the content is (occasionally well-targeted) product advertising or "you can now buy the Xbox here for the best price ever" or "Walmart has this promo right now". It's such a noticeable and abrupt change to the content mix.
robryan 5y ago
YouTube is pretty good here. The algorithm does a pretty good job at providing results that aren't the equivalent of blog spam and it is immediately obvious when you are watching a low quality video.

the_snooze 5y ago

I feel like "scale" on the Internet has gone completely off the rails and has become just worthless "noise." Sure, anyone can post and sell whatever they want, but you lose all notions of reputation and trust. It all becomes a shouting match among those who can ad-spam and SEO their way to the top. Those shitty fly-by-night randomly-named Chinese brands on Amazon come to mind.

wldcordeiro 5y ago
See also Youtube/Spotify/etc view/listen/impression farms. It really does make it so much noise, you can pretty much guarantee any large scale account is using these too and bot followers because it's an arms race for attention.

williamdclt 5y ago

The only solution I found to that is to bypass google completely and directly go search on Reddit, where real humans have human opinions (sometimes HN, too).

SamBam 5y ago
And unfortunately, you're never really sure on Reddit, either. I found I was too willing to put those, what, 5-10 voices telling me to pick a certain brand up on a high pedestal, because they seemed like real people. They didn't sound like advertisers. But, honestly, how hard is it to fake 5-10 accounts to push your product, or buy high-karma accounts? My go-tos are sites like Wirecutter, where it seems like the hit to their reputation would be too high to be blatantly bought-out, even if they'll generally only hawk products that can be bought on Amazon or other sites that give them affiliate money. They're not always perfect, but I trust that they're trying to do what they set out to do.
- BuckRogers 5y ago
  I'm a Consumer Reports + self-investigation guy (using all sources). I do use Wirecutter but I put low weight on their ultimate recommendations. I use them to find what else is out there. The main issue with most review sites is that they're kids. Companies like NYT/Wirecutter don't want to pay old men that are experts in manufacturing. They hire kids with little life experience to review something like a washing machine. They haven't had 2 or even 1 washing machine in their entire lives. They wouldn't even be capable of doing a teardown. Let alone identifying which parts are quality vs not. Unless of course your main qualification is not trying to find something that is built to last. Which is the hardest thing to get these days. Finding garbage like electronics and software is easy. Everyone wants to sell you software rather than high quality manufactured goods. And I want the least software possible as I'm very anti-technology for a software developer. My research sources would be roughly in this order: 1. Consumer Reports (teardowns, can't beat this method. You pay them directly, if interested in least conflict of interest) 2. Wirecutter (good for a free source, but puts near-zero weight on reliability) 3. Amazon reviews (can find some old timers reviewing there but always keep in mind that most people aren't very intelligent. They maintain nothing and won't skim a manual) 4. Reddit (a lot of zero life experience kids on that, meaning generally anyone under 40) 5. Then whatever else you can find on the web
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    To be fair(er) to WC, most of their review introductions typically mention interaction with people with longer histories in whatever the relevant business is, so it's clear that they recognize their outsider status. How much interaction they really have with these niche experts and what impact it has on their reviews, I don't know.
  - hackerfromthefu 5y ago
    Let me share a resource with you, where an experienced community with skin in the game review products under the context of bargain hunting! www.ozbargain.com.au Looking past the bargain and location aspects, this site is super useful for understanding products in greater detail
- 5y ago
qzx_pierri 5y ago
Consumer Reports does a great job at giving honest reviews. They go through multiple steps to ensure manufacturers don't know they're purchasing their products as well (to avoid getting beefed up 'review units'). And no, their service is not supported by ads - You have to pay for a subscription. Consumer Reports needs to be mentioned more IMO. Because even on reddit, there are companies that offer advanced stealth-like astroturfing campaigns for products/services. The counterargument is that Consumer Reports could be intruded by corporate shills, but their reputation is solid and they've been around for a long time. Link: https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/index.htm
- rootusrootus 5y ago
  I use CR, but they do miss the target sometimes. They extrapolate a lot between models, sometimes farther than I think is justified by saying they are 'similar'. And occasionally they make really boneheaded recommendations that I just don't understand. On their recommendation I bought a Samsung washer and dryer pair, which both broke within the first 12 months. A bit of research on the appliance forum, and it turns out that all the repair guys say pretty much the same thing -- don't buy Samsung appliances, they're unreliable crap. As someone who owns three Samsung appliances (the third being a refrigerator), I wholeheartedly agree. Never again. Refrigerators are notoriously unreliable regardless of manufacturer, but Samsung really sets the bar pretty low.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    wirecutter on samsung refridgerators seems like one the fairest assessments i've seen: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-refrigerator/#other-major-brands https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/the-best-refriger...
  - throw10920 5y ago
    So they're definitely not perfect - but it seems like they do far, far more research than the average online source, and are far more reliable, more consistently reliable, and have a much wider array of tested devices (as opposed to a blogger who might test a bunch of products in one specific category). We can do better than CR - but right now, afaict they're the best we have.
andai 5y ago
4chan's /g/ for tech gear and /diy/ for bigger gear is great for that sort of thing. There's "generals" for common subjects like headphones, PC building etc, and "stupid questions thread" where you can ask about anything. Do note that 4chan can be very offensive and politically incorrect, you need a bit of a thick skin to get along there.

armchairhacker 5y ago

I type "reddit" after the query and Reddit usually has good recommendations. Yes, advertisers can and do try to invade subreddits posing as "real" users to promote sham products. But I haven't seen this actually working: sometimes Redditors recommend products which are way too expensive (still good quality, but the extra price really isn't worth it), but if someone recommends a genuinely crappy product, they get downvoted and replies saying "don't buy this"

Nowado 5y ago
I do this too, but that behaviour has zero way of noticing false negatives.
gzer0 5y ago
I used to type “reddit” after my searches to look for genuine and real reviews, but even that is now being gamed. Advertisers and shady affiliate marketing schemes have caught on and nearly every search result I try is now filled with junk, upvote farmed nonsense with fake accounts using similar naming schemes.
- ffwszgf 5y ago
  This is 100% the case when I was looking for a VPN recommendation. So many of the Reddit threads were blatantly astroturfed.
  - stjohnswarts 5y ago
    Another think you'll see a lot of is bots looking for "listical" and blog info so some side hustle person can piece together an article on something they know next to nothing about. By the way, while I have you here, have you considered extending your used car's warranty?
  - Abrownn 5y ago
    Most of the VPN discussion/coupon subs are literally run by the VPN companies themselves. r/VPNCoupons and r/VPN are run by Surfshark, for example. Nord and CyberGhost also run astroturf rings for themselves too.

hattmall 5y ago

One market where this has always been a problem is tools. So almost 20 years ago we were told in shop class that the industry magazines and reviews were basically all paid for by manufacturers. The solution we learned was to always buy the cheapest option first. If it breaks or fails to meet your needs understand how and why and then move on to a more costly tool that you can demonstrate is better in the specific way you need it to be. Of course thats not always practical or feasible but for the majority of items it really is.

NovaS1X 5y ago
This is why I really appreciate YT channels like Project Farm.
- Baeocystin 5y ago
  That guy gives masterclasses on fast, efficient data presentation with every video. I really appreciate his approach.
9dev 5y ago
This strategy is smarter than it sounds at first. If you don't have any obvious criteria for comparison available, failing fast and iterating on that is a way to come up with criteria by yourself.
- kuboble 5y ago
  It requires a strong character to throw away things when they don't work well. I bought the cheapest drilling machine and it is so bad I end up borrowing one from a neighbor when I need to drill something. But I can't make myself to throw away the useless one.
  - ratww 5y ago
    I’m also unable to throw things away, but I do give things away or sell at a fraction very often. It’s also a fun past time. I don’t have anything useless at home anymore.

Bendy 5y ago

And I learn that Google is actually upset that its search results are suffering degradation by rampant, runaway SEO—they reap what they sow, and at everyone’s expense. Such brought to mind The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner as the web faces its own environmental collapse: “You…treated the world like a fucking great toilet bowl. You shat in it and boasted about the mess you’d made. And now it’s full and overflowing, and you’re fat and happy and black kids are going crazy to keep you rich. Goodbye!” Adblocking isn’t simply convenience it’s life-preserving.

rq1 5y ago

Try: Best dishwashers 2022 -amazon All websites with affiliated links disappear. You’ll most likely end up on Reddit but sometimes make some good discoveries.

TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
I have yet to find a question Reddit has a good answer for, so I also add `-site:reddit.com` if my query has been SEO'd into a page full of their spam. The net-net of all of this is that I buy a lot more stuff from brick and mortar stores now, where they've done the curation, and will only carry the stuff that sells best per square foot, and minimizes their returns.
- ianai 5y ago
  Pretty much my approach too. The one channel became too horrible so switch back.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

visarga 5y ago

> This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins. I think Google dropped the ball on their search objectives in this department. Why is it so bad at helping us search products? If I specify something with 2-3 conditionals why can't it match all the clauses, filter out fake reviews, out of stock, not shipped to my region and such? They don't want to help us find what we want to buy, they want to sell us what the advertisers have to sell, and the two don't match. They want to sell us things we don't need, this is the reason we never buy anything from the ads and their whole industry is a scam.

lowbloodsugar 5y ago

consumerreports.org does exactly what you want, but you have to pay for it. if you don't want to pay for it, then you get what you pay for. google isn't complacent. google has a large number of paying customers that aren't you. you don't live in a socialist utopia. you live in a world where things cost money. you can pay for the information you want, or someone else can pay for you to have the information they want you to have.

14 5y ago

This is something I had to teach my dad. But he believed it thoroughly until he had a few high purchase items fail outside of warranty. My advice to him has been look for customer reviews and he suspicious of the positive ones and aware of all the negative ones. My other advise is buy from a reputable distributor like Costco who makes returning something incredibly easy.

BuckRogers 5y ago

The answer to deceptive online reviews is Consumer Reports. While the web initially made CR not worthwhile, as time progressed it's once again very valuable. I would never buy any appliances without paying for a subscription first. I'm doing this myself before I buy a treadmill. I want the most reliable one, not the most tech features, and while my hunch is Sole is the one for me based on their warranty, I'm going to confirm with CR before dropping $1,600 on one. The problem is that people plug their ears and put blinders on to avoid spending $30 for teardown advice from an outfit like Consumer Reports. Too cheap for their own good.

sidewndr46 5y ago

This was my experience when trying to buy a new fridge. Due to the design of my kitchen, there is a very narrow choke point leading into it. There is no door. As a result I have to very careful when shopping for fridges. Mostly simply will not fit. Almost everything about fridges nowadays wants to promote the virtues of the amazing new features associated with them. After hours of searching, I narrowed it down to 3 models. All were the most basic fridge & freezer combo I could find. Exactly one of them was in stock, so I got that one.

annoyingnoob 5y ago

I love the 'best of' sites that only have Amazon links. If its not on Amazon it must not exist and could not possibly be the best, right? But some brand from China you've never heard of will be on the list.

rsync 5y ago

"This is noticeable in many other consumer goods verticals, e.g. good luck researching decent home gym equipment that is durable and not overpriced with fat margins." I agree with you but there's a simple shortcut you can employ: purchase commercial/industrial models that you see being used in industry. Gym equipment is a good example: your local, serious weightlifting gym is probably using Hammer Strength plate-loaded machines and Rogue frames/racks. Cooking: Look in the commercial kitchen of a high end restaurant - that's where I first saw my commercial microwave being used.[1] TV: NEC P461 commercial display - I found the model number by climbing behind the arrivals/departures board at the airport. [1] https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-multi-ovens/commercial-microwave-ovens/ne-21521 https://shop.panasonic.com/kitchen-and-home/microwaves-and-m...

freedomben 5y ago
This is great advice. This is what I did when I was looking for a heavy bag and other equipment. I looked at what the dojo had and bought those.
elkos 5y ago
But how the industry pulls that off? They do open calls for equipment and buy in bulk?
- yunwal 5y ago
  It's the market for lemons problem. If it's your job, it's worth it to learn all you need to know to differentiate between junk and quality. If you're buying one of the 75 different appliances in your home, you'll probably just look at a review site, which can easily be gamed by companies selling junk.
- taneq 5y ago
  The industry has large, potentially repeating customers, who use the equipment until it fails and who often have the resources to sue if a supplier screws then over too badly. This moves the risk/reward sweet spot for vendors towards the “provide good product for fair price” end and away from the “build shoddy malicious crap and spend your money on advertising.”

sho_hn 5y ago

Speaking of which, anyone know what happened at The Verge? It may not ever have been a bastion of great journalism, but these days 30-50% of the content is (occasionally well-targeted) product advertising or "you can now buy the Xbox here for the best price ever" or "Walmart has this promo right now". It's such a noticeable and abrupt change to the content mix.

robryan 5y ago

YouTube is pretty good here. The algorithm does a pretty good job at providing results that aren't the equivalent of blog spam and it is immediately obvious when you are watching a low quality video.