Brands
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Blog
Best Washing Machine Brands of 2025
Shopping for a washing machine can be as time-consuming as laundry day. Wading through different brands, washer types, models and features can leave you feeling like a wayward sock—completely lost. At Consumer Reports, we currently rate more than 120 individual washing machine models, including front-loaders, high-efficiency top-loaders, agitator top-loaders, and compacts. But there are still many more options in the…
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Most Reliable Walk-Behind Lawn Mower Brands
Consumer Reports’ exclusive survey-based reliability ratings show that several walk-behind lawn mower brands are trustworthy. But a few, like that canine output, kinda stink. To help consumers avoid the clunkers, Consumer Reports’ experts surveyed tens of thousands of CR members to find out which mower brands had the most problems, and what those problems were. “Data from our member surveys…
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Most Reliable Gas Riding Mower Brands of 2025
These latest findings come from CR’s exclusive member surveys fielded in the fall of 2022, 2023, and 2024, which leveraged data on 12,222 gas-powered riding mowers that members purchased new between 2014 and 2024. Below is a breakdown of the winners and losers across the three gas riding mower categories we test: lawn tractors, zero-turn mowers, and rear-engine riders. CR’s…
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Most and Least Reliable Microwave Brands
The most common complaints reported by owners of both countertop and over-the-range microwaves were excessive noise, control panel buttons breaking, and uneven heating. Within the countertop microwave category, KitchenAid brand microwaves were four times more likely than other brands to have problems with control panel buttons breaking (13 percent vs. 3 percent) and doors not locking or closing properly (8…
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Most Reliable Clothes Dryer Brands
Our owner satisfaction rating reflects the proportion of CR members who are extremely likely to recommend the dryer they bought to others. CR surveyed 56,562 members over a three-year span from 2022 to 2024, basing results on their experiences with 62,755 dryers purchased new between 2014 and 2024. If you’re just beginning your search for a new dryer, our clothes…
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The Saatva Classic mattress is $449 off in the brand’s end of winter sale, but is that good value?
Luxury sleep brand Saatva has launched its latest sale with 15% off all mattresses, including the handcrafted Saatva Classic innerspring hybrid. With it you can buy a queen Classic Mattress for $1,785 (was $2,099) at Saatva but is that good value? The Saatva Classic is the top rated option in our best mattress of the year guide after full re-testing…
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Best Battery Lawn Tool Brands
And that’s for good reason. Our tests confirm that battery (or cordless) lawn tools often match or beat the performance of gas models. They also start instantly, run quietly, and have zero emissions at the source. Emissions from gas-powered outdoor tools are often worse than those from cars, and as a group, gas tools tend to be much louder, so…
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Best and Worst Range Brands of 2025
To determine which brands make the best ranges, CR created a statistical model that incorporates the Overall Scores for every gas, electric smoothtop, electric coil, and induction range in our ratings. Our calculations reflect lab performance, available features, predicted reliability, and owner satisfaction scores. We also looked at prices: Brands get credit for delivering high performance and reliability more affordably…
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Best and Worst Snow Blower Brands of 2025
A snow blower has only one job to do, but it needs to do it really well. A great model will start instantly and hurl snow 40 feet or more, leaving a clear trail in its wake. To test this ability in dozens of models each year, our engineers and technicians use a proprietary blend of dampened sawdust, which simulates…
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Dell kills off XPS and other brands for PC simplicity
So long, XPS – and also Latitude, Inspiron, and Precision. Dell’s laptop naming conventions have been cast aside in favor of a simplified lineup of just three categories, known as “Dell”, “Dell Pro,” and “Dell Pro Max.” Dell-branded laptops are for “play, school, and work” – in other words, for everything – while the Pro lineup is for “professional-grade productivity”…
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