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Best Sunscreens of 2025 – Consumer Reports
We test only broad-spectrum sunscreens labeled SPF 30—the minimum that dermatologists recommend you use—or above. Most of the sunscreens are water-resistant. However, because some facial sunscreens are meant for everyday use—not just when you’ll be swimming or sweating—a few of the ones we tested aren’t water-resistant. We’ve clearly marked which ones are (and for how long) and which ones aren’t…
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Your Car Maintenance Checklist – Consumer Reports
More expensive oils and fluids: Stick with the owner’s manual recommendations. “A shop may recommend synthetic fluids for a service, but if your car’s owner’s manual doesn’t require them, there’s no need to pay extra,” says Michael Crossen, a CR mechanic. Flushes: Coolant, power steering fluid, differential oil, and brake fluid occasionally need to be changed. Fluid flushes use a…
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Best Pet Insurance Companies – Consumer Reports
You may be wondering whether you should pounce on pet insurance. Many policyholders we surveyed seem glad they did. Fifty-three percent said they were very or completely satisfied with their carrier, and 33 percent said they were somewhat satisfied. Only 14 percent expressed any degree of dissatisfaction. Yet when we asked them to focus on specific elements of their coverage,…
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Best Budget Office Chairs – Consumer Reports
What did we learn? That it’s indeed possible to find a reasonably priced office chair that’s comfortable to sit in, easy to adjust, and outfitted with plenty of support for your back, butt, and arms. In fact, we found three—all priced at $200 or less. While many chairs are marketed as being ergonomic, keep in mind that that term gets…
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Best High-End Dishwashers – Consumer Reports
Consumer Reports’ test engineers spend about 30 hours testing each dishwasher. To evaluate cleaning performance, dishes are put through a proprietary test that uses photo imaging to determine precisely how clean they are after a standard cycle full of dishes with baked-on food. While previously we only evaluated how well dishwashers cleaned dishes on the lower rack, we’ve now expanded…
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Best iPad for You – Consumer Reports
Apple just upgraded two of its fan favorites—the basic, budget-friendly iPad and the lightweight iPad Air—adding new processors, more storage, and some additional AI functionality. And the iPad Pro was revamped a year earlier. On the whole, those updates don’t change our thinking too much. Consumers in search of an iPad for “tablet-y” activities like browsing the web, watching videos,…
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Best Energy-Efficient Refrigerators – Consumer Reports
But which are the most energy-efficient? Our tests show that top-freezer and bottom-freezer refrigerators usually cost less to run than side-by-side and French-door models. “Side-by-side models have a tall, thin freezer with a lot of external surface area that gets warm, and French-door bottom-freezers usually have energy-hungry add-ons, like an in-the-fridge icemaker and an anti-sweat heater,” Chai says. Of course,…
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Opt for Safer Kitchenware – Consumer Reports
Stainless steel is almost always a good bet—a SolidTeknics Noni skillet is my nontoxic stovetop workhorse. It’s made with high-quality ferritic stainless steel that’s low or free from nickel, a metal that can trigger allergies and is potentially toxic. My eight-quart HomiChef stock pot is made with a nickel-free stainless steel. Check out the top stainless steel frying pans in…
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Mediterranean Diet Health Benefits – Consumer Reports
Research suggests that eating tomatoes and tomato products may help lower inflammation. When 22 healthy men ate a serving of sofrito, a type of tomato-based sauce, their levels of two important markers of inflammation dropped, according to a 2019 Spanish study in the journal Nutrients. Lycopene is one of the main anti-inflammatory compounds in tomatoes, and cooked tomato foods are…
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Best Portable Power Stations – Consumer Reports
Here are the reasons you might avoid a portable power station: It isn’t always convenient. The biggest disadvantage is that, like any battery, your power station runs out of power. And when that happens, you have to disconnect the unit and find a way to recharge it—a process that can take hours. That’s an inconvenience if you’re using the power…
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