Have you heard the story of noise-canceling headphones that make music sound worse? What about tracking devices that are not tracked? Or an air purifier that does not purify the air? These are just some of the stories our product testers told this year.
Every year, our experts evaluate and review thousands of products from hundreds of brands to help you make better purchases. As always, they found some outstanding performances in 2021 (including some surprising budget purchases)—and some shocking ones.
To make sure you don't encounter the latter, here is an overview of the biggest dud we tested this year. Purchase at your own risk.
All styles, no substance: these Samsung Galaxy buds are disappointing, especially the price.
They may look beautiful, but these in-ear headphones are stylish and have no substance. With an overall score of 41%, they performed very badly when the noise reduction function was turned off, and worse when the noise reduction function was turned on. (How is this possible?)
At $319, they are not much cheaper than the Apple AirPods Pro ($399), so if you have that much money to spend on in-ear headphones, you might be able to save a little more to buy yourself something that works well. Or don't spend that much money at all-the two products we recommend cost less than $200.
To find the most cost-effective product within your budget, check out our noise-canceling headphones review.
Read more: Avoid using noise-canceling headphones
Most of us are prepared to pay a little more for high-quality products, but just to pay more for poor performance? That's just rude.
Our 2021 coffee grinder test brought some unpleasant surprises, including the $370 model did not do what it was supposed to do, and the $99 grinder, which performed better than the $14 model.
When it comes to coffee grinders, there are many things to learn. But, in short (or coffee beans), there are two types: blade grinders and burr grinders.
In our recent coffee grinder test, we were surprised to find that the $369 Smeg burr grinder failed to beat the $50 Breville blade grinder. (Remember that burr grinders are better than blade grinders?)
Not only does it perform worse than cheap blade grinders, but it also doesn't do what it really is supposed to do—grind coffee to make espresso. Our expert testers found that it could not achieve the fineness enough to make a real espresso. They speculate that coarse grinding may be suitable for pressurized basket systems.
Who do you think made a coffee machine with a pressurized basket system? Smeg, of course! How much do you think you need to pay for the privilege of matching coffee machines? Nearly $500, how much is that. But at least your kitchen will look beautiful...
This is definitely a "style over substance" marketing initiative
"This is definitely a'style over substance' marketing initiative," said Adrian Lini, CHOICE expert tester.
"Smeg machines can only grind coffee beans fine enough to be more suitable for consumers, while still charging you the same cost as a barista-grade grinder. You basically spend less money."
Read more: Spending and saving: Cheap coffee machines comparable to expensive coffee machines
Another day, another high-end brand was defeated by cheaper products. In this case, the $99 KitchenAid blade grinder scored 62%, while the $14 Kmart Anko blade grinder scored 63%.
There is nothing to say here, really. If you need a blade grinder, please take the KitchenAid blade grinder from your shopping cart and go to Kmart.
We have tested to find the best.
This coin desk costs $999, which is the most expensive we have tested this year-but it is potentially dangerous for your baby.
Parents and caregivers go to great lengths to ensure the safety of babies, and Australia usually sets some of the strictest safety standards in the world for baby products. But the weird thing is that we don’t have any standards for the changing table-even if the nursing staff uses the changing table multiple times a day to change the baby’s diapers.
Therefore, in order to test whether the changing table is safe, we have combined the standards of other children's furniture in Australia and the standard of changing tables in the United States.
Cocoon Allure did not pass our safety test-our experts found two serious faults and one minor fault
Cocoon Allure did not pass our safety test-our experts found two serious faults and one minor fault in this change sheet. It has several dangerous squeezing and crushing points. It failed our roll-off test, which means your baby may fall off the side rail.
Not only is it unsafe, but it costs as much as $999-this is the most expensive change station we have tested this year. At this price, it can be reasonably expected that, at least, the changing table you buy will not harm your baby.
For a tenth of the price of Cocoon Allure, you can purchase a truly safe coin table that scored 100% in our test. To find the safest changing table for your happiness, check out our expert baby changing table reviews.
We have tested to find the best.
Bad tracker: This personal alert cannot locate our tester.
Personal alerts are designed to reassure those who use them, their caregivers and relatives. Unfortunately, there are so many disappointing products on the market, but this is often not the case.
When we tested Guardian Safety Pendants Lingo this year, we gave it a tracking score of zero. CHOICE expert tester Scott O'Keefe said: "After I left home, it never correctly reported my location all day."
This is worrying-and not a good way. If you care about the safety and well-being of your loved ones, please avoid this situation at all costs.
It never reports my location correctly all day
In fact, we recommend that you avoid personal alerts altogether. We no longer recommend any personal alerts, based on member feedback about product defects or non-compliance.
To learn more about issues related to these products, please read our personal alert buying guide.
Poor performance and security risks: Missing Orbit Stick-on.
Known as a remedy for losing keys all the time, Bluetooth trackers are not exactly what they cracked. Our tests have found that Bluetooth signals may be affected by harmless (and ubiquitous) things such as walls, vehicles, buildings, and even people.
However, more worrying than the poor performance is the safety problem of these products: many of them use button batteries, which causes many children to die and seriously injured by swallowing them.
We have been working hard to improve the safety regulations for products that use button batteries. Due to our positioning of these batteries, we will not provide recommendations to any Bluetooth trackers regardless of their performance.
Due to our position on button battery safety, we will not advise any Bluetooth trackers regardless of performance
A mandatory button battery safety standard was introduced in 2020, and manufacturers must comply with it by mid-2022. We hope that the next-generation Bluetooth tracker can meet the button battery safety requirements so that we can make recommendations in the next test.
The worst Bluetooth tracker we tested this year is Orbit Stick-on. The average outdoor range is only 7m, and its performance is very bad. The overall score of our experts is only 41%.
Read more: How CHOICE helped win the fight to improve the safety of button batteries
Radic8 Hextio: Expensive and noisy paperweight.
Our experts have seen some unreliable air purifiers in their time-a good example is the GreenTech PureAir 500 won the Shonky Award in 2020.
Although the latest unreliable air purifier we found didn't win any awards, we think it is still ordinary.
When we tested the Radic8 Hexio H-100, we found that it is very poor at removing dust, smoke and volatile organic compounds (VOC) from the air-this is all that an air purifier should do. It is also terrible in terms of energy efficiency and very noisy at the lowest settings.
Basically it is a 500 USD paperweight, which will keep you awake at night and increase your electricity bill
So basically it is a 500 dollar paperweight, which will keep you awake at night and increase your electricity bill.
"This is a very small model, and our tests have shown that the air handling capacity of small air purifiers is usually not as good as that of large models," said Chris Barnes, CHOICE home furnishing product expert.
"But some other models that are not much larger than Radic8 performed much better in our tests."
Want a truly effective air purifier? Check out our expert air purifier reviews to make sure you haven’t made a costly mistake.
Read more: Can an air purifier filter and kill viruses and bacteria?
Every year, we will select the most cunning products on the market through the Shonky Awards, so that consumers know what not to buy.
This year, two types of equipment stand out: first, a $499 compost machine, which uses electricity and often needs to change filters to achieve the same effect as a worm farm or compost bin; second, one sold under various names Inefficient bladeless fan.
This year we tested more than 450 foods, from hummus and hot chocolate to Christmas shortbread and cheddar cheese.
But the worst of all the products we have tested is a fruit-based snack for toddlers, which contains more sugar per 100 grams than actual candies. Although advertised as "real fruit strips" "made with real fruit," Kiddylicious Strawberry Fruit Wriggles are actually just jelly bars made from concentrated fruit candies. More than two-thirds of each squirm is sugar!
Want to learn more about why these clumsy electric shockers get gongs? continue reading.
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