24 of the Worst Products of 2024—and What to Buy Instead

A major appliance is a major investment; these are bummers.

You’re the worst: Midea MLTW41A1BWW washing machine
Score: 30
What could make an eco-friendly Green Choice washer pop up on this list? Simple: The failure to clean clothes. It’s water- and energy-efficient, sure. But over a 50-minute cycle, it just didn’t get the job done. In fact, it had the worst washing performance in our ratings (tbh, there was a tie: the Insignia NS-TWM35W1 matched it). So all in all, the opposite of efficient. The kicker? This Midea costs more than the two top LG washing machines in CR’s ratings.
One of the best: LG WT7005CW
The rest of the best: See the best washing machines from our tests.

You’re the worst: GE GTS18HGNRWW refrigerator
Score: 46
If you like your fridge noisy, have we got a pick for you. This GE not only makes a racket but it’s also prone to hot and cold spots, scoring low in CR’s temperature uniformity tests. With hard-to-reach controls—and no way of adjusting the freezer temperature—it bombed on ease-of-use ratings too.
One of the best: LG LRDCS2603S refrigerator
The rest of the best: See the best refrigerators from our tests.

You’re the worst: Fisher & Paykel Classic Series pro-style range
Score: 25
Looks aren’t everything. In spite of its sleek profile and Mona Lisa smile, this high-end Fisher & Paykel range is a disappointment. Want to make cookies? Expect the unexpected. Simmer a lovely risotto? Don’t look away! This charmer scores low on baking and struggles to hold a pot below a boil.
One of the best: Monogram ZGP304NTSS
The rest of the best: See the best ranges from our tests.

You’re the worst: Viking VDWU524SS dishwasher
Score: 45
Some people enjoy the old-fashioned task of drying dishes. Most of us, though, are hoping to open the dishwasher after a cycle and put things away. This model does a solid job at washing, but it has a hard time drying plastic items, earning it a dismal rating in our drying tests. As a brand, Viking gets, ahem, unfavorable marks in owner satisfaction and a lackluster rating in reliability from CR’s members.
One of the best: Bosch Benchmark SHX9PCM5N Dishwasher
The rest of the best: See the best dishwashers from our tests.

Transforming small pleasures like a cup of coffee or a morning smoothie into an at-home stress test.

You’re the worst: Kenmore KMCMB809BK09 countertop microwave
Score: 23
At $80, this midsized microwave may seem like a bargain, but as they say, you get what you pay for. It performed abysmally in our test for even heating, and its speed was almost as unimpressive. It’s not just us. In our member surveys, Kenmore microwaves earn a low rating in both predicted reliability and owner satisfaction. 
One of the best: Commercial Chef CHM990B 
The rest of the best: See the best microwaves from our tests.

You’re the worst: GoWise USA GW44800 Deluxe toaster oven
Score: 34
This GoWise toaster oven lands at the very bottom of our toaster oven ratings—and for good reason. It’s poor at baking and (yes, you guessed it) even at toasting, and it’s not easy to use. It does only one thing well—reheat. Outside of that, its performance is barely passable.
One of the best: Ninja DCT401
The rest of the best: See the best toaster ovens from our tests.

You’re the worst: Hamilton Beach The Scoop 49981 coffee maker
Score: 40
In our member surveys, Hamilton Beach, as a brand, gets decent marks for reliability and owner satisfaction. It has some very high-scoring coffee makers in CR’s ratings—but this machine isn’t one of them. It’s a one- or two-mug drip coffee maker that our testers found surprisingly inconvenient to operate and clean. And its brew performance—the most important aspect of any coffee maker—was disappointing, falling short of the recommended temperature guidelines.
One of the best: Technivorm’s Moccamaster Cup-One Brewer
The rest of the best: See the best coffee makers from our tests.


You’re the worst: Hamilton Beach 6 Speed 64655 stand mixer
Score: 39
Don’t be seduced by the low, low price of this Hamilton Beach stand mixer ($46). This machine vibrates and labors when kneading dough; it’s not going to up your baking game. In our tests, it took a long time to whip cream, and its mixing skills were only so-so. You can buy a decent hand mixer for the same price. 
One of the best: Hamilton Beach Professional All-Metal 63240
The rest of the best: See the best stand mixers from our tests.

You’re the worst: 3 Squares Soup3rb 7-cup Cook & Blend blender
Score: 26
Despite its name and flashy design, results from this blender aren’t “soup3rb” at all. Our tests reveal that it’s lousy at puréeing raw ingredients for soup. Sure, it can chop ice, but it can’t handle long stints—durability is subpar. If you’re thinking, I only need this for smoothies, we’re here to tell you that it’s only so-so at that, too.
One of the best: Costway Professional Countertop 8-in-1 Smoothie Soup Blender
The rest of the best: See the best blenders from our tests.

When it comes to purifying the air, humidifying a space, or filtering water, these products stumble and fall.

You’re the worst: Dyson HP07 Hot + Cool Black & Nickel air purifier
Score: 15
More expensive than many of CR’s top-performing models, this Dyson, $550, earns the lowest score possible on our particle reduction tests. If you run the unit at low speed, it’s just not effective at removing dust, smoke, and pollen from the air. And at high speed, it’s noisy. To add insult to injury, the filters for this model are relatively pricey too.
One of the best: Blueair Blue Pure 311i+ Max Air Purifier
The rest of the best: See the best air purifiers from our tests.

You’re the Worst: Eureka Groove NER30 robotic vacuum
Score: 33
The best thing about the Eureka Groove NER300 robovac is that it’s pretty quiet. So quiet, in fact, that you’ll hardly even know it’s working, especially because it’s not particularly good at picking up dirt. In our labs, it earned subpar scores for cleaning carpet and performed abysmally on bare floors, sometimes spreading debris.
One of the best: iRobot Roomba Combo i5
The rest of the best: See the best robotic vacuums from our tests.

You’re the worst: Hoover SmartWash Pet Complete FH53000PC carpet cleaner
Score: 31
Mediocrity is the name of the game for this Hoover carpet cleaner. In our lab tests, it proved lackluster at removing stains from carpets, and it left behind a dampness after the cleaning. It received a middling rating for how convenient it was to use but is below average on other major metrics.
One of the best: Bissell ProHeat 2x Revolution Pet Pro Plus 3588F
The rest of the best: See the best carpet cleaners from our tests.

You’re the worst: Shark Steam Pocket S3501 steam mop
Score: 9
What is there to say about this model except the negative? It might have the words “steam mop” in the name, but it’s lousy at producing steam and not very good at mopping. The Shark Steam Pocket S3501 struggled to clean stains off ceramic tiles in our lab and earned a disappointing score in our steam-rate tests.
One of the best: Karcher SC 3 Upright EasyFix Steam mop
The rest of the best: See the best steam mops from our tests.

You’re the worst: Aircare Companion CM330DWHT console humidifier
Score: 26
Yes, the Aircare Companion CM330DWHT is energy-efficient and relatively easy to use. On the other hand, it’s so loud you may be tempted to pull out your noise-canceling headphones. But the biggest problem is that it’s a humidifier that doesn’t humidify nearly enough. Our testers found that the Aircare’s water output over 24 hours—2.2 gallons—just isn’t enough to humidify the 1,000 square feet of space it’s supposed to handle.
One of the best: Vornado EVAP40
The rest of the best: See the best humidifiers from our tests.

You’re the worst: Hisense DH7021W1WG dehumidifier
Score: 27
Remember that kid in high school who aced calculus but flunked gym? That’s the Hisense DH7021W1WG. In areas where many high-performing dehumidifiers struggle—noise and accuracy of the humidistat (which measures moisture levels and tells the unit when to turn on and off), the Hisense excels. But when it comes to the reason you buy a dehumidifier—removing moisture from your room—this model flat-out flunks, coming nowhere near its claimed 50-pint daily capacity.
One of the best: Honeywell TP70WKN Dehumidifier
The rest of the best: See the best dehumidifiers from our tests.

You’re the worst: Clear2O GRP200 water filter pitcher
Score: 36
The Clear2O GRP200 is the lowest-rated pitcher in CR’s water filter pitcher ratings. With a mind-bendingly slow flow rate, it will either try your patience or lull you into a state of zen. This pitcher also has the smallest capacity of all the pitchers in our tests (6 cups). And the cartridge performed poorly in our clogging tests.
One of the best: Brita Tahoe
The rest of the best: See the best water filter pitchers from our tests.

You’re the worst: Lasko MyHeat 100 space heater
Score: 23
Keep your socks on; this heater takes forever to do its thing. Among personal heaters, it ranks low for both heating a room and heating an individual within 15 minutes. That’s enough to take it out of the running, but those are not its only issues. This model also lacks a tip-over safety switch, and its surface can get so hot to the touch it actually hurts. 
One of the best: Vornado SRTH
The rest of the best: See the best space heaters from our tests.

Yardwork can be a pleasure when you’ve got the right tools; these are not those tools.

You’re the worst: Black+Decker LSW40C battery leaf blower
Score: 37
It can’t blow leaves, which is kind of a dealbreaker for a leaf blower. We’re talking multiple passes just to gather leaves into a decent pile. When it comes to embedded material, like leaf particles in the grass, forget it. On the plus side, it’s quiet! 
One of the best: Ego LB7654 Leaf Blower
The rest of the best: See the best leaf blowers from our tests.

You’re the worst: Worx WG779 battery lawn mower
Score: 44
This scaled-down Worx mower is currently our lowest-rated battery mower. It struggles to mulch or bag clippings and takes forever to charge. The run time is short—only about 25 minutes—so you’d better be speedy or have a very small yard.
One of the best: Ryobi RY401200
The rest of the best: See the best battery lawn mowers from our tests.

You’re the worst: Sherwin-Williams SuperDeck Clear Sealer wood stain
Score: 4
A deck stain (or sealer) has one job: to protect your wood deck and keep it looking new. The SuperDeck Clear Sealer performs that one job so poorly that we deemed its protection unacceptable after only a single year of simulated wear. It also offered almost no notable benefits when it comes to preventing mold or mildew formation, color change, or cracking. It’s true that most clear sealers don’t perform nearly as well as the best semi-transparent or solid color stains in our test, but SuperDeck is at the very bottom of the pack.
One of the best: None of the clear sealers in our ratings perform well, but the best of the bunch is Behr Premium Transparent Waterproofing Wood Finish. If you’re looking for serious protection, only a solid sealer will do. Consider the Behr Premium Solid Color Waterproofing Stain & Sealer, which is the best option in our ratings, offering serious protection to wood for at least three years.
The rest of the best: See the best wood stains from our tests.

You’re the worst: Briggs & Stratton 030761 large inverter generator
Score: 38
Generators spend most of their time sitting in the garage, waiting for an emergency. And when one happens, you need to know you can count on them to do one thing: deliver power for essentials, like the fridge, the furnace, phone chargers—and, in some homes, life-sustaining medical equipment. Most of the generators we test do just that. The Briggs & Stratton 030761? Not so much. This large inverter generator is rated for 5,000 watts, but in our tests didn’t deliver the juice promised. So much for dependability.
One of the best: Pulsar PGDA70BISCO
The rest of the best: See the best inverter generators from our tests.

Slow, weak, sizzly: these are not the adjectives you want to hear when it comes to security and entertainment products

You’re the worst: Maximus DualCam VD01-05A1W-BK-1 video doorbell
Score: 35
Even with two cameras, the video quality on this Maximus Dualcam, $118, isn’t good. Response time is lousy: It’s extremely slow in alerting you to visitors—so slow that the folks at the door might leave before you even know they’re there. Add to this weak data privacy controls, and you’ve got yourself a video doorbell to avoid. 
One of the best: Lorex LNWDB1 1080P WiFi doorbell
The rest of the best: See the best video doorbells from our tests.

You’re the worst: Sony SRS-XV900 Wireless & Bluetooth Party Box speaker
Score: 35
Hazy, grainy, muffled, sizzly, smeared. These are just a few of the adjectives our testers used to describe the sound quality of Sony’s pricey SRS-XV-900 party box speaker. Three feet tall and nearly 60 pounds, this behemoth is among the most expensive options in our ratings. But its audio is comparable to that of a dinky $50 speaker.
One of the best: Onn Large Party Speaker
The rest of the best: See the best Bluetooth speakers from our tests.

You’re the worst: V-Moda M-200 headphone
Score: 39
These studio-style headphones seem like they should deliver solid sound. But our testers reported that the fidelity sits somewhere between a bad telephone connection and a beer cup against the wall—with a sprinkling of harshness for good measure. To add some discomfort to the picture, our team also discovered that the headphones can pinch the heads of some users and pinch fingers on anyone who’s not extra careful when handling them.
One of the best: Grado SR80x
The rest of the best: See the best headphones from our tests.