20 Most Popular Items Our Readers Are Buying Right Now
You can even grab a few of them on sale, including top-rated kitchen, home, and tech products
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We test and evaluate more than our fair share of products here at CR. And more often than not, a few pop up on our radar because of their popularity with our readers.
Unlike fad purchases, these particular items have merit. They’ve either been rigorously tested and approved in our labs or thoroughly vetted in our editors’ homes, where they’ve gone through the rough and tumble of real life.
What follows are the standout favorites, according to what our readers are buying.
Kitchen Tools
In our tests of the Caraway Ceramic-Coated nonstick pan, fried eggs easily slid out one after another, and the surface heated evenly with no hot spots. The handle is super-sturdy and stays cool to the touch as you cook. The nonstick ceramic coating, which the manufacturer claims is made without PTFE, stood up very well in our durability test. This pan is also induction-compatible and is claimed to be oven-safe to 550° F.
As seen in: Best Nonstick Frying Pans
Henckels Premio 8" Chef's Knife
Henckels has been making knives in Germany for nearly 300 years, and its expertise in design is on full display with this 8-inch chef’s knife. The Premio’s handle is contoured with no sharp edges, resulting in a knife that’s extremely comfortable to hold. It also excels at force transmission from handle to blade, which means you don’t need to exert as much effort when cutting.
As seen in: Best Chef’s Knives
Chef’s Choice Model 4643 AngleSelect Professional Manual Knife Sharpener
The Chef’s Choice 4643 knife sharpener looks like the analog version of the brand’s electric sharpener, but it works a bit differently. It has two basic sharpening settings, one for sharpening knives to 15 degrees and another for sharpening knives to 20 degrees. It can also polish the edge on any knife, regardless of the sharpening angle you choose. Like the brand’s electric sharpener, the 4643 feels well designed, with grooves that hold your knife at the perfect angle as you slowly draw it through.
As seen in: Best Knife Sharpeners
W&P Porter Silicone Reusable Storage Bag
Of all the silicone bags we evaluated, the W&P bags came closest to looking and feeling like a disposable zip-top bag. The food-grade silicone is thin, soft, pliable, and crystal clear on the front. W&P offers flat bags (10, 34, and 46 fluid ounces) and stand-up bags (36 and 50 fluid ounces) in five colors. The curved corners make them easy to wash, and unlike most other flat silicone bags, you can turn these inside out. The bags need to stretch over three rows of tines in the dishwasher to stay propped open.
As seen in: 7 Zero-Waste Swaps for a Greener Kitchen
Coffee Gear
Cuisinart makes several top-performing drip coffee makers in Consumer Reports’ ratings, including the currently available Cuisinart PerfecTemp 14 Cup Programmable DCC-3200 and similar Cuisinart PerfecTemp DCC-3200CP. You can expect excellent brew performance for the best-tasting coffee from these machines. They’re very convenient and easy to use, and the carafes are easy to hold and pour from. Each of these models brews 14 cups. As a coffee maker brand, Cuisinart earns an excellent score for owner satisfaction in CR’s member surveys, meaning owners of these coffee makers are likely to recommend their models to friends and family.
As seen in: Best Drip Coffee Makers
The Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is a fantastic grinder all-around and one of the more budget-friendly models that did well in our tests. It receives strong scores in grind performance, making it a good choice for any brew method you want to use. It also earns a very good rating for convenience because of its clearly marked and easy-to-use controls. Our testers also found it extremely easy to clean, thanks to its removable hopper. This Oxo is a bit noisy. It features 15 grind settings, a 12-ounce bean hopper (one of the largest in our ratings), an auto-stop feature, and a timer.
As seen in: 21 Great Gifts for Coffee Lovers
Bed and Bath
Coop introduced the “original” adjustable pillow to the market, and it seems it has another top-rated bedding product on its hands. Coop Sleep Goods Comphy SoftSpa sheets excelled in our shrinkage and fit tests, proving they’ll stay securely on your mattress even after multiple washes. These polyester linens won’t wrinkle much, and their pleasing strength test results mean they’ll stand the test of time.
As seen in: Best Sales on Sleep Essentials
According to our tests, this Siena Essential Premier Hybrid provides superb support for back sleepers in particular, whether big, small, or in between. Side sleepers should sleep well on it, too. Despite costing around $500, this mattress handily aced our durability test, and it’s quite good at minimizing motion transfer. It has a medium-firm feel, rating a 5 out of 10 on our firmness scale.
As seen in: Best Innerspring Mattresses
Vacuums and Carpet Cleaners
The corded Shark PowerDetect HZ4002 offers top-notch cleaning for bare floors and pet hair, and performs above par on carpets. It features an auto-detect mode that adjusts the brush roll speed to the surface, transitioning efficiently between carpets and hard floors. It also has two brush rolls, one with rubber fins for optimal contact with surfaces and a soft roller to capture small particles. It can be converted into a handheld vacuum, making it easier to clean stairs and tight spots in your home. It also pulls apart for compact storage, allowing it to stand on its own and take up minimal space. In our member surveys, Shark corded vacuums earn a top-level mark for predicted reliability and a decent mark for owner satisfaction.
As seen in: Best Vacuums
The bagless, corded Shark PowerDetect AZ4002 offers strong cleaning performance and convenient features. It’s stellar at cleaning bare floors, making it the ideal vacuum for kitchens, bathrooms, and hardwood floors. It also earns near top-level scores in our carpet cleaning tests and automatically adjusts the speed of the brush rolls according to the type of floor. And unlike some vacuums that can clean only when you move them forward, this one picks up debris moving both forward and backward. One bonus is that you can detach the pod, making it portable and convenient to use in small spaces, although overall, it’s on the heavier side (17 pounds) for bagless uprights.
As seen in: 8 Best Compact Vacuums for Small Apartments
The Bissell ProHeat 2x Revolution Pet carpet cleaner aces our drying tests and demonstrates strong performance in cleaning—plus, our testers find it very convenient to use. It scores a little less well for noise, but it’s as quiet as the carpet cleaners in our ratings get. Its hose length is just short of 7 feet, good for stairs and larger homes, and the machine covers 39 square feet per tank of solution. It also has carrying handles and separate tanks for clean and dirty water.
As seen in: Best Carpet Cleaners
Home Goods
Acrimet Horizontal Triple File Folder Holder Organizer
Finding ways to curb smaller messes can go a long way. For example, one solution to avoid mail pileups (junk or otherwise) is to open your mail the same day near a recycling bin, and immediately toss any unwanted inserts, donation requests, and credit card offers. Using a file folder holder can also be a great way to keep important pieces of mail in one spot. Pamela Mims, a productivity specialist, recommends this minimalist file holder to keep bills, documents, and receipts easily organized and accessible.
As seen in: 5 Home Organizing Mistakes and What to Do Instead
The Blue Pure 311i+ Max air purifier is terrific at removing dust, pollen, and smoke, but expect a bit of noise. It’s easy to use and is designed for use in a large space of 350 to 650 square feet. CR members find Blueair air purifiers to be highly reliable, and they’re very satisfied with their purchases. The ComfortPure, while it doesn’t score quite as well in our tests, is designed for large rooms, and it’s also on sale.
As seen in: Best Air Purifiers
The low price for the Comfort Zone CZ499R space heater is a bonus for a space heater that boasts top-notch performance. The small model’s controls are easy to use, and it also comes with a remote. Its fan can run at multiple speeds. It’s a Green Choice appliance, meaning it has a low environmental impact. One caveat is that the CZ499R received an unimpressive score in our hot-surface test. This means that touching the heat exhaust outlet can cause pain or a burn when it’s operating at its highest setting, an important consideration for households with kids or pets. But it does have a tip-over safety switch that shuts off the heater if it’s knocked over.
As seen in: Best Space Heaters for $100 or Less
The Dreo HM524S humidifier, designed for rooms 300 to 599 square feet, earns top marks in all of our tests, including moisture output, convenience, noise, energy efficiency, humidistat accuracy, and performance using hard water. The humidifier is programmable via an app, and features include an aroma diffuser, a night-light, and a top-fill design. You can set its timer for up to 12 hours. When it’s switched to sleep mode, its ambient lights will turn off so your sleep isn’t disturbed.
As seen in: Best Humidifiers
The Greenworks 2600602 power snow shovel packs a serious punch for such a small tool. At a mere 15 pounds, it can go places you’d never bring your full-sized snow blower, like up a flight of stairs or onto an elevated deck. That makes it the perfect companion to a larger machine or a good fit for anyone in an area that seldom sees more than a few inches of snow.
As seen in: Best Snow Blowers
Tech
Skylight Calendar Max
The Skylight Calendar is the wall display that our evaluators said they want hanging in their homes. It has a robust set of features, but its core calendar feature is straightforward for people of many ages to use. You can invite multiple calendars to sync to Skylight, such as work and personal calendars, and each gets its own customizable color, so users can assign their favorite ones. The Skylight can be mounted horizontally or vertically. Events show up immediately, whether you’ve added them directly to your Skylight display or to the Skylight app or your calendar app. The device’s Magic Import feature is a nifty tool that can grab events from your email, a PDF, or a screenshot, and import them directly to your Skylight so you don’t need to do so manually. It has a parental lock feature, too, that prevents your child from adding, deleting, or modifying events or chores.
As seen in: Best Digital Wall Calendars
Baby
Caboo Bamboo Baby Wipes
CR and Made Safe partnered to analyze the ingredients lists for 15 baby wipes and determine which are best for human and/or environmental health. As one of our Top Picks, Caboo Bamboo Baby Wipes are biodegradable, and their ingredients pose no known risks.
As seen in: How to Choose Baby Wipes Without Harmful Chemicals
Naturepedic Classic Organic Cotton Crib Mattress - Lightweight 2-Stage
We evaluated the materials in 12 crib mattresses to help you find the safest and most sustainable option for your baby. The Naturepedic Classic Organic Cotton Crib Mattress is one of our Top Picks.
Earth Mama Belly Butter
If you’re looking for a stretch mark cream, this body butter by Earth Mama makes the list of our Top Picks for products with ingredients that are safe to use during pregnancy.
As seen in: How to Choose a Pregnancy-Safe Stretch Mark Cream
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