With some products I find it hard to pick a right one as all of them have honest reviews of it being shit and loads of AI generated reviews saying it’s awesome. Last time this happened was when searching for an affordable cat GPS tracker. Even the expensive ones turn out to be shit.
Amazon pro tip: if you find something that has lots of good reviews, sort them by Recent. Those ones are the reviews by the people who were suckered in by the initial dump of 5 star fake reviews and you’ll probably see a lot more honesty from those people.
Even better: run Fakespot on the listing to see if it detects manipulation or fake reviews.
Best: don’t use Amazon to buy things.
Another approach is to use 3-4 star reviews. These have a higher chance of being human and often contain common problems.
Online reviews are a total crapshoot even when they are written by actual people, because people are fucking idiots.
“I bought this as a gift so I don’t know how it works” - 1/5 stars.
“This hanger was too small to fit my winter coats so I would up returning it” - 2/5 star review for a universal TV remote.
“This product became sentient and stabbed me in my kidney while shouting racial slurs” - 5/5 star review
A lot of the reviews that are for the “wrong item” are there because of the seller repurposing the listing.
The seller will list some item that is easy to get good reviews on, like a hammer or something. Then after they rack up several hundred 5* reviews saying “Works great, seems high quality!” they edit the listing to change the item title, description, everything to a new product but keep the reviews.
Then the new product gets a big boost from the high review count and star rating of the previous product.
Very scummy.
The fact that that’s even possible is fucking stupid. I hate amazon so much.
One time an Amazon rep came to my fucking university class and told us about how the was always an empty chair at boardroom meetings that represents “the customer”.
In that moment I knew I was not full of shit enough to hack it in the industry.
Better than my experience.
Want thing. Search reviews, particularly from forums where I know they are likely to be real people and not bots or shills. Everything says it’s awesome. Buy it. It’s shit. Look up the problem. Now the reviews say it’s shit. What the fuck, man? Feels like I am slipping through multiple universes just by making any kind of online purchase.
Dude this is so true, I’m starting to think that when searching for a product you need to start by looking what are the negative points about it.
Then if they are inexistent or don’t bother you and only then you start looking about the positives, because the positive aspects everybody talk about, now the negatives…
Check your local library, your library card might give you access to Consumer Reports. They don’t have reviews on everything, but I always make a point to check before a significant purchase.
How relevant is CR outside the US? (Setting aside that I didn’t find anything fitting for my current search.)
Not sure honestly, it might be most relevant to Canadians? I’m not sure how much overlap the US and the rest of the world has when it comes to the kitchen gadgets, bikes, cars, appliances, etc that they review.
I hate researching appliances. Literally every brand and model has a ton of haters (often with tragic stories of how the appliance caused thousands of dollars in damages). There’s no way to research an appliance and come out with any sort of objective view point on it.
Sure there’s high level takes (Samsung bad, speed queen good), but then if you dig deeper into those off the cuff statements you realize even that isn’t true.
So I’ve generally just said fuck it and gone with whatever.
Appliances are a nightmare
For one there’s the “hidden conglomerate” thing. Like oh I’m not buying Maytag anymore! They’re shit! I’m gonna buy whirlpool instead! Or jennair! Or kitchenaid! Or amana! But it doesn’t matter because those are basically all whirlpool
Then the actual appliances: very often you’ll find that they are basically the same thing with only tiny differences cosmetically. Like kitchenaid and Maytag will sell an oven that is the exact same, like you can swap parts between them, they fail in the same way, but they look different because the kitchenaid has different plastics to finish, basically, and maaaybe a few differences in the control board to add some “luxury” features. So it looks nicer (arguably) but is functionally the same and has a similar failure rate (they may filter better quality parts to the “luxury” models, doubtful), and costs 30-40% more
With the way capitalism has gutted shit even a lot of the old sentiment about brands is useless. The only real sentiment that is viable is that yes, buying commercial appliances for your home is going to get a product that is built to last longer and stand up to more abuse (like certain speed queen models). But then it’s like “oh well nice now I’ll spend 3-5x as much and get something hideously ugly so that my house ends up looking like a laundromat or bodega. And even then, there are shitty commercial appliances that fail quickly
Some appliances aren’t even made by established brands anymore.
Examples from my recent experience: kitchen scales for baking and exhaust fans for bathroom. Just Chinese crap everywhere. Nothing from global brands or even local brands in these categories.
Actually a surprising amount of appliances are manufactured in the USA again - whirlpool conglomerate and Samsung both have a sizable amount of manufacturing in the US
That said Chinese manufacturing is a response to demand. Chinese manufacturing quality is also a response to input. Iphones and pixels are manufactured in China (though this is changing). China will manufacture you incredible things but will make cheap garbage too. If you buy cheap shit don’t blame China, they just filled the role of making something as cheap as possible
As a counterpoint for example: my go to kitchen scale is an oxo good grips. Used it for years. Manufactured in China. Excellent product. I have other scales for when I need fine precision beyond 1g but this scale is my workhorse. Still accurately weighs to calibration weights after like a decade too.
This is why manufacturing origin is pointless. America makes crap. China makes crap. America makes good stuff. China makes good stuff.
Kitchenaid is kinda crap now. I bought one of their more powerful model stand mixers (DC motor model) at one point and it… visibly struggled to mix dough. Researched it and found this: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/equipment_reviews/2593-the-best-stand-mixers
Returned it, saved up a bit of cash and got the Ankasrum, much happier with it.
I consider kitchenaid mixers to be overpriced cake/cookie machines at this point. They can handle cold butter and thats about their only advantage over ankarsrum, and even then other (cheaper) mixers do that fine.
Wholeheartedly agree. I fix shit, and I’m apparently rough on kitchen shit
I have 2 kitchenaid stand mixers in my house rn. One is my personal one. I have rebuilt the transmission 8x. This is because the teeth on the gearing have sheared away. This happens because I am mixing somewhat small batches of dense dough: bread dough, pasta dough. Roughly 1-2lbs. Once because I was using the extruder attachment.
The second mixer in my house is from a family friend. They were doing something similar (bread dough) and it exhibited similar behavior (audibly spinning but hook not moving) so they dropped it off here.
It’s a simple fix thankfully albeit a bit costly. Take off the top, take off the transmission cover, remove the captive bolt (worst part), slide off old gears, remove old grease thoroughly to ensure you get all metal shavings (second worst part), put on new gears, regrease, reassemble. There are videos showing this process, it’s not hard. There’s a proper tool for the captive nut that I refuse to buy. I instead use needle nose pliers and struggle and curse every time instead of spending an extra $15 to make my life much easier for a tool I will never use outside of this task
You need replacement gears (check which one first, not always the same one breaks), gasket, and grease. It’s like $50
It is as you’ve said, they’re not built for serious kitchen use. I am furious I got this. I have the 7qt “professional” model. I make bread, pasta, tortilla, ramen, etc dough all the time. I have had this for years tbf but I have also rebuilt it eight fucking times. At $50 a pop I have doubled the cost of the mixer. I wish I spent a bit more and just got a Hobart. A lot of my kitchen is shit from restaurant auctions and I should’ve got the stand mixer there as well. But my partner wanted me to reign it in so our house wouldn’t look like inside of a food truck and I acquiesced, and now my baked goods are fucked
I would sell it the next time I refurbish it but I would feel guilty cursing someone with this
Get yourself a Hobart N50 my old son, you’ll be pleasantly pleased
That’s the dream. A mixer that can break my fucking arm. A mixer that commands respect. However to be fair to the kitchenaid:
Brand new kitchenaid professional 7qt: $550 Brand new Hobart n50 5qt: $4,500, though pre owned is cheaper (like 12-1500 for a very old one which tbf works fine). Used kitchenaid is also cheaper though, like $300-400ish
Could you buy stronger gears from a different source? I guess you’d have to replace all of them to keep the new ones from eating the old ones if you tried that… Assuming it’s even an option.
If you or anyone can direct me to an alternate source of kitchenaid that are stronger than I would kiss you on the mouth (assuming consent)
Whirlpool p/n 9703337, 9703338 (especially 338). If anything alt source parts are weaker than oem
I have outright stopped a kitchenaid lift bowl model with Bagel dough xD
Ive also got a bit of a penchant for semi-commercial kitchen gear. Got myself a LEM #8 meat grinder (i broke the plastic auger on a kitchenaid grinder attachment from overheat/overuse) and some other equipment from them. Helps that they’re in the same state as me and i can go in-person to their shop in Cincy!
Id love to find a great big commercial slicer someday to slice a whole slab of bacon (family smokes a slab or two infrequently, their tiny slicer is miserable to me having worked in a deli), but id need to not be in an apartment for that i think.
The Ankarsrum mixer is unique, i like it a great deal more. Its belt-driven, and the bowl itself is what spins; I’ve gotten much better bread out of it than a kitchenaid, it doesn’t overwork the dough or grind seeds/oats into dougb
If you stopped it that means you’ve started to wear the gear teeth. The metal used for the gears is weak (though apparently there was a period in the late 90s/early 2000s where they briefly used plastic gearing, stupid). If you one day hear a chunk and then the normal mixing noises but the hook is no longer moving then congrats, you’ve stripped the teeth. Bagel dough def makes sense
I would also LOVE a slicer. I don’t eat meat but I like to make fake lunch meat out of wheat gluten and pea protein sometimes. slicing it with a knife is never the same as I’d get with a slicer. But it’s just so much space! If I ever run across a deal at a restaurant or deli closing down though I’ll probably pull the trigger. I do love going to auctions whenever a place shuts down, it’s how I got my wok burner
Oh I sent it to goodwill after not using it for about a year after getting what I’ve got now (it was a costco model; the “professional” model was returned the same week i got it).
Slicer would be good for bread too with a serrated blade (if you can find one; a butcher shop would probably have both blade types rather than a deli with just the single edge). Totally jealous of the Wok burner, all i got is a crappy coil-top electric that cant even maintain a boil, “safety feature”…
Yeah my actual stove is a cheap induction but the wok burner is from a place that shut down. It’s converted to propane from natural gas and I have to use it outside. It’s pretty wild, it burns through a tank pretty fast and runs like 150,000 btu. I can fill a 16” wok with cool water and on full blast it’ll boil it in under a minute
I’ve been working on Chinese and Japanese cooking for the past year since. I still suck though. The technique is challenging but it’s fun and even when you’re bad the results are tasty. And it’s awesome to make vegan Chinese food that’s not just “general tsos tofu that’s sickeningly sweet and has 2” of breading or steamed bean curd in brown sauce with veg”
Any time I need to buy something, I check if rtings has it as a category. If not, I give up and just buy something from a known brand with a long enough warranty and decent seeming specs, whatever they are.
I just saw this in German.
Nobody expects ze German memequisition
Now dies is ein surprise.
deleted by creator
Was it more funny?
The accent in my head helped.
My dog has no nose!
Yes. And if it wasn’t for my French and Spanish being more rusty than iron in saltwater I would’ve posted this in the correspondent communities, too.
I’m afraid this is quite multiculturally relatable.
Iron in saltwater isn’t rusty. It’s iron.
If that’s the case, then the product is probably 💩 and not really useful.
Best to move on to one that has genuine usage reviews/recommendations, even if it costs more.
It’s worse. When you manage to find honest reviews, the reviewers for all products on all brands are only complaining that this is the worst version of the product ever, and you can’t cross compare them.
It’s a disaster out there right now when it comes to decent review sites.
Google is absolutely complicit in this, if not entirely to blame. Their search ranking has over the years pushed to the top all the low effort listicles that are full of sponsored Amazon links and no actual reviews, and a lot of the real reviews have disappeared due to traffic starvation.
And now those top sites are often just AI nonsense that steal content from whatever few other sites actually exist. Nonsense “reviews” just spouting the product specs, from people who have never even put their hands on the product for real.
My personal go to these days (although I wish it wasn’t) is youtube.
There’s still a load of nonsense listicles on youtube, but with a bit of searching you can usually find some actual person who is genuinely knowledgeable about the product category, and has a bunch of different ones actually in their possession for real, that they can compare and give honest opinions on.
Check out Wirecutter. It’s been my go-to site for most purchases outside my wheelhouse for years. I like how they break down their findings, like pros/cons, budget picks, and picks depending on what kind of user you are (take record players, for example: are you interested in the format, but don’t want much fuss? They’ll have suggestions for an all-in-one setup. Or are you an audiophile looking to upgrade specific parts? They’ll cover that as well). They also include advice from experts in the field of whatever they’re reviewing, which I find useful.
“The top 10 best (thing) of 2025!”
Last updated: 31 December 2024
Always nice to buy something super niche. You search YouTube and there’s 3 50min videos from random nerds who have devouted all their lives on that topic
And I’m using the word ‘nerd’ here with the highest respect
Unfortunately, these nerds (in the negative sense) make it often almost impossible to find “decent enough” stuff. Try finding any information about the “pretty good, but not unreasonably priced” bracket in almost any niche. Almost impossible. Unless audio equipment costs at least one kidney, it’s essentially worthless, instead of buying a sub 1000€ knife, honed by japanese virgins, you should better kill yourself, and denim that doesn’t require 400 elaborate steps to break in is literally worse than Hitler.
You just reminded me of the last time I was looking at replacing the speakers on my PC with something nicer. I opted to just keep using my current ones and not touch the worn out physical volume knob anymore lol.
Fair enough lmao
A sequel to “I heard about a video so I searched it online but every video I click on is just some form of reaction video”
Glorified sales people & scammers/paid reviews*
I used to look for videos on youtube and often times people would unbox, use and compare competitive products.
Now those videos are made by people who never owned the product, with advertisement footage the manufacturer stole from the company that originally produced the proper version and with “experience reviews” + “opinions” taken from regular first wave reviews.
The music gear market is particularly bad at this.
