Up through 2010, you could use your FSA money to purchase medications over-the-counter (OTC). The Affordable Care Act changed that rule, so that starting in 2011, you needed a doctor’s prescription in order to use your FSA for OTC drugs. Thanks to the CARES Act, that’s no longer the case. So you can now use…
Manufacturers report a model’s noise level in decibels, averaging the readings over the dishwasher’s full cycle. But that isn’t necessarily the best indicator of noise output. So CR’s panel of judges sits and listens to each dishwasher tested through its entire cycle, even if it takes 3 hours. “People remember a noise when it’s at…
Life is hard, but you know what isn’t? Tempur-Pedic mattresses. This brand’s been around for a long while, which isn’t shocking given the high-quality materials that perform for those that need advanced pressure relief and support. If you’re someone who deals with regular aches and pains, this is a good place to start looking for…
Recently departed staffers maintain that the current administration is simply taking a new approach to reining in the agency. Rather than attack it head on, they say, it’s quietly draining the staff, resources, and authority it needs to be effective. In April, acting CFPB leaders tried to lay off all but roughly 200 of the…
LG makes some of the best TVs you can buy. Its OLED TVs in particular are perennial favorites at WIRED, with C-series models like the C4 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) providing among the best performance for your dollars on the market. LG is about way more than TVs of course. The Korean brand offers multiple products…
“Even if you want warm air from your system, turning the AC on cools down the incoming air to just above freezing, but then it is reheated before it enters the cabin,” Fisher says. “This is done to remove moisture from the air, which otherwise would collect on cold glass, keeping you from being able…
As self-driving car services from Alphabet’s Waymo, Amazon’s Zoox, and Tesla have slowly, quietly expanded across the US, one big, important state has mostly stayed mum: New York. The union’s fourth most populous state has some of the tightest laws governing autonomous vehicles, requiring companies approved to test in the state to only do so…
Every audio system requires amplification. In a traditional hi-fi set-up, the loudspeakers are always “passive”—which is to say, they don’t produce their own power. Instead, they must receive an amplified audio signal from an external source, aptly called an amplifier, in order to do their thing. Even in a more modern, self-contained audio system (like…
To determine which brands make the best air purifiers, Consumer Reports built a statistical model that analyzes the models in our ratings. Those scores reflect lab performance for particle removal on both high and low fan speeds, plus factors like noise, energy use, and room-size coverage. We also fold in predicted reliability, owner satisfaction, and…
To help you make better sense of your size options, we break our inverter generators into four groups, divided by their output wattage: Large Inverter GeneratorsMost large inverter generators in our ratings weigh from about 150 to about 300 pounds (wheels included). That’s too heavy to haul along on a camping trip or to a…