If your home isn’t equipped for central air conditioning, mini-splits may be a smart alternative, particularly if you don’t want to install and remove clunky window units each season. Mini-splits, also known as ductless air conditioners, can cool large spaces quickly and quietly. Mini-splits are a type of heat pump. They cool your home by…
Stackable washers and dryers are independent appliances that can be installed separately, side by side, or stacked using a kit provided by the manufacturer so that the dryer rests on top of the washer. They’re not to be confused with laundry centers—a single, compact space-saving tower housing both a washer and dryer—that you see in…
As the pet tech writer here at WIRED, I know just how far we’ve come as a pet-obsessed society. From automatic litter boxes with built-in cameras to interactive pet cameras on wheels that shoot out treats, if a human has dreamed it, our pets have probably been subjected to it. For a while, pet influencers…
Both canned and frozen fruit and vegetables can be great options, especially when fresh produce is out of season or too expensive. But there are some key differences between the two preservation methods that give frozen produce a slight edge. A package of frozen fruit or vegetables typically contains just the produce itself, blanched and/or…
Top Tier gasoline was developed in 2004 to go beyond the minimum standard for detergent additives to better protect increasingly sophisticated engines from carbon buildup and deposits on the intake valves, which can result in a rough idle, acceleration hesitation, knocking/pinging, and reduced fuel economy. Over the past 20 years, engines have become far more precise,…
Other MagSafe Power Banks to Consider We like a few other MagSafe power banks that didn’t make it into our top picks. Apple MagSafe Battery for iPhone Air. Photograph: Julian Chokkattu Apple’s MagSafe Battery for iPhone Air for $99: The super svelte iPhone Air doesn’t have room for a big battery, so Apple offers this…
In our lab, CR’s engineers put vacuum cleaners through a set of tough tests to evaluate how well a model picks up dirt, how much debris it retains, how easy it is to maneuver, and how noisy it is. We embed sand and pet hair into carpets to see how effective the appliance is at…
So, what extra care does your nonstick pan need? We interviewed manufacturers and consulted experts from our labs to determine what you should do to ensure that your pan’s coating remains safe to use and turns out flawless fried eggs for years to come. 1. Avoid metal utensils. Metal can scrape or otherwise mar the…
Still, self-tanner is widely considered a safer alternative to tanning in the sun and tanning beds, both of which cause exposure to harmful UV radiation and increase the risk of skin cancer and premature aging. It’s also a go-to product for some people with deeper skin who turn to self-tanner to even out their skin…
When something goes wrong with an AI assistant, our instinct is to ask it directly: “What happened?” or “Why did you do that?” It’s a natural impulse—after all, if a human makes a mistake, we ask them to explain. But with AI models, this approach rarely works, and the urge to ask reveals a fundamental…
