So the car you want to buy has an open recall. Now what? “Consumers can make a demand of any seller that they fix any open defects before selling the car to them,” Wallace says. “And that’s a reasonable request, and the burden for safety in this case shouldn’t fall on consumers.” Getting a recall…
No brand is completely immune to problems, and a brand’s quality can fluctuate over time due to changes in design or production. But our survey reveals that dishwashers from certain brands are significantly less likely than others to experience problems during their first five years. Using our reliability ratings, you can increase your chances of…
Retailers and manufacturers commonly cite the cold-cranking amps (CCA). This is a measure of the power available for 30 seconds at zero degrees. A higher number means more power, and this is typically found in batteries marketed as “northern” batteries and from pricey absorbed glass mat (AGM) batteries. (You can upgrade your car from a…
When a new batch of refrigerators comes into our labs, we start by setting the ambient temperature in our climate-controlled chambers to 70° F to simulate conditions in a typical home kitchen. Then we determine which thermostat setting on each refrigerator will get the internal temperature in the center of the unit to between 36°…
Defense attorneys for a Minnesota man convicted in December of assaulting Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Jonathan Ross are seeking access to investigative files related to the killing of Renee Nicole Good, after learning Ross was the same officer who shot and killed her during a targeted operation in Minneapolis last month. Attorneys for Roberto…
During testing, we outfit each refrigerator with thermocouples in a climate-controlled chamber and monitor it for more than a month, collecting more than 5.4 million temperature readings that identify warm and cold spots, to determine which models will keep your food fresh longest. Our process includes tests for icemaker performance based on how much ice…
Going to the beach? Consider a pair of flip-flops from Rainbow Sandals, which CR social producer Jamison Hermann swears by. “These sandals are sturdy, comfortable, and have a classic design. I’ve worn them on countless beach trips and hot summer days,” he says. “I’m not a small person, and as a result I often wear…
The team members went through a process of incrementally determining what elements and molecules the bacterial strain could grow on. They already knew it could use oxygen, so they tested other combinations in the lab. When oxygen was absent, RSW1 could process hydrogen gas and elemental sulfur—chemicals it would find spewing from a volcanic vent—and…
Happy Pi Day! March 14 is the date that otherwise rational people celebrate this irrational number, because 3/14 contains the first three digits of pi. And hey, pi deserves a day. By definition, it’s the ratio of the circumference and diameter of a circle, but it shows up in all kinds of places that seem…
It’s so annoying. You’ve just spent hundreds of dollars on a new Garmin Fenix 8 or Forerunner 970, only to find out you might have to hand over even more money to get the full Garmin experience. Earlier this year, Garmin introduced Connect+, a subscription element to its Connect companion app earlier. It stirred up…