Appliances and other household goods

 

It may not be the most exciting kind of shopping, but the need to buy new appliances for cooking, cleaning and food storage comes around from time to time and the winter sales can be an opportunity to bag a good deal. Whether it’s a fridge freezer or an oven, these are products that we hope will last a decade or more and do their job well for the duration. Smaller appliances such as kettles and microwaves get daily use and it’s an annoyance if they’re not up to scratch.

What to look for when buying white goods

Which? has been doing in-depth testing of appliances for many decades, fine-tuning what we do at our labs over the years as technical advances are made and products develop.

So, whether you want to control your smart oven with an app on your phone, or you simply need a dishwasher that’ll leave every item spotless or a tumble dryer that won’t guzzle energy, our reviews will give you a range of options to choose from, depending on your specific needs and budget.

Quick guide to buying using Which? reviews

• Head to our Home appliances page – it's not just washing machines that we test; we possibly cover more products than you expect.
• Find the category – such as laundry, floorcare, refrigeration and so on – that you want to buy from.
• If you’re not sure what you want from within a category, for example a condenser or vented tumble dryer, head to the advice pages for answers.
• Now go to the reviews page itself. We have filtered products here for you, starting from the top Best Buys down to the poorest Don’t Buys.
• Choose other filters – for example, you can plug in your maximum price or choose only to look at Eco Buys, a particular size or a certain brand.
• This will narrow down the field to products that fit the bill and also show you where your top choices are available at the lowest price.

What to look for when buying small appliances

Whether it’s a toaster, kettle, microwave, air fryer or coffee maker, our kitchens have plenty of gadgets alongside those larger appliances. They may be less of an investment, but you still want one that’ll do a great job and last for years.

For all these gadgets we set a variety of challenges at the lab, such as assessing if they’re a pleasure or an annoyance to use. We also test ease of cleaning, measure energy efficiency and assess quality of build. 

But we lay the most emphasis on whether the appliance is good at the job that you’ve told us is most important. For example:

• Toaster – how evenly and completely it browns bread 

• Kettle – how quickly it boils water and whether it overboils

• Microwave – how evenly it heats and defrosts

Did you know that we also test ice cream makers, electric grills, waffle makers, rice cookers, deep-fat fryers and bread makers? Head to small kitchen appliances for the full list. Make sure to check our full list of tested home appliances, too, to see everything we review for your home.

Focus on: air fryers

Air fryers have soared in popularity over the past couple of years as we have faced rising energy bills. They’re versatile gadgets that blast hot air around a small cooking chamber, and our energy-use calculations show that using an air fryer is quicker and cheaper to use for small quantities of food than heating up an oven.

For around £100 you can bag yourself a decent air fryer. If you go too cheap, the machine will have fewer functions and is often difficult to use – you may also be restricted to small portions that are unevenly cooked. 

Head to our air fryer reviews to find out which ones are easy to use, energy-efficient and cook great chips.

What to look for when buying other home goods

While much of what we test are products that you hope to keep for many years, we also test many everyday household essentials that regularly appear on our shopping list, such as washing powder, batteries, washing-up liquid and light bulbs. These get special attention from our test lab so you can choose the ones that really work.

Focus on: floor cleaning

The options for keeping our carpets and floorboards clean have multiplied over the years so that a plug-in upright vac is now just one type of floor-cleaning gadget that we test. There are so many options for myriad purposes:

Upright vac You push it in front of you and don’t have to bend down to clean.

Cylinder vac You pull it behind you and use a long flexible hose.

Cordless vac Usually stick-shaped, light and manoeuvrable, they liberate you from the plug socket and a trailing lead. Our tests have uncovered some dreadful models, so make sure you check our cordless vac reviews before buying.

Handheld vac Good for quick, small cleaning tasks or in tight corners such as in a car.

Robot vac They roam your home sucking up the dust while you relax. But they don’t come cheap.

Carpet cleaner These spray water and detergent onto your carpets, scrub them and then suck the dirty water back into the machine. They’re not designed to pick up debris, though, so you need to vacuum first.

Steam cleaners The steam kills bacteria and can eliminate dust mites. As they use just steam, rather than harsh chemicals, they’re a good choice for your house and the environment. Like carpet cleaners, you’ll need to vacuum before steam cleaning.

Find answers to your floor cleaning questions in our vacuum advice guides and vacuum reviews.

How to check energy ratings and reliability

Although the energy price cap was reviewed for October 2023, energy prices are still high for the foreseeable future. Whatever home appliance you buy, it’s worth opting for one that won’t make a big dent in your electricity bill.

Energy ratings supplied by manufacturers can be confusing to interpret, which is why we supply an efficiency rating for the products we test, so you can see how they compare. You can also get an estimate for how much your new appliance or gadget will cost to run across the year.