Counter space is finite and most gadgets do not deserve theirs. We work out which appliances get used every week and which end up in a cupboard by March.
What it does well, what it takes up, and whether you will still be using it next year.
We have not used these products and we never pretend we have. We read the specs, the certifications and thousands of owner reports, so you do not have to.
Counter depth, cupboard clearance and the space a lid needs to open.
Filters, pods, bags and power. The price after the price.
Owners quietly stop using anything that is a chore to clean. We flag it when they do.
Motors, seals and hinges. Where these things actually fail.
For things with a motor that runs often, usually yes, because the cheap versions fail early and you buy twice. For single-purpose gadgets the premium rarely pays off, and we are clear about which side a product falls on.
Filters, bags, pods and descaling are where a cheap machine gets expensive. We work out what a year of normal use actually costs so the sticker price is not the whole story.
For maintenance between proper cleans, yes, and that is genuinely useful. It will not replace a decent upright for deep cleaning carpet, and any review that suggests otherwise has not lived with one.
Anything you would not run while someone is on a call in the same room. Noise is the most common regret in this category, so we state it plainly rather than quoting a figure taken in a soundproofed lab.
A good appliance with a motor should give you five years and often far more. We look at repair records and spare part availability, because a machine you cannot fix is a machine you replace.
A small, slightly obsessive crew who'd rather read a spec sheet than a press release.
Wrote about kitchens for a decade and has never once been impressed by a gadget with one job.
Follows motors, seals and repair records so a handsome machine with a bad gearbox does not sneak through.
Judges everything by whether it fits a normal kitchen rather than a photographed one.