Many companies have spent an incredible amount of money and time to convince people that they need to spend ridiculous sums to keep a drink cold. It’s not true. Coolers aren’t complicated, which is a good thing to remember in the face of all that advertising. After many years evaluating more than 40 models of coolers, we’ve chosen eight that are well made, well insulated, and fitting for a range of outings.
If you love movies and have the space and budget to re-create the movie-theater experience at home, a high-performance 4K projector is a worthy investment that can keep you entertained for years to come. Epson’s Home Cinema LS11000 is our favorite 4K projector because it delivers the best performance with movies that you’ll find for less than $5,000, but it also looks great with games, sports, and HDTV when some room lights are on. Oh, and it has lasers!
My grandmother taught me never to waste food. She passed away early last spring, but whenever I feel her watching over me as I cook, I reach for my GIR silicone spatulas—indispensable tools for dodging Nainai’s “tsk tsk.” The Ultimate spatula helps me scrape the frosting bowl clean (and conveniently fits straight into my mouth). And the Mini spatula helps me get every last drop of ginger scallion sauce from the jar into my preschooler’s rice bowl. Both clean like a dream.
Bluetooth headphones have transcended their original purpose of merely delivering sound to the ears. They can reduce background noise, track movement, survive underwater, measure heart rate, and even enhance hearing. When you consider all that they can do, it becomes even more confusing and frustrating when some Bluetooth headphones seem unable to perform a simple task: connect reliably to a computer.
Memorial Day weekend is traditionally chock-full of hyped-up sales. Most of them are garbage. We never want you to get taken in by a bad deal, which is why the Wirecutter Deals team only posts real deals on great gear amid a sea of crummy deals on subpar items.
We’ve rounded up our favorite real deals on everything from sleep essentials—like bedding and mattresses—to excellent prices on appliances and outdoor grills.
The Wirecutter Deals team scans the virtual aisles of the internet, searching for great discounts on Wirecutter-recommended products so you don’t have to. For even more deals, check out our Deals page and follow us on Twitter @WirecutterDeals.
Every year, ahead of the slew of Memorial Day sales, REI hosts its own Anniversary Sale. This year’s event runs from May 20 through May 30 and includes discounts on everything from camping and hiking gear to clothing and accessories. Discounts are available to all shoppers, but REI members get an additional 20% off one full-price item and 20% off one REI Outlet item with the single-use code ANNIV22. (Note: The two items must be in your cart at the same time for the code to apply to both.)
My iPhone is a sinkhole, swallowing up tens of thousands of photographs into a digital morass of unfindable, forgotten memories.
Every year I take countless photographs (mostly of my undeniably adorable children). Each photo is a precious moment that, when captured by my iPhone’s camera, I’m positive I will cherish forever. But I don’t. I rarely revisit these digital photos.
Thankfully, I have a solution.
Due to human-driven climate change, catastrophic wildfires have evolved from seasonal hazards to year-round disasters that cause air pollution, scorched earth, property loss, and death. People who never thought they’d be at risk of a wildfire are now forced to consider evacuation, oftentimes with little advance notice. If you live in an area prone to wildfires—or somewhere that’s quickly becoming one—we’ve gathered some essential tools and advice to help keep you safe.
Like many Gen Xers, I rediscovered my childhood love of Lego when the company began releasing Star Wars–themed sets back in 1999.1 That specific licensing, combined with the soothing nature of building the sets, was a double dopamine hit of nostalgia for this ’80s kid. And from then on I’d pick up a couple of new releases each year for the memory trip.
To find the best binoculars, we had a professional ornithologist spend over 100 hours field-testing 17 pairs against his own $2,500 Leica Ultravids. After using our test pairs in the mountains and hills of Southern California, then on a research trip to the rain forests of southern Mexico, he found that the Athlon Optics Midas ED 8x42 pair was the best of the group, offering performance comparable to his Leicas for a fraction of the price and the widest field of view out of all the binoculars tested. This means you’ll see more, and it will look better.
We’ve roasted over 400 pounds of turkey and chicken and 30 pounds of veggies in 14 pans over the past four years, and the Cuisinart 16″ Roasting Pan With Rack (MCP117-16BR) is still our favorite roasting pan. This roaster is equally great at searing on the stovetop and roasting in the oven. For a large, versatile, tri-ply, clad roasting pan with a rack, the Cuisinart is the best balance of performance and price we’ve found: It does the job as well as pans that cost twice as much or more.
Any dishwasher—even a cheap one—can clean your breakfast bowls and dinner plates, as long as you use a decent detergent. But the best dishwashers can handle the tough jobs and are also quiet, reliable, and easy to load. After digging through thousands of customer reviews and stress-testing 17 models with seriously crusty dishes, we’ve concluded that the Bosch 300 Series is the first one you should consider.
If you want the best-looking TV image that money can buy, choose an OLED TV. With perfect blacks, superior viewing angles, infinite contrast ratios, and better motion quality than you can find on other TVs, OLED displays outperform even the best LCD options—but they usually cost more (though the difference is shrinking). We recommend the LG C1 because it strikes a great balance between price and performance and is loaded with all the latest features.
Watching years of mildew get blasted off a piece of patio furniture provides a unique form of satisfaction—a feeling attainable only with a pressure washer (also called power washers). After more than 80 hours of research and two weeks using eight pressure washer models to clean cars, outdoor chairs, and more, we found that the best pressure washer for most homeowners is the Ryobi RY142300 2300 PSI Brushless Electric Pressure Washer. All the electric washers we tested cleaned well, but the Ryobi has a durable motor, a longer hose, larger wheels for easier maneuvering, a better-designed cord, and lengthier warranty coverage than the competition.
Whether you’re celebrating your granddad, your dad, or just the guy who helps replace your tires, it can be hard to find the right gift. (And it doesn’t make things any easier that every time you press for clues he insists he “doesn’t need anything.”) Lucky for you, we’ve taken out the guesswork. Below we’ve rounded up our favorite gifts that’ll impress or delight any dad on your list—with nary a whisky stone in sight.
Mosquitoes are relentless. They swarm and buzz and bite, leaving you covered in itchy red welts. Some spread diseases, such as Zika and West Nile viruses. There are countless mosquito deterrents on the market that promise to keep the little pests at bay, but much of what’s said to be effective doesn’t actually do anything to stop mosquitoes from biting.
“Let’s start with the bad news: I’m from the IRS, and you owe us money for taxes, which you can pay in iTunes gift cards. But the good news is [horn sound], you’ve won tickets for a cruise. Congratulations!”
Even though beards have been in vogue for at least a decade, their popularity seems to increase every year. And the rising reluctance of workers to spend 40 hours a week in an office will probably keep that trend going. Unless the beard wearer plans to make regular trips to the barber (or his name is Rick Rubin), all that bristly growth will need frequent trimming. We’ve found the cordless Philips Norelco MG7750 is the trimmer best suited to getting most beards looking great.
For even more deals on Wirecutter-recommended products, check out our Deals page and follow us on Twitter @WirecutterDeals.
Quality sleep is important—but it can be elusive. Between genetics, busy schedules, stress, and your environment, catching your recommended z’s isn’t easy. Although you can’t control all of those factors, you can influence a few variables, such as your sleep setup.
Hurricanes have terrifying power, and because of their sheer scope and unpredictability, each one presents variables that are totally out of your control. How destructive will it be? Will it shift direction and come right at you? Will you have to evacuate? As unsettling as these questions are, there’s a lot you can do to get ready for one of these megastorms, from staying informed to making sure you have the right gear and completing a few relatively simple home improvements.
The greatest gift you can offer the father in your life is time spent together. A distant second is a thoughtful sentiment or token that recognizes the unique connection between father and child. With that in mind, we selected our favorite Father’s Day gifts (curated from Wirecutter guides and the experiences of our choosy staff) that will show your heartfelt affection for your dad—and that can be used and loved for years to come.
I love having a mill to crack freshly ground pepper onto salad and pasta. And I’ve used our pick—the sleek, trusty Peugeot Paris u’Select Pepper Mill—for years. But I’d recently placed my pepper mill in storage for a year. When I took it back out, I tried to season some eggs, and I was perplexed that it wouldn’t crank anything out. As I learned, damp pepper can get cakey and prevent a mill from grinding properly—I needed to clean it out and add fresh pepper.
If you want an affordable, versatile vacuum cleaner—nothing fancy, but something dependably solid—look for a bagless upright vacuum that costs about $150. It will work well for most people in most homes. (The Shark Navigator line has been our favorite for this style for many years.) But if you’re looking for something different, we’ve also rounded up the best of the rest—from cordless sticks and long-lasting canisters to cheap handhelds and even robots—for all types of homes.
After washing hundreds of dollars’ worth of fabric stained with pig blood and body oils of mysterious origin, visiting some washer brands’ quality-testing labs (and one factory), investigating the sorry state of appliance reliability, and trying to unravel some urban legends about laundry, we’ve found a handful of great washing machines to suit different budgets and ways of washing clothes (and the best dryers to match). At the top of our list: the LG WM4000H front-loader.
Plenty of people love coffee. Yet it can be difficult to find just the right gift for someone who has a real compulsion—sorry, predilection—for a good brew. To find gifts for the person who worships at the altar of espresso and can’t stop tapping their heel at 4 in the afternoon, we spoke with a handful of experts, including the owner of New York City’s Ninth Street Espresso, and Wirecutter’s coffee-obsessed staffers.
Cordless vacuums are so impressively convenient that they can feel almost fun to use. They’re so easy, in fact, that plenty of owners are willing to overlook their many flaws, such as high prices and mediocre reliability. The best cord-free vacuum for you depends on your home and expectations of performance, but the first one we recommend right now is the Tineco Pure One S11.
If you’re looking to play games with unparalleled graphical fidelity on a huge 4K TV screen in the comfort of your own home, then Microsoft and Sony have powerful, expensive video game consoles to do that. But if you’re looking for a game system with a big library of party games, indie titles, and outstanding exclusives that is also portable, you can’t beat the Nintendo Switch.
Mounting a TV on a wall not only looks nice but also frees up space and prevents your TV from tipping over. If you just need a simple, non-swiveling mount to securely hold your TV in place, we recommend the Sanus VMPL50A-B1 tilting mount for its solid steel construction, easy tilting mechanism, post-install leveling, and ample supply of included hardware. If you’re seeking more mobility to position your TV toward a specific seat or even point it into another room, we like the Sanus VLF728-B2 full-motion mount.
There is a little ritual I do before every run. After the required prelude of lacing sneakers, applying Body Glide, and patting pockets to confirm the custody of keys, I put in my earbuds, close my eyes, take a deep breath, and press play. In that moment, I shrug off the worries and responsibilities of the day. For the time being, there is only me, the music, and the movement. The act of propelling your body forward through space can have significant benefits to your physical and mental health, but the hardest part is taking that first step.
Ultra-short-throw (UST) projectors are often marketed as TV replacements because they can deliver a massive image from a very short distance and have a footprint smaller than any TV. It’s hard not to be intrigued by the idea of swapping out a burdensome big-screen TV for a small box and still getting a 100-inch image. But the truth is, these are still projectors, and expensive ones at that. After testing four UST projectors at varying prices and performance levels, we’ve concluded that the vast majority of people are better off getting either a large TV or a traditional projector. You’ll either get better performance or spend less—oftentimes both.
