askchapo

This is something I'm still figuring out fwiw.
If it's a big purchase, like fridges freezers ovens televisions washing machines etc, buying either a subscription or article access to Consumer Reports might be worth it.

But that doesn't really work for everyday items and making things even worse, sometimes a good brand for some products is a bad brand for others. Usually because they make some items themselves but for others they lease their brand to a smaller less reliable company.

Toshiba televisions being one example. They used to make decent ones but then they stopped making them due to low margins yet leased the name out to a company called Compal, and the quality of their sets plummeted.