yea. for larger purchases it’s worth a trip to the library and ask them to see the consumer reports magazines for vacuums (or whatever you’re looking for). some libraries have them for in-house use only because they’re stolen so frequently
edit: just saw you’re in UK; no idea if the thievery applies to your libraries or not
Some libraries also have access to Consumer Reports online, accessible via the library’s network (or maybe also via a library card + link from the library site? I dunno, it’s been a while since I worked in a public library.)
Never even thought of that! We have a well known household review magazine here called “Which?” but I always used to turn my nose up at the idea of paying for reviews when I can just go on the internet and find semi-trustworthy reviews for free. Looks like those days are gone now.
I was researching new vacuum cleaners recently, and found one of those websites that allegedly test and compare different ones.
One of the entries had wording to the effect of “This vacuum cleaner may have a weight of <X>, and might have feature <Y>” etc.
It was fucking AI generated garbage that didn’t even know anything about the vacuum cleaner so it started speculating.
yea. for larger purchases it’s worth a trip to the library and ask them to see the consumer reports magazines for vacuums (or whatever you’re looking for). some libraries have them for in-house use only because they’re stolen so frequently
edit: just saw you’re in UK; no idea if the thievery applies to your libraries or not
Some libraries also have access to Consumer Reports online, accessible via the library’s network (or maybe also via a library card + link from the library site? I dunno, it’s been a while since I worked in a public library.)
Never even thought of that! We have a well known household review magazine here called “Which?” but I always used to turn my nose up at the idea of paying for reviews when I can just go on the internet and find semi-trustworthy reviews for free. Looks like those days are gone now.