Reviews

The average American household throws away about $1,500 per year in spoiled food. A vacuum sealer is the best tool for fixing that — it pulls out the oxygen that causes freezer burn, mold, and spoilage. Meat lasts 3-5 times longer in the freezer. Dry goods keep for years instead of months. Sous vide becomes practical instead of a hassle. Not all sealers are the same though. Cheap ones pull a weak vacuum and lose seal within weeks. Expensive chamber sealers cost thousands. We tested 7 models across countertop automatics, handheld portables, and chamber sealers to find the ones that actually keep food fresh. ...

A microwave is one of those appliances most people use every single day but barely think about. You grab whatever was on sale at the big-box store and live with uneven heating and a confusing interface for years. A decent microwave — one that fits how you actually cook — makes a real difference. These days you can get smart models that scan barcodes, inverter ones that defrost without cooking the edges, or basic workhorses that just heat reliably. We tested 7 to find the ones worth your counter space. ...

Making yogurt at home sounds like the kind of thing people with a lot of time and a sourdough starter do. But it’s actually simpler than making most breakfasts. Heat milk, cool it, stir in a spoonful of live yogurt, keep it warm for 8-12 hours, and you’re done. A yogurt maker just handles the “keep it warm” part — maintaining a steady 108-112°F so the cultures do their work without needing you to check a heating pad or an oven pilot light. ...

The kitchen supply aisle has cookware sets from $30 to $3,000, and they all promise the same thing: perfect sears, even heating, and handles that stay cool. The $30 set will scorch everything you cook and warp within a year. The $3,000 set is overkill unless you’re a professional chef with a restaurant kitchen budget. Most people need something in the middle. We tested seven cookware sets from three materials — nonstick, stainless, and cast iron — cooking the same meals in each until something broke or we got sick of scrambled eggs. ...

Induction cooking is faster, more efficient, and more precise than gas or electric resistance. The magnetic field heats the pan directly — no burner to warm up, no heat radiating into the kitchen, no waiting for the surface to cool. A portable induction cooktop gives you all of that in a unit that slides into a drawer when you’re done. We tested 7 portable induction cooktops side by side — boiling water, searing steaks, simmering sauces, and hitting each one with a thermometer gun to see how well they actually maintain temperature. ...

I bought my first soda maker because I was spending $40 a month on LaCroix and felt ridiculous about it. Six years and three machines later, I can tell you two things. The upfront cost pays for itself in about six months. And not all soda makers are worth your money. Some carbonate well and keep fizz for days. Others go flat in hours or feel like they’re going to explode when you twist the bottle off. ...

A food dehydrator is one of those appliances you don’t realize you need until you taste homemade beef jerky or apple rings dried at the perfect temperature. Store-bought jerky costs a small fortune per pound, dried fruit is loaded with added sugar, and herb drying takes weeks in open air. A good dehydrator pays for itself inside a year. The problem: most people pick a dehydrator based on price and end up with one that dries unevenly, takes 18 hours for a batch of jerky, or sounds like a helicopter taking off. We tested 7 models — stackable round units, shelf-style boxes, and high-end stainless steel machines — to find which ones actually dry food evenly without driving you out of the kitchen. ...

A panini press sounds like a single-purpose gadget. One thing: pressing sandwiches. But the good ones — the ones worth owning — do a lot more. They grill chicken breasts while the top plate sears the other side. They cook burgers indoors when the weather won’t cooperate. They griddle pancakes on one half and fry eggs on the other. We tested 7 models, from basic sandwich presses to full-function griddles that could replace your stove for most meals. ...

I used to measure flour by volume until I made three different batches of bread dough in one afternoon and got three different textures. Same recipe, same scoop, wildly different results. That’s when I bought a kitchen scale and found out my “cup” of flour varied by as much as 30 grams depending on how I scooped. A good digital kitchen scale fixes that. It’s also the gadget I reach for more than anything else — for coffee brewing, portion control, and following recipes that come from countries where they don’t measure in cups. We tested 7 digital kitchen scales in 2025 across different price points and use cases, from $15 basics to precision lab-grade models. ...

I love pizza, but I was skeptical about countertop pizza ovens. My regular oven with a pizza stone seemed fine. Then I spent an afternoon at a friend’s house watching his Breville Pizzaiolo crank out a Neapolitan pie in three minutes. The crust had leopard spotting. The cheese was bubbling. It was pizza, in a kitchen, on a weekday. Countertop pizza ovens work because they get much hotter than a regular oven. Your home oven maxes out around 500-550°F. These things hit 750-800°F. That’s the difference between a decent pizza and a really good one. We tested 7 models in 2025 to find which ones deliver. ...