Mara - OK, you are obviously a big CR fan based on your posts here and on other threads. Fine I am not going to dissuade you but as you can see, lots of other folks besides me question CRr's usefullness. As to your question about results being outdated - yes, the JD Powers survey was done in Oct 2007. They do one every year. So if you are reading it in mid-2008 then it is 8 months old. Now I know you will say CR does an annual appliance review as well so whats up with my outdated comment. Did you ever look at the models CR tests and try to find them? Half are discontinued - making the specific reviews and recommendations outdated. Like I said - I know I am not going to convince you but between the two, I believe the JD Power consumer satisfaction rankings provide a far better barometer of brands to consider than CR's reviews which incorporate their own testing bias and focus on lowest costs as a prime factor in their decision making. I guess when looking for external reviews, I would rather rely on the personal experiences and feedback of large numbers of consumers than on one organization's tests

I have been reading consumers reports (more or less) since 1972. They tend to put a very high weight on reliability. The luxury appliance brands such as Thermador and Viking often require far more repairs than the mid-range products (I have owned Thermador, a lot of parts broke off that refrigerator). If a high-volume manufacturer made a mid-range product that was unreliable, they would be out of business very quickly due to warranty claims. CU will tend to pick something at the 65th percentile in the market - the product that EVERYBODY is buying and it's successful because the manufacturer gives good value AND MORE SO reliability for money. American brands with a longterm (50-year) reputation for reliability are Kenmore, KitchenAid (=Hobart), and Whirlpool/Maytag (although we just got totally screwed and had to write off a $1300 Maytag over after 2Y which is why I'm on this website tonight.) Ralph Nader is the most senior consumer advocate in Amerca and he killed off the Chevy Corvair which was "Unsafe at Any Speed" with his book, and he probably saved 100k lives, any consumer advocacy organization should be PROUD to have Ralph Nader on their board of directors! CU also has some stupid biases, such as "Subaru always wins our 4WD car tests before we've even bought our cars" and "Camry is the best american midsized car, always has been, always will be." Another is, "Tesla Model 3/Y touch screens are so horrible and impossible to use that nobody could possibly operate a Tesla" (truthfully the touch screen is a revolution allowing Tesla to upgrade the car, fix MANY recalls, and even upgrade performance from 0-60 in 3.5s to 0-60 in 3.2s for my Model 3P+, and they also added Netflix / YouTube / Spotify / Pandora streaming via over-the-air download.) It used to be (early 1970s) that CU would actually publish measured specs of the items they reviewed (SNR, THD, radio sensitivity, etc.). They became intellectually dishonest in mid 1980's by changing to a rating system of "well below", "below", "average", "above average", and "well above average". They did this because were making mistakes and they were getting sued. I repeat: THEY DID THIS TO COVER UP THEIR MISTAKES. They did an absolute hatchet article on Bose Speakers and I heard Amar Bose justifiably complain about CU in a speech at MIT. They don't have guys in labcoats doing tests those are just actors posing for "style" photographs. Bose speakers do not have sound that "wanders about the room". CU's president claimed, "Nobody takes our magazine seriously It's an entertainment magazine!" to Amar Bose! When CU tested bicycles (my area of expertise) they made a truly horrific blunder by not categorizing models into narrow price ranges as it's a get-what-you-pay-for market and the main differentiator is how frameset geometry and wheel/tire choice impact ride comfort and handling. Just about the only CU reports that are intellectually honest these days are the reader surveys because CU is not making any measurements nor are they coming up with magic weighting schemes to over-emphasize subjective usability measures (such as Tesla controls) in the overall "product score". So, rely on them for product / brand reliability, especially among cars!

I rely heavily on CR, one reason being there is no other source quite like it. Besides ratings, CR gives data. For example, it gives the actual useable cubic footage of fridge & freezer space in fridges. One fridge may have a 7.0 cf freezer, while another says it has 6.5. CR may reflect that the latter one has 5.0 useable cf freezer space, while the first one has 4.8. CR isn't perfect, but it does at least use some scientific measures. For example, it tests loudness of fridges by using a device. THEN it layers over that a subjective value by the testers. As for "ratings" based on price, that's not quite right. Ratings don't include price in the calculations. It is the "recommendations" that include price. If 2 fridges are close in ratings, but one costs significantly less, one may be "recommended" but the other not, because you can get almost the same rating for a lot less $. In using this site and others as sources, the problem is there is no count of ratings. People who are angry tend to post more often about products, it seems. In this site I've seen posts warning not to buy LG products. Howevr, I've seen warnings for EVERY brand of fridge I've researched, not to buy it (Whirlpool, KitchenAid, Maytag, Kenmore, Kenmore Elite, GE, GE Profile, LG, Amana). CR also gives a history of reliability that is NOT part of the ratings. I see posts by people complaining that CR recommended this lemon or that lemon, because an appliance broke. But CR rates based on certain things...NOT reliability. It gives reliability separately, based on tons of reports by CR members (I forget the # of members, but it's huge). CR is also one of the few places to get some sort of rating on an appliance or vehicle that is not that popular. In researching top freezers, for instance, there are far fewer expert and consumer reviews, because top freezers are not that popular. J D Power & Associates also gives ratings of various manufacturers of products, including appliances. I've concluded that: appliances are no longer made to last (and that's intentional); no matter what you buy, you could get a lemon; all appliances break; no matter what you buy, you could luck out and get an appliance that lasts and lasts. One thing I learn from consumer reviews that is very helpful is identifying particular problems with certain models of appliances. I've seen, for example, many reports of the same problem with a particular Whirlpool fridge (frosting over and leaking in and from the freezer). I've also learned that LG products are excellent, but when you have a problem, LG service sucks and is hard to find. So while Kenmore may have an ALMOST identical version of the LG fridge, Sears' service is better. Finally...although LG makes some (I don't think all) Kenmore fridges, and they may look identical, they're not quite identical. The one I was considering does not have handles on the LG, while the Kenmore, which looks identical in all other respects, does have handles. LG warranties its compressor for 7 or so yrs; I don't think Sears does. Maytag and Whirlpool are owned by the same co. A model I looked at looked identical online, same dimensions. I saw them in the store, though, and could see that the Whirlpool had a slightly better quality to the materials of the bins and shelves, etc.

Consumer Reports allows anyone to read some portions of their website. However, to get their ratings on various appliances, you need to be an on-line subscriber. I find the small price well worthwhile, even though I also pay for the monthly magazines because I want to understand the products I purchase, esp'ly something that will be in my home many years. The full articles tell you about things like cost, convenience, features, customer service and repair issues. If you do not wish to subscribe, stop at your local library and someone at the reference counter can help you locate the issues which reviewed the appliances you wish to learn more about. They can also help you find that news article you wished that you had clipped. If you have not noticed, the index for each year's product reviews is in the back of each Consumer Reports magazine. I hope this helps you. Julie of Minn.