By Kate Harvey
Content Manager | Pou Whakahaere Ihirangi
If you see any of these 8 products on sale though, we think you’re better off avoiding them.
Our test team have given them some of the lowest scores on our website. If you're a Consumer NZ member, you can use our test results to find much better products.
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JBL Wave Flex 2 ($100)
We’ve got test results for more than 140 headphones and at the bottom are these JBL in-ear headphones. They got the worst overall score in our test. Their sound quality is terrible, and they were uncomfortable to wear. There are a few other in-ear headphones around the same price that earned our Consumer Recommended tick you could look at instead.
Sunbeam Café Barista EM5000 ($301)
One of the worst espresso coffee machines we’ve tested is this widely available Sunbeam model. Our expert taste-testing panel rated the coffee it makes as terrible. There's another coffee machines around the same price that's so good it gets our Consumer Recommended tick.
Withings Scanwatch Light ($479) and Scanwatch 2, 38mm ($669)
These two smartwatches share our lowest scores. They’re both very inaccurate at heart-rate tracking. We give smartwatches a score for the usefulness of their smart features, like calling and messaging – and these Withings watches got terrible scores. You can spend less and get a much better watch by checking out our test of smartwatches and fitness trackers.
Baccarat ID3 hard anodised saucepan with lid, 20cm/3.7L ($190)
For such an expensive saucepan, you’d expect the best. But this one’s induction area doesn’t go right to the edge and it doesn’t cook evenly. Price is no guarantee when it comes to saucepans – some of our favourites are very cheap. We’ve given this Baccarat one the lowest score in our saucepan test.
Bosch WQG24200AU ($1,734)
You’ll be waiting 4 hours for your load of washing to dry in this Bosch dryer. It’s one of the reasons we’ve given it such a low score. There are much cheaper dryers, including one that’s under $600, that will do the job heaps faster. You’ll find them at the top of our clothes dryer test results.
Haier HRF454TW3 top-mount fridge ($1,367)
You wouldn’t catch us buying this fridge-freezer. It's poor at minimising temperature fluctuations, and owners of Haier fridges report the lowest satisfaction with their purchase. This fridge-freezer ended up with the lowest score out of the dozens we’ve tested. There are other fridge-freezers around the same price that get some of the highest scores in our fridge test results.
Living & Co Multi-Cyclonic bagless, corded vacuum ($99)
It’s one of the cheapest vacuums we’ve tested, but unfortunately this vac from The Warehouse also gets our lowest score. The good news is, you can get a much better vacuum around the $200 mark by taking a look at our vacuum test results.
Amazon Echo Pop ($87) and Echo Dot (5th gen) ($108)
Their low price might tempt you when you’re walking around the tech stores. But step away from these speakers. You can definitely do much better than these little Amazon ones. Out of the 68 Bluetooth speakers we’ve tested, they share the worst score. You’ll find some much better and cheaper ones in our Bluetooth speakers test.
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