Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier • Hacker News Board

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#141

Post by technothrasher » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:25 PM UTC

mattacular wrote: post #81

hypersoar wrote: post #51

The Wirecutter is a highly flawed review site, but at least it's a real one. There are vanishingly few left for general consumer products. There's WC, Consumer Reports, and what else? They've seem to have all been killed off. When I'm researching some category of product, I feel lucky if I find any professional reviews written by people who have actually touched the thing they're reviewing. I know we've all had the e…

Consumer Reports used to be good but it seems to have gone through change in management or something because now it is indistinguishable from the avg SEO spam site.

I gave up on Consumer Reports many, many years ago when they got caught taking kickbacks from tire manufacturers.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#142

Post by hansword » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #82

mrkwse wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will be interesting if LMG can pull off what Linus is aiming for with the massive investment in a laboratory environment. There are huge parts of the tech market where the most critical reviewing you can find is anecdotal accounts of if the reviewer liked a product or not (or the more clinical reviews are drowned out by the anecdotal noise).

I'm hopeful for LMG's lab too. It's still a bit of a gamble, but from the sound of it the company is set up such that they can review products in an objective, data-backed way and tank any blowback from manufacturers that occurs as a result. It's much more focused on enthusiast computer hardware, but Gamers Nexus[0] is doing good things in this space too. Their style is much more dry and data-dense than LMG's though,…

I want to second the gamers nexus recommendation here.

(To be frank, I think LMG labs is very much inspired by what GN has been doing over the last year or two.)

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#143

Post by aiisjustanif » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

allenu wrote: post #125

hypersoar wrote: post #51

The Wirecutter is a highly flawed review site, but at least it's a real one. There are vanishingly few left for general consumer products. There's WC, Consumer Reports, and what else? They've seem to have all been killed off. When I'm researching some category of product, I feel lucky if I find any professional reviews written by people who have actually touched the thing they're reviewing. I know we've all had the e…

> I feel lucky if I find any professional reviews written by people who have actually touched the thing they're reviewing I would say even Wirecutter doesn't always do this. I recall doing research on some products before and encountering a Wirecutter article and the research was essentially just what they themselves pieced together from online sources. They didn't actually try any of the products themselves (they ad…

I’m going to dissent here on this thread because I’m not seeing any references. I personally feel the quality of Wirecutter has gone down since NY Times just a bit. However, after almost a decade of reading Wirecutter they have overwhelming provided a decent “why you should trust us” section for staple consumer items. There is a good example from just today. [1] You can always say they should do more, but honestly they do more research that many others in the space.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-air-conditio...

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#144

Post by hubraumhugo » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

Since most people are relying on Reddit for product research, this list of the most discussed air purifiers on r/AirPurifiers might be a good start too: https://looria.com/reddit/AirPurifiers/products

What enthusiasts and authentic users say is far more valuable than an article that was made for views by some corporates. Redditors and other forum members are more interested in boosting their ego by showing their depth of knowledge on the topic (and correcting others on the topic), whereas corporate websites are more interested in raking profit by displaying (potentially) dishonest information.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#145

Post by Ataraxic » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

gigaflop wrote: post #88

Ataraxic wrote: post #18

Looking at the wattage comparisons, the article talks about the "Wirecutter recommended air purifier" but seems to go out of its way to not mention it by name. Why? Second, I don't believe this air purifier, or really any recommended air purifier is going to use 45 watts for any extended period of time. The main power draw is simply the fan and a fan using 45 watts is going to be extremely loud. Secondly, I think the…

I interpret that the lack of names (WC pick 1, 2, etc) is to keep focus on the core message, and to not give out free advertising. While I happily admit to use of certain products, I don't want to serve as a billboard for them.

Sure totally, it just makes it harder for me to verify _their_ numbers though.

Someone else replied to me and said it is the levoit core 300. Their fan does seem weirdly inefficient, but comparing the high mode of the levoit model to the ikea isn't really the right comparison imo.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#146

Post by mh- » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:26 PM UTC

r12343a_19 wrote: post #107

mh- wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. Especially since covid. This was just the first link that came up, but there was state-level funding going back to 2021 at least for this in some places. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-covid-funding-could-...

I knew that but funding was for big ventilation. I wonder if any of these home-use devices have been deployed and if there's some data with comparative results.

At the schools my kids were in, they deployed commercial-looking freestanding units. I don't know if that was intended to be a temporary measure until they got central units installed.

I haven't seen any data, agree it would be nice to know.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#147

Post by viktorcode » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:27 PM UTC

hypersoar wrote: post #51

The Wirecutter is a highly flawed review site, but at least it's a real one. There are vanishingly few left for general consumer products. There's WC, Consumer Reports, and what else? They've seem to have all been killed off. When I'm researching some category of product, I feel lucky if I find any professional reviews written by people who have actually touched the thing they're reviewing. I know we've all had the e…

There is Rtings for television, and other specialised sites for other product categories. I don't think you can stick to any general review source and consistently get quality reviews.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#148

Post by backtoyoujim » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:28 PM UTC

Ikea interested me when they worked with teenage engineering for some silly bits. But that was quickly reduced into a markup game from resellers so it lost my interest.

bless their hearts and billy-bookcases but they have never moved me on much else.

and i don't need my home-appliance obsolescence bar to descend even further towards flat-pack territory.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#149

Post by jfim » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

rkagerer wrote: post #104

lozenge wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found similar at the UK take, Which. Everything is boiled down to star ratings and then Mail Merge creates the review text. Apparently, each air purifier which can handle a large room is big, heavy and loud. And the air purifiers that score highly on being quiet have the downside that they can only handle small rooms. Oh, and they did measure the CADR, and will tell you that "this air purifier scored five stars on…

For air purifiers, if cost is no constraint, my IQAir GC has worked like a champ. The lower three speeds are reasonably quiet, and speed 6 cleans out the room in no time when my partner burns the cooking. Comes with a 10 year warranty.

Keep in mind air purifiers are just a fan with filters in front of it. A box fan with a furnace filter strapped to it, while ugly, will do similarly for reducing the amount of particles in the room.

What you're paying for is basically three things: a design that looks acceptable in a room, a fan that's reasonably quiet, and ability to source filters in the future.

Re: Contra Wirecutter on the IKEA air purifier

#150

Post by rahimnathwani » Mon, Jun 20, 2022, 6:29 PM UTC

kllrnohj wrote: post #68

rahimnathwani wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article didn't say HEPA has no definition. It said that 'true-HEPA' has no definition.

Which seems intentionally nitpicky given that "HEPA" is defined and the Ikea one doesn't meet it while the others do. Therefore, "true-HEPA" almost certainly just means "HEPA", and the "true" just means "is actually HEPA" not some other special definition. The rest of the article's points are good, but this one comes across as just axe grinding.

Yeah. I'd assumed that 'true-HEPA' was a made-up term intended to trick people into thinking something is HEPA when it's actually worse. But that doesn't seem to be the case.