Consumer Reports' 75 years of flops and latter-day stinkers

Our latest list of Best & Worst Home & Yard Products includes a rogues’ gallery of unimpressive coffeemakers, air purifiers, oven cleaners, and others from our tests. But we’ve also seen some product categories we once maligned turn into winners—and others remain iffy in our tests.

French-door fridges make good
“Who would want the French-door models?” we asked during our first, 1996, test of these models, which put the freezer on the bottom and split the fridge portion so you can open one or both doors. French-door refrigerators are now the fastest-growing segment, cost less than before, and outperform many top-freezer and side-by-side models. Notable performers from our most recent tests include the Samsung RF266AE[WP], $1500, and the Whirlpool Gold GX5FHTXV[Q], $1700.

Oven cleaners fall by history’s wayside
“Dirty, undignified, and hard on the back,” is how we described oven cleaning in 1980. Brush-on pastes were tedious, and aerosols could burn skin and eyes. Today’s self-cleaning ovens make these products largely unnecessary. Among wall ovens, the Kenmore Elite 4809[3] $2,100, and the Bosch HBL54[50]UC, $1,900, were impressive at removing baked-on food in our latest tests of wall ovens. Both are also top picks.

Coffeemakers clean up their act
In 1958, this Cory vacuum coffeemaker spurted water when pushed upon too hard. Now simpler—and neater—drip coffeemakers like the Cuisinart Brew Central DCC-1200, $100 and the Kalorik CM25282, $80, are the norm. Even simpler and less messy: Single-serve pod coffeemakers like the Senseo Supreme 7832, $130—which outscored models from Keurig, Bosch and Krups in our tests—are steadily gaining market share, although none of them scored highly enough to make our winner's circle. And there’s still one other frontier to conquer: a talking coffeemaker that actually listens.

Air purifiers still go with the wind
Consumer Reports’ tests have included some notably ineffective air purifiers, including some from the Sharper Image brand that declared bankruptcy in 2008 but was purchased a year later by private investors, who now license its name to other products.

Some air purifiers in our latest tests were also unimpressive. The plant-based Andrea, $200—yes, there’s a real plant inside—and LightAir IonFlow 50F, $400, were dismal at removing dust and smoke; we judged the LightAir a Don’t Buy: Performance Problem. And last week, the Oreck Corporation agreed to stop making “allegedly false and unproven claims” about its ProShield Plus air cleaner, paying a hefty $750,000 to the Federal Trade Commission as part of that settlement. Consumer Reports had judged the $400 ProShield Plus to be only slightly more effective than the LightAir.

If you really need an air purifier, consider the Whirlpool AP51030K, $300, and Hunter 30547, $260. Both worked very well even at the lower, quieter fan speeds best suited for use in bedrooms. But before buying an air purifier, try these ways to improve indoor air quality from the Environmental Protection Agency and Consumer Reports. Proper vacuuming can also safeguards indoor air quality, and our Buying Guide to vacuums includes Ratings (available to subscribers) that measure each model’s emissions as well as cleaning performance.

We’ve also got a details on the best houseplants to improve indoor air quality—just be careful not to pick any named Andrea or Audrey II.