Consumer Reports June 2021

THE PASSAGE OF TIME has become a curious thing over the past year as we have dealt with a pandemic and its aftershocks. Some days seem to last for a week, and then a season passes as quickly as an afternoon. Like you, I am ready to spend more time outside and return to doing more normal things safely. This is also a time for us to reflect on what we have learned along the way. At CR we have been tracking how consumers’ lives have been affected over this past year. We began tracking U.S. adults’ concerns about the pandemic in March 2020, surveying as many as 2,500 people each month on whether they were experiencing food shortages; still using public transportation; planning to head back to movie theaters, restaurants,…

Pushing for Safer Furniture WHAT’S AT STAKE An average of two children are killed every month by a TV or piece of furniture that topples onto them, and thousands more are seriously injured every year. This doesn’t have to happen: CR’s testing team has shown that it’s possible to manufacture affordable furniture that isn’t prone to tip-overs. But the current stability standard for dressers—one of the furniture types most likely to tip over—is voluntary, and too weak to protect children from risk. HOW CR HAS YOUR BACK CR has been calling for a strong, mandatory stability standard for dressers for three years. The Stop Tip-overs of Unstable, Risky Dressers on Youth (STURDY) Act, which passed the U.S. House with bipartisan support in 2019 but didn’t clear the Senate, would have directed the Consumer Product Safety…

THANK YOU for your “green leaf” Green Choice vehicle initiative. It is a great idea, and I like the way you are implementing it. As you wrote, air pollution affects almost everybody, though to different degrees. Is it also possible to do something like this with your appliance ratings? —Kostadin Dyulgerski, Denver EDITOR’S NOTE Sustainability is a key part of our mission here at CR. We have a track record of promoting energy and fuel efficiency through ratings and policy, and we are committed to bringing the full power of CR to address climate change and environmental concerns more broadly. Our Green Choice designation for vehicles is a big step forward, and we are currently considering how we might incorporate more sustainability information in other product categories. I READ YOUR April auto issue…

Android Smartphones WE TESTED: 45 models WE TEST FOR: Battery life and speed of charging, quality of screen display, rear and front-facing cameras, durability of construction, ease of use, and more. ABOUT THE SCORES: Median: 72 Range: 58-85 Great Display & WiFi 6 Capable Samsung Galaxy S10+ (6.5” display) $850 84 OVERALL SCORE Long Battery Life (41.5 Hours) OnePlus Nord N10 5G (6.5” display) $300 81 OVERALL SCORE Smaller & Lightweight Google Pixel 5 (6” display) $700 72 OVERALL SCORE Exterior Paints WE TESTED: 15 products WE TEST FOR: How paint looks on a vertical wall after the equivalent of three years, six years, and nine years of weathering. ABOUT THE SCORES: Median: 60 Range: 30-75 Best Overall Behr Ultra Exterior (Home Depot) $42 75 OVERALL SCORE Great Choice for Less Clark+Kensington Exterior (Ace) $35 75 OVERALL SCORE No VOCs Sherwin-Williams Emerald Exterior $72 73 OVERALL SCORE Cordless Drills WE TESTED: 35 models WE TEST FOR: Power level, speed of drilling holes…

I saw a puddle of clear fluid under my parked car. Should I be worried? WHEN YOU SEE even a small amount of fluid under your car, it’s only natural to think the car could be leaking oil, coolant, or even brake fluid. But don’t panic: If it’s a warm day and you’ve had your air conditioning on, it might be just water. When the A/C system cools the air inside your vehicle, it also removes moisture. This moisture collects as condensation and usually drains under your car. “Take a minute to do a quick spot check to be sure,” says John Ibbotson, CR’s chief mechanic. (You could let the fluid drip onto a piece of cardboard to get a closer look.) If the fluid has a smell, appears thick, or has…

IN THE KNOW THE MOST ACCURATE BATHROOM SCALES STEPPING ONTO A SCALE on a regular basis to track your weight is an important way to achieve your health goals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But it’s essential that your scale be accurate—and that’s not something you can easily verify on your own at home. That’s where CR’s labs come in: First, we use our own calibrated scale (accurate to the hundredth of a pound) and put stackable weights on it to get a “control” reading, says Bernie Deitrick, CR’s lead scale tester. Then we compare those readings with the numbers from each store-bought bathroom scale we test to assess the accuracy of each model. The weights we use mimic people who weigh 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, 210,…