I am talking about, if I need a shampoo, or a vacuum cleaner, or an office chair, how do I find out what to buy without reading articles or watching videos which might be paid ads hidden as reviews?
Do you guys know any website or community where you can find reviews / rankings of common products?
I want fact-based choices not just preferences.
Easy if you live in Germany! I go to test.de, search for what I‘m interested in, and pay them 4,90€ to access the test results.
They‘re a foundation, originally founded by the German federal state, and the only way they make money is by selling access to test results.
Why are you germans always amazing? Is there like a genius bacteria in your water?
I don’t take any credit for this, but the people who set this up were indeed amazing! Roland Johannes Hüttenrauch specifically lead the organization for 27 years (!) and built the institution that it is today. Pretty great people!
Similar in Australia
choice.com.au
Uses to work at a shop that sold garden tools, and some of the older guys working there had a pretty good idea what fits your needs. However when a test for lawnmowers came out pretty much everyone agreed that the test methods where rubbish, and they did not agree with the results. I think they did not consider maintenance costs, repairability and where wrong about the size of the lawnmower to cut your lawn in the optimal time.
I always wonder how the test methods are on other topics I don’t know anything about.
I agree that they sometimes tend to weigh the wrong things as important.
However, I don’t expect to buy the absolute best product if I buy the products they score high. I just expect that whatever I buy will be de-risked: It‘ll be pretty good and there’s basically no chance that I buy rubbish.