What's new in Consumer Reports: Home content from the December 2009 issue

The December 2009 issue of Consumer Reports is loaded with coverage of items that will make practical gifts or spectacular additions to any household. (Some items below are available only to subscribers.)

Low-cost, high-performing coffeemakers. We found excellent coffeemakers that cost $20, $40, and $70; the top-rated model topped out at $100. And for $80, you can buy an excellent brew-station type that lets you fill cups directly from the machine.

Lack of versatility dogs pet-hair vacuums. Many vacuums are specifically marketed as the solution to pet-hair problems, but we found none provided a universal panacea. Instead, two mainstream Hoover models stood out for being excellent against pet hair, very good on bare floors, and excellent at cleaning carpets and limiting emissions.

Microwaves that do more. Want convection and speed cook modes? Countertop models from Kenmore and newcomer-to-the-field Cuisinart and an over- the-range model from Samsung offer both; the Cusinart and Samsung also offer grill modes for a taste of summer during the cold months. We also took a look at the innovative Sharp SuperSteam Oven AX-1200[K].

Ranges that make the grade. Induction models are hot, but our tested ones remain pricey at $3,000. Instead, we found four under-$800 ranges from Kenmore and GE that outscored pricier ranges from Dacor and Viking. Move up to the $1,500-to-$2,000 price point, and you'll get a range with a second oven or cooking drawer.

Paper towels in store. Our tests confirmed a similar trend among foods, where store brands outperformed national brands. So you might want to pick some up when you're buying wrapping paper. We also found something for greens to celebrate: One brand of recycled paper performed very well overall. Watch the video on how we test paper towels (above).

Light's (you should toss) out. Discard holiday lights after three seasons. Here's a checklist of things to look for and safe practices to follow when hanging holiday lights.

Technivorm Moccamaster KBT-741 makes great coffee but isn't a perfect machine

Being able to take home a coffeemaker that we're testing for a report on these appliances is among the, um, perks of my job. I recently got to use the Technivorm Moccamaster KBT-741, a $265 machine that's a favorite of many coffee aficionados.

But for all its prowess at achieving the prime temperature the vital for great brewing—195° to 205°F, held for six minutes—during our ongoing testing for an upcoming report on coffeemakers, the 10-cup Moccamaster KBT-741 hasn't impressed when it comes to convenience or carafe handling. Granted, extracting the most flavor from coffee is what matters most, but given the price of this coffeemaker, shouldn't it also be easy to use?

I recently used the Moccamaster KBT-741, made in the Netherlands, at home for a weekend. To my untrained palate, there was a noticeable difference between the coffee my machine brews and that from the Technivorm. Especially when I ground the beans immediately before brewing, the Technivorm delivered a cup of coffee that demanded I sit down, sit still, and do nothing else but savor it.

That said, I also encountered the same problems our testers have seen. What hung me up first was the protection designed to keep you from brewing without the thermal carafe in place. Most coffeemakers have a similar feature, which also lets you pour a cup midbrew. But on this Moccamaster, the brew stop comes in two parts: a button that gets pressed when you push the carafe all the way to the left and a switch on the filter holder that can halt the release of brewed coffee. Position the carafe an eighth of an inch off from the button, and no water will reach the coffee. Press the button without the filter-holder switch in its proper position, and brewing coffee will collect in the filter basket. Fortunately, the two times this happened, I was making only enough for a tall mug.

Also, after making coffee seven times, I also wasn't quite sure about the amount of water required to brew, since the lines on the reservoir didn't correspond to how much coffee I brewed—even after accounting for some evaporation and absorption into the grounds. After I looked at other coffeemakers, I realized that this Technivorm is hardly alone in the disconnect between water in and coffee out. The lesson? When brewing less than a full pot, you need to experiment to get the right amount of water.

As much as I enjoyed the coffee I made with the Technivorm, I can't justify springing for it. That leaves me with my current machine, which looks nice on the counter and does a fine job with decent beans. But I'll miss the coffee that the Moccamaster makes.

So to my colleagues, if I'm not in my office any morning next week, you might find me "testing" the Moccamaster in our labs. Just follow the coffee aroma.—Ed Perratore | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Check out our buyer's guide to coffeemakers, which includes ratings of drip and pod models and espresso makers. And read our latest report on coffee. Ratings and report available to subscribers.

By the Numbers: Sluggish appliance industry looks for jolt from coffeemaker sales

26 percent

Increase in usage reported by owners of espresso/cappuccino coffeemakers over the past one to two years due to the recession, according to new research from the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers.

The home-brewed approach is saving those consumers as much as $1,000 per year, says AHAM. You can do the math, but given the high price of coffeehouse concoction, the $4 you don't spend every day on a mocha-frappe-la-di-dah will add up quickly.

People who drink just a regular cup of joe stand to save less, which may explain why only 9 percent of owners of auto-drip coffeemakers say they're using their machines more often. Owners of single-serve coffeemakers reported a 21 percent increase in use since the recession began.

The Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Colombian that topped the ratings (available to subscribers) in our latest report on coffee costs only 15 cents cup.

These are tough times for the appliance industry—year-over-year shipments of major appliances were down nearly 30 percent in June—so perhaps AHAM deserves a pass for reading too much into the tea leaves, er, coffee beans.—Daniel DiClerico | e-mail | Twitter | Forums | Facebook

Essential information: Check out our coffeemakers product page, which includes free buying advice and ratings (available to subscribers) of drip, espresso, and pod-style machines. We'll be adding new espresso machines to the mix later this year. And read this blog post about how our testers checked out the off flavors and odors they detected in the heated water that came out of some coffeemakers when they first used them.

Back-to-School Appliance-Buying Guide

Hard times don't mean college students have to give up healthful, tasty food. These appliances will come in handy whether your son or daughter lives in a dorm or an off-campus apartment. And while this gear won't turn your college-age cooks into an Iron Chef, it can save them some money and add variety and spice to their diet. (Suggested reading for rising college students worried about packing on the pounds during freshman year: "Fast Food Nearby: Convenience, But at What Cost?" )

Be sure to check your school's guidelines about appliances, and see the rest of our back-to-school coverage.

Compact Refrigerators

The "dorm-room refrigerator" moniker shows how closely compact refrigerators have become identified with college life, but only some of the models we tested made the grade. Many models have a single temperature-control dial, so you can't find an ideal temperature between the refrigerator and freezer sections. And all that we tested for this report are comparative energy hogs.

Only two refrigerators we tested had freezer sections that were able to keep frozen confections from turning to mush, and the 3.7-cubic-foot Avanti 308YWT, $200, flunked basic refrigeration. Choose the 4.6-cubic-foot Frigidaire FRC05L5D, $150, if your student will be a frequent frozen-food diner. Tell your kid to discard frozen foods that have been stored above 40°F for more than two hours, and print out these food-storage tips for him or her.

If you're willing to sacrifice capacity and freezing ability, the 2.5-cubic-foot capacity Sanyo SR-2570M, $130, combined reasonable performance and capacity with quiet operation; it also falls within the size limits imposed by many colleges. The 1.8-cubic-foot Haier HSA02, $100, the only recommended small cube-sized model, performed the best by far as a refrigerator and was quiet.

See the ratings (available to subscribers) for full details.

Coffeemakers

Many a college student has relied on coffee to get through finals, but these countertop appliances can also save your kid some real money by keeping them out of overpriced coffeehouses. Check out our March 2009 report on coffee.

If your student will make just a cup or two at a time, consider the standout $25 Melitta and $30 Cuisinart in our ratings (available to subscribers); both brew in a thermal container that can be taken to class. Multiple-cup standouts include a $40 Michael Graves model and the top-rated Cuisinart model, $99. If you want a model with a built-in grinder, check out the Mr. Coffee GBX23, $50, or the DGB-600BC, $160.

Smaller-footprint pod coffeemakers would seem an excellent choice for college, especially since they're simple to use and create less mess. But they require more expensive custom pods to brew coffee, so you might be better off stuffing your care packages with a top-rated coffee from our latest report.

Microwave Ovens

As with compact refrigerators, the usable space microwave ovens provide often is less than manufacturers claim, sometimes by up to 50 percent. When shopping, bring the boxes or clean, empty containers from your kid's preferred frozen foods to the store to see whether they fit inside the oven.

The best countertop models take the guesswork out of cooking and have settings for foods like popcorn, oatmeal, and pasta as well as for reheating or defrosting.

Among recommended models (available to subscribers) the Kenmore 6325[2], $130, bested the sharp-looking Panasonic Inverter NN-SD697[S] $160, at defrosting. And although it's not a conventional microwave oven, the $150 NuWave Pro Infrared Oven excelled at cooking some foods (especially chicken); it takes up about the same amount of space as a microwave.

Last-minute Mother's Day gifts for the home

Unless you've somehow managed to avoid reading, watching, surfing, or listening to all media sources, you know that Sunday, May 10, is Mother's Day. It's up to you determine what your budget allows for gifts, but whatever you buy the moms in your life, it's probably money well spent: A recent study said fair corporate-world compensation for a stay-at-home mom would be $123,000 a year. (The Mom Salary Wizard is another way to determine that salary.)

If you haven't yet picked up your Mother's Day gift(s), consider the items below. And if you'd rather go the DIY route, fire up your gas or charcoal grill and make lunch or dinner this Sunday using these easy, delicious recipes for the grill. (Hint: Do postmeal cleanup, too.)

The Fiesta Blue Ember FG50069-U409 and the Char-Broil Red 463250509, each $450, surpassed grills costing as much as $1,400, as covered in our June 2009 report on gas grills (available to subscribers) Or consider the NuWave Pro Infrared Oven, $120. In our test, it cooked some foods well in less time than a conventional oven and was easy to clean.

If you're looking for a kitchen gear, here are some good options:

• The top-rated Cuisinart DLC-2011BCN food processor, $200, outperformed models costing twice as much when it came to chopping, pureeing, and mixing dough. If you don't need a machine that's good at kneading dough, consider the $180 Hamilton Beach Eclectrics 6322 stand mixer.

• If mom needs new kitchen knives, consider the stamped-steel knife sets from Oxo and Chicago Cutlery or the forged-steel set from Ginsu; the sets cost $60 to $100.

• And the $40 Michael Graves model was among the top scorers in our latest report on coffeemakers.

If mom's a DIYer, our tool-and-power-equipment guru Peter Sawchuk recommends the 2.3-pound Ryobi HJP001K, an easy-to-handle cordless drill/driver with a fast recharge time. For yard care, Sawchuk likes the $70 Toro Ultra Blower Vac leaf blower, with a compact design. A top-mounted motor and curved shaft makes the Black & Decker GH1000 electric string trimmer, $70 easy to handle. And if the yard's on the small side, mom might like the Black & Decker MM875 electric lawn mower, $230, which is easy to use and offers very good mulching.—Gian Trotta | e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Check out the recommended Mother's Day gifts from our colleagues who cover consumer electronics.

Energy-efficiency faux pas: SNL ignored CFLs during April 4 show opener

The April 4, 2009, episode of Saturday Night Live opened with a presidential address, with SNL vet Fred Armisen playing Barack Obama (the link takes you to a video of the opener; there's an ad before it starts). The president, in an address from Europe, explained that some people thought the administration had been unfairly hard on American car companies when it came to the federal bailout. So, the president explained, all industries would get the same vetting that the automakers had—those businesses that proved themselves viable would get cash from Uncle Sam; those deemed incapable of competing would be immediately shut down.

Armisen does a decent job as the president, and it was a so-so opening to the show, hosted by Seth Rogen. Interestingly, among the products featured, we follow some for the Home & Garden blog, including:

Lightbulbs: The only beef to pick with the opening has to do with the lightbulbs category, in which GE was allowed to shine on while Sylvania was switched off. It was a bit obvious for SNL, whose studios are in the GE Building, to choose its parent company's products. But the real issue is that the bulb that appeared on screen was an incandescent (shown) and not a compact fluorescent lightbulb. Given the real president's energy-efficiency initiatives, you figure that the SNL producers might have shown a CFL.

Riding lawn mowers: John Deere got the thumbs-up and Toro received the bad news. SNL should have checked our new ratings (available to subscribers) of tractors and zero-turn-radius riding mowers: Both John Deere and Toro do a good job.

Air conditioners: Lennox received the nod while Carrier got shut off.

Coffeemakers: KitchenAid was told it could survive but Mr. Coffee learned it must go. Both brands make machines that do well in our ratings.

To the producers of SNL: Next time you're running a skit that mentions home products and appliances, drop us a line. We'll steer you in the right direction.—Steven H. Saltzman | e-mail | Twitter

Of soccer and coffee: Save money on coffee by skipping the fancy stuff

Maybe this over-the-top youth-soccer coach should have gone with the decaf.

Last week, before the start of the current soccer season, Michael Kinahan sent out an e-mail to parents of the girls' soccer team he was coaching in Scituate, Massachusetts. But it wasn't the usual rah-rah, we're-gonna-have-a-fun-season note.

Instead, in what Kinahan said was "largely (albeit not completely) meant in jest," according to The Patriot Ledger, he wrote parents all manner of outlandish comments about the team he called "Green Death," including:

• "We do not cater to superstars, but prefer the gritty determination of journeymen who bring their lunch pail to work every week, chase every ball and dig in corners like a Michael Vick pit bull."

• "The kids will run, they will fall, get bumps, bruises and even bleed a little. Big deal, it's good for them (but I do hope the other team is the one bleeding)."

• "And speaking of meat, I expect that the ladies be put on a diet of fish, undercooked red meat and lots of veggies. No junk food."

Read the rest of the e-mail on Deadspin.com.

Some parents and the Scituate Youth Soccer League weren't amused, and Kinahan resigned. Perhaps those parents were offended because Kinahan implored them to not be "yuppies who sit on the sidelines in their L.L. Bean chairs sipping mocha-latte-half-caf-chinos while discussing reality TV."

In the spirit of Kinahan's coffee commentary, we'd recommend that Scituate parents check out our report on ground 100 percent Colombian coffees (available to subscribers). In the caffeinated category, we found that Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Colombian served up the best combination of taste and price. And given its modest cost—only 15 cents per cup—it's definitely less pricey than a coffeehouse concoction.—Kimberly Janeway e-mail | Twitter

Essential information: Find the best coffeemaker to brew your favorite coffee. And watch our video on coffee grinders (right).

Q&A: Can drinking coffee raise my cholesterol level?

I've read that oils in coffee can raise cholesterol. Do some brewing methods produce more of these oils? Are paper filters better than metal ones?

Studies have linked two oils produced when coffee is brewed to increases in both total and low-density-lipoprotein (LDL, or bad) cholesterol levels. Researchers believe the amount of the cafestol and kahweol oils that ends up in the coffee you drink depends on the brewing method you use and how the water comes in contact with the ground coffee.

Drip coffeemakers, like those we tested in our latest report on these appliances, distribute water to the grounds gently enough so that the cafestol and kahweol pass through only in negligible amounts whether you use a paper or a metal filter. The same goes for instant coffee and coffee brewed in a traditional percolator.

But the studies have found that other brewing methods might boost both total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol. The Scandinavian boiled, Turkish/Greek/Mediterranean (shown), and French-press brewing methods addressed in these studies produced coffee with relatively high levels of cafestol and kahweol. Espresso contains more of the oils, and even boiling water poured onto ground coffee can result in the release of the oils.

If you're watching your cholesterol, you might be better off not using one these brewing methods on a regular basis.—Ed Perratore

Essential information: Read our March 2009 report on caffeinated and decaffeinated coffees (available to subscribers). Learn more about cholesterol and how to maintain healthy levels.

Vintage coffee: Two industrial films tell it like it used to be

The chart topping-performance by Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Colombian in our latest report on coffee (available to subscribers) brought to mind those far-off days when there wasn't a blessed thing to do on Sunday afternoon but sit around in my aunt's back yard in New Jersey and drink coffee.

Not Caribou or Kickapoo or Starbucks coffee, either. This was 1965 or so, and if you were drinking coffee, it was Bokar, Red Circle, Savarin, or good old Eight O'Clock. And it flowed from a massive aluminum percolator after brewing for what always seemed like at least four hours.

Maybe it was that percolator or all that half-and-half we dumped into our cups before dunking a huge hunk of my aunt's dense, butter-rich pound cake. But my aunt's coffee and those quiet Sundays were memorable.

Two films from the Prelinger Archives on Archive.org evoke that lost time with a beguiling mix of promotion, propaganda, and still-current facts on the making of what now surpasses even soda in popularity among adults—at least when it comes to soft drinks.

This Is Coffee, from 1961, is easily the better of the two pieces. The 12-minute film's faded color images take you through such "exotic" choices as café au lait and cappuccino as you visit South America. A Latin-tinged beat keeps the cadence as the buttery-voiced announcer talks you through "proper" coffee-making ("fresh water, the right grind, and time, carefully measured does the trick").

You even get the recipe for percolator coffee (six to eight minutes over gentle heat) for "the romance of evening when young dreams grow softly." Never mind that the Cold War was simmering to a boil; in this film made by the Coffee Brewers Institute, all is sweetness and light in this best of all possible worlds.

Time For Coffee is even older. Judging by the cars and clothes (see the photo, above), it hails from somewhere just before Elvis gyrated onto the scene. This 12-minute-plus film, fittingly enough sponsored by the A&P Coffee Division of the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, is a sort of Weekly Reader look at how coffee gets from the ground to your table. There amid an army of apparently contented villagers, the film takes you through the 24 major operations required, though I confess I counted more like 12, from picking, crushing, and washing the berries to drying, packing, roasting, tasting, shipping, retasting, and sealing the resulting beans.

And sure enough, as the sealed, packaged bags of finished coffee move down the space-age conveyor belt, there's the Eight O'Clock wending its way down the line toward some long-cleared breakfast table somewhere in an America long past.—Bob Markovich

Essential information: Find the best coffeemaker to brew your favorite coffee.

A top coffee in our latest report is getting a makeover

Eight O'Clock Coffee has been around for 150 years, making it older than long-established brands like Maxwell House (1892) and Chock full o'Nuts (1926) as well as relative newcomer Starbucks (1971).

Despite its age, Eight O'Clock remains a fresh choice. In our test of 13 major brands of ground, caffeinated 100 percent Colombian coffees (available to subscribers), we found that Eight O'Clock Coffee 100% Colombian offered the best combination of taste and price. A complex blend of earthy and fruity notes and a bright, pleasing sourness helped distinguish the Eight O'Clock. And at about $6 per pound, it costs much less than several tonier-but-not-tastier coffees.

Even with this success, Eight O'Clock is giving all of its coffees a packaging face-lift. You can help determine the updated look of the company's coffees—including the Original, whose familiar red bag will morph into one of the two designs shown—by participating in the Packaging Makeover Sweepstakes. This ultimate design by committee runs until March 15 and includes more than 150 prizes, with a $5,000 top award.

Whether this promotion will pay off at the store is anyone's guess. With any luck, the company won't mess with the taste of its coffees or boost the prices once the bill for the design work and giveaway come due.—Bob Markovich

Essential information: Find the best coffeemaker to brew your favorite coffee.