Treat Yourself: Use Your Gift Cards on These Top Home Products

This nonstick, cast-aluminum frying pan earns a CR recommendation for its even cooking ability, sturdy construction, and durable surface. Its handle stayed cool to the touch during cooking, and the nonstick coating stood up well to the steel wool abrasion test in CR’s labs. It comes with a lifetime warranty.

For more options: Best Nonstick Frying Pans

Lodge has been making cast-iron frying pans in its Tennessee foundry since 1896. This 12-inch Lodge is top-notch at browning scallops and earns an Excellent rating for searing a steak. Baking is only so-so, though. Heating evenness is also mediocre. It weighs 7.8 pounds, which is about average in this category.

For more options: Best Cast-Iron Frying Pans

The 12-piece Cuisinart Green Gourmet nonstick set aces all our key cooking tests. Pancakes brown evenly in the frying pan, and eggs slide out one after another without sticking. We were able to easily maintain sauce at a low simmer, and the 6-quart Dutch oven quickly brings water to a near-boil. This top-scoring set is made of anodized aluminum, which hardens the surface. One of the pieces is a steamer insert.

For more options: Best Cookware Sets

The 5.5-quart Le Creuset Signature tops our ratings in this category. It earns an Excellent rating in our browning tests, the only Dutch oven to do so, and is a cinch to clean. It weighs 12 pounds, less than most, and has an 8-inch cooking diameter. The loop handles are nice and wide.

For more options: Best Dutch Ovens

This Cuisinart drip coffee maker with a stainless steel finish and glass carafe earns an Excellent rating for brew performance. It’s programmable and features a water filter, a permanent coffee filter, a cleaning mode, a cleaning indicator, and auto-shutoff. The machine also allows you to adjust the strength of your brew. For the money, this model offers style and features that are hard to beat.

For more options: Best Drip Coffee Makers

The Nespresso VertuoLine Evoluo Deluxe is the best VertuoLine model in our tests. It offers a superb brewing range as well as solid first-cup speed and cup-size consistency. And Nespresso machines earn a rating of Excellent for owner satisfaction in our surveys. In terms of features, this machine offers a removable water reservoir, a height-adjustable drip tray, and an auto-shutoff function. And the Evoluo Deluxe can brew both coffee and espresso, depending on the VertuoLine capsules you use.

For more options: Best Pod Coffee Makers

In our evaluation of cold brew machines, the Cuisinart Automatic Cold Brew Coffeemaker DCB-10 performed better than automatic models that cost almost twice as much. It does well across all our tests, and it's the only model to receive a Very Good rating for ease of cleaning. Most parts are dishwasher-safe, unlike the other models in its class. This Cuisinart comes with a glass carafe (not plastic, like some competing models) and brews a full 35-ounce carafe in 25 to 45 minutes—a snap compared with the 12 to 14 hours it can take without an automatic brewing machine.

For more options: Best Cold Brew Coffee Makers

The Oxo Brew Conical Burr Coffee Grinder is a fantastic grinder and one of the more affordable models that does well in our tests. It receives strong scores in our grind performance tests, making it a good choice for any brew method you want to use. It also earns a Very Good rating for convenience, thanks to its clearly marked and easy-to-use controls. Our testers find it extremely easy to clean, too, because it has a removable hopper. It features 15 grind settings, a 12-ounce bean hopper (one of the largest), an auto-stop feature, and a timer.

For more options: Best and Worst Burr Coffee Grinders

A CR Best Buy, the GoWise GW22731 has a measured capacity of 4.9 quarts. Its touch buttons and programmed settings are among the easiest to see and use, earning an Excellent rating in our assessment. And this is one of the quietest air fryers we tested. The exterior’s crevices and the basket’s nooks and crannies take some effort to clean, however. It comes with a one-year warranty.

For more options: Best Air Fryers

The Chefman was the only waffle maker we tested to snag a CR Best Buy designation. For far less money than most of the competition, this machine churns out evenly browned round waffles. It garners a Very Good rating for its color-range settings, meaning there’s a remarkable difference between waffles made on the darkest setting (brown and crispy) and lightest setting (light and fluffy). It has an indicator light to let you know when the waffles are ready, the option to store it vertically to save space, and a batter cup for precise portioning. However, the handle and latch get uncomfortably warm during cooking, despite the “cool touch” claims, so you may want to use an oven mitt when opening and closing the lid.

For more options: Best Waffle Makers

The 6-quart Zavor Lux LCD gets perfect scores in our tests for pressure-cooking succulent, fall-off-the-bone ribs; steaming broccoli and carrots; and slow-cooking thick, tender chili (a test most pressure-cooker models don’t excel at). The 1,000-watt cooker has a stainless steel insert, which proved to be more durable than nonstick coated inserts in our tests.

For more options: Best Multi-Cookers

Despite the name, the Instant Zest 8-cup is actually a 4-cup rice cooker. (The “8-cup” refers to cooked rice; most rice cookers go by dry measurements.) Like most of the rice cookers in our ratings, this one scores a Very Good rating for cooking rice. One taster on our trained panel said the brown rice made in the Zest had a good texture and a nice bite. However, many tasters found that while the white rice was cooked through, it often came out a little sticky.

For more options: Best Rice Cookers

The Hamilton Beach Eclectrics 63221 is top-notch at whipping and mixing, and almost as good at kneading. It has the distinction of being the quietest model in our tests, earning an Excellent rating for noise: Whipping cream in this mixer is much quieter than making a smoothie in a blender. The 12-speed mixer comes with a 4.5-quart stainless steel bowl, flat beater, dough hook, and wire whisk. At 17 pounds, it’s the lightest of our recommended stand mixers, and you can’t use it with power attachments like you can with the other models. It comes in white, black, red, and stainless steel.

For more options: Best Stand Mixers

The 600-watt Instant Pot Ace Multi-Use blender earns an Excellent rating in our icy-drinks tests, which means whoever receives this as a gift can expect smoothies with a smooth, consistent texture, though it's better at blending bananas and other soft fruits than puréeing carrots and apples. There are settings for blending milk made of nuts, rice, or soy, and one for blending and cooking hot soup. We made a cannellini cauliflower soup in about 25 minutes following an Instant Pot recipe, and it turned out nice and hot, thanks to the blender's 700-watt built-in heater. The container is glass.

For more options: Best Blenders Under $100

The Black+Decker 8-Slice Digital Extra Wide TO3290XSD snags a Very Good rating in our reheating test, evenly reheating a single serving of lasagna in 15 minutes. In other words, it won't take you long to get leftovers on the table. This 1,500-watt toaster oven has a temperature range of 150° F to 450° F, and there are three rack positions. The additional functions are what you'd expect—reheat, bake, and broil—and there are settings for bagels and pizza.

For more options: Best Toaster Ovens

This 50-inch LCD (LED) 4K UHD TV from LG, in a basic 4K series for 2021, delivers satisfying overall picture quality—better than the 43-inch version, also tested—but its HDR has limited effectiveness. (It supports only HDR10 and HLG HDR formats.) It lacks the wider viewing angle we often see on LG sets, but its sound is very good. LG’s models this year come with an updated webOS smart TV system that replaces the bar at the bottom with a full-screen menu system. It has LG’s ThinQ, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant built in, and it supports Apple AirPlay 2 and HomeKit. It comes with a redesigned Magic Remote with dedicated buttons for popular streaming services.

For more options: Best TVs

Amazon’s Echo Show 10 features a large, 10-inch touch screen display that uses motion-sensing technology and a silent electric motor hidden in its base to follow you as you move around your kitchen. It’s great for reading a recipe or watching a quick how-to video, tasks that you might otherwise consign to a phone or tablet, but with the Show 10 there’s no need to touch the screen with messy hands.

Our testers found the model to be super-easy to set up and use, and quite versatile. The sound quality was fine, but it fell a little short of the previous generation Show, largely because of a slight plasticky distortion in the midrange.

For more options: Best Smart Speakers

The Sonos Five sounds great, but just as important, it plays well with others . . . as long as those others are Sonos-compatible speakers. Almost identical in sound and functionality to the manufacturer’s venerable Play:5, the Sonos Five is a large stereo speaker in a single enclosure. Its powerful bass, shimmering trebles, and sparkling clear midrange earn it a spot near the very top of our sound quality rankings. If you’re willing to spend $1,000 to pair two Fives in stereo, the sound quality jumps a notch, to our highest ranking, a distinction shared with the Edifier S1000MKII and S1000DB.

For more options: Best Wireless Speakers

The Ring Alarm (2nd gen) is a terrific system for the money. One of the Ring Alarm’s Excellent ratings is for smart home add-ons because it has a small but growing smart home ecosystem called the Works With Ring program. The system also works with Amazon Alexa for voice control, as well as Ring video doorbells and security cameras (the kit we evaluated includes the CR-tested Ring Indoor Cam, $60), allowing you to set them to automatically record any activity when the alarm goes off. If you sign up for optional professional monitoring, you’ll receive 60 days of cloud video storage for any Ring security cameras or video doorbells you own. The monitoring plan also gives you access to Alexa Guard Plus, a set of security features for Amazon Echo smart speakers that includes an emergency helpline you can call hands-free just by saying, "Alexa, call for help." Additional contact sensors and motion sensors cost $20 and $30, respectively.

For more options: Best DIY Home Security Systems

The Logitech Circle View Doorbell is unusual in that it works only with a special feature of Apple’s HomeKit smart home system called HomeKit Secure Video. Through this software, it uses end-to-end encryption to keep your video secure. As a result of this tight-knit integration, the Logitech doorbell works only with iPhones (sorry, Android users), stores your videos only in Apple iCloud (if you pay for a storage plan), and requires an Apple home hub (either an iPad, a HomePod smart speaker, or an Apple TV streaming box) to process motion alerts for people, animals, and vehicles. In fact, there’s no Logitech app for the doorbell; instead it uses the Apple Home app. But if you’re a big fan of Apple products, this doorbell will work quite well for you. In our tests, it receives a Very Good rating for video quality and offers great data security and speedy response time for alerts and loading live feeds.

For more options: Best Video Doorbells

The Coop Home Goods Premium Adjustable Loft pillow is made of shredded memory foam and earns an Excellent rating in our tests for support—no matter your size and whether you sleep on your side or back. It comes with a kit with extra foam so that you can adjust the filling to your liking. The Coop also keeps its shape well, showing little to no change in height or fluffiness in our resilience tests. Our panel of testers like the look and feel of this pillow, too. The only test where this pillow falls slightly short is in how well it allows air to circulate: It sleeps slightly warm, so your head might feel a little sweaty at night.

For more options: Best Pillows

The Casper Hybrid innerspring mattress earns an Excellent rating for all of our side sleeper support tests, making it a versatile bed. The mattress showed little wear after eight to 10 years of simulated use, and it’s top-notch at muting vibrations, meaning there’s little bouncing across the bed. The Casper Hybrid isn’t very firm, earning a 3 out of 10 on our scale (10 being the firmest). In our member survey, Casper innersprings earns top marks for comfort and owner satisfaction.

For more options: Best Mattresses of the Year

This Brooklinen set will fit a 14-inch mattress (or shorter). Our testers note that these sheets don’t shrink as much as some other cotton sheets we tested. They earn a Very Good rating for both fit and shrinkage, which means though they do tend to get smaller during washes, they don’t deform all that much over time. Luxe Core sheets are on the softer side, based on our sensory test. Labels along each side that read "short side" and "long side" make clear which way to make the bed.

For more options: Best and Worst Sheets

A CR Best Buy, the Vicks V5100NS cool mist model can humidify a room up to 400 square feet, which makes it a great size for the bedroom. It garners an Excellent rating in hard water output, something to consider if the water supply contains significant amounts of calcium and magnesium. They can clog the humidifier, decreasing moisture output. As for features, there’s automatic shut-off, but that’s it.

For more options: Best Humidifiers

The rechargeable Oral-B iO 7 series toothbrush is our highest-rated model. It has five brushing modes and was rated using the Daily Clean mode. It has a timer and a pressure sensor, and also includes a battery-level indicator and can connect to a smartphone app.

For more options: Best Electric Toothbrushes

The corded Shark Rocket HV302 delivers on carpet cleaning and bare floors. It earns an Excellent rating for its pet-hair pickup, leaving little fur behind on a grooved tile floor in our tests. Added bonus? It can convert to a handheld vacuum as well. And in our member survey, Shark gets top marks for both predicted reliability and owner satisfaction.

For more options: Best Stick Vacuums for $150 or Less

Not all handheld vacuums can tackle pet hair with aplomb, but the Shark Ion aces that task, earning an Excellent rating. It's also a champ at cleaning bare floors and getting into hard-to-reach places, and it's not too shabby at cleaning carpet. The vacuum and all its attachments can be stored on the charging base, making it a real space saver. And at just 1.4 pounds, it's the lightest hand vac in our tests. The only downside to its small size is the small dust bin, which may have to be emptied more than once if you have a sizable spill.

For more options: Best Handheld Vacuums

One of the latest iRobot models to hit the market, the S9+ is pricey, but it delivers. This vacuum earns top scores down the line in our performance tests, and it’s the best of the best at cleaning along the edges of walls and on bare floors. It's also a self-emptying model that empties its dustbin into a dirt bag, no hands required. Like the e5 and the 960, the S9+ earns a Good rating for data privacy and a Very Good rating for data security.

For more options: Best Robotic Vacuums

The 23-pound Miele Complete C3 Marin vacuum cleaner is bag-equipped and has suction control, micro-filtration, a brush on/off switch, and a 24-foot retractable cord. It’s also one of the only full-sized vacuums—canister or upright—to earn an overall rating of Excellent in our lab tests. The model outperforms most other canisters in most of CR’s tests. And the rating gets a boost from Miele canisters’ reputation for reliability and owner satisfaction. But top performance comes at a cost; it’s nearly twice as pricey as the next most expensive canister, which also happens to be a Miele.

For more options: Best Canister Vacuums of 2021