Why we test what we test
You might have landed on this page because the content you're looking for no longer exists on our website or because you want to learn about how we select products and services.
Read on to find out why we stop testing certain products and how you can suggest new ones. Or jump straight to a complete list of the areas that we do cover.
Why we stop covering certain product areas
We test a huge amount of products and services every year; almost 4,000 across over 100 different categories. We buy all of the samples ourselves and ship them to expert laboratories across the globe, where they perform rigorous, robust and comparative tests.
The in-depth (and expensive) nature of testing means it's crucial that we invest our time and resources where they'll be of most benefit. And so we regularly review the product types that we test. This review process can cause us to decide to stop testing certain things, usually because consumer interest has declined or even that a product type has become obsolete.
In the last year we've stopped testing a number of small product categories, including hairdryers, bathroom scales and drones. We keep the reviews of these products on our website until we feel the information we provide is becoming out of date and at that point remove it so that we don't provide inaccurate recommendations.
But as part of the same review process we also consider products that we feel we should begin testing and so in the last year have started reviewing electric bikes and wine coolers. And in response to consumer demand we've also increased the number of products we test in popular areas, such as air purifiers and cooker hoods.
How we select products and services to test and survey
We have a dedicated team of analysts who carefully scour the market to decide what products and services we should review. We can't test everything but our analysts help us to focus on those areas that matter most - for example on services that are widely used, such as broadband and mobile phone deals, or on popular products or those which we rely on.
And of course, we also ask you what products and services you'd like us to put to the test. Look out for our 'Have your say' member emails.
Working for you
As well as taking your advice on what we should test or survey next, we also ask you how you use them to make sure they're assessed based on what's important to you.
The more members we have, the more products and services we're able to test; the funds of which allow us to campaign to make the UK a fairer place for consumers.
Discover our latest campaigns and sign our petitions.