The Best Bug-Killing Gear

Unless you’re an entomologist, you’re probably not excited about having bugs in your house. Whether they’re spiders, flies, roaches, or centipedes, your first instinct is likely to get rid of them immediately. To find the best bug-killing gear available, we turned to experienced exterminators and entomologists, and we interviewed a Caltech aeronautics professor who has spent more than 15 years studying the evasive flight behaviors of houseflies. For two years, we’ve tested flyswatters, bug vacuums, and an assortment of bug traps to make our recommendations.

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The Best Mousetrap

After more than 18 hours of research and interviews with industry experts, and a combined eight hours of baiting, setting, and detonating mousetraps, we are confident that the Tomcat Press ‘N Set Mouse Trap is the proverbial “better” mousetrap. It’s easier to set than the competition without hurting your fingers and easier to empty without touching a dead mouse—and it traps mice just as well as anything else we tested.

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The Best Rechargeable AA and AAA Batteries

Regardless of whether you pop them into a wireless mouse, a toy, or a flashlight, rechargeable AA and AAA batteries almost always last longer, cost less, and result in less waste than their disposable counterparts. After 10 hours of research and thousands of hours of testing, we found that many rechargeable batteries perform about the same. Most are made in China, Japan, or South Korea and contain roughly the same components. So it was unsurprising that several models—including AAs and AAAs from EBL, AAs and AAAs from HiQuick, and AAs and AAAs from Tenergy—had nearly identical results in our tests. When you need to stock up, we recommend getting whichever of our top picks is the least expensive.

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The Best Paper Shredders

Even if you’re not a secret agent and you don’t think you have anything to hide, you need a paper shredder. Garbage and recycling bins full of bank statements and credit card offers are treasure troves for identity thieves. Your best defense: a paper shredder, which chomps through sensitive documents and spits them out as confetti. After researching more than 25 shredders and running more than 4,000 sheets of paper (along with staples, CDs, and credit cards) through seven of them, we recommend the Amazon Basics 8-Sheet High-Security Micro-Cut Shredder with Pullout Basket for personal and home-office use.

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The Best 4K TV on a Budget

If you want a 4K TV that supports all the latest video and gaming technologies but doesn’t cost a fortune, we recommend the TCL 5-Series. Although it can’t match the image contrast and brightness of the best LCD TVs and OLED TVs, the 5-Series still delivers a great-looking 4K picture, and it comes in 50-, 55-, 65-, and 75-inch sizes to fit most rooms. Plus, it’s available with either the Roku TV or Google TV streaming platform built in, so you can choose the system that you prefer.

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The Best Bag to Bring to a Concert Is Actually a Running Belt

After more than two years of intermittent lockdowns and restrictions, live events are back—but so are security policies that may be more prohibitive than you remember. As I learned the hard way, bag regulations (some of them spurred on by the pandemic) could mean that your usual carryall or purse might not make it past the gate. But don’t worry: You can just bring a running belt instead.

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The Best String Trimmers

Only by the whirling grace of a string trimmer—slicing down the tall grass around the mailbox, front steps, fences, and flower beds—does a property look truly polished. We’ve tested string trimmers on weedy lots and steep hills, and we once flattened 12,598 square feet of an overgrown field. The Ego ST1511T Power+ String Trimmer with Powerload is the best of these tools (which are also known as weed wackers or weed eaters). Due to the continued success of the cordless string trimmers we’ve tested, the hassle of owning a small engine, and the cultural and legal trends we’re witnessing with regards to gas engines, we’re no longer recommending any gas-powered string trimmers. But we did decide to drastically overcorrect on the issue, so we now have a recommendation for a scythe. Yes, a scythe.

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The Best USB Hubs

It’s an ugly truth of using modern computers: The rush toward thinner and lighter designs has meant sacrificing the number and types of ports on everything from MacBooks to all-in-one desktops. If you want to plug in anything with a connection other than a USB-C cable, the most efficient option is a USB-C hub, which provides multiple types of ports in a relatively compact package. Our favorite hub is Anker’s PowerExpand 8-in-1 USB-C PD 10Gbps Data Hub. In addition to having all the right ports, it’s one of the very few hubs with an HDMI port that supports a proper 60 Hz refresh rate on 4K monitors so that animations and movements on screen are nice and smooth—almost every other hub maxes out at 30 Hz, which results in a frustratingly laggy experience.

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The Best Under-Sink Water Filter

Anyone who goes through more than a couple of gallons of drinking water a day will probably be happiest with an under-sink filtration system like the Aquasana AQ-5200. If you prefer (or need) filtered water, this provides a continuous supply of it on demand from a separate tap. We recommend the Aquasana AQ-5200 because its certifications are among the best of any system we’ve found.

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At-Home COVID-19 Antigen Test Kits: Where to Buy and What You Should Know

Rapid antigen tests offer a quick and easy way to screen for COVID-19 on your own. Often called “rapid tests” or “home COVID tests,” these rapid antigen tests rely on a nasal swab to detect active infections within about 15 minutes. They can be a valuable tool for managing life during the pandemic.

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Why We Love Glerups Slippers

A few years ago, I volunteered to test a pair of Glerups slippers, our upgrade slipper pick. I haven’t found a better slipper since. Once my feet were shod in these sleek, comfortable woolen shoes (which somehow never felt too hot), I simply couldn’t suffer through walking on the bare wooden floors of my New York City apartment without them.

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The Best Labels for Kids Lunch Boxes and Clothing

A legible, strong-sticking label can mean the difference between a brand-new backpack lasting out the school year versus languishing in a lost-and-found bin. After plastering two water bottles, a nylon lunch box, several food container lids, and a few T-shirts with seven kinds of labels and putting them through a combined total of 24 wash cycles, we found that the Name Bubbles School Labels (in a pack of 76) are the best preprinted labels to put on kids clothes and gear.

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The Best Kids Scooters

A good scooter will help a kid learn to balance, turn, and brake – and perhaps also make neighborhood navigation faster and more fun. After recruiting six kids ranging in age from 1 to 10 to put nine scooters to the test, we concluded that the popular Micro Maxi Deluxe is well worth the investment. It provides the smoothest, quietest ride of any scooter we tested. Plus, it has the greatest ability to grow with a child, with the stability to help small kids gain confidence and skills, and the agility to keep older ones zipping along joyfully for many years. The Micro Maxi Deluxe also comes in a foldable version for easy carrying and storage.

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The 24 Best Gifts for 1-Year-Olds

When it comes to presents, many 1-year-olds aren’t picky. In fact, they may be as excited by the packaging as they are by what’s inside. (Be sure to save those boxes.) Others have already begun to develop their own unique preferences, personalities, and abilities. By investing in the right toys and gifts, you can set your child up for years of fun.

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The Best Pregnancy Test

A pregnancy test result should be clear and trustworthy. Choosing a reliable test upfront may save you the emotional turmoil of an uncertain result. Or, at the very least, it will save you some cash. We’ve assessed 26 different tests, scoured online reviews and manufacturers’ testing data, and talked with a clinical chemist, a fertility specialist, and an expert on the pregnancy hormone hCG. We’re confident that First Response Early Result is the home pregnancy test to take.

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The Best Chromebook

A good Chromebook can do almost anything a regular laptop can do, and the best ones feel better to use than their similarly priced Windows counterparts. After testing most of the Chromebooks released over the past eight years and testing 16 models so far in 2022, we recommend the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook (13″). It’s comparatively inexpensive, and it offers fast performance plus an excellent keyboard and trackpad. The Flex 5i is also compact and light, and its 1080p touchscreen is vivid and bright. Though our other picks last a couple of hours longer, the battery in the Flex 5i should still survive a full day of work or classes.

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The Best Sleeping Pads for Backpacking and Car Camping

A good sleeping pad can transform hours of tossing and turning in the wild into a decent night’s sleep. We slept on 15 different sleeping pads during our first round of testing, and we tried an additional 10 pads in our most recent round—carrying them on a total of seven car-camping and backpacking trips. We concluded that the Therm-a-Rest LuxuryMap Sleeping Pad is the best choice for car campers and the Sea to Summit Ether Light XT Insulated Air Sleeping Mat is the most supportive pad for backpackers. If you’re looking for a budget option or a sleeping pad for two people, we’ve got you covered for those, too.

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The Best Yoga Mats

A yoga mat should be comfortable and supportive, provide sufficient grip to keep you from slipping, and be no-fuss enough to clean and carry (whether from home to the park or back to in-person classes at your beloved gym or studio). Our hatha and hot-yoga instructors Downward-Dogged, Ashtanga vinyasa-flowed, and Savasanaed on 38 of the best yoga mats (and one mat alternative), and the one that came out on top is Lululemon’s The Reversible Mat 5mm. Its dual-textured sides, firm-yet-cushiony rubber construction, and ample size will have you covered, no matter what style of yoga you practice.

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The Best Electric Razor

Modern electric razors can deliver impressively close shaves, but they can’t quite match the closeness of manual razors. Over more than six years of testing, 13 electric razor testers have buzzed and clipped a path toward what we hoped would be silken-jawed nirvana—and we’ve found that Braun’s Series 7 shavers are the best electric razors for removing facial hair. The Series 7 razors consistently produce close, comfortable shaves and are easy to use and maintain.

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The Best Hair Dryer

Most hair dryers are effective at blowing hot air toward your head—sometimes quite fast—in order to speed along your hair styling from showering to whatever’s next. It’s the small differences between models that can make a big difference overall, particularly with daily use. After putting in 20 hours of research and spending nearly 50 hours testing 39 dryers, we’ve found that some dryers are far more pleasant to hold and use than others. Because it provides an excellent experience for the price, we think the Rusk W8less Professional 2000 Watt Dryer is the best choice.

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The Best MacBooks

The best Mac laptop for most people is the 13-inch MacBook Air with Apple’s M1 processor. It’s not the newest MacBook Air, but it’s less expensive than the latest model and more than fast enough for the things most people use a computer for—web browsing, working on documents, coding, and light photo and video editing. And for a better screen, an extra charging port, a nicer webcam, and a slightly faster processor, we recommend the new MacBook Air with the M2 processor as our upgrade pick.

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The Best Labor Day Outdoor Deals From REI

Whether you’re hoping to gear up for a few more camping trips while it’s still T-shirt weather or looking to snap up some equipment for the chilly days to come, you may find just what you’re looking for at REI’s annual Labor Day sale event. This year’s sale runs from August 26 through September 5 and includes discounts on Wirecutter favorites from brands like Darn Tough, La Sportiva, and Black Diamond.

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The Best Cheap Mattresses (Under $500)

Sometimes, splurging on a mattress just doesn’t make sense. Most foam, innerspring, and hybrid mattresses (part coil and part foam) cost more than $1,000, which is out of reach for a lot of people. If you’re furnishing a child’s room or a guest bedroom, moving frequently, or simply working with a tight budget, a decent cheap mattress can be a good compromise that doesn’t hurt your wallet—or your back. But wading through the abundance of cheap mattresses online can be intimidating. Many are uncomfortable and saggy, and they could wind up being a waste of money and effort in the end.

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The Best Portable Vaporizer

The Pax 3 suits new and seasoned cannabis users alike, offering an easy vaporizing experience from start to finish while allowing you to fine-tune the device settings—if you feel like it. Recommended by employees at cannabis dispensaries across the country—and unanimously favored by a diverse panel of testers—a packed Pax 3 lasts several enjoyable sessions, producing pleasing vapors without overheating. Plus, it’s easier to clean than most portable vaporizers.

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When Is the Best Time to Buy a Mattress?

Restful sleep is paramount. Get a good night’s sleep, and you feel sharp, strong, and able to be truly present to enjoy the things that bring you happiness. But suffer through a fitful night, and you spend the next day haggard, drained, and borderline delirious.

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