How the Reviews team tests home and kitchen products at Business Insider

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Your home should feel like a sanctuary, but choosing the right products to keep it running can be overwhelming. From your first sip of coffee in the morning to the minute you crawl into bed at night, you rely on dozens of items every single day (go ahead, count them, we'll wait). That's why the Reviews team at Business Insider rigorously tests home and kitchen essentials to deliver guidance you can trust.

We know that different people have different tastes, needs, and budgets, so our goal is simple: to help you find the right fit for your life. When you order a product we recommend, you should know exactly what to expect. No surprises, no letdowns.

Our approach to testing home and kitchen products

The team of service journalists at Reviews has spent years testing and reporting on tools that save time, solve problems, and make life a little easier. We don't rely on a single lab test for results. Instead, we use couches, air fryers, and vacuum cleaners the same way you would, in our homes, over weeks and months. The items that earn a place in our buying guides are the same ones you'll find in our living rooms, kitchens, and garages.

In addition to staff editors, the freelance writers and testers who contribute to our buying guides have tested appliances and sleep products, worked in professional kitchens, covered trends in interior design and home improvement, or built careers as category specialists, reviewing consumer technology and household essentials.

We also tap into outside expertise, including chefs and baristas, sleep specialists, cleaning professionals, and product engineers, to help us assess performance, durability, safety, and value. That extra layer of insight allows us to separate what's hype from what actually works.

Editorial independence and standards

Our recommendations are editorially independent. We do not accept payment in exchange for guaranteed coverage or positive reviews, and brands do not review our content before publication. If you buy through our links, we may earn a commission, and you'll always see a disclaimer on Reviews stories about this.

Our editors develop and refine testing methodologies in-house and collaborate to ensure consistent standards across our style coverage. As part of Business Insider — a global newsroom read by millions each month — our Reviews team follows established journalistic standards focused on accuracy, fairness, and transparency.

Home products we cover

Vacuums: Our team of cleaning-obsessed editors and experts is always on a mission to find the best vacuum cleaners. We've tested dozens of models across top-performing categories, including robot vacuums, cordless stick models, wet-dry vacs, handheld options, and powerful picks for sucking up pet hair, all at a range of price points. We prioritize features like strong suction, brush rolls that resist tangling, advanced filtration, maneuverability, battery life, and debris disposal. After years of testing, we know how to spot a vacuum that is built to last from one that inevitably ends up in the dreaded vacuum graveyard.

Mattresses and sleep products: It's never too late to start your journey to a better night's sleep. Our mattress experts test a wide range of models, including the best options for side, stomach, and back sleepers, to help you find the right balance of comfort and support. We evaluate everything from luxury hybrids to budget-friendly in-a-box models, assessing materials, firmness, motion isolation, temperature regulation, and long-term durability. We also publish comprehensive reviews of best-selling brands like Saatva and Leesa, breaking down their full lineups so that you can compare features, pricing, and feel. Beyond mattresses, we test sleep staples like pillows and sheets, as well as emerging sleep tech designed to improve your rest.

Gardening and home improvement: Whether you're upgrading your backyard, organizing your space, or making your home smarter, we roll up our sleeves to test home and garden products with real-world rigor. We put heavy-duty machines like snow blowers and electric lawn mowers through extended use tests in our backyards, evaluate storage options, space heaters and air conditioners, and entertaining essentials, and even subject home safes to sledgehammer strikes, water immersion, and fire testing to assess durability and security. Our goal is to help you find the tools that make your home safer, more efficient, and easier to enjoy.

Furniture and home décor: Whether you're shopping for the best couch to lounge, work, or sleep on (or all three), we evaluate construction, comfort, and long-term durability to help you determine what's worth the price. Buying furniture online can feel like a leap of faith, so we also evaluate and recommend the best places to buy indoor and outdoor furniture and scout for genuinely comfortable luxury dupes. And while décor is often a matter of personal taste, we give you the full story on everything from artificial Christmas trees to buzzy home goods launches, assessing quality, ease of setup, and overall value before any product earns a spot in one of our buying guides.

Kitchen products we cover

Countertop appliances: Whether you're baking bread or just toasting it, the right countertop appliance can completely change how you cook. From KitchenAid stand mixers to backyard pizza ovens, we test the appliances that transform weeknight dinners and elevate your weekend entertaining game. We evaluate cooking performance, heat consistency, capacity, and ease of use to determine which models truly deliver. As longtime air fryer enthusiasts, we've seen how one great appliance can streamline meals and expand what's possible in a home kitchen. Our goal is to help you decide which products deserve space on your kitchen counter, and which ones aren't worth the investment.

Coffee and espresso: From drip machines to single-serve brewers to home espresso machines at every price point, plus artisan tools like French presses, pour-overs, and moka pots, we test it all to find the best fit for every type of coffee drinker. We evaluate flavor, temperature consistency, pressure, and ease of setup and cleanup to separate daily workhorses from overpriced hype. If coffee jargon or intimidating price tags overwhelm you, don't worry. We test and recommend models for every budget and experience level so you can brew with confidence.

Cookware and knives: When it comes to cookware and knives, it can be hard to separate real performance from marketing hype, especially amid so many headlines about so-called "toxic" kitchen tools. From complete cookware sets to the best specialty pieces for more advanced techniques, we evaluate factors like materials, heat distribution, and cooktop compatibility to determine what's actually worth owning. And because a great knife is the cornerstone of every kitchen, we test everything from essential chef's knives to steak knives that look as good as they perform, assessing sharpness, balance, edge retention, and design.

How we test home and kitchen products

It's rare to find a single product that's the "best" for everybody, so we test with a range of needs, budgets, and preferences in mind. That's why our buying guides include multiple picks, each suited to a different kind of shopper. We look at factors including:

• Performance and effectiveness in real-world use
• Ease of setup, operation, and maintenance
• Durability after repeated, long-term use
• Design, size, and overall footprint in a home
• Noise level and energy efficiency
• Price and overall value

Real-world testing comes first, but we back up our experience with complex data, using tools like sound level meters, air quality monitors, and laser thermometers to quantify performance. Our testing methodologies combine controlled measurements with everyday use to give you a complete picture of how a product truly performs.

We're aware that products, including those we review and recommend, may occasionally be subject to recalls or revised safe use advisories. We monitor official alerts from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and check frequently for out-of-stock items and discontinued models, so you don't have to deal with the frustration of choosing an item only to discover it's no longer available.

And on the occasions that we can't test everything for a story in our own homes (large appliances for example), we consult experts on features to look for and put many hours of research into our picks.

Meet our expert home and kitchen team

Bronwyn Barnes, deputy editor

Bronwyn Barnes is deputy editor of Insider Reviews at Business Insider, where she leads authoritative, reader-first coverage of home, kitchen, and travel products, as well as gift guides. She champions rigorous, real-world testing and thoughtful reporting that helps people cut through the noise and choose the products and services that actually work in everyday life.

With more than two decades of experience in reporting and service journalism, Bronwyn has built and led teams that deliver practical guidance for readers navigating purchase decisions. She has overseen buying guides and commerce news content, bringing extensive experience in developing original product-testing methodologies. Before joining Business Insider, Bronwyn shaped editorial strategy and content marketing initiatives at major lifestyle media brands, including Food & Wine, The Spruce, InStyle, Shape, Travel + Leisure, Health, and People. Her work has also appeared in Forbes, USA Today, Vanity Fair, and CNN Underscored.

If you invite Bronwyn into your home, be prepared for her to ask you about the products she spots. (She promises not to peek inside your medicine cabinet.)

Connect with Bronwyn on LinkedIn.

Jaclyn Turner, senior home editor

Jaclyn Turner has served as Senior Home Editor of Business Insider's Reviews team since 2023. She specializes in sleep, floor care, and interior design and spends much of her day testing and reviewing home products, including mattresses, vacuums, furniture, and interior décor.

Jaclyn previously held roles with Homes & Gardens, Real Homes, Livingetc, The Spruce, MyDomaine, and Apartment Therapy. Jaclyn has also worked at two trade publications, Home Furnishings News and Gifts and Decorative Accessories, identifying trends at trade shows and understanding the state of retail businesses in the home and housewares industry.

Jaclyn is an experienced deal hunter, surfacing the best deals and discounts on home products during major shopping events like Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and beyond.

Connect with Jaclyn on LinkedIn.

Kinsley Searles, associate home editor

Kinsley Searles specializes in home, sleep, kitchen, and travel. She worked with the Reviews team as a freelance writer before being accepted to the prestigious Business Insider Fellowship Program for early-career journalists, and has been a full-time associate editor since 2025.

Kinsley approaches every story like she's recommending products to a friend, championing the products she has (or would) spend her own money on. She's the first person family and friends call when they need a good pillow or suitcase recommendation.

Kinsley has a passion for product testing and developing rigorous testing procedures, whether cooking up two dozen burgers to assess a grill's heat output or tossing luggage on concrete to test a bag's durability. In addition to objective testing, Kinsley is constantly testing in her own home, living with products to make the best recommendations — even if that means trying a new set of sheets every week.

Connect with Kinsley on LinkedIn.