Products to avoid in the Black Friday sales
Black Friday is back, and retailers are whipping themselves into a frothing frenzy in an attempt to grab your attention and your cash.
Whether you’re shopping for Christmas gifts, upgrading an essential appliance like a fridge or clothes dryer, or looking to finally land that robot vacuum you’ve had your eye on, there’s a feast of deals out there.
But in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, many of us are more careful about spending our dollars.
And while there are certainly products well worth snapping up for a bargain price, there are others worth dodging: retailers are known to use key sales periods to offload old or unwanted stock.
Along with excellent deals, there are also lots of duds out there
We’ve rounded up a list of products that failed to impress CHOICE’s expert testers but are being spruiked at discounted prices in the Black Friday sales. Despite retailers screeching that these are “once in a lifetime deals”, we recommend thinking twice before adding them to your cart.
On this page:
- The dud buds
- The not-so-hot air fryer
- The mattress that might keep you awake at night
- The vacuum that sucks
- The fridge that flunked
- TV tech fail
- The knife with a cutting review
- The cheap but not cheerful coffee machine
- A robo wrong
- Cookware panned by CHOICE experts
The dud buds
Samsung Galaxy Buds3
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 56%
- Sound quality score: 60%
- Recommended retail price: $299
“You’re not getting a great deal with these, even when they’re on sale,” says CHOICE resident audiophile Peter Zaluzny.
“They offer pitiful active noise cancellation – we scored them just 39% on this test – and the microphone is so poor that you might as well just use your phone’s speaker rather than take a call through these.”
You could spend much less and get much better sound quality than you will with these dud buds. While they aren’t the absolute worst performing earbuds in our test, they’re the most expensive of the poor performers.plenty of earbuds that cost the same or even less than these that come recommended by our experts).
You’re not getting a great deal with these, even when they’re on sale
Peter Zaluzny, CHOICE audio expert
Their battery life isn’t great either – you’ll get more listening time from a $50 pair – but with such ordinary sound quality, you would’t want to listen through them for long anyway.
“You might see these sold as a bundle as part of Samsung phone deals,” says CHOICE tech expert Denis Gallagher. “They definitely won’t add any value to your phone purchase, so don’t let that sway your decision.”
Read the full Samsung Galaxy Buds3 review, or read our review to find the best noise-cancelling earbuds we’ve tested.
The not-so-hot air fryer
Kitchen Couture Dual View Stainless Steel Air Fryer
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 67%
- Crumbed chicken score: 60%
- Recommended retail price: $499
Although the RRP for this double-drawer air fryer is nearly $500, we’ve seen retailers offloading it for around $120. And we’re not surprised – for its performance, the $500 price tag is ludicrous.
It’s the lowest-scoring model of 44 in our air fryer review and was outclassed by many other fryers costing far less than the sale price.
In our chicken nugget test, it scored just 60%. A $500 air fryer that can’t create crispy nuggs? That smells like disappointment to us, even when it’s discounted to $120.
And while it’s pretty good at cooking hot chips, it can only fit 125g in each drawer, which won’t do much for your carb cravings. There are plenty of better options out there that’ll give you better bang for your buck.
Read the full Kitchen Couture Dual View air fryer review or, better yet, check our full reviews to find the best air fryer from our tests.
The mattress that might keep you awake at night
Original Mattress Factory Refresh
- Choice Expert Rating: 62%
- Comfort score when new: 54%
- Recommended retail price: $2598
If you’re tired of being swindled by salespeople offloading poor performing products, you’ll rest easier if you avoid this mattress in the sales, no matter how cheaply it’s being sold.
With a CHOICE Expert Rating of 62%, it’s the equal-lowest scoring mattress in our tests. It’s not a terrible score in itself, but we’ve tested many other mattresses that score much higher – and often cost far less.
Despite its nightmarishly high price tag of $2598, it scored the same as a $600 mattress, and less than other mattresses costing well under $500.
It isn’t very comfy to start with, and our test results show that it’s likely to become even less comfortable over time – it rated the lowest for comfort retention of all the mattresses we tested.
While it might be named the “Refresh”, you probably won’t leap out of bed feeling refreshed after a night sleeping on this mattress. It’s been discounted to $1399 for Black Friday (at the time of writing) but there are plenty of other mattresses on the market that’ll give you sweet dreams for far less money.
For a better deal, check out the best mattresses under $500 and under $1000, or take a look at our expert mattress reviews to find the bed of your dreams..
The stick vacuum that sucks
LG A9 Ace
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 61%
- Pet hair removal score: 10%
- Recommended retail price: $399
With plenty of stick vacs costing well over $1000, they’re one of the most popular products to pick up in the sales. Many stores are offering discounts on popular brands, but don’t mess up by reaching for this sucky contender.
It’s one of the lowest-scoring stick vacs in our test, alongside a $155 Kmart stick and a $99 Dirt Devil. Embarrassingly, it was beaten by a number of vacuums costing far less, including an even cheaper Kmart model.
While the LG does a great job on hard floors, that’s not particularly noteworthy – most stick vacuums do. But this one was the worst of all 59 stick vacs in our current review at picking up pet hair. It scored just 10% on this test. Even that $99 Dirt Devil (the lowest-ranked model overall) managed a score of 20%.
LG vacuums are often quite good, so this one appears to be an outlier. It’s also an outlier in terms of price: some LG stick vacs are priced at well over $1000. This one is currently on sale for around $250 but even with that big a discount it’s still not worth the money.
If you’re looking for an affordable stick vac, we’ve compiled a list of the best stick vacuums under $250. Or you can check our expert stick vacuum reviews and filter by price to find the right vac for your budget.
The fridge that flunked
Smeg FAB32RPB5AU fridge
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 43%
- Temperature stability score: 0%
- Recommended retail price: $4290
She may be cute with a stylish retro swagger, but this Smeg fridge is one of the worst products we’ve tested.
CHOICE experts give it a frosty reception: it’s the lowest scoring fridge in our latest expert fridge review, scoring a paltry 0% for temperature stability.
The temperature also isn’t evenly distributed, with the top shelf section significantly warmer than the bottom.
Between the sketchy temperature stability and warm patches, your food is likely to go off faster, adding extra dollars to your grocery bill – which many of us can ill afford in this cost-of-living crisis.
Between the sketchy temperature stability and warm patches, your food is likely to go off faster
One major appliance retailer is currently advertising a (supposedly) “AMAZING DEAL” – discounting over $600 off the eye-watering $4000+ price tag of this lukewarm cooling cupboard.
But CHOICE experts advise you to keep your cool. You’re not getting much bang for your buck in terms of size or performance with this fridge, even if you do manage to grab a discount.
Read the full Smeg FAB32RPB5AU fridge review.
TV tech fail
Samsung 65-inch LCD TV (QA65Q7FAAWXXY)
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 69%
- High definition picture quality score: 61%
- Recommended retail price: $1799
CHOICE experts have found that Black Friday is probably the best time to buy a new TV. That’s because, amongst other reasons, retailers will be discounting a wide range of models, and they’ll have plenty of them in stock.
But remember that, alongside good-quality TVs, there are lots of mediocre models, including this Samsung TV that makes our list of TVs to avoid buying.
It’s so underwhelming that it scored the same as a $1000 Toshiba 65-inch TV
Don’t write off the entire brand just because of this one sub-par screen, though. Samsung makes plenty of good TVs – but they’re not going to win any awards with this one.
Read the full Samsung QA65Q7FAAWXXY review or, better yet, find the best TVs from our tests.
The knife with a cutting review
Mundial Kitchen Knife
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 60%
- Sharpness after blunting score: 54%
- Recommended retail price: $200
Knives are another product we often see heavily discounted during sales periods, but some deals just aren’t worth it, no matter how you slice it.
Our experts had some cutting comments about this Mundial knife when we tested it for performance and sharpness (both initially and after blunting) alongside 12 others in our recent independent kitchen knives review.
Despite costing $200, it scored just 60% – that’s less than some cheap knives from the likes of Ikea and Kmart. Also, our experts noted it had a very high level of blunting after repeated use.
Read the full Mundial Kitchen Knife review.
The cheap but not cheerful coffee machine
Breville Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio S Plus
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 46%
- Taste test score: 30%
- Recommended retail price: $149
At full price, this pod machine comes in just under $150, but it’s being advertised by retailers for under $100 in the current sales. But, no matter how cheaply it’s priced, we wouldn’t recommend counting on this machine for your morning cuppa.
In our tests, it delivered poor-tasting coffee with a bitter flavour, watery mouthfeel and thin crema. Plus, its milk frothing abilities were just average, and the coffee temperature consistency was OK at best.
Our experts did find positives – it boasts customisable drink settings and is easy to clean and use. But these qualities can’t atone for the bigger sin of bad coffee making.
Read the full Breville Nescafe Dolce Gusto Genio review.
A robo wrong
iRobot Roomba Plus 505 and iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 58%
- Mopping performance score: 30% and 20%
- Recommended retail price: $1699 and $699
If you thought buying from a well-known brand like Roomba would snag you a quality robot vac, think again.
These two iRobots were some of the lowest-scoring bots in our tests and despite the $1000 price difference, there wasn’t much between them in terms of performance.
They’re sloppy moppers, missing large sections of the cleaning area, and the iRobot Roomba app consistently froze and needed resetting during our tests. Our experts called it “buggy and unintuitive”.
Robot vacs are supposed to make life easier, but if they’re frustrating to use and you have to clean up after them, you’d be better off saving your money and time and sticking with a regular vacuum.
If you’re after a bot that actually does the job well, check our list of the best robot vacs with mopping function.
The kitchen cookware panned by CHOICE experts
Stanley Rogers French Oven Grill Duo
- CHOICE Expert Rating: 68%
- Ease of use score: 50%
- Recommended retail price: $399
Thinking of gifting a fancy cast-iron Dutch oven for Christmas (or shouting yourself one)?
While they can be expensive, a quality one will last a lifetime, so they can be well worth the investment. But you could get burnt if you buy a pricey one that doesn’t last the distance.
One in particular that our experts warn against is the Stanley Rogers French Oven Grill Duo 28cm/6.5L. At $399 it’s not the most expensive on the market (some cost more than $600!), but it’s definitely not spare change either.
It was the lowest-scoring of all the Dutch ovens from our tests, being outperformed even by cheapies from Kmart, Aldi and Ikea.
It has a 50-year warranty, which sounds impressive, but our test results indicate that it may not last that long: our experts reported significant wear and tear on the enamel on the handles, with a large chunk of enamel completely coming off when we tested its durability.
Our kitchen experts found a number of more affordable options that impressed in our tests. Check our detailed casserole pots and Dutch ovens review to find the best for your budget.
