ShopSmart Crowns Best Products of the Year

More than 60 Winners in Home, Food, Beauty & Fitness, Electronics and Cars, Plus 20 Losers.

YONKERS, N.Y. -- ShopSmart, from the publisher of Consumer Reports, is revealing the best (and worst) products of 2009, selected from the thousands of home, food, beauty and other products that were tested throughout the year. Featured in the January 2010 issue, the products range from e-book readers and fuel-efficient hybrid cars to store brand food and wrinkle creams.

"What's unique about our list is that it's 100 percent unbiased. Unlike other magazines, we don't recommend products based on popularity or brand," said Lisa Lee Freeman, editor-in-chief of ShopSmart. "Our favorite products -- which include everything from pancake mix and coffee makers to cars and treadmills -- were the top performers in laboratory and real-world tests. And because we don't have to answer to advertisers, we can bring you the year's biggest losers too."

ShopSmart has named more than 60 products as their favorite "stuff" of the year. Below is a sampling of these items. For a complete list of ShopSmart's best products of the year, please visit ShopSmartmag.org.*

Best of the Best Home

•Dirt Devil Featherlite Bagless M085845, $60, is bare-bones but is light and great on pet hair.
•Kalorik CM25282, $80, costs more than many of the models tested but was one of the best brewers.
•Behr Premium Plus Interior Satin Enamel, $24, is half the price of other paints and is the top choice in satin and eggshell. It has a nice finish, hides darker colors in one coat and the gloss holds up when scrubbed.
Best of the Best Food

•Organic Batter Blaster Original Pancake & Waffle Batter, 18 oz., $5.69, turned out tasty pancakes with no measuring, no mixing and little mess.
•Kirkland Signature (Costco) Organic Salsa Medium, $5.89, beat out Old El Paso salsa.
•Market Pantry (Target) Maple & Brown Sugar Instant Oatmeal, 15.1-oz. package, $1.67, is hearty and flavorful, packs about 3 grams of fiber per packet and cooks in a flash.
Best of the Best Beauty & Fitness

•Asics GEL-150TR, $65, beat out other sneakers with a super shock-absorbing midsole.
•Bowflex Series 7, $1,500, is a space-saving treadmill but still sturdy and solid.
•Olay Total Effects 7-in-1 Anti-Aging Booster Eye Transforming Cream, $20, smoothed wrinkles and fine lines around the eyes slightly better than creams that cost twice the price or more.
•Revlon Perfect Heat Ceramic RVST2001C, $30, is cheap, superlight, small and easy to use.
Best of the Best Electronics

•Samsung PN58B860, $3,100, is superskinny and has a huge 58-inch screen and Internet capability.
•Amazon Kindle 2, $360, is cool and sleek, with fast page turning and enough memory to read for days.
•Asus Eee PC 1005HA, $350, saves some bucks and gives you a big keyboard and long battery life.
Best of the Best Cars

•Honda Fit, $16,020, gets 30 mpg, has a versatile interior, and is fun to drive.
•Ford Fusion Hybrid, $32,360, is roomy, highly rated, fuel-efficient and makes driving green easier.
•Toyota Prius, $24,803, is the only car to make the best list two years in a row.
ShopSmart's 20 Worst Products of 2009

Consumers Union, the publisher of ShopSmart, spends millions of dollars buying products and services each year and submits them to rigorous testing. Based on how they performed in the laboratories and in real-world tests, here is a list of the items testers said were "not so hot."

•Hercules Hook, $15, isn't any better than a regular old hook for hanging heavy stuff.
•Mini Portable Jump Starter, $20 to $50, is unreliable. Stick with jumper cables.
•Spinlash, $14.95, was messy and left clumps.
•OneTouch Wine Opener KC07, $15, was annoyingly slow and noisy.
•VW Touareg, $40,440, got the worst new-car reliability score of all the cars in the 2009 survey.
•Rock N Go Exerciser, $230, one tester said it was uncomfortable and has been discontinued.
•Bud Light Lime, $5.99, was citrusy, as advertised, but didn't taste much like beer.
•Melitta Mill & Brew MEIMSB, $100, needs a radio signal to program and makes just so-so joe.
•Folgers Simply Smooth Decaf Medium, 1 lb., $6.46, was the worst coffee tasted in tests.
•Get a Grip Handle, $12.99, yanked tile off walls.
•Heys XCase 20, $82, slammed testers in the back of their legs and got dinged up in the tumbler.
•Garden of Eatin' Pita Chips with Whole Grain Sea Salt, $3.29, were dry and stale out of the bag.
•Trop50 Orange Juice, 52¢ a serving, is only 50 calories because it's watered down.
•ShamWow, $19.95, doesn't absorb better than a sponge, but it will suck up your money fast!
•Tide Total Care, 45¢ a load, is billed as keeping duds like new but cheaper choices are just as good.
•Reebok SmoothFit Mobile II Trainer, $70, didn't fit securely on testers' feet.
•Mercala Healthy Chef Cookware Set, $300, burned food during testing.
•Snuggie, $14.99, pilled and got bald spots in laundering tests.
•Ikea Sparsam CFL Bulb E26 GSU111, $3, fizzled way before claimed lifetimes.
•Garry Ultra Light Vacuum, $200, was the worst at carpet cleaning of 50 uprights tested.
About ShopSmart magazine:

Launched in Fall 2006 by Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, ShopSmart draws upon Consumer Reports' celebrated tradition of accepting no advertisements and providing unbiased product reviews. The magazine features product reviews, shopping tips on how to get the most out of products and "best of the best" lists. ShopSmart is ideal for busy shoppers who place a premium on time. ShopSmart has a newsstand price of $4.99 and is available nationwide at major retailers including Barnes & Noble, Wal-Mart, Borders, Kroger, Safeway and Publix. ShopSmart is available by subscription at www.ShopSmartmag.org.

ShopSmart is now available 10 times a year. Subscribe at www.ShopSmartmag.org.