Have you ever wondered how CHOICE comes up with the scores we give to the products we test? Or how we work out if a product is unsafe or just plain old dodgy?

If you've looked through any of our test results, you'll know that they're absolutely chock-full of data to help you choose the best product for your needs. 

And to get that data, we test the heck out of each product in our labs to make sure we know exactly how it'll perform in your home.

Here's a sneak peek to show you some of the lengths our testers go to in order to deliver our expert reviews. 

We do (almost) all our own stunts

Each year, we test hundreds of products to help consumers make better buying decisions. And most of that testing happens right here at CHOICE HQ in Marrickville, Sydney. That's right: we do (almost) all our own stunts. 

Each year, we test hundreds of products to help consumers make better buying decisions

We run about 60 tests per year, and approximately 70% are done in-house in our accredited labs. The remaining 30% are outsourced to external labs, but still overseen by our experts and the data is rigorously checked by our in-house verifiers.

We test a vast range of products, from those we're best known for like fridges, washing machines and dishwashers, through to products you might not expect, such as lawn mowers, nappies, electric bikes, trampolines, chocolate and toilet paper.

We test a range of products, from clothes dryers to coffee machines. Here, CHOICE expert tester Matt Tung puts a cot through its safety paces.

We use very specific (and sometimes very weird!) materials for our testing

CHOICE kitchen expert Fiona Mair has cooked more than 8000 scones in her time with the organisation.

To test products in ways that replicate the way people will use them in real life, we've had to get pretty creative.

For instance, we import artificial household dust from Germany for use in our vacuum testing. And we use swatches from the Netherlands embedded with "Aussie dirt" when we test washing machines.

Some of the most out-there testing equipment we've created or used includes:

• 'Synthetic space poo': this is a faecal-like substance developed by NASA to test toilets on spaceships. We use it to test toilet cleaners.
• Syngina: this artificial vagina was developed in 1958 by Professor GW Rapp. We used it in 1975 to test tampons. 
• Condom tester: this machine inflated condoms until they exploded to test their strength. Our 1982 magazine reported that "at the end of the test period, there were scraps of condom material hanging from the rafters". Condoms weren't the only things in tatters: the tester's temper had been severely tried by the never-ending jokes. 

Here are some of the other weird and wonderful things we do to test products in our labs:

• We have a stash of cat hair that we use to test how well vacuums remove fur from carpet.
• We have an entire lab dedicated to testing our lab equipment. Our calibration experts test and calibrate more than 1000 items each year and help to build new testing equipment and provide technical advice so our tests are as thorough as possible.

We have an entire lab dedicated to testing our lab equipment

• We go through approximately 10kg of frozen chips, 10kg of chicken nuggets, 15kg of pork belly and 15kg of chicken wings each time we test air fryers.
• We buy all the products we test from retailers just like everyday Australians do, so we have the same buying experience as regular consumers. We test so many products that we actually have two buyers employed onsite. That's right – you really can turn your love of shopping into a career!
• We have a machine that scrubs non-stick frypans 10,000 times with Scotch-Brite to test whether they scratch.

We use a mechanical scrubbing arm to test the durability of non-stick surfaces on frypans.

• To test dishwashers, we dirty plates and cutlery with oats, egg yolk, spinach, baby cereal, margarine, tomato juice and tea. Then we leave them to dry for 15–18 hours before running them through a dishwasher.
• We listen to the same music tracks over and over to test soundbars and speakers. ('Fast car' by Tracy Chapman has forever been ruined for one tester!)
• Several of our testers sit on committees for Australian and international standards and help to write safety requirements, so they really know their stuff.
• We spend dozens of hours literally watching water boil to test rangehoods.

CHOICE expert Rebecca Ciaramidaro does the painstaking job of 'dirtying' standardised sets of crockery with different types of food to test dishwashers.

• To test microwaves' reheating capabilities, our kitchen team makes 30 quiches from scratch: that's two to three days to make the pastry, blind bake it, fry 30 onions and 3kg bacon, fill the quiche cases, cook them and then freeze them.
• We smear high chairs with baby food, Weetbix, spaghetti and tomato sauce, and let it dry to see how easy they are to clean.
• Our labs are accredited by the National Association of Testing Authorities, or NATA, and they're audited every 18 months to make sure they're up to scratch and compliant with strict standards.
• When testing ovens we cook more than 300 scones, 20 pizzas, 10 chickens, 60 meringues and 10 loaves of bread.

Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.

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