CHOICE lab experts review thousands of products and services each year
Sunscreens that don't protect you from the sun, heaters that aren't so hot and cots that put babies at risk are just some of the duds we have uncovered
CHOICE members can access our full test results and compare products side by side
Every year, our experts test and review thousands of products from hundreds of brands to help you find the best.
They assess appliances, groceries, tech, insurance and more to sort out the great-value buys from the duds that just aren’t worth your money.
Sometimes they find excellent performers (including some surprising budget buys), but they also regularly uncover serious shockers they wouldn’t spend their own cash on, and you shouldn’t either.
Here are some of the latest underwhelming products and services they’ve seen.
Subpar sunscreens
The results of our sunscreen testing have been the talk of 2025.
In case you’ve been living under a rock (how very sun-safe of you), here’s what happened during #sunscreengate:
CHOICE CEO Ashley De Silva says the TGA’s announcement “highlights the importance of the TGA’s investigation and the need for changes to how sunscreens are regulated and tested in Australia.”
The TGA’s investigation continues and CHOICE will continue working to ensure Australians can trust SPF ratings on sunscreens.
#sunscreengate was the talk of the year, when CHOICE testing revealed that 16 out of the 20 sunscreens in our review didn’t meet their SPF claims.
Not-so-hot heaters
With summer on the way, most of us are looking to cool down rather than warm up. But there’s one winter product that’s still getting CHOICE experts hot under the collar.
Plug-in mini heaters are palm-sized gadgets that plug directly into a power point and circulate warm air with a fan. They may sound like a cheap and convenient way to get toasty, but they can be unsafe and may not actually warm you up.
Hardly handy: This heater was so bad that it scored a Shonky.
We sounded the alarm bells on these shonky products earlier this year, warning consumers that they pose serious safety hazards including the risk of fire and even explosion.
But despite them effectively being banned from being sold in Australia, we’re still seeing them pop up on social media and online retailers such as eBay and AliExpress.
We came across one so bad that we gave it a Shonky – the award no-one wants to win. Here’s why the Handy Heater Turbo 800 made our 2025 Shonky Awards.
Expensive health insurance
Private health insurance already costs a small fortune, so when we hear about insurers hiking up their prices behind their customers’ backs, we get particularly cranky.
Every year, health insurers must seek government approval to increase their prices on 1 April.
But health insurers have found a sneaky way around it. They only need approval for existing policies, not new ones – so they use this loophole to avoid the approval process.
When we hear about insurers hiking up their prices behind their customers’ backs, we get particularly cranky
The sneaky scheme involves quietly closing existing policies, then creating new policies that are almost exactly the same but cost far more. The government is none the wiser, and neither are new customers.
HCF is the worst offender we’ve seen in 2025, jacking up the price of a policy by nearly 35%. Here’s why we gave HCF a CHOICE Shonky Award.
Washed-up cleaning products
Never-ending cleaning chores are one of the least fun parts of being an adult, so anything that makes this soul-sucking task even more sucky gets a big thumbs down from us.
These products shown below performed so poorly that you’ll have to use your own elbow grease to actually get things clean.
Steer clear of these products – they’ll lighten your wallet but not your cleaning workload.
Dud dishwasher detergents
A dishwasher is meant to free you from hours slaving over a hot sink, but if your dishwasher detergent isn’t up to scratch you’ll end up having to wash the dishes anyway.
Unless you really want an excuse to re-wash all the crockery and cutlery that your dishwasher was meant to, we suggest you avoid OzKleen Dishwasher Power Gel Detergent.
It scored just 11% in our tests – not much better than plain water, which scored 5%. It’d be less work to handwash your dishes than pick this up from the shop, unpack it, add it to the dishwasher, then unpack a dishwasher full of dirty dishes.
Doing the laundry is up there with doing the dishes as one of the most-hated household chores. And when you’re already battling an avalanche of dirty clothes, the last thing you want is to wash them twice to get them clean.
One laundry detergent we tested performed so poorly that even washing with it twice probably won’t get your clothes clean.
Sweet dreams definitely aren’t made of the cots that failed key safety requirements in our testing.
In our latest review of 14 cots, our testing uncovered five cots that pose risks due to safety issues such as fall risks and limb entrapment. We consider these issues to be serious safety failures.
Our testing uncovered five cots that pose risks due to safety issues such as fall risks and limb entrapment
Most of the cots with failures were either bought from eBay or via online platforms like Baby Bunting Marketplace, where third-party retailers can list and sell products. One of the cots was bought from Big W.
CHOICE testing shows that even an expensive price tag doesn’t mean a product is safe.
Prams and portacots
Sadly, there are other unsafe baby products on the market. This year, our expert testers also uncovered serious safety failures when testing portable cots and prams:
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Find Pru on LinkedIn.
Pru Engel is the Audience and Engagement editor at CHOICE. Her job is to ensure as many Australians as possible know about the great work we do at CHOICE.
She works closely with our testers and experts to find the gems of information in our data and research that will resonate with Australian consumers and help them make the best decisions, whether they're purchasing an air fryer, looking for a new mattress or trying to find the cheapest car insurance. She also helps to drive meaningful change for consumers by collaborating with our Campaigns team on content covering issues such as grocery pricing, product safety and scams.
Prior to CHOICE, Pru worked as an editor at many of Australia's leading food and lifestyle titles.
Pru has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication (Journalism) from the University of Technology, Sydney.
Find Pru on LinkedIn.
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
Alice Richard is a Content creator and marketer. Alice writes on a range of topics, from health insurance to heaters and BBQs to bargain-hunting, always with the aim to help consumers find the best products to buy, and which to avoid.
Alice can take vast amounts of data from CHOICE product tests and turn it into content that is easily digestible and fun for readers.
Alice has a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Queensland. LinkedIn
For more than 60 years, we've been making a difference for Australian consumers. In that time, we've never taken ads or sponsorship.
Instead we're funded by members who value expert reviews and independent product testing.
With no self-interest behind our advice, you don't just buy smarter, you get the answers that you need.
You know without hesitation what's safe for you and your family. And our recent sunscreens test showed just how important it is to keep business claims in check.
So you'll never be alone when something goes wrong or a business treats you unfairly.
