Need to know
- The 2025 Black Friday sales are underway and retailers are cutting prices on a broad range of products
- Brands are heavily promoting their discounts, but some of the items on offer performed poorly in CHOICE tests
- We've also seen decent savings on items we recommend, so it's important to check CHOICE reviews before you buy
The 2025 Black Friday sales are here and retailers and manufacturers are dropping prices on lots of products in the lead up to the end of the month.
In recent weeks, we've seen major retailers such as Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, and manufacturers like Samsung and Tefal, cut prices on their stock by as much as 70%.
Every day brings more deals, and while we have seen quality products going for cheaper than normal, Black Friday can also be a time when retailers try to offload unpopular products, leading to dud items getting mixed in among bargain stock.
We'll reveal the deals we've seen that look like attempts by retailers to clear out dud stock
In fact, some of the most attention-grabbing markdowns we've seen this year are on products that have performed poorly in our reviews.
So how can you avoid ending up with a dud?
As an independent expert tester of many of the products being slapped with Black Friday markdowns, CHOICE is uniquely able to shine a light on the actual quality of what's being discounted.
Read on to find some of the best deals we've spotted so far on products our experts have tested and recommend (available exclusively to CHOICE members). But first, we'll reveal the deals we've seen that look like attempts by retailers to clear out dud stock.
On this page:
Poor performing products in the Black Friday sales
Even at Black Friday prices, many of these products are outperformed by cheaper alternatives in our tests.
However, some of these items could have unique strengths that suit your circumstances, so check our reviews for the breakdown of the pros and cons we found for each.
Wasteful whitegoods
They're front and centre in the Black Friday sale from retailer e&s, with markdowns of almost 30%, but the Haier HDV70AWW1 clothes dryer and the Smeg FAB32RPB5AU fridge are among the whitegoods our experts say you should avoid.
Retailer e&s is discounting this poor-performing Smeg fridge for Black Friday.
Our fridge experts gave the Smeg a flat out 0% for temperature stability and observed poor temperature evenness when they put it through its paces.
With its top shelf section recording significantly warmer temperatures than the bottom, any food you leave in this refrigerator could go off faster than expected, adding extra dollars to your grocery bill.
Meanwhile, even at the Black Friday price of $549 at e&s, the Haier dryer is outdone by cheaper vented dryers that perform better, according to our latest dryer review.
This model came second-last in our latest test, with our experts marking it down for poor energy efficiency – making it much more expensive in the long run than other vented models.
Ruinous robo vacs
The TP-LINK Tapo RV20 Max Plus, Narwal Freo X Plus and iRobot Roomba Plus 505 Combo + AutoWash Dock all feature in Black Friday deals from either The Good Guys or their respective manufacturer brands.
The Tapo RV20 Max Plus robo vac, along with its frustrating app, is also among this year's 'deals'.
With discounts of almost 50%, they're sure to grab shoppers' attention, but beware – these suckers all featured in our recent rundown of robo vacs to avoid, languishing at the bottom of the score table following our latest test.
They all do a decent job cleaning hard floors, but struggle with tasks like mopping and sucking up pet hair.
And there might be some of your own hair on the floor after you've encountered the apps required to run some of these models – our experts were tearing theirs out trying to work the platforms used to operate the TP Link and iRobot, finding them frustrating and buggy.
Dusty air purifiers
Take a glance at Black Friday promotions from Dyson and The Good Guys and you might spot the Breville Smart Air Viral Protect Compact and Dyson Hot+Cool HP2 air purifiers.
Both have been marked down from their usual prices, but only after they were marked down by our testers, earning CHOICE Expert Ratings of just 45% and 48% respectively in our latest review.
This is because we found them to be bad at clearing up dust and smoke and less energy efficient than other models. We also found the Dyson to have relatively noisy low and high fan speed settings.
A tiring TV
The Hisense 65Q6QAU TV found infamy earlier this month when we called it out as one of the TVs shoppers should avoid, but now it's getting a second shot in the limelight as part of The Good Guys' Black Friday sale.
You'll find a Black Friday deal on a better TV just in the time it takes this Hisense to turn on.
Bargain hunters beware – this model came out second-worst in our latest TV test.
Our experts observed disappointing picture quality on its high and standard settings and a remote that could be difficult to use. It also took a boredom-inducing 20 seconds to turn on.
With prices dropping on lots of TVs this Black Friday, you'll likely find better 65-inch models going for less, so check our reviews and shop around.
An abysmal air fryer
With a whopping 63% Black Friday discount from Kitchen Warehouse, the Kitchen Couture Dual View 10L stainless steel air fryer is tempting.
At 63% off, it's hard to resist, but this Kitchen Couture air fryer came last in our latest test.
But even at the $184 markdown rate we saw it for, you could get something better for less.
This fryer came dead last in our latest test, with our experts finding it difficult to use.
And despite being a big unit, we found its individual drawers were smaller than those of most other models, meaning you may not be able to cook as much as you'd expect.
A marginal mattress
Original Mattress Factory is selling its Refresh Firm Queen at half price this Black Friday, but the 50% reduction in price doesn't make up for the fact this mattress came equal last in our latest review.
We found it didn't hold up after we simulated eight years of use, losing more firmness than other models.
Our experts also criticised the retailer for charging a fee to customers who want to return or exchange the mattress during its 30-day trial period.
Good products in the Black Friday sales
Only CHOICE members can access the following information on top performing products featuring in this year's Black Friday sales.
If you're not yet a member, join CHOICE to get instant access to all our expert, independent reviews or log in to unlock this article.
These are some of the best Black Friday deals we've seen so far on products scoring well enough in our reviews to be recommended by our expert testers.
Note that we've listed these deals as we found them in mid-November – the Black Friday sales are popular and usually finish up by early December, so some products may have sold out by the time you're reading this.
Prices can also change and new sales can begin at any time, so you may want to do your own price comparison for the products we mention here in case a better offer has emerged.
Finally, it still pays to check our reviews before you buy – even at their discounted prices, some products here may still be outperformed by cheaper alternatives that aren't getting marked down for Black Friday.
Unlock this article and more
- Information you can trust
- See the best brands
- Avoid the worst performers
Stock images: Getty, unless otherwise stated.
