In the past few weeks, we’ve seen major retailers such as JB Hi-Fi, Bing Lee and Amazon, and manufacturers like Samsung and Lenovo, cut prices on their stock by as much as 70%.
Every day brings more sales, and while we have seen quality products selling cheaper than normal, EOFY can also be a chance for retailers to offload unpopular items, leading to dud products getting mixed in among bargain stock.
In fact, some of the most attention-grabbing markdowns we’ve seen so far are on products that have performed poorly in our reviews.
So how can you avoid ending up with one of these poor performers?
As an independent expert tester of many of the products being slapped with EOFY markdowns, CHOICE is uniquely able to shine a light on the actual quality of what’s being sold.
Read on to find some of the best prices we’ve spotted so far for products our experts have tested and recommend (available exclusively to CHOICE members).
But first, we’ll reveal the deals you’d be smart to avoid.
Even at their lower EOFY prices, you might find 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.
Rejected robo vacs
This Eureka robo vac features in the sales, but we don’t recommend buying it.
The Eureka E20 Plus might look like a good EOFY find, going for almost half price at Amazon, but this model didn’t make it anywhere near the top of the table when our testers put it and 19 other robot vacuum cleaners through their paces.
Our testers concluded it might best be put to use as an expensive amusement. It visibly struggled to negotiate furniture, rugs, carpet and pets, often knocking into the same object over and over again.
When it eventually got around to cleaning, it couldn’t do that very well either, recording the worst mopping score of any robo vac we tested.
Meanwhile, anyone perusing clearance sales at Myer and Betta may have noticed these retailers trying to shift the iRobot Roomba 205 DustCompactor Combo out of their stores by way of discounts as high as 42%.
But consumers are the ones who should be moving on: this robo vac has middling performance in many areas. To make matters worse, our testers found that the app you need to operate the device was buggy and difficult to use.
Over at The Good Guys, another Roomba, the Plus 505 Combo, has been branded a “Top Deal” – a label incongruent with its bottom-level performance.
This model came close to last in our latest robo vac review, marked down for being bad at picking up dirt and mopping, as well as being noisy and suffering regular glitches.
The Rinnai PEPH-22PEW is getting the sale treatment, but came equal-last in our latest heater review.
Perfectly aligned with the start of winter, EOFY is a great time to grab a heater. But steer clear of these models, whose mediocre performance will leave you shivering.
Two Haier dishwashers – the HDW15F2S1 and HDW13F0S1 – are among the crop of EOFY deals at electrical retailer E&S, going for 25% cheaper than normal, according to the company.
It might sound like a deal, but beware: both of these models featured in our recent rundown of dishwashers to avoid after we found them to be bad at cleaning plates and expensive to run.
The HDW15F2S1 tries to compensate for this by being Wi-Fi-enabled, but whether that’s more useful than actually getting clean dishes is debatable.
Washed-up washing machines
The Haier HWT75AA1 is on discount, but its poor water economy will cost you in the long run.
The washing woes continue for Haier. There are two top-loader washing machines from the manufacturer marked down by our testers among sale stock at E&S, Betta and Harvey Norman.
Already notably cheap at full price, the HWT60AA1 and HWT75AA1 are now going for even less, 25% in some cases.
But these low prices will come back to bite you: we found both models expensive to run, due to poor water efficiency.
EOFY is just the latest chance for these washers to prove themselves deserving of the title cheap and nasty. They were less gentle on the test fabrics we used in our recent washing machines review than other models.
Don’t get lulled by the 50% off EOFY sale from mattress retailer Snooze: the Sealy Posturepedic Crown Jewels Reims Flex is among those getting the half-price treatment, but you’ll probably be able to find a better mattress for even less.
This Sealy came in towards the bottom of our latest mattress review, getting an overall rating of just 67% from our experts.
The Slumberland Soho is also enjoying an EOFY discount at Snooze, but this might be another deal worth sleeping on. We found this mattress relatively uncomfortable and it had the lowest stabilisation score of the almost 50 products we tested.
Harvey Norman has cut the price of this Acer laptop, but you might be able to find a better model for even less.
EOFY is synonymous with home office appliances, but here too lie dangers to your dollar.
The Acer Aspire Go 15 laptop is currently $100 cheaper than usual at Harvey Norman, thanks to the retailer’s half-yearly clearance sale. But it’s worth noting this model scored relatively poorly in our latest laptop review.
Despite some good points, it could become a source of frustration in your home office, due to poor audio quality and having a keyboard that can’t be backlit for easy use in the dark.
A stick vac that sucks
You want your stick vacuum cleaner to suck, but not in this way.
During testing, our experts noticed the Black & Decker PowerSeries+ BHFEA515J was prone to leaking some of the dirt it had just sucked up. Hardly surprising, then, that it did a poor job of several cleaning tasks.
Our testers also gave it low marks for not having a battery you could swap out and replace.
These factors landed it towards the bottom of our latest stick vac review, but you wouldn’t know that looking at the product on Amazon.
There, it’s being given “Amazon’s Choice” status and a 7% discount as part of the company’s mid-year sale. This sucker might be Amazon’s choice, but it definitely wouldn’t be ours.
It may be “Amazon’s Choice”, but it’s not ours: this Black & Decker scored poorly in our latest stick vac review.
EOFY deals worth considering
Only CHOICE members can access the following information on top-performing products featuring in this year’s EOFY 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 prices we’ve seen so far on products we recommend in the EOFY sales.
Liam Kennedy is a Journalist with the Editorial and investigations team. He answers consumers' most burning questions, from which scams to be aware of and how to save money, to whether new services and products are worth using and how the latest developments in consumer news could affect them.
Prior to CHOICE, Liam worked in production in daily news radio and podcasting.
Liam has a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology Sydney. LinkedIn
Liam Kennedy is a Journalist with the Editorial and investigations team. He answers consumers' most burning questions, from which scams to be aware of and how to save money, to whether new services and products are worth using and how the latest developments in consumer news could affect them.
Prior to CHOICE, Liam worked in production in daily news radio and podcasting.
Liam has a Bachelor of Communication (Journalism) and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of Technology Sydney. LinkedIn
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