Certain mattresses, ovens, cooktops and cots performed well in our lab tests, but quality does vary from model to model
Our tests have uncovered certain Ikea products that fail to impress
We test Ikea products alongside other brands in a wide range of product categories – check out our full reviews to find out how the products compare
Does the sight of Ikea’s bold blue and gold send a frisson of retail-related pleasure down your spine? Or perhaps you’re offended by the thought of paying money for furniture you have to assemble yourself?
Maybe you just go there for the meatballs. (A valid choice.)
Whatever your thoughts on the Swedish Temple of Homewares, there’s no denying that Ikea often hits the mark with its range of great-value, functional products, and there are probably few homes that don’t have at least one piece of Scandinavian flat-pack furniture.
However, our product experts have found that Ikea does have a few dodgy buys among all the Hemnes, Hovags, Bjurstas and other unpronounceables.
There’s no denying that Ikea often hits the mark with its range of great-value, functional products
Whether you’re furnishing your home, preparing for a baby or just love dropping cash on things you didn’t know you needed, here’s our round-up of the best buys and the scandi-lous (sorry) rip-offs.
CHOICE experts have put a range of mattresses through their paces and they say that Ikea mattresses are definitely worth considering.
But some are better than others, so just make sure you’re buying the best that the Swedish retailer has to offer.
Ikea typically makes middle-of-the-road mattresses but some do rank among our top performers
Peter Zaluzny, CHOICE mattress expert
“Ikea typically makes middle-of-the-road mattresses – most aren’t the best on the market, but some do rank among our top performers,” says CHOICE mattress expert Peter Zalzuny.
“The rest aren’t bad for the price so, depending on what you’re looking for, an Ikea mattress can be a solid choice.
“Ikea’s free trial period of a year is three times longer than Koala’s or Sleeping Duck’s. Their warranty lasts a whopping 25 years for some models and it’s easy to try each mattress instore before entering the free trial period.
We take testing very seriously at CHOICE.
“Plus, they have quite a few models to choose from.”
The seven Ikea mattresses we’ve tested range in price from $249 to $1399 and two of them are recommended by our experts.
If you do need to exchange, it’s important to know Ikea doesn’t have free delivery or pick up, and you’re only eligible for one exchange under the trial period.
Pillows
Sweet dreams are made of these: comfortable pillows on a budget from Ikea.
With some pillows costing $150 or more (we tested four that cost $250+), it seems people are willing to pay big dollars in the pursuit of a good night’s sleep.
But what if you don’t have that kind of money to spend?
If you’re on a budget, you can rest easy: in our tests, most of Ikea’s memory foam pillows held their own against premium-branded pillows that cost many times more. However, not all of them scored highly, so check our reviews to make sure you’re picking up a good one.
Ikea stocks a range of pillows in various materials and at various price points (we tested ones ranging from $10 to $80). As comfort is particularly subjective, it’s a good idea to check out pillows instore if you can.
Our pillow review can also help you to ensure you get the right pillow for your needs and budget.
Ikea cot mattresses
We test cot mattresses for safety, which includes firmness and accuracy of dimensions. We recommend the vast majority of cot mattresses we review.
We tested four Ikea cot mattresses in our CHOICE labs and they rated from very good to excellent. To find out which mattresses scored the highest, see our full cot mattress reviews.
Ikea high chairs
Our latest detailed high chair testing included three Ikea models in a range of styles and materials.
The iconic Ikea Antilop high chair you see in so many households and cafes across the country didn’t score as highly as other high chairs in our tests, but at $25, it’s hard to deny that this is a bargain buy that does the job.
The Ikea Antilop high chair. BYO cute baby.
It’s cheap, lightweight and easy to clean, although our testers did note some downsides:
the harness has no shoulder straps
the harness isn’t permanently attached, so could pose a safety issue if you lose it
the high chair isn’t foldable
it has no footrest
the tray is very hard to remove.
A CHOICE member said: “The Ikea [Antilop] high chair is simplicity and function rolled into one affordable piece of baby equipment. Everyone I know who has purchased a cheap Ikea high chair as a ‘back-up’ at granny’s, or for a holiday house, has soon discarded their fussy, expensive chair in favour of this one.”
Reassuringly, all three Ikea high chairs we’ve tested (the Antilop, Blåmes and Gråval) passed our key safety tests.
Although none of the Ikea wall ovens we tested earned a recommended rating in our wall oven reviews, they all scored quite well, especially given their relatively low price point.
Likewise, CHOICE testing shows that Ikea offers quality options when it comes to its gas, induction and portable induction cooktops, and our experts have been impressed by their performance for a relatively low price.
Again, most of them didn’t score highly enough to be recommended by our experts, but several of them missed out by just a few percentage points.
Some models definitely perform better than others, so check out our full cooktop reviews to find out which ones scored best.
Dishwashers
Some Ikea dishwashers are good buys; others are less impressive.
Ikea sells a number of integrated dishwashers, ranging in price from $599 to $1499.
The models we’ve tested in the past have been hit and miss: some have scored well, with two scoring high enough to be recommended, while others haven’t been much to write home about.
The top scoring Ikea dishwasher delivered very good drying performance, but is relatively noisy and the display doesn’t show the time remaining for the cycle. For the price, though, it’s definitely worth considering.
Cookware
Ikea might not be the first place you’d think of to buy a good frypan or Dutch oven, but maybe it should be: some Ikea pots and pans have really impressed our kitchen experts.
A cheapo non-stick frypan from the Swedish shop outscored pans from fancy brands that cost hundreds of dollars more, and a $99 Ikea cast-iron Dutch oven only just missed out on being recommended by our experts by one percentage point.
While plenty of expensive saucepans, frypans and Dutch ovens do perform well in our testing, our test results show that you shouldn’t always discount the discount products when you shop.
None of the Ikea change tables we’ve tested have performed very well – the highest score any of them achieved was 65%.
They did pass all our key safety tests, but all of them had one or two minor safety failures.
Of note is the Myllra change table which comes with nearly 300 individual pieces. It took our experts (who are no slouches when it comes to assembling flat-pack furniture) nearly two hours to put together!
Microwaves
Ikea microwaves: You can buy better products elsewhere for similar prices.
The Ikea microwave in our current review performed quite well, with our experts rating it as “good” overall.
It was deemed “excellent” for cooking vegetables and “very good” for defrosting mince by our experts, but unfortunately didn’t make the cut to be recommended.
“The Ikea Tillreda is a very basic microwave with manual controls that are not very accurate,” says CHOICE home economist Fiona Mair.
While they’re definitely cheap, we’ve tested similarly priced microwaves that performed better, so make sure you check our expert microwave reviews to help you pick up the best model for your money.
The Nedkyld received a CHOICE Shonky Award in 2019 and has since been discontinued.
CHOICE experts haven’t been great fans of Ikea fridges in the past, and one of the Ikea fridges tested in our most recent reviews hasn’t done much to sway their opinion.
We awarded one Ikea fridge a CHOICE Shonky Award in 2019: The Ikea Nedkyld fridge received a raft of poor scores in our testing, with an overall rating of 39%. It bombed out on pretty much every test and our experts couldn’t find a single good thing to say about it.
Fortunately it’s since been discontinued.
We’ve also tested the $1299 Ikea Medgang 302L fridge (currently listed at $1099 on the Ikea website), and while it wasn’t as bad as the Nedkyld, it didn’t impress either, scoring just 51% for temperature stability – which means its temperature is likely to fluctuate, potentially leaving you with ice cream that’s melted then re-frozen, and food that goes off faster.
The $599 Ikea Lagan 257L fridge performed even worse for temperature stability and temperature evenness – it’s rated as “poor” by our experts on both these aspects. It scored a lukewarm 49% overall.
These fridges may be some of the cheapest on the market, but even at these low prices they’re still not great buys.
If you’re overwhelmed by the thought of spending hundreds of dollars on an air purifier, you might be tempted by Ikea’s $199 Starkvind model.
Our advice? Don’t be.
It scored just 59% for smoke removal, 60% for dust removal and just 17% for VOC (volatile organic compound) removal – in short, it was pretty ordinary at doing all the things an air purifier is supposed to do.
It’s not the most ineffective air purifier we’ve ever seen, but it’s still just an OK performer compared to other models on the market.
Unfortunately, it looks like you do need to spend a bit to get a really good air purifier: the cheapest of our recommended models is $399. However, even if you only have a small budget, there are other super-cheap models that score better than Ikea’s offerings.
This $249 Ikea speaker scored about the same as a $99 model.
The Ikea speakers we’ve tested over the years have never really impressed our experts: the highest scoring speaker is rated an underwhelming 62%.
The lowest scorer (which is now discontinued) received a CHOICE Expert Rating of just 27%.
With a price tag of only $20, no-one would expect high-level performance from it, but boy did it exceed expectations – in the worst possible way.
As for currently available speakers, even spending a bit more won’t give you better sound: a $99 and a $249 speaker scored pretty much the same in our tests, despite the $150 difference.
Unfortunately not many of the cheaper speakers we’ve reviewed have performed especially well, so you probably won’t get great sound quality at Ikea prices – but if you keep an eye out in the sales you’ll be able to pick up something better than these woeful wireless speakers.
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.
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.
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