We are The Wirecutter, a group of people with years of experience testing and reviewing gadgets. We’re here to answer your questions about Black Friday, the work we do, and whatever else. Ask us anything.

Hey, Reddit! We’ve done this before (this is year four for us, actually), and we’re excited to be back again.

We are the writers and editors of The Wirecutter and The Sweethome, two sites dedicated to helping you find the best equipment no matter what you’re looking for. You may have heard that we recently became a part of The New York Times Company. Whether it’s an in-depth look at the best wireless exercise headphones or a review of the best humidifiers, we put tons of hours into researching and testing every article we write.

We’ve also spent the past four years scanning, tracking, and reporting deals on our Wirecutter and Sweethome deals pages. During the holidays, we put the minds of our staff to good use by scouring the Internet for anything worthwhile. In all that time, we’ve learned one absolute truth about deals: The Internet is filled with crap. Some sellers like to say something is a deal when they’re really just matching the price of another retailer, some drastically lower the prices on items they know will break in a week anyway, and some just like to mess with you by jacking up the price for a while so they can drop it back down to normal and call it a sale.

We want to put at your fingertips the combined knowledge of our staff. Post a deal you’re thinking about getting. We’ll tell you about the price (if it’s a scam or something good) and the product (whether it’s worth buying at any price). And if we can point you to something even better, we’ll do that too. We have a wide range of experts from both The Wirecutter and The Sweethome in here to answer your questions, and most will have flair on their names so you know it’s us.

Proof

Update: We're pretty much done at this point. But if you ask a question that doesn't get answered, tweet us @wirecutter and we'll get back to you. Thanks!

Comments: 358 • Responses: 9  • Date: 

svanho19 karma

Very important question for your experts: Is a hot dog a sandwich?

tbarribeau15 karma

I have an answer, but first you have to define "what is a salad" for me 🤔

Andrea_Wirecutter10 karma

If you're curious what Wirecutter's "random" Slack room looks like, it's basically this thread in a nutshell.

t_mike13 karma

What are some good white elephant gifts for $20 or less?

Andrea_Wirecutter14 karma

Socks. You can get ones with funny prints which may seem ridiculous, but will come in handy when you keep putting laundry day off.

oxzoology6 karma

Thanks for doing this! Here are my questions:

  1. Are there any inexpensive knock-off products you've tried that ended up being a great product or at least pretty decent?

  2. Is using a site like camelcamelcamel.com for tracking prices good or should I just stick to notifications from twitter accounts for alerts on price drops?

  3. Will you be doing a review on all the "AI" personal assistant home devices from Google, Amazon, and other companies?

Andrea_Wirecutter3 karma

Question 1: We recently wrote a piece about Amazon Basics which might interest you: http://thewirecutter.com/blog/should-you-consider-amazonbasics/

evan_adams4 karma

As a remote company what does that mean to you? I bet a lot of your writers use their own homes and home offices, are they compensated for that use or do they just do home office deductions? Do you 1099 most writers or are they employees and if employees how do you manage that office space/use?

Andrea_Wirecutter5 karma

We also rely on tons of apps and tools to ensure that our communication is as seamless and collaborative as companies with more traditional office spaces. We wrote a piece about the different tools we use: http://thewirecutter.com/blog/11-apps-we-use-for-remote-working/

LemSayBlam4 karma

The last few years you've done this AMA on Black Friday. The last few years I have politely chided you for doing this on the shopping day, instead of before the shopping day. So my questions is:

Would you all like to thank me for getting this AMA moved to a useful day and time?

Andrea_Wirecutter8 karma

There were a quite a few reasons why we decided to move it to a day other than Black Friday, but there is a slight chance that your comments on past AMAs were eating away at me and I knew something had to be done...and for that, I thank you.

yeahaboutlastnight3 karma

I could have sworn I saw a post from you folks that said you were looking at couches. I was pretty surprised, since there are so many different kinds, but I would certainly take your word/help on it. Are you going to be doing a review of couches anytime soon or is it up and I'm just not seeing it?

Andrea_Wirecutter3 karma

Our sofa guide is still in the works; hopefully will be up in early 2017. When we explore new categories, it can take us a bit longer to bring the guide to fruition since we want to make sure we're being as meticulous and thorough with our research and testing as we are with the other product categories we cover.

imlacwest3 karma

Four things: 1. Thank you for your reliable reviews. 2. Any rec'd laptop bags (not backpacks) less expensive than your briefcase recs? 3. Bluetooth headset rec for dictation s/w (spec, Dragon for Mac)? I didn't see it mentioned in recent reviews.. 4. Sugg: How about a new section just for baby-related stuff (we're expecting our first..). Thank you!

Andrea_Wirecutter5 karma

Answer to 4: Baby-related gear is something we're definitely considering expanding our coverage on and we make sure to log all these requests and suggestions from readers, so I'll make sure to make a note. Also, congratulations!

Grandpas_Spells2 karma

Thanks for the work you guys do. I have a dozen of your recommendations and the dishwasher is getting installed on Friday. Any parenting stuff on the horizon? Holy hell the baby market is filled with overpriced garbage.

Andrea_Wirecutter2 karma

We're definitely thinking about covering parenting stuff in the near future! Also, depending on what age range you're looking for, we just put together a pretty great guide to the best learning and STEM toys we love: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/learning-toys-and-stem-toys-we-love/

MrLeedleWeedle2 karma

Do you guys have any recommendations for wireless sport/gym earbuds?

Andrea_Wirecutter2 karma

We do! We have a guide dedicated specifically to wireless exercise headphones. You can check it out here: http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/best-wireless-exercise-headphones/