Whether you recently bought a new vacuum, a new television, or a light bulb—or maybe tried a new salad dressing—chances are good that you first looked at reviews from Consumer Reports. And chances are even better that those products were tested (and tested, and tested again) right here at Consumer Reports’ National Testing and Research Center in Yonkers.
The 250,000-square-foot National Testing and Research Center features 50 labs in which more than 3,000 products—from dishwashers to car batteries to 3D printers are tested each year. Between Consumer Reports and consumerreports.com, more than 7.3 million people rely on the testing that goes on in the Yonkers headquarters. The company, to remain completely objective, still doesn’t accept advertising and purchases all products tested (which cost $4.2 million in 2012). In fact, media usually isn’t allowed in the testing center since they don’t want manufacturers knowing what products are being tested.
But, luckily, we were allowed in for a guided tour—and granted access to many of those 50 labs.
