Ryan Whitaker

Last summer I watched my neighbor drag a tangled 75-foot rubber hose across her flagstone patio for the third weekend in a row. The hose had cracked couplings, the couplings left black scuff marks on her stone, and the whole mess was a trip hazard waiting to happen. I spent the next month testing the … Read more

Cutting the cord and switching to free over-the-air TV starts with picking the right antenna. For suburban homeowners who cannot (or prefer not to) climb onto the roof, an attic-mounted HDTV antenna hits the sweet spot between reception quality and installation convenience. After testing and comparing dozens of antennas over the past few years, our … Read more

I spent the last three months testing eight copper wind sculptures in my own backyard, timing them in 5 mph gusts and 25 mph storms, watching how the copper aged under rain and sun. The verdict is in: a great copper wind sculpture is a marriage of metal quality, balance engineering, and a bearing system … Read more

I still remember the day my husband and I tried to haul twelve 24-inch natural flagstones from the garden center to the backyard. We made it four steps before one cracked in half and nearly took out a toe. The remaining eleven waited in the driveway for two weekends before we gave up and returned … Read more

I learned this the hard way three years ago. I tried to muscle a 280-pound refrigerator across my kitchen floor without any equipment, and within ten minutes my back was in spasms. Two days later, I dropped a corner of the dryer and bent the door hinge. That expensive mistake pushed me into researching heavy-duty … Read more

Moving a refrigerator is one of those tasks that looks simple until you actually try it. A standard fridge weighs between 200 and 400 pounds, and without the right equipment, you risk serious back injury, scratched floors, or a damaged appliance. I have helped friends and family move heavy appliances for over a decade, and … Read more

Moving furniture used to wreck my back and my weekends. I bought a cheap dolly years ago, and it snapped halfway through hauling a dresser up the stairs. After that disaster, I started testing convertible hand trucks for furniture moving with our team. We pushed boxes, couches, washers, and even a cast-iron tub up flights … Read more

Moving a heavy sofa without the right equipment is one of the fastest ways to throw out your back or scratch up your floors. After watching a neighbor destroy a doorframe wrestling with a 300-pound sectional, I decided to test furniture dollies for heavy sofas the way I would test anything else: by actually using … Read more

Moving a piano is one of those jobs that humbles almost everyone who tries it. I learned this the hard way when I tried to slide my grandmother’s 1962 upright across a hardwood floor with a folded blanket. Three minutes in, the legs started to wobble, my back gave out, and I called a friend … Read more

I have been testing universal remotes for smart home control since Logitech discontinued the Harmony line, and I have watched the market scramble to fill that gap ever since. The truth is most people do not need a $400 touchscreen controller to turn on their TV and soundbar. They need one reliable remote that works, … Read more