That’s correct, but a statement in the header content would be useful so it is clear. Also in the past Choice has removed a recommendation due to an overriding factor…such as safety etc. There has been factors outside the raw percentages which have caused a product not to be recommended.
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Its always necessary to look at the testing criteria—some may not apply to you. CHOICE can’t read the mind of every potential user. They will have to take a guess at how the reader will use the product and what aspects are of what level of importance.
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Good suggestion, thanks @PhilT . With our current CMS it’s a bit tricky to add new aspects such as this, but I’ll take it to our User Experience team and see what they can do.
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And when I looked up vacuum cleaners today, this happened!
Before you ask, I have clicked on the arrows on the right and all they did was turn 90 degrees to the right.
Really? 
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What device/browser are you using? Do you have any anti-adware or AVs that might interfere? I ask because I tried to replicate your problem without success (win 11 w/Firefox).
Specifically when I tried it the arrows on the right when clicked turned to point up and the information (cost, etc) was filled in for each column). In my case they started with the full display, and clicking the arrows (pointing up) cleared the respective sections to reflect your image, arrows pointing right.
Maybe or maybe not related, but as example I have found many web sites have troubles showing reviews when Malwarebytes is installed. It also interferes with some chats as well as other things. Turning off the ad/tracker defence for the page usually resolves it.
Since you are a long term user I’ll accept it might be a new problem? Yet as software (eg Malwarebytes and AVs) gets updated it can get in the way in ways it previously has not.
EDIT: I can confirm with the Malwarebytes ad/tracker defence enabled the display does not present properly. and operates exactly as @mcziel2 indicates. It is a software incompatibility issue.
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Thanks for the response.
Im running a 2019 Mac with Monterey OS installed, using Safari as a browser and ClamVAX.
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I have just tried the exact same comparison on Chrome and Microsoft Edge, and the comparison table automatically populates with the data. Might try Duck and Samsung browser later if I get a chance.
I suggest ensuring Safari is the current version to start with. If it is, then try a different browser. In the past I have found that some browsers can’t handle some html coding which may be compatible with some, not all browsers. Try Thunderbird or Duck if you are worried about using Chrome. Other members use these and haven’t reported any issues.
Another option is clear the cache and cookies for Choice.com.au. This will require you to login again, but may clear any cookies/site data which may be playing up/corrupted.
Let us know if these solutions work.
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I am ‘Mac free’ but there is an iPad in the house 
Safari with default setttings works fine on the page.
Try disabling ClamXav’ and reload the page. if it displays properly then you can investigate precisely what protection is causing it.
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@airedale hi Ash thanks for engaging on this. FYI I had what appears to be a similar experience wrt the pressure cooker test. The Breville BPR700 and BPT650 were tested with one equalling or outperforming the other (across Ease of use, Pressure cooking lamb shanks, Steaming jasmine rice, Slow cooking chilli beef) but then receiving a lower rating.
I went back and forth with Choice staff on this a couple of times as it seemed pretty fundamental, but didn’t ever get a satisfactory explanation. As always…I may be missing something.
Cheers
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@BrendanMays, @jhook this morning the comparison pages are not displaying correctly on my PC, reflecting what @mcziel2 reported yesterday. Same w/Edge and Firefox. I cleared cache and disabled AV/Antimalware and rebooted to be sure. Seems something is amiss and my experiment yesterday was not as conclusive as it appeared.
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I found out last night that the pages worked on Chrome (reluctant to use it as I really don’t like Google serving up ads related to a possible purchase for the next 6 months!), however noticed this morning that the work around didn’t work this morning. In some ways glad to know it wasn’t just me.
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Hi Everyone,
Thanks for reporting the issue with the product comparison tool and sorry for the inconvenience. I’ve contacted our support team to get this looked at as soon as possible.
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Hi @Mustang , pressure cookers aren’t my wheelhouse I’m afraid, but I’ll look into it and get back to you with an explanation - please bare with me.
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That’s a bold invitation if ever I saw one.
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An underlying part of Choice ratings and recommendations is that the weights of different components are published. Those weights are a subjective balance on the best of days.
Using a contrived example, if a ‘Choice recommended’ or ‘Choice expert score’ is based on 65% performance, 30% ease of use, and 5% efficiency that might not be everyone’s balance. While performance, ease of use, and efficiency are objective results from tests (or close enough), those published scores make it possible for each reader to become their own ‘editor’ and adjust the overall ratings, say changing it from 65-30-5 to 80-0-20 and making their own ordered list to suit their own priorities.
Further than this, and raised elsewhere in this thread, also raised by me on a previous occasion …
What is still missing from Choice test results is a free format “summary discussion” of EACH tested item. This is needed because there are some characteristics that are not included in the systematised test and scoring listing and there are obvious simplifications in reducing everything to a couple of numbers. The features list goes some way to filling this gap, but not far enough. The “summary discussion” of each item could point out, for example:
- why an item didn’t get a recommendation (one sentence that would have make the above discussion less fraught or prevented it altogether). Another example would be the situation in a test in the early days where some appliance was the top scorer but was completely ruled out and no score because it had an electrical cord that was a few cm shorter than the legal minimum. This could have been noted in its discussion and otherwise remained at the top of the recommended list.
- features that might be particularly useful or that compensate in some way for scored deficiencies;
- features that offered some special advantage in use which might not be obvious just by listing that feature, and might not be reflected in the score;
- allow some very useful qualitative assessment like “this one didn’t score highly under Usability because of the poor user manual, but otherwise it “feels” good and is a joy to operate”, or “this one is hard to use for right-handers and the score reflects that, but happens to work brilliantly for left-handers”.
- explain what particular characteristic caused a score to be very low or very high. It may be that the offending characteristic is completely unimportant to a reader and that otherwise this item would be their best purchase.
There are 1000 things that may not be accurately portrayed in a score that deserve discussion. Scores applied to qualitative assessments deserve to be teased out, and the balance of characteristics that lead to an “expert” score may not properly tell the story for one or more candidates. At the least a textual discussion of each would give a context, feel and explanation for an item that is currently missing.
I can understand that Choice might want to make it appear that everything is objective but the fact remains that much of what is scored is not objective and we need a ‘round-up and context’ discussion for each tested item.
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We’ve relied on the Choice product reviews to make a number of major purchases over the previous 5 years. These have included an Air Fryer, and several split system Air Cons.
It’s not evident from these and several other purchases that the Choice reviews or scores lack objectivity. It’s important if one is concerned to click on the buttons with the ? as these explain the scoring. I also read the ‘How we test’ and any buying guides for the product type if available.
Add to this the text boxes that list the ‘good points’ and ‘bad points’ the content covers most needs.
There is enough content to know which products to put at the top of the list and which to avoid. As we all use products in slightly different ways/preferences, making a major purchase is best done after a physical examination in store. Whether it’s how the fridge shelving can be set out or perceived logic of a TV menu, there is no one solution that suits all.
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This maybe of some help. I recently had a problem with playing videos on a forum. The videos played in MS Edge & Firefox but without audio. I could only get audio in Chrome which I don’t like using because of Google’s targeted ads. I eventually solved the problem by updating the motherboard & Realtek audio drivers. This could be the reason some people are having problems while others are not.
The problem with members not seeing expanded tables data was an IT problem at Choice, since resolved.
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