Five not-so-hot Father's Day gifts and what to buy instead

Five not-so-hot Father's Day gifts and what to buy instead Mothers are showered with flowers and other presents on their day in May but when June rolls around all Dad gets is a gift card or a garish tie. The shower feel was very good and the showerhead was easy to adjust. It was very good, but not excellent, at delivering hot water from the showerhead to your body and our testers found the force, coverage and droplet size wanting, earning it a score of 55. Let Dad luxuriate under the spray of the Moen Inspire 21777, $50, which has seven different shower functions, ranging from rain shower to massage, and delivers hot water where you want it. But it was very good at indirect cooking. Instead. This Char-Broil was excellent at low-temperature performance and very good at high-temperature evenness and indirect cooking. To avoid getting Dad a second-rate gift, choose one that's tops in Consumer Reports' tests. Grilling Dad There are several Char-Broils in the labs at Consumer Reports but two in particular differed widely in performance. It scored a 72 and is a CR Best Buy. It was also poor at such tasks as pureeing soup and grating cheese. The Ninja Master Prep Professional QB1004, $60 and a CR Best Buy, is a warrior in the kitchen with a score of 73. It was only fair at making icy drinks and mediocre at crushing ice plus it made a lot of racket. Handyman Dad Buying your father a subpar cordless tool kit that doesn't maintain a charge certainly will not encourage him to tackle his "Honey Do" list. But the NST1024 has the edge on edging. Foodie Dad Does your father like making icy drinks when he entertains in the summer? If so, avoid the Wolfgang Puck WPBLFP50 (HSN) blender, $90. It slayed both the icy drink and crushing ice tests and is very durable. This set, which comes with an 18-volt, nickel-cadium battery scored only a 44 in our cordless tool kit tests. On the plus side the straight-shaft model 18-volt trimmer handled well. We do recommend two of its brandmates, the 24-volt Black saw were very good and all had excellent runtimes. The Char-Broil Classic 463211512 (Home Depot), $200, has features similar to its brandmate (four main burners, a side burner, electronic ignitor and coated-steel grates) but it outperformed the other with a score of 75, earning it a CR Best Buy. Five not-so-hot Father's Day gifts and what to buy instead Trade News selected by Local Linkup on 08/06/2012