Best Deals Under $25

It’s hard to contend with the value offered by the Gigalumi Grid Solar Pathway Lights, especially at this new low price. Their cost is lower (on a per-light basis) than just about any other path light we’ve seen, and yet they earn solid marks for both light duration and ease of use. The light cast comes from a single LED in each of the lights—casting a dimmer glow than the other products we tested.

That may not be a dealbreaker if you’ve got supplemental lighting elsewhere or if you’re using these strictly to create ambience. There’s a single setting, an on/off button, and a removable battery, but the lights can’t be charged or angled.

The Energizer Vision HD 6AA Performance Metal Light with Digital Focus has an incredibly wide light coverage of 160 degrees. It’s alo extremely comfortable to hold and use. Other points in its favor include the fact that the flashlight’s grip area is clearly marked and the button is well placed and easy to use. What’s more, the flashlight’s battery power is remarkable. In our run-time test, its power lasted for more than 24 hours in the flashlight’s brightest mode.

This kit is recommended by CR grilling expert Paul Hope. He says it is exactly what you want if you’re grilling on the go, like at a park or on a beach. It has all the essential tools and comes in a nice case, which makes it easy to transport.

This pump spray from Repel is one of the best deet-free repellents and one of the best-performing of any that CR has tested, deet-containing products included. With 30 percent oil of lemon eucalyptus as its active ingredient, it earns a rating of excellent for protection against mosquitoes and ticks. Plus, CR’s testers found that this product tends not to damage fabric or other materials, unlike many insect repellents.

This Neutrogena spray is very good in overall performance across the board with excellent UVA protection and very good protection from sunburn-producing rays. It does not meet its labeled SPF 50 in CR’s tests, but the protection is still adequate. It has a moderately strong tropical, fruity aroma and leaves a slightly greasy film and a notable sheen on the skin.

Brushed microfiber isn’t as breathable as cotton, but for those who don’t find synthetic fibers to be a hang-up, this Mellanni sheet set is a top-notch pick. It offers a softer feel than most cotton options and is pretty resistant to wrinkling, and you can expect a great fit even after a year of laundering. You can also expect to have this set in rotation for a while because it does pretty well in our strength test. The one area where these bedsheets miss the mark a bit is in our fit test. Though the packaging claims “deep pockets,” this set is best suited for mattresses with a depth of 10 inches or less.

This sheet set typically retails for around $35, so you’re saving about $10 with the on-page coupon.

This set of two microfiber pillows offers very good support for side sleepers, but it earns just middling scores in our back support tests. And its resilience is just so-so. But if you sleep on the warmer side, you can find comfort in knowing that this pillow has maximum breathability.

This small plug-and-play sound machine from Magicteam has sold for as low as $13.99 recently, so the price may drop next week at Amazon. It’s sized just right—like a deck of cards if cards were square. And it’s back down to the best price we’ve seen. It delivers good sound quality and variety, packing in 20 sounds, including nature sounds and even a freight train. The controls, just five buttons, are intuitive to use, although one evaluator said they were quite small and a bit difficult to see in low light. And it has a timer in case you don’t want it playing all night.

The Bagail 8Set Packing Cubes won CR’s evaluator over with the sheer number and variety of cubes it offers. In addition to three packing cubes (medium, large, and extra large) that have mesh on the top panels to help you identify the contents inside quickly, it also comes with two zipper bags, a cosmetics bag, a shoe bag, and a drawstring bag that you can use to separate your dirty laundry. The extra organizational features were ultimately what gained Bagail the edge over the other packing cubes CR tried.

There are 14 different color options, but not every variation is on sale. Check the coupon box to get the full savings.

Veken Packing Cubes provide great bang for your buck, though they are a few dollars more than we’ve seen recently. This set has the largest capacity among the cubes we tried, and you get eight different ones to stay organized: four small, medium, large, and extra large, a laundry bag, a shoe bag, a toiletries bag, and an accessories bag. The laundry bag, in particular, is on the larger side, which can be a real asset when you’re on a longer trip.

Prices may vary by color.

Bamboo steamer baskets, which are placed above pots or woks of boiling water, may be a mainstay at Chinese restaurants, but they’re far from perfect. Our evaluators found this particular model a bit precarious: “There were lots of splinters sticking out, threatening to stab me, so it required a bit of plucking up front before first use,” our evaluator said. Overall, the dumplings came out evenly cooked, but some batches were wetter than expected.

Like many bamboo steamers, this one is listed as 100 percent natural, a plus for those who are trying to avoid plastic. However, this type can take longer to dry than those made of other materials. Wet wood could also be a breeding ground for mold. But for the price, it may be worth trying.

If you’re looking for basic reusable food storage bags, this silicone set from Zip Top may be a good fit. The wide openings and stand-up bottoms make them easy to fill, and the easy-to-open seals make them ideal for kids. However, if you’re looking for something freezer- or sous vide-friendly, look elsewhere. The seal isn’t perfect, so it might cause leaks and freezer burn. We also found that the material was prone to staining, so maybe you shouldn’t use the bags for leftover spaghetti with sauce.

These waterproof and stain-resistant silicone oven mitts are brought to you by trusted brand Gorilla Grip. Their silicone exterior provides superior grip, whether you’re handling hot pots and pans or slicing and dicing veggies, while a thick cotton interior lining ensures comfort. They come in two sizes and 11 shades, including black, pink, and turquoise.

Made by one of the most trustworthy thermometer companies in the grilling industry, the ThermoPro TP19H instant read meat thermometer offers handheld temperature reading with a single stowable probe. There’s a built-in LED and rotation lock for the display, and a magnetic backing allows you to store it on your refrigerator between meals. Perfect for checking meats, this simple and affordable thermometer delivers reliably accurate readings within seconds of probing.

The Conair Double Ceramic Flat Iron is a great lower-cost option if you’re in the market for a new flat iron. It has five temperature settings, a rare find at this price, and heats up in about 30 seconds, but the temperatures vary by about 6 degrees from whatever you set it to. One of our evaluators found it to be a bit clunky to use, but it’s small, light, and easy to maneuver, thanks to pivoting plates and a swivel cord.

This is already a bargain at full price, but with this discount, you can save a few extra dollars.

These microfiber hair towels from Tenstars were the most wallet-friendly option CR tried. This is especially true now that they’re on sale, as you get five towels for $10. They performed similarly to other towels when it comes to absorbency, and the texture was soft and fluffy. But you do sacrifice a bit of quality for the price, as these towels were sized somewhat smaller than others in our evaluation, and they weren’t as secure.

If you hate that sinking feeling when you drive away and then wonder if you remembered to shut your garage door, you might want to consider giving it an upgrade with a Chamberlain MyQ Smart Garage Control. This affordable little gadget connects to your garage door motor and allows you to remotely open and close your door, see its open/close status, and schedule it to automatically close if it’s left open. While this device doesn’t really work with smart home systems (such as Amazon Alexa or Apple Home), it does work with the Amazon Key and Walmart+ InHome in-garage delivery services, which allow Amazon and Walmart drivers to leave packages in your garage to keep them safe from porch pirates.

If you like a lot of light, the Wyze Bulb Color offers a higher 1,100-lumen count for brightness for about the same price as many competing 800-lumen bulbs. And while this is a small discount, the savings can add up if you’re buying multiple bulbs. In our evaluation, it displayed impressively bright colors, as well as great white tuning (the ability to change from warm to cool white) and dimming. Its only downsides are its clunky setup process and somewhat laggy responsiveness. But if you can look past those flaws, the Wyze Bulb Color is still a great option thanks to its array of automation features and support for both Amazon Alexa and Google Home/Assistant.

The TP-Link Kasa Smart KL125 smart bulb offers the best deal of the 10 smart lightbulbs we evaluated. It retails for $15 per bulb and has a great array of colors and dimming performance that come close to the pricier Philips Hue. The bulb also works with Amazon Alexa, Google Home/Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings for voice and/or app control.

The TP-Link Kasa Smart WiFi Outdoor Plug is very easy to use, but its setup is somewhat confusing because of permissions requests in the iOS app and the process of verifying your email address. The app also preselects options for marketing email and sharing data for analytics, and the design of the app might confuse some users and leave them unaware that they’ve opted into these settings. But once setup is out of the way, it’s very easy to control the plug and create schedules in the app. The plug itself is also compact enough that it shouldn’t block other outlets, and it features labeled physical buttons and covers for each outlet.

Bambo Nature Dream Diapers had excellent performance in our absorption and dryness tests. They absorbed liquids quickly and held the moisture well, preventing it from seeping out. That means—assuming the diaper fits your baby well—there’s a decreased risk of picking her up and discovering that her outfit is drenched in urine—or worse, that she’s uncomfortable or developing diaper rash. These diapers were the top performers in our tests and eked out a win against our second-place brand, Mama Bear by just 1 point.

The Yiveko nail clippers were among the sharpest our evaluators tried. They’re on the smaller side, so those with big hands may have a little trouble getting a comfortable grip. The nail kit comes with an owl-shaped case as well as nail scissors, a glass rounded nail file, and soft, nonslip tweezers.

If you can have only one pet hair removal tool in your cleaning toolbox, this is the one. The ChomChom was a favorite with our at-home evaluators and the best-performing option in our formal lab tests. What sets it apart is that it’s the only tool that gathers and picks up all of the pet hair it touches. After just three forward and backward swipes, our velvet and linen-polyester pillows were left almost completely free of hair, minus a few stragglers. It was the best tool on carpet, too, even though crouching low to use it wasn’t the most comfortable position. No other tool left it as hair-free as the ChomChom.

These adorable dog boots feature a waterproof design to keep their paws dry in puddles and traction at the sole for safer walking and protection against hot pavement. Choose from eight sizes and five colors.

The Analan Mini Pet Hair Remover is a triangle-shaped device that has three unique ridged sides, and it did very well in our evaluations. The rubber material created a static attraction with our velvet pillow so that it was able to pick up all of the cat hair we applied to the surface. But this was the only surface where it picked up hair. On other surfaces, it bunched up the hair in easier-to-pick-up piles. The hole in the center of the triangle allows for a comfortable grip. Because the ridged surfaces are so small, cleaning a large area, like a whole upholstered couch, takes a significant amount of time.

This Hopopro showerhead, now $5 less than we’ve seen in months, was the single best fixed showerhead in our most recent tests. Testers found that it provided a great-feeling shower while getting top marks for its modest consumption of water. It has five settings and uses 1.8 gallons of water per minute.

The Hopopro 6-function showerhead, which typically sells for no more than $24, is an easy-to-use handheld shower with variable settings for different users. In our tests, it provided a nice-feeling shower while using minimal water. We tested it with a 1.8-gallon-per-minute (GPM) flow restrictor in place, but it comes with a 2.5GPM restrictor if you want more pressure.