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Here’s My Experience With 5 Cheap Gadgets I Bought From AliExpress

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  • Here’s My Experience With 5 Cheap Gadgets I Bought From AliExpress

[TECH AND FINANCIAL]

If you’re shopping online, you may have noticed products from Temu and AliExpress often come up in your shopping search. These items are so cheap that you may wonder if it’s really a steal or if you should stay away. I was in that boat as well. And I love a good YouTube video where the host tests cheap tech from low-cost retailers.

So, curious as I am, I decided to try my hand at testing cheap home products from the popular discount marketplace, AliExpress. Now, when shopping for a new piece of home hardware, gaming gear or audio tech, cheap tech usually equates to low-quality performance. But as I’ve come to learn, that’s not always the case.

Rules for the experiment

  • Products must cost less than $15.
  • Devices need to be cheaper than a mainstream equivalent.
  • Weird devices are more likely to make the list.

I’m happy to report it was an authentic experience with a mix of good-ish products and some really bad ones. From best to worst, here’s how my AliExpress order played out.

Best: Tuya Zigbee smart USB adaptor switch

small six bladed usb ceiling fan in front of window

A handy little ceiling fan.

John Carlsen/CNET

Ceiling fans have always been out of reach, since I live in an archaic apartment without them. This means relying on a fleet of air circulators in my bedroom and office. But what if renters could add a ceiling fan without the h***le of begging the property manager to install one? Enter the tiny ceiling fan I got for $14.

I like the design of this fan, especially the 12-foot USB cord, which is long enough to reach a ceiling hook without much effort. The fan is surprisingly quiet and uses three power settings. Still, it’s not particularly powerful, with the highest setting producing a light breeze from a few feet away. The speed and timer controls are easy to learn, which is great because the entire manual is written in Chinese. You can get the gist of the manual by using Google Lens to translate the text, but it’s largely unnecessary.

I give this product a B+ for being useful, albeit in niche settings where normal ceiling fans aren’t practical.

Good: Tuya Zigbee water sensor

Watch this: Testing Temu Tech So You Don’t Have To

13:52

smart wi-fi clock movement on desk without hands

No hands on deck.

John Carlsen/CNET

I recently began transitioning most of the blockog clocks in my home to tickless clock movements, which are less annoying than the ticking of a second hand when you’re trying to fall asleep at 2 a.m. Let’s try a smart Wi-Fi clock movement mechanism to set the time automatically like the digital clock on my Google Nest Hub. What followed was one of my most frustrating setup experiences in years.

Out of the box, the clock I bought didn’t come with any hands for seconds, minutes or hours. I spent far too long trying to fit some leftover hands from a previous DIY project, only to find that the clock didn’t work. 

The included instructions, which came on a sheet of printer paper, were not helpful. They don’t say that you need to remove the gray “locating needle” from the back of the clock before it will work. This pin locks the gears in place at Noon, likely to keep the clock aligned during shipping and when putting on the hands, which makes sense on a Wi-Fi clock that sets itself. It took two hours before I got it working.

droopy clothes dryer hanger after melting

It’s not supposed to be this droopy.

John Carlsen/CNET

I got the Beauty-Health Store smart portable clothes dryer for just $12.32. I won’t waste your time: This is the most dangerous product from my AliExpress order. How do I know this? It quite literally melted about 2 hours into my very first drying session. The plastic in this product is not heat-resistant in any way. It didn’t even dry a single shirt completely, so there’s no reason to buy a cheap portable clothes dryer when laundromats can handle much larger drying loads for a fraction of the price.

When I went online to see if other customers experienced this problem, I noticed the product page was no longer available. With my suspicions confirmed, I won’t even delve into the features of this terrible product. Instead, I’ll use it as an example to reinforce why buying generic electronics from AliExpress, Temu, Wish and other cheap retailers is risky. With certain categories of tech, you’re gambling on your safety and privacy. As you can imagine, this device earns an F for being unsafe.

Now, excuse me while I navigate the 90-day AliExpress return policy, which is one bright spot. Hopefully, it fares better than these last two products.

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