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Your letters

Last reviewed: December 2009
December 2009 issue cover This article appeared in
December 2009 Consumer Reports Magazine.

Not created equal

When shopping at a club store (Club Stores Sell Luxury for Less, Up Front, October 2009), be advised that some items have a different serial number than the apparent same product at a regular retailer. I found a printer at Costco for $20 less than at a retail store, but with an added "X" on the item number. When I called the manufacturer, they told me that the Costco unit had more plastic parts than the unit with no "X," which had more (and I think more reliable) metal parts. Many times, you do get what you pay for.

Fred Hearn
Los Angeles

 

Yogurt check

It Pays to Buy Store Brands (October 2009) was informative, but it missed the mark on products such as yogurts formulated with probiotics, which can't be judged on taste alone. To be equivalent, the store and national brands would need to have the same levels of the same probiotic strain. Probiotics are as important as taste to people looking for their benefits.

Mary Ellen Sanders, Ph.D.
Centennial, CO

 

Hot water

I just read Cut Your Energy Bills (October 2009). As an environmental engineer and solar-system contractor in New Mexico, I've installed passive solar water heaters in this part of the country without freeze protection. They are much simpler, require no maintenance, are generally less expensive than active systems, and do a good job of solar water heating.

Hale Huber
Las Cruces, NM

 

Thanks for the memory

While living in New England in 1968, I bought a Shelby GT-500, which my girlfriend called my snowblower. The juxtaposition of the Snowblowers headline and article (October 2009) facing a photo of four spectacular muscle cars made my heart skip a beat and could not have been more nearly perfect.

Frank Kingston Smith
Scottsdale, AZ

 

Clarification

In the October Up Front section, we quoted a source who said it's never OK to speed when passing another car. Alas, there are a few exceptions: In Washington State and Montana, for example, drivers on two-lane roads may exceed the speed limit to pass; in Washington, the car ahead of you must be going slower than the limit.

 

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