Think of something you want to buy, a hotel or restaurant, and there is probably a review of it online. I never know when they are sincere or just the competition's shills trying to steer us away from a good product.

I was looking at front-loading clothes washers the other night, and it seemed like the good reviews were written by people who had just started using that particular model, and the bad ones by folks who'd had more experience with it, so the bad reviews sounded more genuine. It's confusing though, because how is one to know if one particular model from a given manufacturer is designed poorly but they might have other models that are good ones.

That was the case with the carpet shampooer we bought last summer. I was lucky to find a website that summarized the various reviews (don't ask me what it was) and it said that one particular Hoover model received good reviews, but not their other models so much. My local stores didn't carry the good one, but I was able to get it online through Amazon.com. So far, I'm happy with it, so that's the main thing.

One time we had a leaky toilet valve in a brand-new toilet that had only been used maybe 8 times. The gasket was bad, so Mr. Troutbend went to town and bought one of those universal parts replacement kits. But it didn't fit. So he went to the next further town and bought another kit, but that didn't fit, either.

After many hours I finally looked online and discovered this particular model of toilet had a very tricky gasket that tended to go bad quickly and you couldn't buy a replacement at the store, you had to order it from the manufacturer for $10. We had guests coming the next day, so had no choice but to replace the whole toilet with a more conventional model. The first one was selected by a plumber, but I don't think we'll trust anyone like that again, we'll pick our own after doing some research.

Of course a person could waste a lot of time researching every purchase, there is a point where we have to take that leap of faith and spend the money, trusting that we'll be happy with our purchase for many years to come.