so far I've only had good or great experiences with stuff I've actually purchased based on their articles. I find the site is great for items where you don't care too much about the category but just want a decent example. I would never buy computer hardware based on a Wirecutter review, but I'll happily buy any kitchen equipment under $50 based on their review alone.

in my reading, most of the Wirecutter recommendations that turn out to be suboptimal suffer from flaws that only surface six months into ownership, far longer than you can reasonably expect a reviewer to test a cheap product.

the one truly dubious article I've read is the "best small saucepan" review where their top pick is a tramontina product. tramontina's line was getting rave reviews from all the cooking sites/communities a couple years ago, but it appears to have gone downhill since they recently switched manufacturers. the article was updated this year, but makes no mention of the current quality discussion...