Quiet Picks

CATALOG

buying guide

4 records

Entry No. 01
Kitchen

5.5 or 7.25 quarts — the number Le Creuset tells you to check, and does not print

The last question before an expensive pot leaves the cart. Le Creuset publishes servings, dimensions and price for every size, and its own guide warns you to make sure you can lift the thing when it is full — but nowhere on its product pages does it publish a weight. Staub does. We set both makers' numbers side by side, including the servings figures they disagree about, and let the missing number be the argument.

  • ·kitchen
  • ·dutch oven
  • ·Le Creuset
  • ·Staub
  • Honest
  • Deep
  • Durable
Entry No. 03
Study & workshop

Aeron size A, B or C — what Herman Miller actually publishes, and what it does not

The last question before a four-figure chair leaves the cart, and the one most pages answer with numbers the maker never printed. Herman Miller publishes a Size/Fit Reference: three warranty-backed weight limits, a height-and-weight chart, and one plain instruction for anyone on a boundary. We read that document, set out exactly what it says, and name the popular figures we could not find in it.

  • ·study & workshop
  • ·office chair
  • ·Herman Miller
  • ·Aeron
  • Honest
  • Deep
  • Durable
Entry No. 04
Out & about

Farpoint 40 or 55 — the fifteen litres that change what the bag is

The two Osprey travel packs most often weighed against each other, separated by one number the product pages do not put side by side. The 55 is not a larger 40: it is a 40-litre main pack with a 15-litre daypack zipped to its face, and that daypack takes the depth from 9.1 inches to 18.1. Read from Osprey's own specifications, including the carry-on sentence the two packs do not share.

  • ·out & about
  • ·backpack
  • ·Osprey
  • ·Farpoint
  • Honest
  • Deep
  • Durable