How Our Readers Made Wirecutter Better in March 2021

Happy spring! It’s been a busy month. We’ve been updating and posting new stuff and just generally spring-cleaning, and readers have been asking thoughtful questions and making great suggestions as usual—thank you, Wirecutter community! Let’s get to some of the highlights.

Good questions

Where can one find good-quality pen refills? Commenter nrpardee posted a question asking where to find better-quality refills for one of our favorite pens, the Uni-ball Signo 307. Our answer: JetPens. Editor and pen expert Tim Barribeau highly recommends this JetPens guide to the Signo line for anyone looking to take their love for that pen to the next level. JetPens has all the details on variants and refills.

What’s the best messenger bag if freedom from pet hair is the number-one priority? Amber asked us this question on our guide to messenger bags.

Editor Tim Barribeau replied that there may not be such a thing as a bag completely impervious to pet hair. (Let us know if you’ve encountered such an object.) But in his experience, he has found that the smoother and tighter the fabric’s weave is, the less pet hair will stick to it. So the least-textured fabrics usually resist pet hair the best (alternatively, a heathered or marled fabric may hide hair a bit more).

Changes we made thanks to you

We added a new link to our favorite (lemon) printed sheets: Commenter Andrew Weiglein searched every one of the links in our guide to printed sheets for the lemon-printed set we had included in one of our pictures, but couldn’t find them.

It turns out that the retailer, Garnet Hill, had moved those particular sheets under a different listing, probably because the lemon-themed set is organic. We added the new link to the guide so that anyone else passionate about lemon-themed bedding can find the sheets more easily in the future.

We updated our guide to humidifiers with a DIY option: Good news if you have a radiator. We tested the humidifying effects of placing a pot of water on a radiator and found—as many readers have said in the past—it’s better than nothing. Updates writer James Austin put this ol’ DIY method to the test and raised the humidity in his apartment by about 5%. Note that our humidifier guide’s budget pick performed at least twice as well on its lowest setting. But if you need only a bit of extra humidity, if you don’t have much spare cash, or if you don’t have room for another appliance in your life (particularly one that requires maintenance and cleaning), perhaps a pot of water on the radiator is the right choice for you.

Coverage you inspired

Checklists for adopting a dog and adopting a cat: We know lots of people have been taking on new pets lately. Staff writer Kaitlyn Wells put together these guides to the gear you need as you prepare to welcome a new member of your family. We updated both checklists to make sure all the advice is current.

Wirecutter picks can be expensive, and here’s why: If you’ve ever wondered why the stuff Wirecutter recommends tends to be on the pricey side—and judging by some of the critiques we’ve gotten over the years, many readers have—here’s a thoughtful breakdown from the pen of research editor Christina Colizza.

Excellent contributions

And while we’re on that subject, shout-out to Wes! for a fantastic and thought-provoking set of comments on the aforementioned “Wirecutter Picks Can Be Expensive” post. The great conversation in the comments has come up in the Wirecutter Slack a number of times in several of our biggest channels, and multiple staffers have brought up Wes’s contributions in particular. (This also seems like a good time to mention that Wes has been featured in this series three times now. Wes, what can we say? You’re amazing.) We’ve linked to a few selections, but be sure to check out the full discussion.

Thanks also to Julia Tuttle, Paul, J.R. Hawk, Louis, and other commenters who left thoughtful feedback or asked good questions, which was pretty much everybody. We really appreciate hearing what readers think.