Aldi Finds We Use the Most

We review a lot of Aldi products. We purchase each and every one of them out of pocket — Aldi does not send us products for review — and we spend considerable time putting them through the paces before our final review goes live. Getting it as right as we can is important to us.

Our work often doesn’t end there, though. If we review a non-food Aldi Find, we try to put it to regular use even after the review goes up. Some shoppers may rightly wonder if Aldi appliances, tools, and clothing are built to last. The only way to know is to use them over time and find out.

As you might expect, some Aldi products flame out pretty quickly, assuming they work out of the box at all. When that happens, we try to update our review accordingly so that would-be shoppers know how our experience turned out. In other cases, though, our products last for years, and we also try to update those reviews to reflect those success stories.

What follows here is a list of products we continue to use over time. Not only have these products held up in terms of durability, but they’ve also proven to be good at what they do. If there was an Aldi Reviewer Hall of Fame for Aldi Find products (and we may create one of those someday) these would all be worthy candidates.

Belavi (Gardenline) Double Glider

We first bought our double glider in the spring of 2010, some six years before this site would come into existence. We placed it in a spot on our porch. At the time, it was a mere $50 and was sold under the Gardenline house brand. As of 2022, the price is now twice that, and the glider bears the name Belavi. One thing that hasn’t changed that much over time is the design.

That’s good, because it’s a keeper. It’s a little temperamental to assemble and does require some occasional tightening and lubing, but it remains a fixture outside our front door. Our decision to keep it under the porch awning helps (we had another one given to us that wore out when we placed it out in the open on our back patio) but it still stays outside 365 days a year. Despite all that, it’s nearly 13 years old and still a favorite place to sit after a long walk or when watching the evening skies.

Adventuridge Lightweight Foldable Duffel Bag

We scooped up this duffel bag in 2018 when they were on clearance. We liked them enough to get a few more, bringing our tally up to four. Our thinking was that they might make for useful duffels when we were traveling and needed less space over time. When the duffel was no longer needed, we could fold it up and put it into another bag.

These bags have outperformed our expectations. They’ve become our go-to bags for just about every road trip and camping trip we make, with one bag for each member of the family. They’re big enough to fit several days worth of clothes but small enough to fit in the trunk or camping cargo carrier. Their thin material means they have less bulk compared to other pieces of luggage. And when the dirty clothes bag fills up, we can collapse these into small pouches that can be stowed elsewhere. As an added bonus, being folded up makes them incredibly easy to store at home.

Aldi hasn’t sold these in a while, which is a shame. Fortunately, as of early 2023 they’re still in good shape despite being used (and washed and hung to dry) multiple times a year.

Ambiano Air Fryer

In 2019, we purchased the Ambiano Air Fryer for review. We’d previously reviewed the Ambiano Stainless Steel Deep Fryer, and we were hopeful the air fryer could do much of what the deep fryer did with less oil and less mess.

That it did. The air fryer quickly became one of our favorite kitchen appliances. We used it for chicken, potatoes, samosas, egg rolls, and even bacon. Food heated quickly and came out crisp while also freeing up the conventional oven if we had other things that needed baking.

The 2.75-quart version served us well from 2019 to 2022, and we upgraded to the larger 6-quart model in late 2022. The larger one handles more food and cooks things up more quickly thanks to the larger space for air circulation, and it has been just as much a staple as the original. I expect it will remain a household favorite for a long time to come.

Aldi Skillets and Frying Pans

The Crofton Awesome Pan.

We’ve been using Aldi skillets for a long time now, and they’ve by and large delivered the goods. Back in 2013, we bought a Kitchen Living skillet that proved to be one of the best skillets we’ve ever owned. It lasted for a good five years — longer than we got out of a Calphalon skillet we’d owned previously — before I finally had to retire it.

We’ve had generally good fortune since then. We pulled a few years out of a Crofton skillet set, which performed about on par with other store-bought sets. More recently, we’ve used a hefty Crofton Chef’s Collection Hard Anodized Fry Pan. In addition, over the last year we’ve been regularly using two ceramic pans — the Crofton Awesome Pan and the Crofton 11 Inch Fry Pan that are dupes of the Our Place Always Pan and Caraway Fry Pan, respectively. All of them have been valuable tools on the stovetop whether we’re sautéing veggies, browning beef, or scrambling eggs.

Crane Athletic Shoes

I’ve had a pretty bad track record with generic budget shoes. My past is littered with sneakers and dress shoes that I purchased from big box stores or discount shoe stores only to have them fail after a few months. I’ve learned that paying well for shoes often is worth it.

That hasn’t kept me from test driving Aldi shoes. To be fair, some of them have proven lousy, like the walking shoes I bought that broke down within months. But I’ve had a better-than-expected batting average with Aldi footwear. The hiking boots have proven durable, for example. Same with the trekking sandals.

Some of my best purchases have been the Crane Athletic Shoes. Both the ones I bought in 2019 and the ones I grabbed in 2021 have been steady performers, with a comfortable fit suitable for walking and other activities. The tread and build have held up better than anticipated, as has the cushioning. They’re not in the same class as the Nike running shoes I’ve bought, but they are respectable day wear shoes that have become my workhorses for things like mowing the lawn or running errands.

Easy Home Clothes Drying Rack

We bought and reviewed this rack back in 2018, adding a second one to our basement next to another Aldi rack we’d gotten around 2015, a year before this site launched. Both racks have done exactly what we wanted them to do, which is let us hang dry clothes we didn’t want to shrink in the dryer. They’re both lightweight enough to move without trouble while also being sturdy enough to hold every piece of apparel we put on them. As of 2023, both of them are in great shape.

Easy Home 4-Tier Chrome Shelf

Our shelf in use.

A relative newcomer on the list, we purchased the chrome shelf for review back in early 2022. We liked it enough to add more to the mix, and for good reason: they’re spacious and sturdy, with each shelf boasting an impressive 350-pound capacity and a total weight capacity of over 1,400 pounds. We’ve loaded ours up with supplies galore and all it does is hold them the way we need it to.

Do you have any Aldi products that you’ve used a lot over time? Let us know about them in the comments.