New Costco Home Finds You Should Skip In 2026 (So Far)

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Costco does a pretty good job of curating high-quality, reasonably priced products in a lot of categories, so we're not always on high alert when it comes to sniffing out the less ideal offerings that crop up. Still, we ran across a handful of new products for 2026 that could probably use a little more refinement. They're often from well-known brands and just don't meet the expectations of Costco customers, like a recent Dyson hand-held vacuum and a Brio ice maker. Others, like Keter's self-watering raised bed, seem to suggest a manufacturer that's ventured out of its comfort zone and might need to venture back in for a while.

The things that made these products stand out included bad reviews, safety issues, high prices, and in some instances, designs that seem to have been inspired by alien spacecraft (we're on to you, Dyson.) That said, it's worth noting that, of the 411 new products currently on the Costco website — including members-only and online-only offerings — these were the only four we checked out that were, to us, obvious passes. For example, we examined the GreenPan 6-quart split-pot slow cooker carefully because of some inconsistencies between images and customer reviews. But, since the brand is reputable, no one else sells the split-pot model, and we couldn't find any substantial problems with it, there's every chance that it's a great buy.

We chose these recent products based on purchaser reviews — both from Costco and other online retailers — as well as professional reviews, price comparisons, and comparison with comparable products. This was challenging for several reasons. Costco frequently offers exclusive products that aren't available anywhere else, making it difficult to find information that hasn't been curated by Costco alone. Sometimes, as with a recent Hisense 6000 BTU portable air conditioner, reviews aren't great, but there are so few that the overall rating isn't reliable. 

Products like portable AC units and the Midea smart 50-pint dehumidifier are also prone to getting negative reviews that are highly subjective or reflect misunderstanding or misuse of the product. That's obviously not a great way to judge a product with a small number of reviews. For its part, purchasers of the Midea dehumidifier report failures and leaking problems, but some of the reviews suggest that this might be a new version of an older product. So, all things considered, we left it off our list.

An example relating to the misunderstanding and misuse problem: The Miu 11-piece vegetable chopper and slicer currently has a single three-star review from a user with the somewhat on-the-nose username Jessiewithhalfapinky, who claims to have lost half a finger the first time using the combination chopper/mandoline. At a glance, there's nothing obviously wrong with the product, and anyone who's used a mandoline knows it can be a, well, dicey affair. Since the product gets good reviews elsewhere and Jessiewithhalfapinky admits the problem could be user error, we left it off, too. The following four, however, raised red flags.

There's every chance the SimplyGood coffee maker simply brews good coffee. The company has a sound formula — reproducing the mechanics of smooth pour-over coffee without the time commitment that pour-over usually demands, while tightly controlling water temperature. The problem is that SimplyGood has built its reputation, at least in part, on its nearly identical plastic-free coffee maker, which, it turns out, isn't plastic-free, but does eliminate plastic contact with water.

The only at-a-glance difference between the plastic and no-plastic models is that the latter uses a thermal carafe. If all this seems destined to create confusion for consumers, well, it already has. Neither of the two Costco reviewers got what they preferred or expected — one thought this was the no-plastic model, but with a stainless steel carafe. The other was surprised by the thermal carafe, and says it doesn't perform as well as advertised.

At the end of the day, perhaps $149.99 for fast pour-over flavor is worthwhile for that middle market between the $480 model and much cheaper, reasonably good brewers like the Costco's 14-cup Cuisinart Brew Central Plus ($64.99), or even a slightly slower old-school pour-over coffee maker like the 8-cup Cosori model with a double-layer stainless steel filter, which is $29.83 and plastic-free. Don't sleep on the Cosori, y'all. Long-time readers will recall that a Cosori gooseneck kettle was the greatest thing that's ever happened to Erin Lassner.

The Keter brand suggests plastic tool and outdoor storage products, but the company offers a fairly wide range of garden beds and planters. The Keter Signature rolling raised garden bed sold by Costco ($109.99) seems to be a version of its elevated garden bed with wheels added, which doesn't appear to be available anywhere else.

So far, so good, but the problems with this planter start showing themselves as soon as you start assembling it. It's made of what Keter calls "innovative Signature Collection technology that prevents real wood problems," and which reviewers call plastic. The consensus among negative reviews — about 24% of them are three stars and lower — is that the parts don't fit together, and once you cajole them together, the thing starts to leak. Other reviewers from around the web confirm these issues. The non-rolling version sold at Sam's Club, which costs about $15 less, seems to have the same issues.

That said, many reviewers didn't experience assembly problems, or at least didn't find them daunting enough to report. It's possible that there were bad runs of the product, different manufacturing facilities, or perhaps even unexpected variables like heat-sensitive parts that caused warping or other damage during warehousing and shipping. We can't be sure, so this is a good choice of Costco product to skip.

If we're honest, Dyson has always banked, at least a little, on consumers' indifference to product design. The Dyson handheld vacuum cleaner sold at Costco ($299.99 for members) fits right in, looking like the unholy combination of a student's first 3-D rendering of an electric drill, some sort of alien biomechanical life support tech, and perhaps a vintage lint shaver. In keeping with the cordless drill vibe, the vacuum's design seems to suggest a removable battery, but there isn't one. Dyson promotes it as a "car and boat" vacuum (because who doesn't have a boat vacuum?), but Costco doesn't note either in the product name.

This naming issue could be the source of some of this vacuum's problems. Reviewers on Costco complain about poor battery life, poor suction, various build quality problems, and the battery not accepting a charge after only a few issues. A few complain of the returned product death spiral, in which hated products that get returned the most are resold as new, further aggravating purchasers of a mediocre product. A lot of this could be perceived as a problem of purchasers having overly high expectations — as one might when buying a car vacuum and expecting it to work as well as a home vacuum. At nearly $300, it's easy to understand how a vacuum not called a car vacuum wouldn't be automatically thought of as a car vacuum.

Overall, reviewers are lukewarm on the Dyson vacuum. Some specific reviewers love it, while others — notably an Amazon reviewer from a Dyson-using family entitled "Worst handheld vacuum created " — decidedly do not.

The Brio 740i nugget ice maker sold at Costco has a more clearly defined problem. This $249.99 device apparently doesn't make nugget ice. Perhaps it's just a name, and not meant to communicate anything about the ice itself — sort of like the Denver Nuggets and chicken nuggets, none of which are nuggets under everyday circumstances. But people seem to expect small, solid bits of ice, and according to the reviews, what they get from this machine is closer to slushy ice.

The ice comes from a 2.66-liter refillable reservoir (is there such a thing as a non-refillable reservoir?) at a rate of 44 pounds of ice per day. That does seem like rather a lot of slushy ice for a single household. It features "self-cleaning technology" that apparently consists of flushing the machine with water.

In fact, reviewers complain that, in spite of the "commercial-grade build," this ice maker breaks easily, and occasionally it apparently explodes. A photo of the explosion that one reviewer provided suggests it might have been more like an abrupt eruption of slush. Several buyers also complained that it keeps making ice after the machine is full, and others noted that it leaks. With 3.8 stars based on 142 ratings so far, you might choose to take your chances anyway. Ice makers are fairly easy to repair, after all. But for the $250 price, there might be better, easier options.