How we tests reed diffusers at Homes & Gardens to bring you our top picks

When choosing a reed diffuser for your home, there's lots to think about beside the scent you pick. Quality, cost and strength will all impact how well the reed diffuser scents your home and how good value it is for your purposes and taste.

Our master perfumer and I have tested dozens of reed diffusers from top home fragrancing brands including Diptyque, Jo Malone, Malin+Goetz, The White Company and Nest to help us help you pick the right option with our best reed diffuser and best home fragrance guides.

How we test reed diffusers at Homes & Gardens

Where we test reed diffusers

Since we're looking for ways to make your home smell nice, we test reed diffusers in our homes to get real-life results.

There are many benefits to doing this. For starters, we're able to gauge how the scents feel in a homely space and how they lift the room, or welcome a specific ambiance, such as cozy, fruity, or fresh.

This also means we're able to determine which fragrances work best, in which rooms. We make sure to move them from bedrooms to bathrooms and everywhere in between to find which reed diffuser brands work best in each space.

This is also helpful for our team to guide you on the best scents for every room of your home.

Testing reed diffusers at home also means we know how they smell and how long they last, how quickly and how widely their fragrance fills spaces, and how the reed diffusers work alongside other home fragrance options, such as our favorite and best candles and room sprays.

What we look for when testing reed diffusers

From the moment we open a reed diffuser, there's a specific list of criteria we're looking to get objective information about:

• Price point: Next comes price point. This is a relatively good way to gauge what to expect, but that's not to say that products with a higher price point equate to products with a higher quality, and vice versa – you certainly don't need expensive reed diffusers to make a home smell expensive. Often budget-friendly home fragrance options surprise us, while more luxury choices can disappoint.
• Components and look of the vessel: Reed diffusers can be expensive, and we want to make sure the product offering and look matches the price. As something that goes on display in your home, on a shelf, bedside table, or mantelpiece, how does the diffuser look? Some are decorative, some are plainer, some are bigger and some are much smaller. When making a home smell nice without candles, every reed diffuser should look beautiful enough to make your signature scent fit right into your space. Packaging comes into this too, as opening the packaging of a product is all part of the experience of enjoying it.
• Reed options: We always consider the reeds that come with the diffusers, from how many there are to the color, material and length.
• List of ingredients: This is important particularly when considering non-toxic ways to make a home smell nice. Products with more concentrated ingredients, such as a higher percentage of essential oils, often last longer and smell stronger. We also make sure to understand the ingredient list to identify any potentially toxic additions such as microplastics, pthalates or VOCs (volatile organic compounds), which habe been studied and found to be harmful to the planet, people and animals.
• How quickly the scent fills the room: This involves an initial assessment and a prolonged assessment over some time. After opening a reed diffuser, we note how quickly the scent fills the room, and how much of the room they're detectable in. Then, over our testing period, we keep tabs on how much the scent stays lingering in a room, and how strong it remains during that period.
• The best placement: We will consider the most suited placement and whether anything adversely impacts its performance. For instance, if placing it in an entryway and therefore having fresh air coming in regularly dissipates it too much, the reed diffuser may be better for use in a closed space, such as a bathroom.
• How long it lasts: Finally, we consider how long a reed diffuser lasts, taking into account the scent, of course, as well as how long it takes for the reed liquid to evaporate, and how often we have to turn the reeds to allow the smell to be adequately dispersed.

Darryl Do is a second generation senior perfumer with Delbia Do Fragrances, involved in creative perfumery and regulatory, overseeing the compounding, formulation and bulk filtration process across many brands. He is also an editorial adviser for Perfumer & Flavorist magazine and an active member of the American Society of Perfumers.

He advises, 'What fragrance do you want to showcase for a regular at home or cocktails and dinner at your place? I suggest using two different scents in your home. This way you can notice the difference when going into the other rooms and checking the scent vibe. If you use one scent only, you may become anosmic [stop being able to smell] to it and it may lose its appeal.

'Picking the scent is the first step. Then, bring it home to see the best placement – is it near the door, windows or in the hallway?'

These are all things we take into account when testing reed diffusers in our own home, which is why doing so to swerve any home fragrance mistakes is so beneficial.

How long we test for

We test each reed diffuser for at least two weeks, and often, in many cases, much longer, to get a real sense of the scent and performance. We want to recommend products that actually do as they promise, and make your home smell good all the time. This gives us plenty of time to ensure that they do and help us also figure out if the reed diffusers we recommend are good value for money.

How we update our reviews

When it comes to overhauling our buying guides, that's exactly what we do – we call in the latest available reed diffusers from the top brands in various scent types, at a range of different price points. This often includes brand new launches, which we will add in after full testing to keep our buying guides and advice up to speed year-round.

This ensures there's an option that's suitable for everyone and each and every space, for scenting, fragrance layering, and more.

It's just not reed diffusers we test. Our buying guide on the best essential oil diffusers, as put together by our master perfumer, details the best on the market.