How We Review
A review is only as good as the work behind it, so let's be precise about what PoolGearGuide does — and doesn't — do before recommending anything.
What our reviews are right now
Our current reviews are research-based. For every product we review, we work through:
- Manufacturer documentation — spec sheets, owner's manuals, and support pages, which say more about a product than its marketing page does.
- Warranty and return terms — one of the strongest honest signals of how much a manufacturer trusts its own hardware.
- Verified owner feedback at scale — patterns across hundreds or thousands of owner reports, not cherry-picked quotes. One angry review means nothing; two hundred people reporting the same cable tangle means something.
- Retailer listings — kit contents, availability, and how the product is actually sold.
Every review page carries a notice saying exactly this. When we can't verify a claim, the page says "not confirmed" instead of guessing.
What we never do
- Claim hands-on testing we didn't do.
- Invent prices, measurements, specs, or warranty terms.
- Use "lab tested" wording for products without test evidence.
- Let affiliate commissions touch a score (see our affiliate disclosure).
How editorial scores work
Scores are 0–10 judgments per dimension — cleaning performance, value, ease of use, durability outlook, features, and owner sentiment — built from the sources above. They are editorial opinions, stated as such, and we show the per-dimension bars so you can weight what you care about.
Where this is heading
As the site grows we plan to add genuine hands-on testing, starting with robotic pool cleaners. When that happens, hands-on reviews will be labeled as such, with photos, test dates, and measured results — and the research-based label stays on everything else. A review only gets to say "we tested it" when we actually did.