How we test, and what we will not do
A review is only worth reading if you know how it was made. This page is the method. If we ever break one of these rules, the review says so at the top.
-
We buy what we test
Review units are purchased at retail like anyone else's. Where a manufacturer sends something unsolicited, it is either returned or disclosed by name in the review — never quietly folded into a verdict.
-
We use it for long enough to be wrong about it
First impressions are unreliable for anything a household depends on. Products stay in normal use for weeks, not an afternoon, because the failures that matter — the strap that frays, the app that logs you out at 3am — do not show up on day one.
-
We test in the moment it is for
A travel high chair is judged in a restaurant with a tired toddler, not on a kitchen counter. Every review names the situation it was tested in, so you can tell whether it matches yours.
-
We say who it is wrong for
Every verdict includes who should skip it. A product that suits a two-car household with storage space may be a poor choice in a third-floor flat, and a review that leaves that out is an advert.
-
We are willing to recommend nothing
Some categories do not contain a product worth buying. When that is the case the review says so and explains what to do instead, even though "buy nothing" earns us nothing.
-
We correct in public
When we get something wrong, the correction goes at the top of the review with the date, not quietly into the text. Verdicts also get revisited when a manufacturer changes a product without changing its name.
Things we will never do
Sell a verdict
No payment, gift or partnership buys a recommendation, a ranking position or the removal of a criticism. If that is ever offered, the offer itself becomes a story.
Publish a safety claim we cannot source
Anything touching car seats, sleep surfaces, allergens or medication links to the standard, regulator or clinical source behind it. Where no good source exists, we say that rather than guessing.
Give medical advice
We write about products and routines. Your child's health belongs with your paediatrician, midwife or health visitor, who know things about your child that a website cannot.
Invent numbers
No test result appears that we did not measure, and no measurement is presented as more precise than the method allows.
Found something wrong?
Corrections are welcome and we would rather hear it from you than not hear it. Point at the specific line and we will check it.