How we assess
We don't claim to test what we haven't tested.
Every piece of guidance we publish, and any equipment we eventually cover in detail, is labelled with where it actually comes from — published research, a manufacturer's own documentation, experience reported by other owners, or our own direct use of a product or method. This page explains what each of those labels means, what it doesn't mean, and when we use it.
The four evidence types
We label information with one of four evidence types, spelled out as visible text rather than left to inference. Not every type applies to every article — only the ones that are actually relevant.
Used when information is based on relevant published sources, guidance or technical references rather than our own physical testing.
Used for specifications or instructions taken from a manufacturer's own documentation. Where relevant, this information should be attributed and dated.
Publicly reported owner experiences may provide useful context, but they are not controlled testing and not the same as our own hands-on use.
Hands-on only appears when Clean Surface Lab has physically used the product or method and that experience can be documented. Where that direct experience doesn't exist, the label isn't used.
Researched
This might include published care guidance, technical references, or other publicly available material relevant to the surface, material or problem in question. Not every article draws on all of these — only the ones actually relevant to that specific topic. Researched describes where information comes from; it isn't a claim that we've run a test ourselves.
Manufacturer data
This covers things like care codes, capacities, dimensions or instructions as published by the maker of a product or material. Manufacturer documentation changes over time, so where we use it, we aim to attribute it to its source and date it. Manufacturer data reflects what a manufacturer states about its own product — it is not independent testing, and we treat it accordingly.
Owner feedback
Where relevant, we may refer to owner experiences that are already publicly available — for example, in long-term reviews or discussions. This can add context beyond a single use or a specification sheet. But owner feedback is not controlled testing, it is not equivalent to Hands-on, and anecdotes are not proof. We don't currently maintain a database, an owner panel, a survey, or any monitoring system or formal methodology for identifying patterns in owner reports — where we mention owner feedback, we mean specific, existing accounts, not a study or system we run.
What Hands-on means
Hands-on only appears against a product or method when a member of the Clean Surface Lab team has actually used it themselves, and that experience can be documented. If that direct experience doesn't exist, the label isn't used — it never appears as a general claim about a product, only against the specific use we can stand behind.
Where we can, we intend to document:
- The product or method used
- The date
- The surface or context it was used on
- What was actually done
- The limitations of that use
A single use has limits worth stating plainly. Using one product once, on one carpet type, in one set of conditions, doesn't tell you how it performs on every fibre or in every situation — and we'd rather say so than let the label imply more than it does.
Corrections and updates
We correct factual errors when we find them, or when a reader points one out. Guides carry a visible "Updated" date, which reflects when the content itself last changed, not a fixed review schedule. We don't currently commit to reviewing every article at a set interval — as the site grows we may adopt a more structured review policy, but we'd rather not publish a cadence now and fail to follow it.
Independence
Clean Surface Lab does not currently have any active affiliate links. If a commercial relationship exists in future, it will not decide which evidence label a product receives, or whether a recommendation holds up — the evidence types above are applied the same way regardless of any commercial relationship. The full detail of how any future monetisation works will be published on a separate affiliate disclosure page.
Where this applies
You can see this system applied on our Equipment page, which uses the same four labels when discussing cleaning machines. Guides such as How to remove old stains from carpet and Why does my carpet smell after cleaning? show the same underlying judgement at work — checking manufacturer guidance before trying anything, and not treating a machine as an automatic next step — though the guides themselves don't currently display evidence labels directly.