How we review

The site owner has no pool and does not run first-hand trials. Every review is labelled with one of two levels: Research review or Owner-tested.

Research review — not hands-on

A research review summarises published evidence: Australian manufacturer or retailer product pages, warranty terms, and owner reports from public sources. Specs that cannot be verified stay unpublished. This is the default level for every model.

Where the facts come from

Specifications come from Australian manufacturer, distributor and retailer pages, and from published warranty documents. Each value in a spec table links to the page it came from. Hover over a value to see the date it was checked. A value that no source states shows as "Not verified". It is never estimated.

Owner reports are summarised from public sources such as ProductReview.com.au, Whirlpool forums and Australian review sites. Each summary links to where it was published. Every review cites at least three sources.

Prices

A price on this site is a dated observation: the price a named Australian store showed on a given day. Each price shows the store and the date. Prices change, so check the store before you buy. When no dated price is stored, the spec table shows the sourced RRP instead. A price is never described as the lowest on offer.

How picks are ordered

Picks on the robotic pool cleaner page are grouped into small pools, large pools, leaf-heavy, above-ground, budget and cordless. Each group states its rule and its order. For example, small pool picks run from the shortest maximum pool length to the longest. The robot finder ranks models by how many of your answers they match.

Neither order depends on whether a store pays a commission. Stores without an affiliate programme still appear in the where-to-buy lists. See the affiliate disclosure.

Owner-tested

A review is labelled Owner-tested only when an Australian pool owner completes the site's test protocol and we publish the report with their written consent. The report states who supplied the unit and whether the tester was paid.

The protocol asks the tester to:

• describe the pool: type, length, surface, shape and usual debris
• note the debris before the first cycle and what is left after it
• run three full cleaning cycles and record what stayed dirty each time
• watch whether the robot climbs walls and reaches the waterline
• time the battery or cycle with a clock instead of copying the box
• time the filter clean and note anything awkward about it
• record every fault, error and reset
• photograph the pool, debris, walls, waterline and filter

Testers are named by first name and suburb only. Location data is removed from photos before they are published.

No page may claim testing without a linked tester report. Star ratings are not used without that report.

Checks on every build

An automated check runs each time the site is built. The build stops if:

• a spec has a value but no source or check date
• a review cites fewer than three sources
• a page without a tester report uses testing language
• an affiliate link is not marked as sponsored, or its page lacks the disclosure
• an internal link is broken

Sources checked more than 180 days ago, and old prices, are flagged for a re-check.

Corrections

If something on this site is wrong, email the address on the contact page with the page and a source. Each spec is stored once and shared by every page that shows it, so a corrected value changes everywhere at once.