How We Score Products
Every product receives a Survival Score from 0 to 10, based on a weighted combination of:
- Performance Under Load — Does it deliver what it promises under sustained real-world conditions?
- Failure Resilience — What breaks first, and how badly does it fail?
- Field Serviceability — Can you fix or maintain it without proprietary tools or internet access?
- Long-Term Reliability — Forum data, warranty claims, and community reports aggregated over time.
How We Buy Products
Every product we test is purchased at full retail price from public retailers. We do not accept free review units, media kits, early access, or any form of manufacturer incentive. This is non-negotiable.
The Failure Ledger
Our proprietary Failure Ledger is a living database that aggregates:
- Internal bench test failures
- Community-reported issues from forums and owner groups
- Warranty claim patterns
- Manufacturer recall data
Every entry is verified before publication and tagged by severity (Critical, Warning, Info).
How We Make Money
GridTested earns revenue through affiliate commissions when readers purchase products through our links. We also generate revenue through contractor lead referrals for professional installations. These monetization methods never influence our scores or recommendations.
If a product scores poorly, we say so — even if we'd earn a commission from its sale. Our reputation depends on it.
Data Velocity
Unlike traditional review sites that test once and publish, GridTested continuously monitors product performance through automated data analysis. Our systems scan thousands of forum posts, technical reports, and community discussions to identify emerging failure patterns in real time.