Editorial policy

Every article on PoolBuff carries a byline, and the person named wrote it. We do not publish under invented staff names, and we do not run guest posts in exchange for links.

PoolBuff is written by one person, and that person is named on every article. There is no rotating cast of staff names and no ghostwriting. Where a topic sits outside direct experience, the article says so and cites its sources rather than implying first-hand knowledge.

Anything that tells you to add something to your water gets checked against published standards before it publishes — ANSI/PHTA guidance and the CDC Model Aquatic Health Code — rather than against memory. That covers dosing amounts, target ranges, product interactions and anything involving shock, acid or stabilizer.

Anything recommending equipment sizing, wiring, gas appliances or plumbing changes is checked against current manufacturer documentation, and says plainly where the job crosses into licensed-trade territory.

Where an article has been checked by a second person, that reviewer is named in the byline. If no reviewer is named, one person wrote it and it did not need a second pair of eyes.

Three places, and we distinguish between them on the page. First, our own testing and field experience — the strongest basis and the reason this site exists. Second, published standards and codes such as the International Swimming Pool and Spa Code, ANSI/PHTA standards and CPSC guidance. Third, manufacturer documentation.

When a figure comes from somewhere other than our own testing, it is cited in the sources block at the foot of the article with a link you can check yourself.

Where the industry genuinely disagrees — and it does, on plenty — we say so rather than picking a side and presenting it as settled.

Every page shows the date it was last updated, not just the date it was first written. The date moves whenever the substance of the page changes, whether that is a full review against current products, prices and codes or a single figure corrected against a manufacturer’s document.

Product roundups are re-checked at least twice a year and immediately when a pick is discontinued or superseded. Cost guides are re-checked annually. Code and safety content is re-checked when the underlying standard changes.

We update pages rather than republishing them. You will not find three near-identical articles here with different years in the title.

We get things wrong. When we do, we want to know quickly, and we fix the page rather than leave it standing.

A material correction — anything that could have led a reader to do the wrong thing, like a wrong part number, dose or safety distance — is made on the page itself, and the page’s last-updated date changes with it. Each one is also recorded in our internal fact-check log with what changed and the source that settled it. Typos and small clarifications may be fixed without a new date.

Corrections go to a person, not a queue. Email them to the address below or use the contact form and choose "Correction or factual error".

We do not sell placements, rankings, awards or "sponsored reviews". No brand has ever paid to appear in a roundup, and no brand sees a review before it publishes.

Some links on this site are affiliate links, which earn us a commission if you buy at no additional cost to you. They are disclosed on every page that uses them and they have never determined a verdict or a ranking.

We buy the products we test. Where a manufacturer provides a unit, we say so on the page, and the unit is treated exactly like a purchased one — including being written up badly if it deserves it.

We do not publish AI-written articles. Language models are useful for research triage, transcript cleanup and catching a clumsy sentence, and we use them for those things the way we use a spell checker.

Every published sentence on this site was written or rewritten by the named author, and every recommendation reflects an actual human judgment about an actual pool.

The photographs are a different matter, and you should know which is which. Every article cover, every social card and every product photograph on the equipment pages is generated by an image model. None of them is a photograph of a real pool, a real job or a real piece of equipment, and we do not present them as evidence of anything. The diagrams are the opposite: those are drawn by hand and they are the ones carrying information.

Two rules keep generated equipment photographs honest. They are checked against the manufacturer’s own images before they ship, because a generated cleaner came back with four wheels when the real one has three, and countable things have to match. And no image model is allowed to render lettering, because it invents a manufacturer’s wordmark over garbled text, which is a fabricated product photograph rather than a style slip.

PoolBuff publishes general information. It is not a substitute for a licensed electrician, gas fitter, structural engineer or your local building department, and we say so on the pages where it matters most.

Pool chemicals are hazardous. Gas appliances and pool electrical systems are hazardous. Where a job crosses the line into professional territory, we tell you plainly rather than letting a confident tone imply otherwise.