Editorial policy
The rules this site is written under. They are specific on purpose, because a policy made of generalities commits you to nothing.
1. Sourcing
- Every numeric specification traces to the manufacturer's published documentation or a retail listing, and the source is printed at the foot of the page.
- Where sources disagree, we say so rather than picking the flattering one.
- Where no source exists, the figure is omitted. We do not estimate, interpolate or carry a number over from a similar model.
- Flow figures are always published with the lift they were measured at. A flow rate without a lift is a marketing number.
2. What we never publish
- Fabricated reviews or testimonials. There are no customer quotes on this site, invented or otherwise.
- Claims of hands-on testing we did not do. No test bench exists here and no page implies one does.
- Invented credentials. No licenses, certifications or qualifications are claimed, because none are held.
- Prices. They move weekly. Every buy button goes to the live listing instead.
- Product part numbers we cannot verify. The content model has no field for an unverified identifier, so one cannot reach the page.
- Fake urgency. No countdowns, no invented scarcity, no “prices rising soon”.
3. Independence
No manufacturer, retailer or PR agency has any involvement in what appears here. We do not accept paid placements, sponsored posts, paid links, or “guest posts” of any kind. No product has been supplied to us. Nobody can buy a position in a ranking, and nobody has ever been offered one.
The site earns affiliate commissions when readers buy through its links, which is disclosed on every commercial page and explained in the affiliate disclosure. Commission rates do not affect rankings. Where the cheaper product is the better buy, the page says so — that happens frequently in this category and saying it is the entire point of being worth reading.
4. Scoring
Scores are editorial judgments derived from published specifications, not measurements. The criteria are printed on each roundup and explained in full at how we pick. No score is emitted as structured data, because marking an opinion up as a review rating would tell search engines we tested something we did not.
5. Corrections
Mistakes get fixed and the page's update date changes to reflect it. Substantive corrections — a wrong specification, a wrong recommendation — are noted on the page rather than quietly edited away. Report anything you find to contact@sumpandseal.com.
The “Updated” date on every page is the real last-modified date of that page. It is not refreshed on a schedule to look current, and the XML sitemap carries the same date, so search engines are told the truth as well.
6. Imagery
Photographs on this site are licensed stock, credited on the image credits page. They illustrate the subject; they are never presented as our premises, our work, our equipment or a unit we own. No image is captioned or implied to be something it is not.
7. Safety
Where a job genuinely needs a licensed professional — structural cracks, electrical work, gas appliances, excavation near a foundation — the page says so plainly rather than walking a reader into something dangerous for the sake of a complete-looking guide. Where a step is hazardous, the hazard is stated before the step, not after it.
8. Who is responsible
Sump & Seal is written by Brijon M. and published by MadGrey LLC. Every article carries a visible byline and an update date, and the person named is the person responsible for the page. More on the about page.