Editorial Policy
How picks are chosen, how commercial links work, and how corrections are handled.
Last updated
The short answer
Nobody pays for a place on this site. Recommendations are made from published specifications and stated reasoning, every roundup includes at least one product we would not buy, and every factual error we are told about gets fixed on the page rather than answered privately.
Independence
- No paid placements. No manufacturer, retailer or agency can buy a position, a mention or a ranking on this site. None has been offered one and none would be accepted.
- No product samples. We do not accept free or loaned equipment. That removes the most common conflict in gear writing before it can arise.
- No affiliate influence on rankings. Commission rates vary between products and retailers. They are not a factor in what we recommend, and we would rather link a cheaper product that is right for the reader than a costlier one that pays more.
- No brand relationships. We have no commercial relationship with any brand covered here beyond the standard affiliate program described on our affiliate disclosure.
How picks are chosen
The method is set out in full on our methodology page. In summary: published manufacturer specifications, cited; arithmetic with the assumptions labeled; owner consensus where it is genuinely consistent, labeled as such; and an explicit statement of who each product is wrong for.
We do not test equipment and we never write as though we had. Phrases like in our testing or after weeks of use do not appear on this site about products we have not used, because they would be false.
The do-not-buy rule
Every roundup on this site contains at least one product we would not buy, marked as such, with the reason stated. Every individual product write-up has a Skip it if section.
This is a structural safeguard rather than a stylistic one. A site funded by commission has an obvious incentive to recommend everything, and the check on that incentive has to be built into the format rather than promised in a policy. Both of those sections cost us money on every page, and both stay.
If you ever find a page here where everything is recommended, that page has failed its own standard and you should discount it.
What we will never publish
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Sourcing
Every specification quoted on this site is sourced from the manufacturer's own product page, manual or spec sheet, or from a major retailer's published specification where no manufacturer page exists. Those sources are listed at the bottom of each page that uses them.
Where a figure could not be sourced, it does not appear. Several specification tables here have blank cells for that reason, and we would rather show a gap than fill it with a number from a review aggregator.
Corrections
- 1Tell us. Use the contact page. A link to the manufacturer's own specification makes verification quick.
- 2We check it against the primary source rather than against another article.
- 3We fix the page, not just the reply. A correction that lives only in an email has not been made.
- 4Substantive corrections are noted on the page where the change materially alters a recommendation or a factual claim.
- 5The updated date changes so you can see the page has moved.
Typos and formatting fixes are made silently. Changes to a figure, a recommendation or a claim are not.
How pages are updated
Specifications change when manufacturers revise products, and products are discontinued. When we become aware of either, the page is updated and its modified date changes.
We do not re-date pages to make them look fresh. The date on a page reflects when its content actually changed.
Commercial links
Every outbound commercial link on this site carries `rel="sponsored nofollow noopener"` and opens in a new tab. Commercial pages carry a disclosure at the top, and every buy button carries an `#ad` marker with a link to the full disclosure.
Links pass through a `/go` redirect on our own domain, which applies the affiliate tag and lets us change a destination retailer without rewriting page content. That redirect is `noindex`, `nofollow` and blocked in robots.txt.
Author
All content on this site is written by Sawyer V. Where a page states an opinion it is that author's, and where it states a figure it is the manufacturer's. More about the author.
Questions people actually ask
Do manufacturers pay to be featured on Crema & Grind?
No. No paid placements, no sponsored rankings and no product samples accepted. The site earns affiliate commission on purchases, which does not influence what we recommend.
Does affiliate commission influence your recommendations?
No, and the format is designed to make that checkable: every roundup contains at least one product we would not buy, and every write-up names who should skip it. Both cost us money and both stay.
How do you handle corrections?
We verify against the manufacturer's primary source, fix the page rather than just replying, note substantive corrections on the page, and update the modified date. Typos are fixed silently.
Why does Crema & Grind not use star ratings?
A rating implies a measurement, and we do not test equipment. We also do not emit rating markup in structured data, which would assert the same claim in machine-readable form.
Do you accept free products from manufacturers?
No. Accepting samples is the most common conflict of interest in gear writing, and declining removes it before it can arise.