About Nelo Tested
This site answers one question as honestly as we can: is this piece of home equipment actually worth buying, and is it the right size for your house?
Who publishes it
Nelo Tested is published by Nelo Automation, a small business in Maine, United States. The people behind it work in home services — the trades that install, service and replace exactly the equipment these guides cover: water heaters, softeners, standby power and the tools that go with them.
That background shapes what the guides pay attention to. Somebody who has serviced a piece of equipment cares about different things than somebody reading its brochure: whether the part that fails is reachable, whether the warranty covers the labour to reach it, and whether anybody nearby will turn up to work on it.
What we will not claim
Plenty of review sites imply hands-on testing they never did. We would rather be plain about it:
- The guides published today are specification, warranty and serviceability comparisons. They are researched from manufacturer documentation and informed by trade experience with these categories of equipment. They are not lab tests, and we do not present them as such.
- There are no scores on this site. A number to one decimal place claims a measurement. We have not taken that measurement, so we do not print the number. Picks carry a plain "best for" description instead.
- There are no customer reviews or testimonials, because we have not collected any. When we do, they will be real and attributed.
- We are not currently in any affiliate programme and earn nothing from the links in the guides. See the affiliate disclosure.
When a guide does involve hands-on time with a specific unit, that page will say exactly what that involved — what was installed, where, and over what period. Read How We Review for the full method.
How the guides are put together
- Sizing first. Most bad purchases in these categories are sizing mistakes, not brand mistakes. Every guide leads with the arithmetic.
- Sourced, not guessed. Specifications are cited to the manufacturer with the date they were checked. Where a figure cannot be sourced we write "no data found".
- Total cost of ownership. Purchase price is often the smaller half. Installation, warranty labour cover, parts availability and running costs get equal weight.
- Independent. No manufacturer sponsors a placement, and no commission moves a recommendation.
Photography and footage
The photography and the short clips in the header are licensed stock, used to show the categories we cover and the trades this equipment belongs to. They are not photographs of our own testing, and no clip is presented as one. Footage is licensed from Pexels — kitchen interior by Curtis Adams, research desk by Fabio Scaletta, and outdoor plumbing repair by Alejandro Torres.
Corrections
Specifications change and prices move. If you find something out of date or wrong, tell us — we would rather fix it than defend it. Accuracy is the entire value of a site like this.