Editorial and review policy

HotWaterAtlas publishes two kinds of content, and we think readers deserve to know which is which.

Data-generated pages

Water heater specification pages, comparison pages, and household ranking tables are generated by templates from a structured dataset. They are only as good as the data behind them, which is why the methodology page documents the source of every field and the formula behind every computed number, and why each water heater page links to its underlying EPA certification record. When the dataset refreshes, every generated page updates with it — there are no stale hand-edited copies of specifications.

Written content

Guides, household sizing notes, and glossary entries are written and reviewed by the site's editors. Writing may be drafted with software assistance, but every claim is checked by a person against the dataset, the cited standards (such as the National Electrical Code), or manufacturer documentation before publication, and each guide lists its sources. Guides carry a visible last-updated date and are re-reviewed when the underlying data or standards change.

How rankings work

"Best water heater" rankings are computed from certification data: capacity thresholds from the household's peak hour, then efficiency (UEF) and estimated running cost. Price, affiliate commission, and brand relationships play no part — the dataset contains no prices, and no manufacturer can pay to appear, rank higher, or have a flaw softened.

Independence and monetization

The site may earn revenue from advertising and affiliate links, described in the affiliate disclosure. Monetization never feeds back into rankings or editorial judgments: the ranking code has no access to affiliate data, and editors are not compensated based on what readers buy.

Corrections

We correct errors promptly. If you find a specification that disagrees with the manufacturer's documentation, a sizing recommendation that seems off, or a factual error in a guide, contact us with a link to the authoritative source. Data errors are fixed in the dataset (so the fix propagates to every affected page); guide errors are corrected in place and the guide's updated date is bumped.