Editorial Policy

How this site is funded

Affiliate commissions on product links. The merchant pays the commission — your price doesn't change whether you use my link or not.

Affiliate relationships

Some links here are affiliate links. Click one, buy the thing, I get a small cut — at no extra cost to you. The commission doesn't shape which products end up reviewed here. If a product turns out to be junk, the review says it's junk — paid relationship or not.

Testing approach

Everything gets at least thirty days of real-condition use before I write about it. Not demo conditions — the way you'd actually deploy it in an emergency. Weekly observation log: what changed, what the manufacturer claimed versus what I measured, what failed and under what conditions.

One example: a filter I tested in late 2024 showed a 22% flow rate drop over six weeks on collected rainwater. Nowhere in the product description. Both numbers go in the review — my measured figure and the spec sheet figure — along with the source water and temperature conditions I ran it under. That's the kind of information I wanted when I was buying, and nobody was giving me.

What this site is and isn't

One person's experience from one suburban Houston household, tested for short-term emergency scenarios. Not a water safety authority. Not a health resource. Not comprehensive across all geographies or emergency types. Useful if you're a suburban family preparing for a short-term disruption — less useful if your situation is significantly different from that. I try to say where my conclusions would shift with different conditions.

Contact

Questions, corrections, feedback: contact page.