Editorial policy

This page is the standard every article on MiniSplitsHQ is held to. The methodology page covers how individual figures are verified; this one covers how the site behaves.

AI assistance, disclosed

Research, document comparison, and drafting are done with AI assistance. A human editor reviews every page before publish and owns every verdict. We disclose this on every page, not because a rule forces us to, but because a reader deciding whether to trust a number deserves to know how it was produced. What makes the content reliable is not who typed it; it is that every spec and price resolves to a dated primary source you can check yourself.

Sourcing rules

• Specs come from documents of record. The AHRI directory, manufacturer engineering documents, and the NEEP cold-climate directory. Marketing pages and retailer listings never back a spec.
• Prices are dated estimates from named retailers. Equipment price and installed cost are different numbers, and we never derive one from the other.
• Forums and reviews shape questions, never claims. Community discussion tells us what buyers ask and the words they use. It is not a source for a figure, and we never rewrite a thread into an article.
• No invented anything. No fabricated quotes, testers, test benches, or "we installed this" claims. If we did not do a thing, we do not imply we did.

The honesty rules this niche needs

• "Pre-charged" gets qualified on first use. Only true quick-connect systems skip the vacuum pump. We never call a vacuum-required system DIY-easy, no matter what its listing implies.
• Every recommendation names its failure mode. And its warranty fine print: what is parts-only, what excludes labor, and what a DIY install voids. Hype followed by failure is the fastest way to lose a reader, so we lead with the limits.
• Cold-climate claims are model claims, not brand claims. Capacity is cited at temperature, from the listing for that model tier.
• Safety is stated plainly, before the step it applies to.Refrigerant handling and 240V electrical work get an explicit "this is where DIY ends for most people" boundary. We describe what the pro does and what it costs; we do not publish step-by-step instructions for work that should not be DIY.
• Deferrals are mandatory. Sizing defers to a load calculation, panel and breaker work to a licensed electrician, and permit questions to your local building department.

Independence

No commission, referral fee, or partnership changes a verdict, a tier, a comparison value, or whether a product appears at all. We will never run a sponsored post, a paid review, or paid placement, and no company sees an article before it publishes. Details, including the current status of every affiliate program, are in the affiliate disclosure.

Corrections, on the record

Verified errors are fixed within 72 hours, with a dated correction note on the page when the change could affect a decision a reader already made. Report one through the contact page. If your correction does not hold against the primary sources, we reply and explain what we found. Either way you get an answer.

Educational, not professional advice

Nothing on this site substitutes for an on-site load calculation, a licensed electrician's assessment of your panel, or your local building department's permit rules. We help you walk into those conversations knowing what the numbers should look like. We cannot replace them.