Editorial policy

MowerLab has no affiliate links and no affiliate, sponsorship or advertising agreement with any manufacturer, and earns nothing when you buy a mower. No payment, in money or in kind, affects inclusion, classification, testing order or results.

MowerLab does not use affiliate links or belong to any affiliate program, and accepts no sponsorship or advertising from any manufacturer it evaluates.

Changes to this policy are dated on this page and posted at least 30 days before they take effect.

No payment, in money or in kind, buys inclusion, ranking, classification, scores, testing order or any feature on a page. Lending us a unit gets a mower tested; it never buys placement or a better result.

• There is no evaluation fee. The brand ships the unit to us and includes a prepaid return label.
• Units are loaned and returned by default. A brand may instead leave a unit as a long-term loan: title stays with the brand, we use it for 3- and 6-month follow-up checks, and then return or donate it.
• A test unit is never sold.
• If we ever keep a unit, we disclose it as “provided free of charge”.
• We disclose where each test unit came from (purchased, loaned, or provided free of charge). A “Unit source” line is being added to every evaluation page.

Before publication, the brand gets the draft for a 5-business-day factual check. We correct factual errors, such as a model number, firmware version, specification or setup detail. Outcomes, ratings and narrative are not negotiable. The brand may also send a short reply, which we publish next to the evaluation, labeled as the brand's response.

• Brands cannot approve, delay or suppress results.
• An embargo agreed before the unit ships is honored. An embargo sets when results go live, not what they say.
• If a firmware update materially changes performance, the brand may request a re-test under the same protocol. The earlier result stays visible, with a note that a newer one exists.

The full terms for manufacturers are on the For Brands page.

Manufacturer material, such as promotional videos, is labeled as manufacturer content, placed below MowerLab's own findings, and offered on the same terms to every brand.

• “Tested” means MowerLab ran the mower on its own test property. Where a model shares identical hardware with one we tested, its page says so next to the badge and names what was not separately tested.
• Mowers we have not tested are classified from published manufacturer specifications, and their pages are labeled spec-based.
• Creator footage and manufacturer claims never count toward “Tested”.
• We do not publish AI-generated pros, cons or summaries until a person has reviewed them.

• We never name a brand that declined to lend a unit, and we don't publish copy that pressures one brand by pointing to another.
• We name a brand as committed to a future test only with that brand's written permission.

• MowerLab is not a standards body. Our outcomes describe what we observed on our test property; they are not an approval or a seal.
• Brands that lend units are not “partners”. They have no say in our results.
• MowerLab is a website and a residential test property, not a laboratory. The name is a name, not a facility.

We will publish a privacy policy before we add any signup form to the site.

Many creators film excellent, hands-on videos in their own yards. This section explains how we feature those videos next to our own results, and what we ask of the creators we feature.

What “featured” means

A featured video is embedded on the page of the mower it covers, in a clearly labeled section that says the videos are independent, are not MowerLab tests, and that creators are not paid by MowerLab. Each one comes with a short, timestamped note on what the creator showed, and with the creator's own disclosure of how they got the unit (bought it, was given it, or was sponsored).

MowerLab's own findings always come first on the page. Creator footage sits below them and is kept separate.

How we choose videos

We feature a video when it is:

• Relevant. It is about the exact model on the page, or about a model with identical hardware, and we say so.
• Real footage. The mower is shown running on a real property, not stock clips or a spec read-out.
• Accurate. Its claims about the mower match what is shown on screen. We don't feature videos that misstate how the mower performed.

Videos from affiliate-listicle channels that don't show the mower working are not featured.

The one thing we ask: an accurate mention

To be featured (embedded on the mower page), the video should mention MowerLab accurately. The mention can be spoken in the video, shown on screen, or written in the video description. Any one of the three is enough. This is the sentence we provide.

Spoken version:

“This video is featured on MowerLab dot com, an independent site that field-tests robotic mowers on a fixed test property. MowerLab doesn't pay creators, and creators don't pay MowerLab.”

Description version:

This video is featured on MowerLab.com, an independent site that field-tests robotic mowers on a fixed test property. MowerLab doesn't pay creators and creators don't pay MowerLab.

You may shorten or reword it as long as it stays true. “Accurate” means it matches the description above: MowerLab is independent, it tests on a fixed property, and no money passes either way. The sentence also tells viewers that the video's placement on MowerLab is part of an arrangement, so it doubles as a disclosure.

Adding it to an existing video's description is enough. You don't need to re-film anything.

No link is required

We do not ask for a link, and we do not require one. Name the site in words if you like; you never have to link to it. If you choose to link, that is your editorial decision and nothing changes in how we treat your video. We will never check for, track or reward a link as a condition of anything.

If a creator doesn't mention MowerLab

Nothing bad happens. We may still list the video as a plain-text source (title, creator, channel link) under “Independent reviews” on the mower page. It is not embedded and not featured.

No money, either way

• MowerLab does not pay creators, and does not give creators units, free products, discounts or any other gift for featuring.
• Creators do not pay MowerLab for placement, for a better position, or for anything else.
• Neither creators nor brands get to approve or change MowerLab's own results.

Footage is never scored

Creator footage is not scored on MowerLab's rubric, is not mixed into our results and never counts toward a mower's “Tested” status. Our notes on a creator's video describe what the creator showed, in our words, and nothing more.

Disclosures are shown

We show what each creator tells viewers about how they got the mower (for example “purchased”, “provided by the manufacturer”, “sponsored by the manufacturer”). When a video doesn't say, we say “not stated”. We don't download, re-upload or clip anyone's footage; we embed the original video through YouTube's own player and link to the timestamps we mention.

Removal on request

A creator can ask us to remove their video, their name or our notes about it at any time, for any reason. Email the address below and it comes down; we don't ask why. Corrections to our notes are welcome and we make them promptly.

Questions about this policy, creator removal requests and corrections all go to the same address. If we got a fact wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

Andrew Mueller, Founder
andrew.mueller​@​mowerlab.com