Every product on Ordinary Prepper gets one score out of 100, built from four parts. The parts never change, the weights never change, and a product’s affiliate commission is not one of them. You’ll also see the score written as a /10 in parentheses — same number, smaller clothes.
What are the four parts of the score?
| Part | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Evidence | 30 | How solid is what we know? Full manufacturer spec sheets, warranty terms in writing, and large samples of verified-owner feedback score high. Thin specs and a handful of reviews score low — a product can lose points here just for being an unknown. |
| Cost | 25 | Not just the sticker. Purchase price against what you get — calories per dollar, watt-hours per dollar, gallons per dollar — plus the cost to own: filters, fuel, replacement parts, and how long the warranty actually protects you. |
| Owner experience | 25 | The patterns in verified-owner feedback, counted. Recurring praise and recurring complaints both move this number, weighted by how many owners are reporting and how long they’ve owned the product. |
| Fit for an ordinary home | 20 | How an ordinary household actually lives with it. Does it work in a suburban kitchen, a small garage, an apartment? Does it need permits, a plumber, an electrician, or a strong back? How much room, noise, and upkeep does it demand? |
Where does the information come from?
Three sources, in this order: the manufacturer’s published specifications and warranty documents; the current price, verified the day a comparison is written or updated (every comparison shows its prices-checked date); and aggregated verified-owner feedback, with sample sizes named in the review.
Do you test the products yourselves?
No — and we won’t pretend otherwise. Ordinary Prepper is a research desk. Reviews are built from specs, prices, and owner evidence, and every review says what it’s based on. We think an honest desk comparison beats a fake “we ran all nine through a blackout” claim, and we’d rather lose the click than make it.
Can a company pay for a better score?
No. Companies can’t pay for placement, can’t see a score before it’s published, and can’t change one after. Affiliate commissions are checked only after a score is set — the order matters, and it’s the whole business model: if the scores can’t be trusted, the site is worth nothing. See the affiliate disclosure for exactly how money flows here.
How do we research a comparison, step by step?
First, the specifications: we read the manufacturer’s full spec sheet and warranty document for every product in a comparison — not the store listing, which gets numbers wrong often enough that we never score from it. Second, the price: we check the current price the day the comparison is written or updated, and the page prints that date. If we cannot verify a price, the page prints none rather than a stale one. Third, the owners: we read verified-owner feedback in bulk and count the patterns — the complaint that repeats across hundreds of owners moves a score; one angry review does not. Every scored comparison on this site carries a short “How we researched this comparison” block at the top naming how many products were scored, which sources were used, and how big each product’s owner sample is.
What we never do: we do not buy or borrow the products, we do not run them through staged tests, and we never write as if we did. Ordinary Prepper is a research desk. When a fact on a page cannot be traced to a spec sheet, a verified price, or a counted owner pattern, it does not go on the page.
How do pages get corrected and kept current?
Prices move and products change, so pages here are living documents. When we change a page in a way that matters — a corrected figure, a replaced pick, a new section — the change is noted on the page itself in an editor’s note with the date and what changed. Every post also shows its true last-updated date at the top, taken from the page’s own record, never set by hand. If you spot a figure that looks wrong, tell us through the contact page — corrections from readers are part of how this desk works.