Method

How a number gets onto a page.

This site exists because of a gap: a spec sheet tells you a dash cam shoots 4K, and nothing on it tells you whether you can read the number plate of the car in front at night. Independent laboratories answer that second question. Their results are scattered across a dozen sites, in a dozen formats, under conditions that are rarely stated in the same place as the number. We collect them, name who took them, and state what they were taken under.

What we do not do

We do not test products. We own no laboratory, no sound chamber, no gloss meter and no dynamometer. Nothing on this site should ever be read as our own measurement, and if you find a sentence that reads that way, it is a mistake and we want to hear about it.

This is also why the site is called a bench and not a lab. A bench is where you lay things out next to each other and compare them. That is the work we actually do.

We also do not accept payment, product or review copy from a manufacturer in exchange for coverage, a placement or a rating. How we are paid is set out at the bottom of this page and on the disclosure page.

The three marks

Every figure we publish about a named product carries one of three marks. They are not decoration and they are not a rating — they tell you how much weight the number can hold.

A figure with a named source use it

Someone independent measured it, we name them, and we state what they measured under. “12.6 dB(A) at 1 m, idle” is a measurement. Go and check it — the link is there for that, not for decoration.

A figure from the manufacturer marked

Sometimes the only number that exists is the one on the box. We use it, and we say so every single time. A claim is not a measurement, and a spec sheet has never once reported a disappointing result.

Two labs, two numbers not merged

When two independent sources measure the same thing and disagree, both appear, side by side, each with its conditions. Averaging them would invent a precision that neither one has.

What makes a source independent

We take a figure from a source when it satisfies all four of these:

It is not the seller. A manufacturer, a retailer or a shop blog can be quoted, but never as an independent measurement — it gets the marked flag.
The conditions are published. A brightness figure without a window size, a noise figure without a distance and a runtime without a load are not measurements. If we cannot find the conditions, the number does not go on the page.
It is attributable. A named publication or laboratory, not an aggregated “experts say”. We link to the exact page, not to the site’s front door.
It is current enough to matter. Every figure carries the date it was measured. Firmware changes what a dash cam does at night; a 2022 result on a 2026 unit is a different product.

Where the recommendations come from

We do not run a scoring formula that turns a pile of specifications into a single number out of ten. Those scores look objective and are mostly a record of how the author weighted the inputs.

Instead each page states the question a buyer is actually asking — can this camera read a plate at night, will this charger fit the panel I already have, does this coating survive a winter — and then shows the measurements that bear on it, with their sources. Where the evidence does not settle the question, the page says so. “Nobody has measured this” is a finding, and we would rather print it than fill the gap with an opinion in the shape of a fact.

What we cover, and why

Three areas: home EV charging, dash cams, and detailing equipment. They have one thing in common, which is why they are here: in all three, the number printed on the box is a poor predictor of what the thing does in a driveway. Amperage is not the amperage you can use, resolution is not legibility, and a coating’s advertised durability is measured in months by people who did not leave it outside for one.

Corrections

When we get something wrong we change it on the page and say what changed. A correction that is quietly edited in is indistinguishable from never having been wrong, which would make every other page here worth less.

How we are paid

Links to retailers on this site are affiliate links, mostly to Amazon. If you buy through one, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

The commission is the same whichever product on a page you buy, and it does not change what we recommend or what order things appear in. The full statement is on the disclosure page.