Methodology
How We Pick
Published specifications, governing-body standards and arithmetic we show our working for. No testing claims, no scores, no stored prices.
This page describes exactly how recommendations on this site are made, so you can judge whether to trust them. It is deliberately specific, because a vague methodology page is worse than none.
The one thing to know first
We do not test these products. There is no test lab, no warehouse of tables and no claim of first-hand use of any specific model. A home game room table costs hundreds or thousands of dollars and weighs hundreds of pounds; nobody running a site this size has played on a representative sample of them, and sites that imply otherwise are usually not telling you the truth.
What we do instead is something that can be checked: we work from published specifications and published standards, we show the arithmetic, and we cite the sources. If you disagree with a conclusion, you can follow the working and find where we diverge.
The method, step by step
- Start from the measurement, not the product. Every category has one dimension that decides the purchase - the clearance a cue needs, the folded footprint, the rod extension, the blower voltage, the board length. We identify it and lead with it.
- Establish the standard. Where a governing body publishes a specification - the WPA for pool equipment and lighting, the WDF for dart board height and throw distance, the ITTF for table tennis table dimensions - that is the figure we use, and we cite it.
- Derive the arithmetic and show it. Room size is playing surface plus two times cue length plus stroke. We print the calculation rather than only the result, so you can run it on your own room.
- Shortlist real, currently-sold products. Every product in the registry was identified in research as a model you can buy now. We do not list discontinued products or products that exist only in an older review.
- Compare on published specifications only. Playing surface, bed construction, top thickness, blower voltage, playfield thickness, cabinet height, warranty terms. Where a maker does not publish a figure, we say so rather than inferring one.
- Name who should not buy it. Every pick carries a skip condition where one honestly exists. A recommendation with no downside is a sales page.
- Link the price, never store it. No price figure is written into any page here. Every button goes to the live listing.
What we will never do
- Claim first-hand use we have not had. No testing narratives, no accounts of living with a product for weeks, no expert panel that does not exist.
- Publish a score or a star rating. A number implies a measurement. Ours would be an opinion wearing a measurement's clothes.
- Invent a testimonial or a customer review. There are none on this site, and there will not be any that are not real and attributed.
- State a price we have not verified from the live listing. A stale price is a lie with a decimal point.
- Rank by commission. The ordering of every list here would be identical if the links earned nothing.
- Invent a specification. If a manufacturer does not publish a figure, we leave it out. An estimate presented as a fact is the most common failure mode in this category.
Where the numbers come from
| Standard | Governs | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| World Pool-Billiard Association | Pool equipment and lighting | Playing surface dimensions, the 520 lux uniform lighting figure |
| World Darts Federation | Dart board setup | 5 ft 8 in board height, 7 ft 9.25 in throw distance, 9 ft 7.375 in diagonal |
| ITTF | Table tennis equipment | 2.74 x 1.525 m table at 76 cm, 15.25 cm net |
| Manufacturer specifications | Individual products | Playfield sizes, weights, thicknesses, warranty terms |
Where a figure is a convention rather than a published standard - the 6 inches of stroke allowance in the clearance formula, for instance, or the practical 17 by 10 foot room minimum for table tennis - we say so on the page rather than presenting it as a regulation.
How products get added and removed
A product enters the registry when it is identified in research as a real, currently-sold model with published specifications we can work from. It leaves when it is discontinued, when its specifications stop being published, or when something in the same price band does the same job better on the specifications that matter.
We do not add a product because a manufacturer asked. No product on this site was placed in exchange for payment, samples or access, and no manufacturer has reviewed any page here before publication.
How to hold us to this
Pick any claim on this site and trace it. A room figure should decompose into playing surface plus clearance. A standard should carry a link to the governing body. A product specification should be findable on the manufacturer's own listing. If any of those fails, tell us - that is a correction and we will make it. The correction policy is here.