Editorial Guidelines

Last Updated: Oct 9, 2023

At BOS, we understand that water quality is a significant concern for Americans (and many other people around the world) today. With the challenges posed by aging water infrastructure, lax regulations, and frequent water quality crises, it’s understandable that you may be hesitant to consume tap or well water without additional treatment at home. However, finding reliable information on the topic can be overwhelming, and much of what’s available lacks real experience and expertise.

That’s where BOS comes in. We have created this platform to educate people on how to enhance their home water quality with the best solutions available. Our team of water treatment experts and enthusiasts have extensive experience in the industry, dedicating their time to research and hands-on testing of products and services. On our website, you will find comprehensive resources, including data-backed guides, reviews, and informative content both in written and video format. Our goal is to equip you with the knowledge needed to safeguard your home and loved ones from common water issues.

Our Mission

At BOS, our mission is to provide you with information, products, and solutions to address your home water quality needs. We achieve this by producing reliable resources backed by thorough research, reports, and our own test data. Our aim is to present this information in a helpful, engaging, and easily understandable manner.

Code Of Ethics

Our Code of Ethics forms the foundation of everything we do at BOS and guides our content creation process. The principles we adhere to include:

  1. Accuracy – We double-check our content to ensure it is accurate and reliable.
  2. Reliability – You can trust the information in our content to make informed purchasing decisions, as we openly discuss all relevant aspects.
  3. Objectivity – Our content is unbiased, based on facts and our personal experience as both customers and experts.
  4. Integrity – We maintain honesty and clear communication at all times.
  5. Transparency – We are transparent about how we operate and do not withhold important facts from our audience.

Our Research Process

At BOS, we take pride in our comprehensive research process that forms the foundation of all the content we produce. With 18+ years of combined industry experience, our team understands the importance of reliable and up-to-date information when discussing water quality.

To ensure the accuracy of our content, we conduct extensive research using a variety of trusted sources. These include authoritative organizations such as the CDC, EPA, and NSF. Additionally, we refer to academic research papers and gather insights from unbiased customer reviews on reputable seller websites and marketplaces.

What’s more, in many cases, we go beyond existing information available online and conduct our own testing to supplement our findings. This is especially important when we feel that existing data is insufficient or lacks in-depth analysis.

Our Review Process

This section shall provide you with more details on our product/service review process and the creation of our buying guides. Simply put, we want to give you insights into how we work. Why? So that you can decide whether or not you want to trust our recommendations.

Please note: For better readability, the following section only mentions “products” and not “services”, but it applies to both.

Getting Started

First of all, after several years in the industry we know our stuff and don’t need to research each new topic we cover from scratch. If you understand how an activated carbon filter works, it doesn’t really make a difference if it’s a small point-of-use unit to be installed under the kitchen sink or if it’s a large system intended for whole house application.

But our goal is to enable you to make an informed buying decision. Thus, all our TOP X Review Articles where we compare about a dozen products per category, for example whole house water filters, always include a buying guide with things you should consider before spending any money.

We advise you to invest the few extra minutes and read through these considerations really quick. Although home water treatment isn’t exactly rocket science and you don’t need a PhD to understand most of it, you’ll get a good overview of what’s important and what isn’t.

The Process

Step 1: Defining the Crucial Criteria

Price is an important factor when reviewing products. But for us it’s not the be-all end-all. For a holistic approach we have to take into account other, oftentimes more crucial, product criteria, too. What these criteria turn out to be depends on the individual topic.

To get back to our previous example, with whole house water filters it’s mandatory that you have a high-enough flow rate. Otherwise you’ll run out of filtered water at times of peak consumption. When searching for an under sink water filter on the other hand, flow rate is secondary. What really matters is how many contaminants will be removed, and to what percentage.

Criteria that play a role no matter what are certifications from authoritative third parties (i.e. NSF certifications for water filters), product warranties, and customer support. For the latter, we value companies that are easy to contact, fast to reply, helpful, and actually know their stuff.

Once we have a list of criteria, we weigh them based on importance and continue with step 2 of our review process: Finding the best products (a similar process applies to dedicated single-product reviews).

Step 2: Finding the Best Products

Armed with our criteria list, we can now surf the web and measure all the different products against it. Thereby, we not only browse amazon.com and other major ecommerce platforms – think target.com or wayfair.com – we also like to collaborate with smaller businesses directly. In order to find these, we turn Google Search upside down.

Of course, when adding products to our list we look for features that could make them stand out from the competition. At the same time, we ignore unnecessary bells and whistles that come with a premium price without providing any real benefit.

What information sources do we rely on? There are 5:

  1. Product descriptions – Product descriptions provide us with a good overview of what we can expect. We also compare specifications across multiple sites and reach out to companies directly if need be.
  2. Product manuals – And we go one step further. We also check actual product manuals provided by manufacturers or sellers. This allows us to verify certain information and dive into the nitty-gritty details.
  3. Interviews – Actually, we go two steps further. What we do next is contact some of the companies directly via phone, email, or live chat. We do this to A) test their customer service and B) conduct interviews allowing them to pitch their products to us, and ask questions that potential customers likely have (checking knowledge levels).
  4. Customer ratings & reviews – We rely on customer ratings and reviews from different platforms for 2 reasons. For one, we cannot test all of the products listed on BOS ourselves. So we like to see predominantly positive customer feedback. Secondly, we might stumble upon one or more product benefit or issue we haven’t thought about yet. Reading third-party reviews also involves identifying and ignoring fake ones which can be harder than you might think.
  5. Our own testing – Lastly, and this is the most crucial step, we order and test/use many (not all!) of the products you’ll find on BOS with our own hands, and sometimes create videos about it. You can watch this ever-growing number of videos directly on our website and on our YouTube channel. Hands-on testing allows us to understand how a product truly works and what its unique features and peculiarities are; how easy/difficult it is to install, use, and maintain; we learn about durability and operation costs, water flow rates, aesthetics of the treated water, and more. In many cases, especially when we review any type of water filter, we may even do our own lab testing for contaminant reduction rates using services like Tap Score or relying on laboratories like ETR. Or we might use DIY test kits or a TDS meter among other tools and methods.

Step 3: Writing the Reviews

Doing the writing is the last part of our product review process. Every product is examined from different angles to answer questions like:

  • What are its strengths?
  • What are the weaknesses?
  • What are the most common user complaints?
  • What is a product best used for?
  • What is our final verdict?

Needless to say, fact-checking is a big part here. It is done by our licensed experts. For example, Buddhini Dolapihilla, MBSS verifies NSF certifications, lab reports, contaminant reduction rates, as well as any health-related topics.

Honesty & Transparency Are the Premise

There are individuals blogging about the topics they love, and they don’t want to be compensated for it. That’s very honorable. These people enrich the web with their passion and drive.

For us, just like any other business we have to earn money in order to survive. This is why we usually don’t include products in our review guides from stores not interested in partnering with us, which means that we wouldn’t earn a commission when directing our visitors to their sites.

This does NOT entail, however, that we favor the most expensive products backed by the highest commission rates. We always try to find an ethically justifiable balance between providing the best user experience and value, and making a profit.

So you can be rest assured that we are 100% real with our work and that our reviews represent a selection of the best products currently available on the market. If you click on a link we likely receive commissions from your purchase, but we never receive any compensation or consideration for the content of our recommendations.

Furthermore, regardless of whether you are looking for a water filter, water softener, or any other type of water treatment system, we have reviewed and will continue to review a variety of models from all price segments. Therefore, everyone, no matter how small or large the budget, will find something suitable!

Our Approach to Recommendations

At BOS, we strive to provide personalized recommendations rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead of suggesting a single product/service for everyone, we offer tailored recommendations based on specific situations and needs. This allows our readers to understand the unique features of each recommendation and make an informed choice that best suits them.

Ensuring Up-to-Date Information

To ensure that our content remains accurate and relevant, we update our articles whenever needed, especially reviews. We revisit each review multiple times a year to verify the information provided and make any necessary updates. This way, we avoid sharing outdated or incorrect details with our readers.

Guidelines for Editing and Publishing

When editing and publishing our content, we adhere to certain guidelines. We clearly outline our opinions and support our claims with links to credible sources and relevant studies. We avoid making exaggerated claims and regularly update factual information such as pricing details. Our articles undergo thorough proofreading and spell-checking to minimize errors.

Open to Feedback and Corrections

While we strive for accuracy, we recognize that mistakes can happen. We encourage our readers to provide feedback and bring any discrepancies to our attention. When errors are identified, we try to promptly review, correct, and update the information. Our Contact Us page is the best way to reach out to us regarding that matter.

Keeping BOS Free

We are committed to providing free access to essential information about home water treatment. To sustain our operations and continue offering valuable content, we generate revenue through affiliate commissions. This means that when users make a purchase through the links we provide, we receive a small percentage of the sale. However, this does not increase the cost of the product for the user. We believe that this monetization method allows us to maintain the quality and integrity of our articles while ensuring accessibility for all.

Content Written by Humans, not AI

While AI-generated content is becoming more and more common, BOS firmly believes in the value of human-written content. We have reservations about the quality and depth that AI content tools can provide and, for various reasons, choose only to utilize them for minor tasks that are repetitive and don’t require a human author, such as creation of internal anchor text. Our articles themselves are 100% human-written with genuine intent and based on extensive research and personal experience to make sure they are offering helpful insights.

Put simply, at BOS we recognize the significance of water quality and its impact it can have on our health and safety. That’s why we are dedicated to delivering trustworthy advice and guidance through our authentic human-written content.