How ratings & comparisons work

1 · Comparison bars (within a comparison)

On a comparison, each bar is relative to the appliances you selected. For a spec, we take the smallest and largest value across your set and place each appliance between them:

fill% = 10 + 90 × (value − min) / (max − min)

Direction-aware: for capacity, spin speed and warranty higher is better; for energy use, water use, noise and price lower is better, so the bar is mirrored. A 10% floor keeps the weakest value visible. It answers one question: "of these appliances, which is strongest on this spec?"

2 · Winners (the ✓)

The check mark marks the genuinely best published value in that row, the maximum for higher-is-better specs, the minimum for lower-is-better. Neutral specs (colour, installation type) are never crowned. The header tally ("wins 4 / 6") simply counts decided rows.

3 · Energy class (A–G)

The EU energy label's A–G rating is ordinal, not numeric: we score A as 1 and G as 7 and treat lower as better for winner and bar math. Because the A–G scale means something different for each appliance category, we only ever compare energy class within the same category, which our same-category compare rule guarantees.

4 · Class percentile bars (on a product page)

On a single appliance's page the bar shows where it ranks among all appliances of the same category for that spec, for example "80th percentile in category" means it out-specs 80% of washing machines on capacity. Direction-aware, same as above.

5 · Missing values

We only publish specs taken from manufacturer official product and datasheet pages. Where a manufacturer does not publish a value, we show "N/A" rather than guessing or counting it as zero. We never invent a number to make an entry look more complete.

Sources

Specifications are taken from manufacturer official product and datasheet pages; each appliance links to its source. Spotted an error? Appliances carry a verification flag and are continuously refreshed from source pages.

Cite this page

Researchers and shoppers are welcome to cite our data. Please use one of the formats below and link to the specific appliance or comparison page you referenced.

CompareHomeAppliances. (2026). How ratings & comparisons work. https://www.comparehomeappliances.com/methodology/

@misc{cha2026methodology,
  author  = {CompareHomeAppliances},
  title   = {How ratings & comparisons work},
  year    = {2026},
  url     = {https://www.comparehomeappliances.com/methodology/},
  note    = {Accessed: \today}
}