THE POINTCAST METHOD
How we review
A desk review is a reading, not a lab. Hands-on work says what was actually used. Neither kind invents a number.
Desk review; no hands-on testing
When a guide says desk review, PointCast has not handled the products. There is no star rating, because a star would imply someone here used the thing. Rankings and “best for” lines come from published tests we name — Wirecutter, a test kitchen, a maker’s own spec sheet — and from a filter we print on the page, such as “does this fit a coastal house without central air.”
The fan guide is a desk review. So are the bags, chef knives, hummingbird feeders, and the other guides that carry the same label. If a later piece is hands-on, it will say what was used, on what date, and what was only read.
Dated prices
Every price is a US list snapshot from the maker’s page on the date printed on the card. It excludes tax, shipping, and installation. The maker’s page is the price that matters today. If we could not re-check a single SKU, the guide says so and does not lock a number. The Westinghouse Comet on the fan page is that kind of note: a named alternative, not a priced card.
Non-affiliate links
Shopping links go straight to the maker. PointCast earns no commission. No maker paid for placement or reviewed the copy before it published. There are no affiliate tags on these links. If a paid link is ever used, it will be labeled beside the link. Commission does not change what we rank. Paddle takes have their own method page at /reviews/paddles/method, including the hour floor and the paid-link rule for that desk.
What we will not invent
We do not publish a decibel, a CFM, a lab score, or a temperature we did not find in a named source. The fan research looked for a public PointCast log of 98°F on October 5, 2026, and did not find one. The Almanac for that date shows 83°F and clear, so that is the number the guide uses. Consumer Reports scores that were not loaded are not guessed.
Product photographs are the makers’ own, credited on the card, and used as editorial reference. If a safe maker image is not available, the card is a spec card. We do not draw a fake product photo and credit it as the maker’s.