The short version
Most product recommendations online are a rewritten product page with a commission link on the end. Here is what we do instead, and where the limits of it are.
Every product says what I actually did with it
Tested means I used it and measured something, and the page says what I measured and how.
Used means I have used it, without measuring anything.
Researched means I read the specifications, the evidence and the warranty, and I have not used it. Some products on this site say that, and they will keep saying it until that changes.
Not recommended means I looked at it and would not buy it, and the page says why.
Nothing on this site is currently Tested. I do not own the equipment to measure a panel’s output or check a manufacturer’s figures, so everything here is Used or Researched. I would rather tell you that than stretch the word. If it changes, this page changes with it.
I write the criteria down before I look at products
For a red light panel the things that matter are wavelength, how much light actually reaches you at a real distance, how big an area it covers, how long a session takes, and whether the manufacturer will show you a measurement from somebody other than themselves. That list goes on the page before any product does, so you can disagree with the list rather than just with the pick. The red light guide sets out that list in full.
Every product says who should skip it
If I cannot tell you who should not buy something, I have not thought about it hard enough to recommend it.
Specifications, not adjectives
Brightness with no distance attached is not a number. Wavelength with no tolerance is not a number. If a manufacturer will not publish the figures, that goes on the page too.
Regulatory status, stated properly
There are three statuses and they are not interchangeable.
Cleared means a specific device went through FDA review for a specific stated use.
General wellness is a category FDA has addressed in guidance stating that CDRH does not intend to examine low risk general wellness products to determine whether they are devices, or whether they comply with premarket and post-market device requirements. That is a statement about FDA’s attention, not a judgement that a device is safe or that it works.
Approved is for drugs and a small number of high-risk devices, and it generally does not apply to a consumer wellness product at all.
Regulatory status is recorded per product, from product-specific evidence, and is one of: cleared under a named 510(k) for a stated indication, marketed as a general wellness product, or not established. Where we have not established it, the card says “not established” rather than guessing. We do not write “FDA approved” about a consumer wellness device.
Warranty and whether the company will still be there
Wellness hardware companies come and go. Every card records the warranty and the returns window.
Money
Some of these links pay us. It says so next to the link, and our financial disclosure lists every relationship we have. It does not change the criteria, the limitations, or the “who should skip it”, and the criteria are published so you can check.
What this cannot tell you
I am a dentist. My clinical work is jaw joints, facial pain, and breathing during sleep. Where a product sits outside that, the page says so and says what I am not in a position to judge. Supplements are the clearest case: I can tell you what is in a bottle and what the label claims, and I am not the right person to tell you what it will do in your body.
How we grade the evidence behind any of this is set out in our editorial standards, and when we get something wrong it goes on the corrections page.