Editorial Policy

Mower Mentor writes about the lawn mower as a machine - choosing one, understanding how the different types work, and keeping it running. We cover buying guides and best-of picks, mower types and how they work, brand and model hubs, troubleshooting and repair, maintenance and seasonal care, parts, accessories and attachments, and mowing how-to and lawn technique. We do not cover commercial landscaping operations, lawn-care chemicals and agronomy, riding tractors used purely as utility vehicles, or non-US products and standards.

Our editorial calendar is built from public search demand (which questions US mower owners actually ask), gaps in existing coverage, and our editors' direct experience testing, repairing, and date-stamping mower guides in the shop and on real lawns. The editor-in-chief approves every topic before drafting begins; the category-owning editor writes the draft; a designated fact-checker (usually the testing editor) re-checks each claim against our hands-on testing notes and the manufacturer's own documentation; a senior editor signs off before publication.

• We do not accept payment to publish a favorable write-up of a mower or brand.
• We do not accept payment to change the ranking, scoring, or recommendation of a mower after we've tested it.
• We are not owned by, partnered with, or financially related to any mower manufacturer, brand, or retailer.
• Our revenue comes from (a) display advertising sold on a programmatic basis, (b) affiliate commissions on purchases made through links on our site, and (c) occasional clearly-labeled sponsorships (see Sponsorship Policy below).

Affiliate Disclosure

Mower Mentor earns affiliate commissions when you click a product link on our site and make a purchase. These commissions help fund our operations, but they do not influence which mowers we choose to cover, how we rate or rank a mower, or how prominently a mower appears in our comparisons. Mower selection is determined by editorial relevance and reader demand; rankings are determined by our own hands-on testing and editorial judgment. No affiliate partner receives preferential placement, and we will rank a better mower with no affiliate link above a worse one that carries one.

Sponsorship Policy

From time to time, Mower Mentor publishes sponsored content - articles, videos, or other media funded by a brand partner. Every piece of sponsored content is:

• Clearly labeledwith a “Sponsored” or “Paid Partnership” tag visible before the reader begins consuming the content.
• Editorially controlled - the sponsor may suggest a topic but may not approve, alter, or veto the final copy.
• Separated from our verdicts - sponsored content never takes the form of a mower verdict or appears inside a best-of ranking.

Testing & Sourcing Policy

Every verdict we publish comes from our own hands-on testing in the shop and on real lawns, backed where needed by the manufacturer's own documentation - their spec pages, owner manuals, or service bulletins - never from a sponsor, a press contact, or a forum thread. We never let a brand dictate, edit, or approve how we describe a mower, and no manufacturer is given advance review or exclusivity. Regardless of which mower it covers, every guide goes through the same standardized testing and date-stamping process.

Every editor and contributor is required to disclose personal conflicts of interest to the editor-in-chief. A conflict includes, but is not limited to: a financial interest (stock, consulting fees, sponsorship) in a company whose mowers we cover; a personal or family relationship with an employee of such a company; or any prior or pending employment relationship with a mower manufacturer, brand, or retailer in our coverage area. Disclosed conflicts are evaluated by the editor-in-chief, and the individual is recused from relevant coverage when warranted. If an editor departs Mower Mentor to join a company we cover, all articles they authored are re-reviewed by a remaining senior editor within 90 days.

Every factual claim about a specific mower must trace to either (1) the manufacturer's own documentation (spec page, owner manual, or service bulletin), (2) hands-on testing we performed and date-stamped, or (3) a named authoritative source we explicitly trust (e.g., the CPSC, the EPA, or a published safety or emissions standard). We do not cite forum posts as a source; we may quote a forum post for color, but the underlying claim must be independently verifiable against our testing or the manufacturer's documentation.

Every article carries the byline of a real editor on our team. Where required, every article also carries the name of the reviewer who signed off. We do not publish unattributed articles.

Our Position on AI

We do not use AI to generate article body copy. AI-assisted tooling (grammar checks, transcript clean-up, headline brainstorms) is used by our writers as a working aid only, and the final writing is theirs.

Where AI tooling is used in our research or testing pipeline - for example, monitoring a manufacturer's spec page for changes or structured comparison generation - the underlying data still originates from our hands-on testing in the shop and on real lawns, and every AI-assisted output is reviewed and validated by a human editor before it informs published content. We will update this section as our tooling evolves so readers always know what role AI plays in our workflow.

Articles older than 18 months are flagged for review. Mower guides are re-tested on a regular cadence and re-stamped with a fresh “Last tested” date. Best-of comparisons are refreshed at least once per calendar year. We never silently backdate an updated article - the “Last updated” timestamp is honest.

Mid-Cycle Updates

When a significant event affects a mower between scheduled re-tests - a redesigned engine or deck, a discontinued model, a major recall, or a change to the parts and accessories that fit - we update the relevant article within 14 business days and note the change with a dated inline update tag.

We post every correction publicly to /about/corrections/ and update the article inline with a “Correction (date): [what changed and why]” note. Reader-reported corrections are taken seriously; contact us is monitored by the editor-in-chief.

If a correction materially changes a mower recommendation or a testing verdict, we re-notify readers who engaged with the original article through on-site update banners and, where possible, email alerts.