About · Founded 2022

We test the stuff
so you don't have to.

Clean Living Lab started because the internet was full of "top 10 water filters" lists that hadn't actually touched a filter. We thought readers deserved better — so we built the publication we wished existed.

The founder's note

I got tired of not trusting the answer.

In 2021 my partner was pregnant and we got our first water report. The document was 18 pages of acronyms — PFAS, TTHM, HAA5, PFOA. I spent the next two weeks trying to figure out what filter to buy and couldn't find a single review that wasn't either a paid placement or a thinly rewritten product description.

So I bought seven filters. Tested them. Sent samples to a lab. Wrote up what I found and shared it with a few friends who were in the same boat. Clean Living Lab grew out of those notes.

"If a review won't tell you what's wrong with a product, it's not a review. It's a brochure."

Four years in, our only promise to readers is the one we started with: we test things. We tell you what we found. We tell you when we got it wrong. And we publish every affiliate relationship we have on our disclosure page — because the last thing this space needs is another publication hiding how it makes money.

— N. Harrison, Founding Editor

Our values

Five things we won't compromise on.

These aren't marketing copy. They're the rules we wrote down when we started — and they're the rules every new contributor gets a copy of on day one.

VALUE 01

Test first, rank second.

No product enters a ranking until a human has used it. No "according to Amazon reviews." No copy-pasted spec sheets. If we haven't tested it, we don't rank it.

VALUE 02

Disclose everything.

Every affiliate link is tagged. Every gifted unit is labeled. Every sponsored post — if we ever publish one — will be unmistakably marked. There is no version of this site that hides how we make money.

VALUE 03

Tell the cons.

If a product we recommend has weaknesses, we say so. If it's noisy, finicky, expensive to maintain, or has bad support — we say so. A recommendation without caveats isn't useful.

VALUE 04

Price matters.

"The best" isn't always the most expensive. Every ranking includes at least one budget option that genuinely works. We'll never tell you to buy a $900 appliance when a $230 one solves the problem.

VALUE 05

Correct in public.

When we get something wrong, we fix the page, note the correction at the bottom, and email affected readers. Quiet edits erode trust — we don't do them.

The team

Who writes, tests, and edits.

N. Harrison — Founding Editor. Former environmental consultant. Runs water testing and overall editorial direction. Still buys most of the filters himself.

Dr. L. Chen — Science Editor. PhD in environmental chemistry. Reviews every claim that touches contaminants, ppb figures, or lab data. Has personally vetoed four rankings for unsubstantiated removal claims.

M. Okafor — Air Quality Lead. IAQ consultant (CIAQP certified). Runs the purifier and HVAC reviews. Owns too many particulate counters.

J. Reyes — Home & Kitchen. Former food safety auditor. Covers cookware, cleaning supplies, and kitchen swaps. The reason every recommended pan in this site has been through 90 days of actual cooking.

Contributors. We work with named, relevant experts — pediatric MDs for baby-safe product reviews, registered dietitians for supplement coverage, certified plumbers for install-heavy filter reviews. Every guest byline is tagged at the top of the article.

We test the stuffso you don't have to.