How We Test

Every rating we publish comes from gear we have physically handled — not from spec sheets, press releases or other people's reviews. This page explains exactly how that happens: who tests, what gets measured, how scores are built, and where the numbers in each review come from.

The Equipment Guide is run by a group of outdoor enthusiasts. We buy, borrow or view every product in person ourselves, and we do not accept free products from manufacturers. What follows is the full process behind our Australian reviews and rankings. If something here is unclear, or you think we have got a test wrong, we would rather hear about it — please get in touch with us.

The short version:

We shortlist the products actually available to Australian buyers, acquire them at our own cost, inspect and measure each one on the bench, then put them through repeated field use across a rotating panel of testers of different sizes and experience levels. Every tester fills out the same structured testing matrix. Those matrices are amalgamated into category scores out of 10, weighted by category, normalized, and converted into the out-of-100 rating you see on each review.

Our testing principles

Five rules govern every review we publish. They are the reason our rankings sometimes disagree with the rest of the internet.

1. Nothing is rated unless we have physically touched it. No product enters a ranking on paper specs alone. If we could not get hands on it, it does not get a score.

2. We pay our own way. We buy (either new or second-hand), borrow or view all products in person ourselves. We do not accept free products from manufacturers.

3. One product, many testers. A single reviewer's experience is one data point. We test across a rotating panel spanning beginner to expert, and across a range of heights and body weights, because a kayak that is stable under a 60 kg (132 lb) paddler does not necessarily behave the same under a 100 kg (220 lb) one, or a tent that's comfortable for a 165cm tall hiker may not fit a 195cm hiker.

4. The same test, every time. Wherever conditions allow we repeat identical protocols — same distance, same paddle, same pitch site, same load — and we record the environmental variables that we cannot control.

5. Australian conditions, Australian availability. We test what you can actually buy here, in the conditions you will actually use it in.

How products are selected for testing

Before any testing begins, we build the field.

• Market research. We survey what is genuinely available to Australian buyers — including local distributors, imports where they are common, and models that are widely stocked but rarely reviewed.

• Price band coverage. We deliberately include entry-level, mid-range and premium options rather than stacking a ranking with flagship models. We know readers are shopping at all different levels of the market.

• Exclusion. We drop products that cannot be reliably purchased in Australia, that have been discontinued without replacement, or that we cannot acquire without accepting them free from the manufacturer. Note that while we try to be as comprehensive as possible, we're a small team of enthusiasts, not full-timers - it's impossible for us to get to every single product in the market. If you think there's a key product we've omitted, get in touch with us.

• Acquisition. Products are bought outright (either new or second hand), borrowed from a retailer or owner, or — where neither is possible — inspected in person. Where a product has been bought second-hand, we ask the previous owner about the usage, maintenance and storage history and take that into account.

Who does the testing

Testing is carried out by the Equipment Guide Testing Team: a rotating panel made up of our own authors and on-camera presenters, together with their family members and friends. Experience within the panel deliberately ranges from complete beginner to lifelong expert, because most of the gear we review is bought by people at every point on that spectrum.

Every participant who tests a product completes the same testing matrix for it. The published review is an amalgamation of those matrices, not the opinion of a single author.

Meet the Equipment Guide Testing Team → — including the experience level, height and weight profile of each tester currently on the Australian testing panel.

The testing matrix

The testing matrix is the instrument that holds our reviews together. It is a structured form, specific to each product category, that every tester completes independently after using a product.

Each matrix captures:

• Objective measurements — recorded weights, dimensions, packed sizes, timed setup and pack-down, timed distance runs where relevant. These should agree between testers; where they do not, we re-measure.

• Scored judgments — a 0–10 rating against each defined criterion within the category's scoring model, with the criterion definitions printed on the form so that everyone is scoring the same thing.

• Conditions of use — dates, location type, weather, water state, temperature, load carried, and how many sessions or nights the tester logged.

• Tester context — the tester's identifier code, which tells us their experience band, height and weight, so that a score can be read against who produced it.

• Free-text observation — failures, annoyances, surprises and anything the form did not anticipate. This is where most of the detail in our reviews comes from.

When matrices are amalgamated, objective measurements are reconciled to a single verified figure, scored judgments are averaged across all testers who used that product, and free-text observations are read in full by the author writing the review. Where testers disagree sharply on a criterion, that disagreement is treated as a finding in itself and is usually reported in the review — a tent that experienced campers love and beginners struggle to pitch is a meaningfully different product from one everybody finds easy.

The five-stage testing process

Every category follows the same five-stage framework. What changes between categories is the specific protocol inside each stage.

Stage 1 — Pre-test inspection and measurement

Before a product goes outdoors, we unpack and inspect it.

• Unboxing and content check. We confirm every part the manufacturer advertises is actually in the box — valves, repair kits, pumps, footrests, seats, poles, pegs, guy lines, stuff sacks, footprints.

• Material and construction inspection. We inspect seams, welds and stitching, fabric layering and denier, seam sealing consistency, valve quality, pole material, hardware, attachment points, D-rings, handles and fins. We are specifically looking for the weak points: loose threads, incomplete taping, brittle plastic hardware.

• Verified measurement. Using scales and measuring tapes we record our own figures rather than repeating the manufacturer's. 

• First-use baseline. A timed first setup, straight out of the box, following only the supplied instructions — because the first pitch or first inflation is the one most buyers find hardest. Where there's a significant time difference between first setup and subsequent setups, we document this.

Stage 2 — Field performance testing

Products are then used repeatedly, outdoors, in the conditions they were designed for: lakes, rivers and coastal or tidal water for paddlecraft; overnight hikes, multi-day treks and family campgrounds for shelter and sleep systems; beaches and car camping for furniture.

Where a test can be standardized, it is. Repeated pitch sites, fixed distance runs and identical load weights let us compare products against each other more accurately. Where a test cannot be standardized — rain, wind, chop — we log the conditions and weight the finding accordingly.

Stage 3 — Durability and wear testing

A product that performs well once is not the same as a product that lasts. We run accelerated wear checks and stress tests designed to surface failures that would otherwise take a season or two to appear: repeated cycling of moving parts, deliberate abrasion, UV and weather exposure, tension applied to attachment points, and controlled damage and repair tests.

Stage 4 — Practicality and everyday usability

This stage covers everything that determines whether a product gets used or left in the garage: how long it takes to deploy when you are tired and it is dark, whether one person can manage it alone, how it repacks, how it carries. Whether the zips, vents, valves and adjusters can be operated with cold hands, and whether it fits in the car with everything else.

Stage 5 — Scoring, weighting and final ranking

Only once all matrices are in does scoring happen. That process is set out in full below.

Category-specific test protocols

Inflatable and foldable kayaks

Bench

• Inflation and leak test — inflated to recommended PSI, then monitored over 24 hours (or across several inflation/deflation cycles) for pressure drop. Suspect seams are submerged or soap-solution bubble tested.

• Weight and geometry — inflated weight without gear; manufacturer load capacity; fully inflated dimensions including length, width and chamber shapes; packed and folded dimensions; floor thickness for single and double drop-stitch construction.

On water

• Straight-line speed — a fixed 100 m run in calm water, same paddler, same paddle, no gear, timed.

• Tracking — deviation from a straight line over a fixed distance, and how much side-to-side yaw appears in mild current or crosswind.

• Maneuverability and turning — pivots and S-curves in a controlled zone, measuring how readily the hull changes direction and how many paddle strokes are required to turn 180 degrees.

• Initial and secondary stability — slow lean to each side to find the point where the hull feels unsteady, then comfort assessment in moderate chop and boat wake. We also see if standing is possible if we're confident to do so.

• Load and trim — speed and handling tests repeated at roughly 50% and 80% of stated capacity, to see whether performance degrades under load.

• Wave and chop tolerance — where conditions allow, paddling across moderate chop or small swell to assess tracking, spray entry and hull forgiveness.

• Comfort over distance — a two-hour paddle assessing cockpit ergonomics, seat and backrest, legroom, footrests, chafe points and fatigue.

• Setup and pack-down — timed inflation to working pressure, rigging of seats and accessories, then deflation, drying, folding and repacking. We also note how intuitive or fiddly each step is: mismatched valves, awkward folds, water retention in chambers.

• Portability — car-to-launch carry with and without additional gear, bag comfort, strap layout, weight balance and handling of awkward loads.

Durability

• Abrasion and scuff — the inflated hull dragged over rock, sand and rough launch surfaces in a controlled trial, then inspected for abrasion and seam stress.

• Valve cycling and flex — dozens to hundreds of inflation and deflation cycles checking for valve fatigue, slow leaks and cracking.

• UV and weather exposure — the hull or a section of it exposed to UV, salt mist and drying/rewetting cycles to see how coatings, adhesives and fabrics respond.

• Attachment point stress — tension applied to handles, D-rings and bungee tie-downs, checking for delamination, seam separation and deformation.

• Puncture and repair — we will occasionally deliberately puncture products to see inside them or see if a repair process will be effective, or where a product has been damaged during testing will paddle it with its issue to see how it responds.

Tents and shelters

Bench

• Component check — fly, inner, poles, pegs, guy lines, stuff sacks, repair kit and footprint where included.

• Construction assessment — fabric denier, seam sealing consistency, pole material and section count, attachment systems, and the quality of clips, zips, and sliders.

• Weight and packed size — our own measured figures.

• First-time pitch — timed, using only the supplied instructions, noting pole architecture, instruction clarity and whether one person can pitch it unassisted.

Field

• Wind resistance and stability — shape retention in breeze and gusts, monitoring fabric flutter, pole flex and anchor reliability.

• Rain and weatherproofing — performance in actual rainfall or, where that's not possible, under hose: fly performance, seam leakage, floor seepage.

• Ventilation and condensation — nights slept in humid and cold conditions to assess airflow, vent placement and overnight condensation.

• Internal space and liveability — usable floor area, headroom, vestibule storage, and whether occupants can sit up and change clothes over a multi-night trip.

• Use in real conditions — operating zips in darkness, adjusting vents from inside, and re-entering with wet gear/dirty shoes etc.

Durability and practicality

• Most of our testing in this area simply comes from repeated use in the field and owning tents over a period of years, however there are a few specifics we look at:

• Pitch and pack repetition — repeated setup cycles monitoring pole fatigue, peg deformation and fabric wear at stress points.

• Abrasion and ground contact — pitching on grass and compacted dirt with small sticks and rocks, monitoring floor abrasion and coating wear.

• UV and weather exposure — flies left pitched in sunlight, monitoring fading, hydrostatic head degradation and delamination.

• Hardware stress — repeated cycling of zips, guy point tensioning, toggles, line locks, pole clips and hook-and-loop attachments.

• Setup speed and solo pitching — timed in good conditions and again when tired, wet or windy.

• Packability and modularity — how easily it repacks, whether components can be split between packs (for hiking tents), and alternate pitch modes such as fly-only fast pitch or inner-only bug shelter.

Sleep systems, camp furniture and accessories

Lower-complexity categories follow the same five-stage framework with proportionate protocols. In practice this means verified weight and packed size, a bench inspection of fabrics, frames, welds and hardware, repeated real-world use across the tester panel, load and stress testing to the manufacturer's stated limits, and a cycling test of any moving part — hinge, zip, buckle, valve or lock. Where a product category has a defined performance claim we test the claim directly: comfort ratings against overnight low temperatures for sleeping bags, stated load limits for chairs and tables, packed dimensions against the carry system they are meant to fit.

How scoring works

Each product is scored out of 10 in a set of core categories. The categories, and how much each is worth, change by product type — a kayak is judged on things a tent is not.

Example scoring categories and weightings

Specific scoring categories are set out on each review page. Portability scores are adjusted for material quality, so that a product which is extremely light because it is poorly made is not unfairly elevated over a slightly heavier product that will survive the season.

From category scores to the out-of-100 rating

The overall rating on each review is built in four steps:

1. Amalgamate. Every tester's matrix score for a criterion is averaged to produce the product's criterion score out of 10.

2. Weight and normalize. Each criterion score is multiplied by its category weighting and normalized so that categories remain comparable across products in the same ranking.

3. Apply the selection bonus. A base of 50 points is applied to every product that makes it into a ranking. Reaching one of our shortlists already means the product survived market research, acquisition and testing — that baseline is what the bonus represents, and it is why our lowest published scores are not near zero.

4. Adjust for outliers. Weighted scores are then summed and adjusted for models that significantly over- or under-perform in a single dimension, so that no product wins on one exceptional strength alone.

The result is the out-of-100 Overall Rating shown on every review. Scores are comparable within a ranking and within a category. They are not intended to be compared across categories — an 88 for a sleeping bag and an 88 for a camp table are not measuring the same thing.

Consistency controls

Comparative testing is only meaningful if the comparison is fair. We control for this in four ways:

• Matched testers. Where a test is sensitive to body size — paddling speed, sleeping bag fit, chair load — the same tester, or testers of comparable height and weight, run the equivalent test on every product in the ranking.

• Matched equipment. Same paddle, same pegs, same load weights - wherever it is possible to hold them constant.

• Repeated conditions. Protocols are re-run across multiple sessions rather than resting on a single outing, and comparative runs are grouped as closely in time as conditions allow.

• Recorded variables. Wind, water state, temperature and ground conditions are logged on every matrix, so a strong or weak result can be read against the conditions on the day it was produced.

What we don't do

• We don't accept free products from manufacturers.

• We don't rank products we have not handled.

• We don't sell placement in a ranking, and no commercial relationship changes a score or a position.

• We don't publish claims we did not verify.

Updates and re-testing

Rankings are reviewed on a rolling basis. A product is re-tested or re-scored when the manufacturer revises the model, when long-term use surfaces a durability issue that short-term testing missed, when a new competitor changes the shape of the field, or when Australian availability changes. Where a ranking changes materially we note what changed and why. We also revise our rankings by doing a full survey of the market at the start of each year - this allows us to catch any products that have been discontinued or introduced that we may have missed throughout the year. 

Corrections and feedback

If you believe we have made a factual error, mis-measured something, or tested a product in a way that does not reflect how it is actually used, tell us. Get in touch here.

Frequently asked questions

Who tests gear for The Equipment Guide?

A rotating panel made up of The Equipment Guide's own authors and on-camera presenters, together with their family members and friends. Experience within the panel ranges from complete beginner to lifelong expert, and testers span a wide range of heights and body weights. Every participant completes the same structured testing matrix, and reviews amalgamate all of those matrices rather than reflecting a single reviewer's opinion. Full profiles are published on our Testing Team page.

Does The Equipment Guide accept free products from manufacturers?

No. We buy, borrow or view all products in person ourselves. We do not accept free products from manufacturers, and we do not sell placement in a ranking.

How long is each product tested for?

It varies by category and by product. Field testing runs across multiple sessions or nights rather than a single outing, and durability testing — valve cycling, pitch repetition, UV exposure, abrasion — extends well beyond the initial review period. Rankings are revisited on a rolling basis as long-term use surfaces new findings.

How is the out-of-100 Overall Rating calculated?

Each product is scored out of 10 in a set of weighted category criteria specific to its product type. Those scores are averaged across all testers, multiplied by their category weightings and normalized. A base selection bonus of 50 points is applied to every product that makes a ranking, and the total is then adjusted for models that significantly over- or under-perform in a single dimension.

Are the tests conducted in a laboratory?

No. Bench measurements happen before and alongside field testing, but every rating is grounded in real outdoor use — lakes, rivers and coastal water for paddlecraft; overnight hikes, multi-day treks, and campgrounds for shelter, sleep systems and camp furniture.

Can scores be compared between product categories?

No. Scores are comparable within a ranking and within a category, but the criteria and weightings differ by product type. An 88 for a hiking tent and an 88 for an inflatable kayak are not measuring the same thing.

Do affiliate links affect the rankings?

No. The Equipment Guide is reader-supported and some links are affiliate links, but no commercial relationship influences testing, scoring or ranking position.

Commercial disclosure

The Equipment Guide is reader-supported. Some links on our reviews are affiliate links, and we may have relationships with certain retailers including but not limited to commissions, advertising, personal or other commercial agreements. None of these relationships influence our testing, our scores or our rankings, and we do not accept free products from manufacturers. Testing procedures vary somewhat by product category, and our reviews represent our testers' assessments — your own experience may differ depending on how and where you use a product.

Last updated: 11/09/26