Methodology

How we source appliance data

Which sources we use, how a fact gets from a manufacturer's document onto a page, what the status labels mean, what we never publish, and how to put a mistake right.

The rule

A fact appears on Applidex only when it was read from a manufacturer's own product page or document, and the page names that source. We do not add facts from retailers, forums, review sites or our own knowledge. Where the manufacturer is silent, the page is silent too.

Sources

What we read

  • Manufacturers' UK product pages, including their structured product data
  • User manuals, installation instructions, quick start guides and repair hints published by the manufacturer
  • Manufacturers' support pages on error codes and faults
  • Public regulatory registers, such as the EU energy label database, where available

What we never use

  • Retailer listings and marketplace descriptions
  • Forum posts, question-and-answer sites and social media
  • Repair blogs and third-party guides
  • Text generated by software rather than published by the manufacturer

Collection respects each manufacturer's published rules on automated access and rate limits, and runs only against sources that have been reviewed and approved. The register of sources, with the terms that apply to each, is kept with the collection system.

From document to page

  1. Discover. The manufacturer's site maps and support indexes tell us which product and support pages exist.
  2. Collect. Each page or PDF is fetched once and kept as evidence, with its address, date and checksum.
  3. Extract. Software reads facts out of the page or document: a specification with its unit, a model number, an error code and its explanation. Each fact records where on the page or which page of the PDF it came from and a confidence score for how clean the extraction was.
  4. Check. Facts are validated against plausible ranges, duplicates are flagged and anything that conflicts between two sources is held for a person to review.
  5. Publish. Only facts that passed are published here, each carrying its source and a status label.

What the status labels mean

  • Manufacturer-published Read directly from the manufacturer's page or document and not yet reviewed by a person. This is most of the index.
  • Verified A reviewer confirmed the fact against the source, or two manufacturer sources agree.
  • Awaiting review Extracted from a manufacturer document but flagged for a check, for example because the extraction confidence was low. Shown so you can judge for yourself; treat with care.

Facts that conflict between sources, or that failed validation, are not shown at all. A model, code or problem page is listed in search engines only once it carries enough substance to be useful; thinner pages stay reachable from the site but are not submitted for indexing.

Error codes

Error codes are kept exactly as the manufacturer displays them, with a separate normalised form for matching, because "E:18", "E18" and "E 18" are the same code on the same machine and may be different codes on another brand. The meaning of a code is recorded per brand and appliance type, and the models it applies to are recorded at the narrowest level the source supports: this model, this range, this appliance type or the brand generally. We never assume a code means the same thing across brands or across appliance types.

Documents and images

Manufacturers hold the copyright on their manuals and product photographs. We record the title, type, language, page count and official address of each document and link to it; we do not host copies or reproduce photographs. If a manufacturer asks us to remove a link or a fact, we will.

Corrections

If a fact is wrong, report it with the page and, if you can, where the right answer comes from. We acknowledge reports within seven days, change the page when the facts are confirmed, and update its "last updated" date so the change is visible.

Last updated 2 November 2026.