How we review and compare

Most purchases for a balcony are decided on specifications, permissions and access rather than on laboratory performance. This page sets out what Leafumi actually does when it compares products, and what it deliberately does not do.

What we do

1. Collect the manufacturer’s published specification for each product: dimensions, stated capacity, materials, fixings, drainage, weight where published, warranty and care instructions.
2. Read the installation or assembly instructions, because the fitting is often what decides whether a product is usable on a rented balcony.
3. Read the retailer listing for what it adds and what it leaves out — substitute materials, missing dimensions, unclear capacity wording.
4. Compare on the criteria below, and record where a figure is unpublished rather than estimating it.
5. Name the questions a listing cannot answer, such as the load capacity of your specific balcony or the wall type behind the render.

What we do not do

• We do not run laboratory or destructive tests.
• We do not claim long-term hands-on experience unless a page states the method, the duration and the evidence. No page currently makes that claim.
• We do not publish invented test results, synthetic user reviews, or numerical “scores” out of ten.
• We do not scrape or rehost retailer prices, ratings or product photography.
• We do not estimate whether your balcony can carry a given load. That is a structural question about your building.

The criteria we compare on

• Fit and footprint — the space taken up once planted, not just the empty container, including door and path clearance.
• Access — whether you can reach the far side to water, prune and harvest without moving the container.
• Weight and fixing — what the manufacturer states, what the fixing is rated for, and what remains unknown about the structure.
• Drainage and water route — where excess water goes and whether it lands on a neighbour or a wall.
• Exposure — wind, reflected heat and frost, and what the material and fixing instructions say about each.
• Maintenance and repairability — cleaning, replacement parts, whether a failed component can be bought separately.
• Cost transparency — total cost including growing medium, brackets, saucers and replacement parts, not just the headline price.

Ratings and rankings

Leafumi does not publish star ratings, medal tables or numeric scores. A planter that suits a sheltered courtyard is the wrong purchase for a windy sixth floor, so a single number would hide the only thing that matters. Guides describe tradeoffs and state who a product suits.

Prices and availability

Prices are set by the retailer and change without notice. We do not display scraped prices as if they were live. Where a guide mentions cost, it is a relative statement or the manufacturer’s suggested price, and the figure at checkout is the one that applies.

Sources and how to check us

Statements about a product trace back to a manual, a specification page, a warranty document or a standards publication. If a claim in a guide cannot be traced, tell us which sentence and we will either source it or remove it. The route for that is the contact page, and changes are recorded on the corrections page.

Limits you should know about

Desk research cannot tell you how a material ages on your balcony, how a bracket behaves in your wall, or whether a plant will thrive in your particular microclimate. Those answers come from your building, your observations and, where safety is involved, a qualified professional.