How we verify — and why we don't call it "testing" yet
We haven't run the FetchMate launcher through an instrumented test bench, so we won't tell you we have. Here is what we actually do instead — and the claims we've refused to publish because of it.
Step 1 — the manufacturer's manual, line by line
The single most reliable document for this machine is the manufacturer's manual, and we treat it as the source of truth. Before writing a word of this site, we went through it section by section and checked every figure the marketing materials claim. The launch distances of 6 m, 10 m and 14 m come from the manual. So do the ~6-hour charge time, the 5–6 hours of play per charge, the 30-minute automatic standby, the roughly 4-second launch cycle, and the 58 mm ETPU balls. Where a marketing infographic and the manual disagree, the manual wins.
That last rule has teeth. One supplier infographic shows a "random mode" with all three distance LEDs lit — but the manual never mentions it. So we don't claim it. If we confirm it on a production unit, we'll add it then, not before.
Step 2 — buyer feedback on the supplier's listing
The launcher has been sold for months through the manufacturer's own listing, and those buyers have left detailed feedback. We read it — all of it — not to copy it, but to learn what the machine is like to live with. That's how we know a full charge covers a long play session, that the shortest setting works indoors, and that some puppies find the launch startling at first and need a gradual introduction. Those observations shaped our guides and our reviews page, where they are clearly attributed to the manufacturer's listing — never dressed up as reviews from our own customers, because we don't have any yet.
Step 3 — rival spec sheets, compared like for like
We compared the FetchMate launcher's documented specifications against the published spec sheets of the alternatives a UK buyer would realistically consider — PetSafe, iFetch and the interchangeable Amazon clones. Not by testing them side by side, which we haven't done, but by putting their own published numbers in one table: distances, ball sizes, power sources, prices on the day of writing. You'll find that comparison on our best dog ball launcher UK page, and the small-dog angle on our ball launcher for small dogs page.
Our rule: unverified = unpublished
This is the part that costs us sales, and the part we're proudest of. If a claim cannot be traced to the manual or the supplier's documentation, it comes off the site. Real examples:
- Product weight. A weight figure circulates on listings for similar machines, but it appears nowhere in the documents we hold. We removed it. It will return when we've weighed a production unit ourselves.
- Certification badges. CE, RoHS and UKCA marks are commonly slapped onto product pages in this category. We could not verify them against our unit, so we do not display them.
- Battery capacity in mAh. Unsourced. We publish what the manual states instead: ~6 hours to charge, 5–6 hours of play.
- Noise level in decibels. We have no measurement, so no number. Qualitatively: you'll hear the launch spring — it's not silent.
The same honesty applies to limits the marketing would rather skip: the launcher does not run while charging, and the manufacturer describes the balls as chew-resistant but "not completely unbreakable". Both facts are on this site because you should know them before buying.
What we don't have yet — and what's planned
We do not yet run an instrumented test bench, a decibel meter rig, or a standardised garden-distance course. That work is planned: once production units are in hand, we intend to measure real-world launch distances against the manual's figures, time the charge cycle, and count launches per charge with an actual dog doing the fetching. When that happens, this page will be renamed from "how we verify" to "how we test" — and not a day sooner.
Until then, what you read here is verified documentation, honestly labelled. We believe that beats a fictional laboratory every time. More about who we are on our about page — and if you spot a claim we've missed, email us and we'll check it against the sources within a working day.
FetchMate Automatic Ball Launcher
Yellow launcher + 3 mini ETPU balls (58 mm) + USB charging cable, in one box.
