How We Test Gear

Every grill, smoker, and thermometer we recommend goes through the same testing rubric. Here's how that works — and the firewall we keep between our reviews and our affiliate revenue.

Table of Contents

The four-part rubric

Every piece of gear we publish a recommendation on goes through the same four scoring dimensions. The category-specific criteria vary (a thermometer is judged on accuracy + connection reliability; an offset smoker is judged on temp hold + bark quality) — but the framework is constant.

1. Hands-on cook-quality testing

We buy every grill, smoker, thermometer, and tool we recommend — at our own cost, from the same retailers a reader would use. We do not accept manufacturer review units. We do not accept pre-launch sample units. We do not accept brand-paid travel or paid "reviewer programs."

Each unit gets a minimum of three controlled cooks before any judgment is written. For pellet smokers and offsets that's typically a 12-hour brisket, a 6-hour pork shoulder, and a fast 90-minute pork-rib cook. For grills, it's a set of steaks, chicken thighs, and a low-and-slow indirect cook to test temperature spread. For thermometers, it's a calibration test in boiling water plus a side-by-side temp probe against a Thermapen reference across the full 32°F-to-700°F range.

2. Real-world-life testing

One controlled cook tells you nothing. We run every piece of gear for at least 90 days — ideally six months — in actual backyard conditions before publishing a recommendation. That means cooking in 38°F winter starts, 95°F summer afternoons, light rain, neighborhood power flickers, and pellet-jam emergencies at 2am.

The reason: marketing decks lie. Glossy product photos lie. Spec sheets lie. The only thing that doesn't lie is what happens when you cook on a smoker through Thanksgiving Day with a house full of guests waiting on a brisket that's stalling. The recommendations we publish are what we'd hand to a friend after a year of real cooking, not what looks good on a checklist.

3. Blind comparison cooks

For any roundup where we rank multiple units against each other, we run blind comparison cooks. Identical meat, identical rub, identical wood — cooked simultaneously on each unit. A panel of three to five pitmasters scores the finished plates without knowing which rig produced which. Scoring covers bark quality, smoke ring, moisture, and flavor depth.

The reason: when you know which smoker cooked which brisket, your brain finishes the story for you. Blind scoring is the only way to surface the cases where the "better" smoker on paper actually produces worse food in practice.

4. Build-quality teardowns

For grills and smokers, we take the unit apart. Cook chamber seams get inspected. Welds get looked at. Steel gauges get measured (not just trusted from the spec sheet). Gasket integrity gets tested with a smoke pencil. Augers come out and get inspected for build-quality.

The reason: cooks at year one don't tell you whether a smoker will be standing at year five. The teardown is how we project longevity beyond what one season can prove.

Our affiliate firewall

American Meathead earns affiliate commissions when readers buy through our links. We participate in the Amazon Associates program and direct relationships with Camp Chef, Workhorse Pits, ThermoWorks, Lone Star Grillz, and several other manufacturers whose gear we've tested and recommend.

Here are the rules we operate under:

Affiliate payouts don't move the rankings. If a vendor cuts their commission, the rank stays. If a vendor raises their commission, the rank doesn't change. The ranking is the ranking.
We disclose every affiliate link. Every "See price →" button on this site is marked rel="sponsored" and disclosed in the affiliate-disclosure footer on every page.
No paid placements ever. We do not accept "sponsored content," brand-paid reviews, or paid editorial placement. If a brand asks, we send them this page.
Manufacturer relationships are public. If we have a direct relationship with a brand (e.g. Camp Chef sent us a Sidekick attachment for testing AFTER our 1957 review was published), we disclose it in the review.
We'll downrank gear that fails us. The Traeger Pro 575 was a Traeger we returned after six cooks. The Royal Gourmet kettle is a grill we recommend against in our beginner buying guide. These calls don't make us friends with brand managers. They make us trusted by readers.

Who tests the gear

Jim Daniels (editor in chief, 30+ years on the pit) leads every gear evaluation. The blind-taste panel rotates through a group of five regular contributors: three competition-circuit pitmasters, one professional chef who cooks both BBQ and other cuisines, and one weekend-only home cook who represents the persona most of our readers fit.

Read more about Jim and the broader American Meathead editorial team on our About page.

What you can do if you disagree

Email us at editors@americanmeathead.com with the gear in question and your reasoning. We respond to every email and we publish corrections when readers catch us out.