BestSmokerGrill.com is part of the What Are Best review network — a collection of sites dedicated to honest, detailed product reviews across categories where we have real-world experience.
Who We Are
We're a small team of BBQ enthusiasts who've been smoking meat for a combined 30+ years. We've run offset smokers at dawn for competition briskets, hauled pellet grills to tailgates, and made enough pork shoulder to feed small armies. We've made every mistake in the book — overshot temperatures, lost battles with the stall, forgotten the rest and paid for it in dry brisket.
We've also tested enough equipment to know the difference between marketing hype and genuine performance. The brands that get recommended here earn it through actual cooking results, not sponsorship deals.
How We Review
We cook on the products we recommend. Multiple cooks per unit, across different conditions — mild weather, cold mornings, windy afternoons. We measure temperature accuracy with calibrated instruments, not guesswork. We evaluate build quality by handling the grills in person, not by reading spec sheets.
Our rankings are based on:
- Temperature accuracy: How well does it hold target temp? We measure with independent instruments.
- Build quality: Steel gauge, welds, seals, moving parts. Does it feel like it will last?
- Smoke flavor: Blind tastings where we can manage them. Honest assessments where we can't.
- Value: Price vs. performance. More expensive isn't always better.
- Real-world usability: How annoying is it to clean? Does the app work? Is the controller intuitive?
No Paid Placements
We don't take free products from manufacturers. We buy what we test at retail price, or we don't review it. Brands can't pay to be included in our rankings, and negative reviews don't get unpublished because they're inconvenient. The only consideration that affects our recommendations is whether something actually cooks well and lasts.
Affiliate Links
Most links on this site are Amazon affiliate links. When you click one and buy something, we earn a small commission — typically 2-5% of the sale price. This doesn't change what we recommend. If a product is bad, we say it's bad regardless of commission. We've recommended products that pay us nothing because they were the right call, and we've left products off lists that would have paid well because they didn't deserve to be there.
Every product card on this site was either purchased by us or represents a genuine recommendation based on our testing. We're not interested in building a site that ranks well but misleads people into buying the wrong equipment.
Contact Us
Have a question, disagreement, or suggestion? We read every email. Reach us at:
info@brazenauto.com
We don't do product sourcing, custom recommendations, or "which model should I buy for my specific situation" emails — we don't have the capacity and trying to answer those questions via email doesn't serve anyone well. The guides on this site cover the decisions most buyers are facing.
If you found a factual error in a review, we want to know. We'll update and correct when we're wrong.
Part of the What Are Best Network
BestSmokerGrill.com is operated by What Are Best, a review network covering automotive, home, outdoor, sports, and tools. The network approach lets us share infrastructure and focus our energy on actually testing products rather than managing separate businesses. The editorial standards are the same across all network sites: buy the products, test them honestly, recommend what works.