Beth Langston, Senior editor

Being senior editor here mostly means deciding what gets into a ranking and what doesn't, and saying no a lot. A listing can promise set-and-forget smoking all it likes. I want to know what the manual says about the temperature range, the hopper and the low-pellet warning, and a claim that only lives in the marketing copy doesn't make it into our verdict.

My week is mostly spec sheets, manuals, warranty pages and owner reviews, read side by side. I go to the low-star reviews first, since that's where a grill's habits show. One owner with a jammed auger is bad luck. Five owners describing the same jam on damp pellets, the same lid leaking smoke or the same paint bubbling in the first season is a pattern, and patterns go into the verdict.

I write our guides on choosing a first pellet grill, on pellet versus gas, and on vertical smokers versus the classic barrel shape. I edit most of the others.

My own bias, since you'll find it in my guides anyway: the badge on the lid matters less than how the grill fits the way you actually cook on a Saturday.