Index

Why I have not bought yet

Fifteen months of saving. Close to two years of reading. Still no smoker in the yard.

I could have bought a grill in the first week. I had the money. That was the problem.

Fifteen months ago I started putting money aside for a grill. The fund is still not full. In that time I have read more owner threads than I can count, opened 47 tabs I never closed, and almost spent $800 on a grill that does not hold temperature on a windy day.

The almost is the part nobody writes about. Review sites are written by people who already bought, so they describe the outcome, not the fear of getting it wrong. I am on the other side of that line, and it is the more useful side to write from.

These pages are the record of it: the lies I found, the purchase I nearly made, the system I built to stop myself from making it. If you are in the same place right now, read this part first. The lists can wait until you know what you are looking at.

01
The grill industry lies about 7 things
The claims I caught, one by one, and what each one is hiding.
02
I almost bought the wrong grill
Three weeks of research, and I still walked straight into it.
03
47 tabs later
What survived two years of reading: the brands, the myths and the numbers that matter.
04
I am saving up. Here is what is winning.
Where the spreadsheet stands right now. Nothing is locked.
05
The hidden costs of owning a pellet smoker
The grill is the cheap part. What the first year actually costs.
06
My research system
Five rules that change a purchase, written by someone who has not bought yet.

When the fund is full and the smoker is in the yard, this page gets its last entry. Not before.