An independent grill and smoker test pit, run from real backyards.
Every grill cooks real briskets, ribs and steaks — we score temp stability and sear, not spec sheets.
No manufacturer pays for placement or a higher score. Rankings are ours alone.
Grid thermometers log the hot spots and swings a factory number never mentions.
GrillHearth was built by people who would rather spend a Saturday babysitting a fire than doing almost anything else. We're a small team of backyard pitmasters, competition-circuit tinkerers, and one recovering charcoal snob, and our job is simple: we buy, assemble, season, and cook on grills and smokers so you don't have to gamble $600 on a guess.
GrillHearth began in 2019 in a cramped Ohio backyard, where founder Marcus Delaney was on his fourth pellet smoker in three years, each one replaced after disappointing temperature swings and flimsy hardware. Marcus had spent a decade doing product testing for outdoor equipment brands, and it drove him crazy that grill and smoker reviews online were either paid placements dressed up as "top picks" or one-paragraph blog posts written by someone who'd clearly never touched the product. He started documenting his own cooks — brisket after brisket, rack after rack of ribs — in painstaking detail on a simple website, just to have an honest record for himself.
Word got around a local grilling forum, then a few YouTube comment sections, and within a year Marcus had a small crew of contributors who shared the same obsession: Elena Marsh, a former restaurant line cook who now tests everything from kamado grills to flat-top griddles; and Tobias "Big T" Reyes, a competition BBQ judge who has eaten more mediocre pulled pork than any human should have to. Together they turned GrillHearth from a personal hobby log into a full review site, but the mission never changed — real cooks, real notes, real opinions.
Every grill or smoker that appears on GrillHearth has been physically assembled and cooked on by someone on our team, in our own backyards, garages, and one converted shed we affectionately call "the lab." We don't accept review units with strings attached, and we don't let a brand see our conclusions before publication.
When we can't test a product firsthand — occasionally true for very new or extremely high-end releases — we say so clearly in the review, and we lean heavily on verified owner feedback, manufacturer specs, and comparisons to similar units we have tested.
We're upfront that GrillHearth earns commissions through affiliate links when you buy a product we've recommended. That never changes our verdict. If a grill underperforms, we say so, even if it's from a brand that sends us gear regularly. Our reputation is worth more to us than any single sponsorship, and readers can tell the difference between a real recommendation and a paid one — so we make sure ours are always real.
We also update our reviews over time. Grills rust, igniters fail, hinges loosen — and when that happens during our long-term testing, we revise the article rather than let an outdated five-star review sit untouched for years.
Have a question about a grill you're considering, or think we got something wrong? We want to hear it. Reach out through our contact page, and a real member of the GrillHearth team — not a bot — will get back to you, usually within a day or two, occasionally smelling faintly of hickory smoke.
