Best Deals on Grills, Patio Umbrellas, and More Outdoor Essentials

Blackstone all but built the category of outdoor flat-top grills. This entry-level model proves you don’t need to spend a ton to get great performance from its products, either. It’s the fastest of the top models we tested to get hot. It maintains even temperatures across the surface on both low and high heat. And it’s one of the few to feature only two burners, not three; as a result, you might have a slightly harder time maintaining two drastically different temperatures on the surface at once.

The griddle is built on an unassuming open cart, and it features only one side shelf. Still, while this grill is light on features and lacks the finish or polish of pricier picks, it’s a strong performer at an unbeatable price.

The Traeger Ironwood 650 TFB65BLE is a top-of-the-line pellet grill offering lots of bells and whistles, plus stellar performance. This is the first time we’ve seen a discount on this model this year. It earns ace ratings for both heating evenness and indirect cooking, two of the most important attributes of a grill. You can count on it making perfectly charred burgers no matter where you place the patties on the grate, as well as turning out tender chicken without burning it. This model has two wheels and two locking casters, and a 20-pound pellet hopper. Traeger claims this grill cooks at a temperature range of 165° F to 500° F.

The Monument Grills 77352 is not only a good large grill for the money but also one of the highest-scoring gas grills in our ratings. It earns top marks across our performance tests for heating evenness, temperature range, and preheating, as well as a solid rating for indirect cooking. It comes with an electronic ignition, stainless steel grates, and four casters to make it easier to move around. And while the grill itself has a typical one-year warranty, it includes an eight-year warranty on the six burners.

This kit is recommended by CR grilling expert Paul Hope. He says it is exactly what you want if you’re grilling on the go, like at a park or on a beach. It has all the essential tools and comes in a nice case, which makes it easy to transport.

The Nordic Ware Naturals Baker’s Half Sheet pan earns a lot of accolades, and we like it, too, especially for its low price compared to others we tested. CR’s grilling expert Paul Hope uses these sheets every time he grills to transfer raw and cooked meats to and from the grill (one pan for each). Cooking evenness earns an excellent rating, but it takes a little elbow grease to clean. Like the other aluminum pans, scouring powder removes soil marks left on its surface.

These colorful, extending s’more sticks are both fun and practical. Because they’re color-coded, it’s easy to tell whose is whose. They extend to almost 3 feet, and when you’ve had all the s’mores you can eat, they retract for easy storage.

This pizza oven costs $450 or more elsewhere, making Wayfair’s price worth a look. Paul Hope, CR"s grilling and outdoor cooking expert, evaluated the Solo Stove oven at home and found it to be reliable, sturdy, and efficient. It cooked pizzas evenly, and he said it was simple to switch from gas to charcoal.

If you’re looking for a wood-burning pizza oven that doesn’t cost too much, this model could be a good option. It was recently closer to $135, so this isn’t quite the best price but still a nice discount. Its fuel basket was the biggest of those our evaluator tried. It also has room to make a bigger pizza than the other ovens. But the lower price does come at a cost. The oven lacks some of the polish you’ll find on other models, and Hope found the oven door flimsy and tough to rest in the opening; it fell out frequently while he was cooking which made for a somewhat stressful experience.

The Inno Stage differs from most smokeless fire pits because it’s designed to burn wood pellets, not logs. When we tested it, we found that using pellets with additives to accelerate lighting—sold at most home centers and hardware stores—worked particularly well, resulting in robust small or large fires with minimal smoke. Results weren’t as good when we used plain wood pellets, which tended to smoke quite a bit. It’s only about half as deep as the Cuisinart above and has considerably less capacity. We found that the Inno Stage burned pellets thoroughly, with minimal ash and unburned pellets left behind. The ash collects in a tray on its stand, making for easy removal. This model is a great choice if you want a modest pellet fire and prefer to avoid the hassle and labor of moving and lighting logs.

Cuisinart’s Cleanburn lives up to its name, beating out some of the better-known options from brands like Breeo and Solo Stove in our tests. It proved equally strong when we built small or large fires, and its rounded bottom helped ensure one of the most efficient burns from any model, with minimal clean-up.

The Purple Leaf Double Top Square Aluminum Sun Umbrella is a top-rated patio umbrella in our ratings. It offers 360-degree rotation and six tilt angles for easy control of your shading area. Our testers found it easy to adjust the umbrella, and the umbrella held firmly in place at all angles.

The aluminum pole is coated to look like wood. The vented square polyester canopy is removable for easy spot cleaning with lukewarm water. It comes in seven colors. A beige slipcover is included, and it has a three-year warranty.

The Grand Patio umbrella typically costs $350, but the on-page coupon puts it just about $20 above its lowest price. This umbrella got above-average scores in CR’s tests for ease of use and assembly, but it is a little less rigid than higher-scoring models, similar to the Bluu Banyan model above.

The Brightech Pro Solar Powered Outdoor String Lights dropped another $4 in the last two weeks compared to the sale price we saw throughout spring and early sumnmer. They are the best in class in our test, with above-average marks for light duration and a top score for ease of use. Long with widely spaced lights, its design provides more flexibility—you can run the strand as is for more subtle lighting, or double up the cord to concentrate more of the light in a tighter space. Each of its 12 separate Edison-style oval-shaped bulbs has 24 LEDs, resulting in exceptionally bright light. The lights can’t be manually charged, but they do have replaceable batteries and an on/off button to preserve power.

The Lerekam Solar Spot Lights are among the priciest outdoor ones, but you get unrivaled performance. In our tests, they earned top marks for light duration and ease of use. They can be angled, installed with ground spikes (included), or screwed to other surfaces. They have an on/off button and can be recharged with a USB cable (also included). Each of the lights in the six-pack has 40 LEDs, resulting in intense white light that shines wide over an area, not unlike a flashlight. That makes them ideal as spotlights. They’d be great for drawing attention to a water feature or an ornamental tree, but they can also be pointed down to illuminate a path or walkway.

It’s hard to contend with the value offered by the Gigalumi Grid Solar Pathway Lights. Their cost is lower (on a per-light basis) than just about any other path light we’ve seen, and yet they earn solid marks for both light duration and ease of use. The light cast comes from a single LED in each of the lights—casting a dimmer glow than the other products we tested.

That may not be a dealbreaker if you’ve got supplemental lighting elsewhere or if you’re using these strictly to create ambience. There’s a single setting, an on/off button, and a removable battery, but the lights can’t be charged or angled.

The JSOT Outdoor Solar Deck Lights, which now have an on-page coupon taking an extra 15 percent off the sale price, topped our test as the only deck light that earned top marks for light duration. Designed to be mounted to a stair riser or other solid surface and attached with screws, it emits a medium-bright light, and each light contains 3 LEDs. While the lights can’t be charged with a cable, they have an on/off switch, so you can turn them off to build up power if you’re concerned about their charge.

The Harbor Breeze Solar Black Indoor Outdoor String Lights have a longer cord and wider spacing than many string lights, and they boast Edison-style bulbs. In our tests, they earned above-average marks for light duration and can be recharged with a USB cord (included). Each of the 10 lights has a single LED filament (which has multiple LEDs), and our tester found the light to be bright. These lights can be charged, and they also have two light settings and an on/off switch. 

We tested the Ephesus Turkish Beach Towel for sand resistance in four different assessments—two times with dry sand while the towel was dry and two times with dry sand while the towel was wet. This towel impressed us each and every time with its superior ability to repel sand. Our scale detected either 0 ounces of sand left on the towel or 0.1 ounces—and when our testers ran their hand across the towel, they couldn’t feel or see any leftover sand. 

During the water test, two interesting things happened. The first: Its Turkish cotton material seemed desperate to repel water—droplets stayed suspended on the areas of the towel where the evaluator poured ocean water and the towel didn’t readily absorb the water. They made the second discovery after submerging the towel in a tub of water: It was the first of the eight towels we evaluated to dry completely, in about four hours.

Note that different colors are on sale for different prices.

This Turkish beach towel repelled sand well when dry and wet, and dried relatively quickly after being submerged in water. It’s not the most comfortable towel we tried, as it’s on the thinner side, but it’s lightweight and comes in three sizes and more than 30 colors (all with a striped design). Its Turkish cotton fabric meets Oeko-Tex Standard 100 Certification, which means it is certified to be free of harmful chemicals.

Prices may vary by color and size.

The Oileus beach tent, which typically costs $60-$65, was the runner-up in CR’s evaluations thanks to the ease of setting it up and taking it back down. It’s large enough for two adults and two kids. It takes less than 2 minutes to set up, and just about 4 minutes to pack up at the end of your beach day. And on windy days, you can fill its six pockets with sand to keep it in place. Perhaps the best part is it only weights 4 pounds, making it conveninet to schlepp from the car to the beach and back.

Other colors may vary slightly in price.

The Trek Starvos WaveCel, which has dropped $18 in price in the last month, gets top marks for its impact absorption and ease of use, and earns a respectable rating for ventilation. As its name suggests, it features WaveCel technology, which is meant to reduce the effects of rotational impact. It also comes in five sizes and has reflective features, so you can still see it in low light. There’s a crash replacement program in case you damage your helmet in an accident within the first year of ownership.

The Meater+ meat thermometer is one of the most reliable digital thermometers. It’s easy to use, and given its top-notch accuracy, you won’t need guesswork to determine the doneness of brisket and other fleshy delights. It’s shaped like a thick ink pen with dual sensors—one to check the internal temperature and one for ambient temperature—and its size makes it better suited for girthier cuts. The Meater+ transmits temperature readings wirelessly to the companion smartphone app.

ThermoPro’s SmartBT Meat Thermometer TP920 is one of the lower-priced leave-in two-probe wireless thermometers. It sends instant temperature readings to your smartphone via Bluetooth, offering excellent response time and accuracy. The easy-to-use app estimates the remaining cook time for nearly all cuts and varieties of meat based on built-in Department of Agriculture guidelines.

The InkBird IBT-4DXS BT, now within $1 of its best price, is the highest-rated digital meat thermometer in CR’s tests. It offers app connectivity with estimated cook times, four separate probes, built-in alarms, and the ability to charge the device while actively monitoring temperatures. InkBird boasts a decent range in outdoor environments, up to 150 feet. 

Made by one of the most trustworthy thermometer companies in the grilling industry, the ThermoPro TP19H instant-read meat thermometer offers handheld temperature readings with a single stowable probe. There’s a built-in LED and rotation lock for the display, and a magnetic backing allows you to store it on your refrigerator between meals. Perfect for checking meats, this simple thermometer delivers reliably accurate readings within seconds.

The Ryobi RY401210US has one of the longest run times of any self-propelled mower in our tests: about 75 minutes when accounting for the extra battery, enough to handle one-third of an acre or more. That mowing time should be a pleasure, too, because this 21-inch self-propelled unit excels at every one of our tests except bagging. (In that test, it earns a satisfying rating.) This unit allows for upright storage and has a generous five-year warranty; the warranty for the battery is a more standard three years. Ryobi’s self-propelled battery mowers earned a passable score for predicted reliability and scored at the top for owner satisfaction.

The 21-inch Ryobi RY401150US is a winner in many respects. It performs superbly in our tests of cutting evenness, side discharging, mulching, and handling, and earns a respectable score for bagging. Designated a Green Choice model by CR, it also has a fairly generous hourlong run time. But this model is on the noisy side for a battery mower. The mower warranty is a long five years. Perhaps that’s a good thing because the brand earns an undistinguished score for predicted reliability. On the other hand, it earns exemplary marks for owner satisfaction. For about $100 less, the Ryobi RY401140US offers similar performance and a run time that’s 10 minutes shorter. That less costly model also lacks the extra cutting blade that the RY401150US has, but our testers found that feature didn’t lead to better cutting performance.

The Black+Decker BESTE620 has only a single cutting line; it’s meant for dealing with grass along walkways rather than thick brush. Even so, it earns a top rating for trimming and is easy to use, even if it doesn’t clear as quickly as some of the more powerful electric models.

The dual-fuel DuroMax XP10000HX generator, which has dipped $250 in the last month, is unusual in that it can run on either gasoline or liquid propane gas. With gasoline, it produces an impressive 8,000 watts of peak power and can run 10 to 17 hours. On propane, it produces 7,600 watts, with the run time depending on the size of your tank. In our tests, it delivers clean, reliable power, earning Excellent ratings for both power delivery and power quality. This model has a CO safety shutoff.

The Generac XT8500EFI is unmatched among generators of its size in terms of performance and output. It offers an impressive 8,500 watts of power, more than any other portable model in our ratings, and it excels in our crucial tests, earning excellent ratings for both power delivery and power quality. It has five outlets and an electric start, as well as an automatic CO safety shutoff.

The Rachio Smart Hose Timer Starter Kit offers a polished app experience, responsive controls to manually water your yard, and a straightforward, albeit long, setup process. That might not sound like much, but it’s a tall order for smart hose timers, most of which can be buggy and use apps that look like they shipped with the very first iPhone. The Rachio hose timer doesn’t work with any smart home systems at this time, but if you simply want a hose timer that’s easy to use and intelligently waters your yard, the Rachio is a great choice.

The Rachio Smart Hose Timer Starter Kit offers a polished app experience, responsive controls to manually water your yard, and a straightforward—albeit long—setup process. Rachio also comes with a plug-in hub to connect it to your home WiFi network. The app even makes it easy to create a watering schedule and use local weather data to intelligently skip watering.

The Diivoo timer doesn’t have its own app. Instead, it relies on a smart home app called Smart Life. Despite being a generic app with a lackluster design, it did a great job of setting up the Diivoo timer, simultaneously finding both its plug-in hub and the timer itself and connecting them in less than 2 minutes. While the Diivoo timer and Smart Life app use local weather data, the timer doesn’t adjust your watering schedules automatically. Instead, you have to manually create an automation in the app to have it delay watering if it rains, gets too cold or windy, etc. When we evaluated smart home timers, the Diivoo had the best—and most robust—integration with Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

The Eufy Cam 2C Pro comes as a two-camera kit, making it best suited to shoppers looking for a multicamera system. In our tests, it performs well across the board, especially with its array of smart features. Its only flaw is its middling data privacy, but that’s a common issue for the majority of cameras in our ratings.

The Eufy Cam 2C Pro packs a ton of features, including person detection, facial recognition, a built-in spotlight, monitoring zones, a siren, two-way audio, 16 gigabytes of memory for local video storage (there’s no SD card slot for expandable storage), and voice and app control via Amazon Alexa, Apple Home/Siri, and Google Home/Assistant.