A smokeless fire pit is a wood-burning fire pit engineered with double walls and airflow vents that re-burn smoke and gases through a process called secondary combustion, dramatically reducing visible smoke and particulate emissions once the fire is fully established. After spending six weeks testing eight of the best smokeless fire pits on the market … Read more
I spent the last four months logging roughly 280 miles across the Pacific Northwest, the Adirondacks, and a brutal stretch of the Arizona desert to find the best hiking boots for women available right now. I rotated pairs on the same loops, weighed each boot on a kitchen scale, soaked them in a shallow creek, … Read more
Espresso is unforgiving. A blade grinder will turn your carefully sourced beans into a mix of powder and chunks, and the result is a shot that tastes sour in one sip and bitter in the next. After two months of pulling daily shots on a Rancilio Silvia and a Breville Bambino, our team learned one … Read more
If you’ve ever stood in a specialty coffee shop watching a barista pour water in slow, deliberate spirals over a bed of freshly ground beans, you already know there’s something almost meditative about pour-over coffee. It’s the brewing method that rewards patience, precision, and the right gear — and for enthusiasts, the dripper you choose … Read more
After six months of field-testing hiking boots across the Cascades, the Utah canyon country, and the wet forests of the Pacific Northwest, our team logged more than 800 trail miles on 10 different pairs. We strapped on each pair for day hikes, weekend backpacking trips, and stream crossings to find the best hiking boots for … Read more
After two decades of reefkeeping and dozens of skimmers installed on everything from nano cubes to 400-gallon SPS systems, our team knows this truth: a protein skimmer is the single piece of equipment that determines whether your reef tank stays stable or slowly slips into algae chaos. A skimmer pulls dissolved organic waste out of … Read more
I’ve spent the last three months testing the best robotic pool cleaners for inground pools side by side in real backyard pools — plaster, vinyl, fiberglass, and a 50 footer that drinks leaves by the bucket. The 8 models below earned their spot because they actually climb walls, scrub the waterline, and survive a full … Read more
Yes, you can use a robotic pool cleaner in an above-ground pool, and after three summers of testing in our own Intex and Bestway setups, I can tell you the difference is night and day. The right robotic pool cleaner for above-ground pools scrubs the floor, vacuums sand and leaves into its own filter basket, … Read more
Finding the best cordless robotic pool cleaners used to mean accepting shorter runtimes and weaker suction. Not anymore. After testing 10 models across above-ground, small inground, and large inground pools over six weeks, our team narrowed the field to the units that actually deliver on the “drop it in and forget it” promise. Battery technology … Read more
A suction-side pool cleaner is an automatic pool vacuum that hooks up to your skimmer or a dedicated suction line and rides on the suction power of your existing pool pump. As water flows through the hose, it pulls debris into your pool filter, so the same pump that runs your pool does the cleaning … Read more