Every grill review on this site carries one Avid Griller Score out of 10. It is never assigned by hand. It is computed from six categories, each with a fixed weight, and every review uses the same six.
Publishing the method is the point. A score you cannot interrogate is just an opinion with a decimal point.
The six categories
| Category | Weight | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Heat Performance | 25% | Output, sear, temperature range, evenness, recovery |
| Long-term Reliability | 20% | How it holds up, known failure points, warranty strength |
| Build Quality | 18% | Materials, thickness, fit and finish, stability |
| Ease of Use | 15% | Assembly, ignition, controls, everyday handling |
| Value | 12% | What the price buys relative to the tier |
| Maintenance | 10% | Cleaning effort, grease management, parts replacement |
Heat carries the most weight because it is the job. Value carries less than you might expect, because a cheap grill that cooks badly is not a bargain.
Each category score appears on the review with one sentence naming the specific feature or shortcoming responsible for it. If a number is not explained, it should not be there.
What the numbers mean
| Score | Means |
|---|---|
| 9.0 to 10 | Best in its class on this axis. Rare. |
| 8.0 to 8.9 | Clearly good, with a named reason. |
| 7.0 to 7.9 | Competent with a real compromise. |
| 5.0 to 6.9 | A genuine weakness a buyer will notice. |
| Below 5 | Broken or disqualifying. |
Scoring against the tier, not the catalogue
A grill is judged against the ones a buyer would actually cross-shop it with. A portable is not marked down for lacking a rotisserie, because no portable has one. It is marked against other portables.
This is what keeps a 8.2 on a $250 travel grill and a 8.2 on a $2,000 built-in from meaning the same thing about the same money.
Two rules we hold ourselves to
- A real weakness scores below 8. Six categories all sitting between 8.5 and 9.5 is a brochure, not a review.
- The scores have to spread. At least 1.5 points between the best and worst category. A flat scorecard means the categories were never thought about separately.
The star rating you see beside the byline is the same number on the five point scale, halved. There is no second opinion hiding behind it.
What we do not do
We do not publish invented measurements. Where a figure comes from the manufacturer’s published specifications, that is what it is, and where something could not be verified, the review writes around it rather than filling the gap.
We do not summarise other people’s reviews and call it ours. If you want to know what owners think, the retailer page is one click away.