How We Rank Kitchen Gear

Last updated: September 2026

Our rankings are built from desk research, not sponsored placements. Here is exactly what goes into every rank — and what we refuse to do.

What we research

Manufacturer specifications. We verify specs against official product pages — capacity, wattage, dimensions, materials, included accessories, and warranty terms. We never trust a marketing summary; when two sources disagree, the manufacturer's own page wins.
Expert buying guides. We read buying guides and reviews from established cooking publications and equipment testers, looking for consensus — not one outlet's hot take.
Home-cook reviews. We aggregate sentiment from retailer reviews and cooking communities, where real buyers are blunt about what disappointed them. A product that fails in year two leaves a trail, and we follow it.

How the rank is decided

We score each product on performance for its job, build quality and durability, value for money, warranty and support, and how it holds up in real home kitchens. Then we order them best to worst — and we publish the reasoning, including the cons, on every product.

What we refuse to do

No sponsored rankings. No brand can pay for a spot, a bump, or a better adjective. Commission rates never enter the ranking process. Read our affiliate disclosure.
No fake testing claims. We don't claim to have personally tested products we haven't. When we cite a performance claim, we attribute it to its source ("KitchenAid says…"). When review sentiment is mixed, we say so.
No invented reviews. You'll never find star ratings, testimonials, or owner feedback we made up. Pros and cons are drawn from published reviews and verified specs.
No estimated prices. Prices on this site are manufacturer MSRP — the official list price, never a guess. Where a manufacturer doesn't publish a public list price, we say so on the product's price line instead of presenting an estimate as MSRP.

Budget picks

Every ranked product gets a budget alternative box with an honest accounting of what you give up. Sometimes the budget pick is the smarter buy and we say so. Sometimes — as with our #4 skillet — the "premium" pick is already $37.95, and we refuse to invent a worse cheaper option just to fill the box.

Trending picks

Our "Trending now" section covers buzzy products with a worth-it-or-hype verdict. These are buzz-based picks, not full rankings: long-term durability data is often thin, and we label the caveats up front rather than pretending we know more than we do.

Updates

Rankings are reviewed and updated as products change, prices move, and new evidence arrives. The "Updated" date at the top of our Top 10 shows the current version.