Best Grills on Sale and More Outdoor Deals

This roll-on sunscreen has zinc oxide as its ultraviolet-screening ingredient. It’s fragrance-free, though it has the scent of wet clay, and rolls on smoothly. It shields skin very well against the ultraviolet A rays that can cause DNA damage in skin cells, but its performance for SPF (ultraviolet B—the rays that cause sunburn) was not as good in CR’s tests.

This Neutrogena spray is very good in overall performance across the board, with excellent UVA protection and very good protection from sunburn-producing rays. It does not meet its labeled SPF 50 in CR’s tests, but the protection is still adequate. It has a moderately strong tropical, fruity aroma and leaves a slightly greasy film and a notable sheen on the skin.

This Eucerin Advanced Hydration SPF 50 spray is a solid performer with broad-spectrum protection. Its tested SPF comes close to its labeled SPF 50. Like the sunscreen above, it also has that plastic fragrance-free aroma, and it left a slight draggy film on testers’ skin.

This high-end midsized Fuego F27S grill hits almost every mark. It rates very good at producing even heat, preheating quickly, offering a wide range of high and low temperatures, and creating indirect heat. It’s less likely than many other models to flare up. Notable features include recessed folding shelves and burners with a long warranty. (They’re the parts that are replaced the most.) An unimpressive rating for convenience is one of its few blemishes.

The Cuisinart CGG-306 is a tabletop propane gas grill with two separate 10,000-BTU burners that offer a wide range of temperatures, as proven in CR tests. It preheats faster than most of its kind, and it’s quite solid at spreading heat evenly across the surface. Weighing just 24 pounds, this compact grill easily fits in any car, making it great for camping trips and picnics (make sure to set aside room for the propane tank, as well). Cuisinart offers a generous 3-year warranty.

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 cooking time for nearly all cuts and varieties of meat based on guidelines from the Department of Agriculture

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.

NYC Plant Doctor Christopher Satch, who’s a professor of plant biology and pathology at The New York Botanical Garden, always starts with insecticidal soap when faced with unwelcome visitors in his garden. “It’s superior to neem [oil] in that it not only has a greater efficacy at killing insects due to its mode of action but also doesn’t hurt the plant like neem oil can,” Satch says. “Neem oil suffocates the plant over time by the oil clogging the plant pores.”

Satch recommends this insecticidal soap from Bonide, which can be used on shrubs, trees, flowers, ornamental greens, and garden vegetables.

A tool that Lorin Nielsen always finds herself reaching for is the Power Planter DIY Guru Auger, a drill bit tool. The head horticulturist at Epic Gardening—an online destination that offers advice and techniques for cultivating a garden—employs this 3-inch-wide auger bit for a hand drill and uses it to bore into hard-packed soil to easily plant dahlia bulbs or loosen the soil before transplanting in veggies. “I also find myself reaching for it to help blend amendments or mix together batches of potting mix in my garden cart,” Nielsen says.

Who says you have to drop hundreds on a trendy freestanding pizza oven to make a perfect pie? If you own a grill, all you need is an attachment like this one from BakerStone. Throw it right onto the grates of your grill. The grill provides the heat, and while we didn’t try this grill-compatible model, we did try the BakerStone with a dedicated gas burner and found we got great results.

It’s hard to contend with the value offered by the Gigalumi Grid Solar Pathway Lights, especially at this new low price. 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 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.

The Milwaukee 3016-21ST gets top marks for trimming and edging, and it handles tall grass and weeds impressively. It’s also versatile because it can handle different attachments, meaning you can swap out the string trimmer head for other tools, like a pole saw or hedge trimmer. This model gets midrange scores for ease of use (typical of most battery trimmers in our tests), and our testers found the handle difficult to adjust. At more than 12 pounds, it’s also one of the heaviest battery-operated models in our ratings. But the Milwaukee 3016-21ST gets excellent scores for reliability and owner satisfaction. It’s part of Milwaukee’s M18 battery platform of power tools.

The Makita XUX02SM1X1 has a 13-inch cutting swath and gets excellent marks for trimming, edging, and tackling tall grass and weeds. It gets a very good score for handling, but only a midrange score for battery run time. It’s a bit heavier, weighing just over 10 pounds. The Makita XUX02SM1X1 is also part of Makita’s 18-volt battery platform. For most users, the model above is the better bet, but it’s not always in stock—plus the prices for each model can fluctuate.

The Ego LB7654 delivers all-star performance across the board, adept at loosening and sweeping, all in an easy-to-handle package despite weighing 9.9 pounds. In addition, this electric blower comes with a generous five-year warranty. As a brand, Ego battery handheld leaf blowers are very reliable and earn a top mark for owner satisfaction in our latest member surveys.

If you want a battery-powered leaf blower that can handle some tough jobs, the Ego LB6504 is a great choice. Plus, the 56-volt battery that comes with this model can power other Ego power tools, like string trimmers, chainsaws, and lawn mowers. This deal is about 20 percent off the regular price, which is decent.

For a competitive price, the spartan Ego LM2114 performs commendably, with a respectable run time of almost an hour on one battery. Cutting evenness, noise, and handling are excellent, and it does a solid job of mulching, bagging, and side discharging. This 21-inch-wide push mower doesn’t have high wheels for better maneuvering and doesn’t include a second battery. The battery takes about an hour and a half to charge. It has a three-year warranty, which is fairly standard among the higher-rated battery push mowers in our ratings. Ego battery mower predicted reliability is very good, and owner satisfaction is excellent.

Your neighbors will thank you for using an Ego LM2135 because it’s very quiet at 25 feet away and at the ear of the user. While this unit is often a bit expensive as far as push mowers go, its performance rates high for mulching, cut evenness, and handling. It also earns nearly as impressive ratings in bagging and side discharging. Run time is as long as 50 minutes, enough to cover about a quarter of an acre in one go. What’s more, the battery can be fully charged in just over an hour.

This Greenworks pressure washer gets solid ratings in CR’s tests, especially when it comes to ease of use, where it got top marks. It also scored above average for cleaning and noise. It gets a middling score for power. Our testers also noted that it has a manual trigger lock, a small spray angle, and a shorter hose than most models, all of which are less than ideal. On the flip side, we found that it’s very effective at removing stains, and it’s easy to move and operate.

Despite its relatively low price, this 40-volt battery-powered chainsaw from Skil earned high marks for cutting and a top score for safety. It also did well in handling and ease of use. This model was selling for $149 last week at a few retailers, including Amazon and Lowe’s.

The Crocs Classic Large Tote is a good bag, and it stands out most for its extensive traction on the base and sides, as well as a dipped curve on top that makes it more comfortable to carry on your shoulder. It fit six beach towels, one hardcover book, one water bottle, two bottles of sunscreen, car keys, sunglasses, four bags of pretzels, a phone, and a wallet.

This bag fits five beach towels, one water bottle, two bottles of sunscreen, a hardcover book, four small packs of pretzels, and sunglasses. The Simple Modern beach bag is made of soft EVA material and has the thickest hand straps of all the bags we tested. The handles folded backward and forward easily and never got twisted.

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.