Affiliate disclosure

SmokerCalc.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.

What that means in practice

Many of the product links on this site are affiliate links. If you click one and buy something, we may receive a small commission from the retailer. The price you pay is exactly the same either way. The commission comes out of the retailer's margin, not out of your pocket, and you are never charged extra for using a link here.

Affiliate links on this site are marked with rel="nofollow sponsored" and open in a new tab. We do not use cloaked or disguised links, and we do not place affiliate links inside text that looks like editorial navigation.

Does it change what we recommend?

No, and the structure of the site is the evidence rather than the promise. Every roundup here presents a beginner, an intermediate and an expert pick, and every expert pick carries an explicit statement of who should not buy it. Several roundups recommend the cheaper product over the more expensive one, and the expert setup page opens by telling most readers to buy the cheaper build instead. Those are not the choices a site makes when commission is driving the recommendation.

We are also not paid by any manufacturer to include, exclude or rank a product, and no brand reviews a page before it is published. Where a product has no genuine buyable listing, we link to a scoped search rather than fabricating a product page, which earns less and is the honest thing to do.

How the product data is sourced

Every product on this site was pulled from Amazon's own catalogue through their product API and then checked by hand: that the returned title matches the product we mean, that the brand matches, that the price is sane for the category, and that the image is the real product photo. We never invent a product code, a price or an image.

Prices change constantly and the figures here are snapshots. Every price on the site was correct when the page was written and may be wrong by the time you read it, including the running totals on the setup pages. Always confirm the current price on Amazon before buying. Where an item is model specific and has no single listing, such as a fitted smoker cover, the setup pages show it as Varies and exclude it from the total rather than estimating it.

Do we test the gear?

No, and we say so on every page. We compare published manufacturer specifications, capacity and temperature ranges, materials and construction, warranty terms and verified owner reviews. We never write "we tested" or "hands-on" about equipment we have not used. The about page explains why that limitation is stated rather than hidden.

Cookies and tracking

Clicking an affiliate link normally sets a cookie in your browser from the retailer, which is how they attribute a purchase to the referring site. That cookie is set by the retailer, not by us, and is governed by their privacy policy. We also use Google Analytics to understand which pages are useful. The privacy policy covers both in detail.

Other programmes

At present Amazon Associates is the only affiliate programme this site participates in. If that changes, this page will be updated before any new link is published, and any sponsored or paid placement anywhere on the site will be labelled as such on the page it appears on.

Questions

If anything here is unclear, or if you spot a link that is not behaving as described, please use the contact page and tell us which page it is on.