The best outdoor gear for the fall

Beats surprised us when it re-entered the Bluetooth speaker market over the summer, following a two-year hiatus from the portable devices. The company completely re-engineered the inside of the new Pill to improve sound quality and made some modest changes to the design to further bolster the experience. All of the updates lead to improved sound quality, a more durable build and 24-hour battery life. Simply put, this is the best-sounding speaker you’ll find at this price point for keeping the tunes going on the porch, patio or at your campsite.

The Thermapen is the grilling tool I use most often. It’s handy for making sure I’m not serving undercooked chicken or overcooking a pricey steak I’ve had in the sous vide for hours. It’s also great to have in the kitchen to instantly check temps of things like bread. Thermoworks unveiled the successor to its wildly popular Thermapen Mk4 earlier this year with the Thermapen One. The device is super fast, giving you a reading in one second. It’s also more accurate and has a brighter display than the previous model. The screen automatically rotates depending on how you hold it, plus an auto-wake and sleep feature and IP67 rating keep things running smoothly.

Ooni’s pizza ovens are outstanding and Solo Stove’s Pi is a solid second option, but when it comes to ease of use, the latter company’s Pi Prime is where it’s at. This is the best outdoor pizza oven for people, dads included, combining the ease of a propane burner with a wide curved opening for unrestricted access when rotating pies. The Pi Prime has a similar circular dome design to the Pi, which is an aesthetic the company borrowed from its fire pits. That big opening on the front also allows you to monitor progress without opening a door. Front-mounted temperature controls make for easy adjustments and the gas-burning setup means your dad can focus on making great pizza rather than feeding wood to the flame. Plus, the Pi Prime can get hot — up to 950 degrees Fahrenheit — making it a great option for Neapolitan-style pizzas that bake in as little as 90 seconds.

I’ve had several fire pits since I bought a house in 2014, and none of them can compete with Solo Stove. The company’s products are designed to channel smoke upward, keeping you from being choked out while you’re trying to enjoy some time outdoors. The pits come in various sizes, so you have options if dad goes camping often or just needs a place to chill in the backyard. The interior design of the Solo Stove pits also facilitates proper airflow, so fires always burn nicely.

Thanks to brands like Blackstone, flat-top griddles are some of the most popular backyard cooking devices right now. Weber has put its decades of grilling expertise to use designing them too, and the company’s second griddle model, the Slate, offers some unique features most of the competition doesn’t. First, the cooking surface is rust resistant, which addresses one of the biggest headaches for griddle owners. Weber the carbon-steel cooktop is made using “extreme heat and pressure” in a process that reduces the ability for rust to form.

Next, Weber included a digital temperature gauge on two versions of the Slate, giving you a reading from underneath the cooktop and taking the guesswork out of when the griddle is ready for action. Lastly, the company developed a collection of accessories called the Weber Works system that includes a versatile caddy, clip-on condiment holder and more. Plus, the Slate already comes with two big side tables and the pricer models include two slide out storage bins instead of the typical open grill cabinet.

My family was pretty firmly in the Stanley camp when it comes to insulated drinkware, but we found a more affordable option with Simple Modern that offered similar performance. For hot fall beverages, the company’s Voyager tumbler is your best bet, offering four hours of heat retention thanks to a stainless steel, double-walled design. The cup will also keep drinks cold for 16 hours on a warmer day, it fits in your car’s cup holder and it comes with a leak-proof lid. Perhaps most importantly, the entire thing is dishwasher safe.

In 2020, the Thermacell Patio Shield kept us mosquito-free for socially distanced outdoor activities. But the company’s newer E-55 offers a 20-foot coverage area and is fully rechargeable. This slightly larger unit runs on a Li-Ion battery instead of burning fuel to keep the biting bugs at bay for up to 12 hours. If you need more protection for you and the fam, you can buy refills for up to 40 hours of use. Also, like other Thermacell products, the E-55 doesn’t give off any odor, so you’ll barely notice it’s there.

To achieve peak backyard grill mastery, you need a reliable device that allows you to accurately monitor both ambient and food temperatures. There are a lot of options for this, but wireless probes are the most convenient choices since you don’t have to navigate a maze of cables when maneuvering foods around the grill. I’ve been using the Meater 2 Plus for a year now, and the accuracy of the probe’s temperature sensors is well-proven on my stable of grills. The estimated doneness times aren’t always spot on, but they’re typically in the ballpark, and I love being able to watch everything from my phone. That’s especially useful for long, low-and-slow smoke sessions.

I tested the Kasa Outdoor Smart Plug for our first backyard guide and I was immediately hooked. TP-Link has a newer model of the smart plug in addition to a dimmable single-outlet version. Both are waterproof and plug into your existing outside outlet to give you one or two spots for lights and other gear. With the two-plug option, you can control each one independently. The Kasa app allows you to set a schedule, timer, runtime and more for each plug, so you can automate when those string lights over the deck turn on. Additionally, they work with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you don’t even need to pick up your phone most of the time. Plus, 300 feet of WiFi range means you shouldn’t have trouble connecting these to your home network for use.

When they debuted in 2019, Traeger’s Ironwood pellet grills were the company’s best mix of features and value. The company debuted a redesigned model in 2023, and while they will save you some money over the expensive Timberline series, the price tags aren’t as attractive as they once were, but they’re still the best option in the company’s lineup. Traeger added touchscreen controls to the latest Ironwood to mirror the Timberline and the handy pellet-monitoring sensor now comes standard. You still get a roomy side shelf and remote control/monitoring from the Traeger app, which allows you to keep tabs on things from anywhere. The big thing you miss out on from the Timberline is the induction burner, but you may not need it anyway.