Appreciate your input. Do not see a trial period on the Mak but has a three year warranty and highly rated customer service as does Cookshack. It has clearly the best starting system with a Lifetime warranty but weighs 235 lbs compared to 300 to 400 for the Cookshacks so they clearly have more metal and apparently all stainless steel. All three are excellent units- Mak appears to have the edge in meat probes so I remain undecided but would really like to see the Cookshacks firsthand. Thx Pat