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nfischer
63
Sep 22, 2017
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I'm a bit dubious as to if this actually burns cleanly like the smaller stoves. The design requires that pretty much all the gas from the fuel come into contact and mix with the secondary air, but with the bonfire they seem to have scaled up the radius of the top opening, but left the secondary air holes the same size, and not proportionally increased the height of the stove. Basically what this means is that the majority of the gas is going straight up, never undergoing secondary combustion. You can see this working even in the video, the flames look pretty much like a healthy campfire, with a few small flames coming out the secondary air holes. But if you've seen one of the smaller stoves burning, you know that what you'd expect to see is almost all of the flames coming from the secondary air holes and none from the center. That's not to say this won't burn well, since it still has an unrestricted airflow up from underneath the fuel giving it a good chimney effect. So it'll burn much better than your usual metal pan fire pit, just not as well as a wood gasifier stove.
Also, a nod to bushbuddy, who originally created this design.
Sep 22, 2017
owtlaw333
28
Sep 25, 2017
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nfischerHaving used mine on a few occasions now I can say that while it is certainly less smokey than a standard bonfire, it is definitely not smokeless by any means. I’d say 20-30% less at best.
But I didn’t get it for that reason... it’s just convenient being able to move it in and out of the backyard without making a mess.
Sep 25, 2017
Toneus
2
Nov 14, 2017
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nfischerI've made this same observation, and I think you're spot on. I've made two mid sized gassifiers using stock pots, 9 & 11 inches, and I use them often for tailgating. I think this design will run efficiently up to about 13". After that, the diameter becomes so large that there is not enough wood gas to support a continuous secondary combustion. I believe this is why they have added the collar to taper the top opening. The Solo Stove Bonfire outer diameter is 19.5", and you can rarely videos or pictures of full gassification occurring around the full circumference. If full gassification is occurring, there should be virtually no smoke, yet you see lots of smoke in these same videos. This is the first place I have seen comments about this.
Nov 14, 2017
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