To negotiate the best possible price for our customers, we agree to hide prices prior to logging in.
1K requests
Product Description
The Solo Stove Bonfire isn’t your average fire pit: It starts up faster, burns more efficiently, and provides a more pleasant, smoke-free experience. Meticulously engineered from 304 stainless steel, its minimalist design works well in any backyard or car-camping site—and because the bottom doesn't get as hot as a traditional fire pit, it's less likely to scorch the ground beneath it Read More
It is extremely well built. It's stainless steel. Thick enough that it's gonna last but I wouldn't say it's super thick or anything. I am skeptical and not easily impressed about stuff & when I got it I was impressed.
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.
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.
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.
You know...if you want to sell something like this then you should post pictures that give a proper perspective of the product. None of these pictures are realistic usage shots, none show relative size and none illustrate how it actually works.
SantiagoDracoNo problem. But your point is valid, that with just looking at our photos you can't tell the size of this beast. That being said, we weren't about to start a fire in our photo studio :)
True, the manufacturing is probably a little tricky. I'm still curious what their profit margin is on this. The guys making their own DIY of the Bonfire size have to put in a lot of labor, more labor that I'd put in to save $200. But if you want to DIY one for minimal labor, and a low price, wait for the end of year clearance on the Akorn Kamado grills (goes for $87 at Walmart). It's already double wall insulated. Drill our the rivets, take apart the two shells, pull out the insulation, drill the holes in the inner and outer shell, put back together, and there you go!
These are so overpriced & overhyped it's amusing. I have put them up against a cheaper generic version and the difference is almost nil. Unless you're scaling Everest or something, I'd spend your hard earned money on something more valuable. (Just my opinion.)
I bought this stove when I saw it last on Massdrop. It's a great stove . I have a hard time calling it a fire pit. It works exactly as advertised and it does put out a ton of heat. But it's kinda like a jet engine in that it's all directed straight up. This is not a cozy fire pit to sit around and keep warm while enjoying an evening outside with friends and family.
I love it and I'm glad I bought but thought this info might be useful to someone, so here you go.
simon4of4I found that the heat output and light output were both better than with the cheap iron-bowl style pit that it replaced. The tall side-walls do tend to block some of the lateral radiation, but if you're close enough to reach a s'mores stick over you're feeling plenty of heat.