Solo Stove outdoor fire pit (update, 2019)

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mar13

Minister of Fire
Nov 5, 2018
506
California redwood coast
A thread in "The Woodshed" started to veer off about the Solo stove. I noticed a respondent to the Feb2018 thread is now a Solo Stove owner.

I thought it'd be interesting to hear more about the Solo fire pit. I've been tempted and still am. Thoughts?

Here are some quotes from the aforementioned "Woodshed" thread:
kborndale said:
How smokeless is that fire pit? Couldnt you just cut some holes in the bottom of a 50 gal drum and put in a grate a few inches up and cut the top of the drum off? Or maybe an old washing machine drum? $300 seems like a lot for essentially a modified 50 gal drum, or am I missing something?​
SpaceBus said:
You could do that, but it would still look like a hobo barrel. It's as smokeless as your wood stove. It's actually nice when the wind shifts and blows towards you, more heat! The stainless looks nice and should never rust. I still keep it covered when I don't use it. I wish it had a domed screen for sparks, but that only really happens with pallet wood, which burns way too fast anyway. My wife felt the same way as you, but after using it yesterday evening she likes it. There's also no ashy mess to clean up. They are expensive, but very convenient.​
JohnDolz said:
I have one and love it as well. We use it on our deck and looks great. My only wish is that it had some handles to make dumping of the ash easier.​
 
I also have a Solo stove. It is smokeless once it is up and running hot. If you start with wet wood, you'll get some smoke. Once it is hot, you can burn almost anything... I haven't tried burning it on the deck yet. I bought the ring to put under it and I guess I would need a fireproof mat of some sort. We love it.
 
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I also have a Solo stove. It is smokeless once it is up and running hot. If you start with wet wood, you'll get some smoke. Once it is hot, you can burn almost anything... I haven't tried burning it on the deck yet. I bought the ring to put under it and I guess I would need a fireproof mat of some sort. We love it.

Thats basically true about my chimnea, If I have a small fire with wet wood it smokes. Once I get it up and running hot I can burn anything without smoke.
 
I bought a solo stove and it is remarkable. Not only is it a fantastic way to warm up an outdoor space, you can get a fire going in almost any normal conditions (wind, wet ground, etc). The only problem with it being smokeless is that the bugs don't get the message and leave us alone!
 
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I haven't used mine in a while but I really enjoy it.
 
I have one of the smaller ones - the Titan. As others have said, it's smokeless when hot, but produces a bit when starting. I use mine mainly for cooking when winter camping. It works remarkably well for that and it doesn't get swamped out when around snow
 
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