The Best Fire Pit We’ve Ever Used – LifeSavvy

If you’re in the market for a backyard fire pit, let us save you some time and get right to the point. We’ve found the one you should buy for an absolutely amazing and smoke-free experience.

Update: We first reviewed the Solo Stove Bonfire in the fall of 2020. This review has been updated to reflect our additional experience using the Bonfire since then. Look for these Update boxes for additional information in the review.

By this point, you’ve probably seen the Solo Stove somewhere—whether that’s at a friend’s house or on Instagram or Facebook where ads for the futuristic-looking firepit are plentiful. The burning question, if you’ll pardon the pun, is whether or not the pricey little firepits are worth it. Even the smaller models are significantly more expensive than the cheapo firepits you can pick up at your local big-box hardware store or home center. So let’s dig in.

Happy Holidays! This article is part of our Holiday 2021 Gift Guide where you can find the best-of-the-best recommendations from LifeSavvy, How-To Geek, and Review Geek to help you pick the perfect gift for everyone on your list!

What’s a Smokeless Fire Pit?

Before we even dive into why we love the Bonfire so much, let’s take a moment to talk about smokeless fire pits. They’re a new breed of fire pit on the market that you may or may not already be familiar with and, of which, the Solo Stove product line is the best known.

First, why are fire pits smoky? Excessive smoke from your fire pit is almost always the result of incomplete combustion. While firewood selection is important—seasoned hardwood will always burn better than damp pine—the fire pit itself can make a huge difference. Anything that increases the efficiency of the combustion will decrease the amount of smoke in the air and the level of ash in the pan.

Traditional fire pits are, more or less, just metal tubs. Some have holes and some have mesh, but they’re little more than trash cans you make a fire in. They’re almost all identical in their fundamental design, and the price differences can all be chalked up to construction quality. Paying $50 or $150 typically just buys you thicker sheet metal and some extra time until the whole thing rusts out. They’re ultimately no more efficient than just piling up some wood on the ground and burning it.

Smokeless fire pits still retain the general shape you’d expect and require of a fire pit, but with a significant twist. They incorporate airflow channels into the double-wall of the fire pit in order to significantly increase the efficiency of the fire.

The best part about the design is that it is completely passive and you don’t have to do a thing to reap the benefits. There’s no fussing with an adjustable damper or anything of the sort.

Here’s an animation that shows how the air flows through the Solo Stove Bonfire:

Instead of the traditional fire pit design—where the cooler surrounding air either drifts down over the top of the bowl and towards the fire, or is pulled in through mesh in the side—this design combines two kinds of airflow to great effect.

Cool air is pulled in from the holes in the base of the Solo Stove. Some of it flows right into the bottom of the fire pit, feeding the fire as if someone’s sitting there gently blowing on the coals. Some of the air is superheated by the hot walls of the fire pit and rises rapidly through the chamber and out the ring of holes on the inner rim of the pit. Here, it assists with the combustion of the smoke. The end result is a fire where you can smell the pleasant scent of the burning wood without plumes of smoke stinging your eyes.

The Solo Stove Bonfire Is Amazing

First and foremost, it makes starting a fire almost effortless. Thanks to the airflow design, every single fire I have started in the Bonfire has gone from the match strike to a roaring blaze in seconds. The photo above was taken within a minute of lighting the tinder, and I did absolutely nothing but drop the match in and wait. The moment the walls heat up and the air starts to flow through the double-wall chamber, the fire just takes off.

Better yet, once the fire is roaring along, the experience only improves. With the wood stacked in the pit to the appropriate height—just below the vent holes—the initial burst gives way to a steady intensity. You can actually see little jets of fire lick out of the vent holes as the smoke burns up right before your eyes.

While the photo above is dramatic, perfectly capturing what the stove looks like with an absolutely optimal load of wood, rest assured that you’ll see the neat little jets shooting out even in suboptimal conditions.

Not only does the airflow help with the second combustion that creates the whole “smokeless” effect, but it also assists with the primary combustion. Every time we had a fire, I would peek inside once it had died down to assess how much ash was left behind. But every time I looked, there was scarcely a leftover piece of charred wood, or even any ash, to speak of.

Eventually, after burning nightly hours-long fires in the Bonfire over the course of a week, I finally upended the pit to investigate. If you’ve ever cleaned out a fire pit, you know that even after just one fire, there’s usually a substantial amount of ash to deal with. Yet after a week of fires, there was scarcely over half a cup worth of ash in the pit!

Update: After using the Bonfire fairly frequently over the last year I’m blown away by how little ash there is. Other than dumping out the ash to measure it that first time I’ve only dumped it out once. The flow of air through the bottom chamber with each subsequent fire just seems to magically whisk the ash away.

Moving the fire pit to dump the ash led to a completely new discovery (and an additional reason why you might love the Bonfire). The grass was absolutely fine. There were no scorch marks or any other sign of fire damage. Not only does the multi-layer design of the base of the Bonfire help catch the ash while directing the airflow, but it also creates a heat barrier that keeps most of the heat radiating up towards you instead of cooking the grass.

In fact, with the addition of the Bonfire stand, a small, stainless steel ring that further elevates the Bonfire, you can even safely use it on a deck without damaging the wood.

It Doesn’t Come With Accessories

Note: If you want all the official accessories in one bundle, it’s worth grabbing the Bonfire Ultimate Bundle when it’s on sale to get the Bonfire, the spark arrestor, poker and tongs, roasting sticks, and cover.

But even if I didn’t find a need for it, many cities and townships in the U.S. require a spark arrestor for outdoor firepits. That said, if you live somewhere that’s really strict about such matters, you can buy a spark arrestor screen made by Solo Stove, called the Bonfire Shield, that is just as overengineered as the Bonfire itself—although, like Bonfire, it’s expensive.

Update: Since the initial review I’ve purchased both the spark arrestor and the Solo Stove Firepit Tools fire tongs and poker set. Both are impeccably designed and worth every dollar I spent on them. The folks at Solo even sent me a brand new “fire ring” portion of the firepit to fit the updated spark arrestor, free of charge.

The other thing I wish they included was a cover. You can purchase a Solo brand cover, the Bonfire Shelter, for $70 (frequently on sale for $50, by the way, so hold out if you want it a little cheaper). Like every other Solo brand product, it’s super nice but it’s expensive.

Update: I skipped ordering the official Bonfire Shelter and opted to buy this generic cylindrical cover for under $20 instead. It’s held up for a year without any issues. At that price, I can replace it multiple times and still save money compared to buying the Shelter.

Conclusion: It’s Still Downright Magical