OT Solo Stove fire pit

fishlessman

caliking said:

It's not like we have the weather for sitting around a fire pit much here in Houston, but we do enjoy sitting around a fire some nights.

 Bought a chiminea (not BGE)some  years ago and didn't use it much. The fire is somewhat enclosed, so not much fun to watch, and it didn't seem to give off much heat either. Bought another open fire pit, and although it was more satisfying in terms watching the fire,  it didn't seem to give off much heat either, unless you say close to it. Maybe we needed bigger fires?

So there seem to be 2 reasons to buy a fire pit - the visual/entertainment aspect of it, and a somewhat functional heat providing aspect. The Solo satisfies the first - it looks cool! May not be much of an issue if it doesn't provide much heat, as that is secondary, for us at least.

I did consider buying a broken washing machine on Craigslist, and tearing out the SS tub for a fire pit. Probably less than $50 with beers and labor extra. Figured it wasn't worth the effort and figuring out how to dispose of the wrecked washer after I was done. 

One thing that has kept me from buying the Solo fire pit is that it sits on the ground, and I'm not sure what that would do to the pool deck or patio stone. 

if you want a firepit to throw heat, you want the back to be built tall and the front to be nonexistant or short.  lots of radiant heat forced forward.  was at a native indian dig site years back, there was a pit with fish drying racks sitting in front of it, not over it catching the reflected heat. the heat on the back stones also helps the smoke carry higher

Lit

caliking said:

It's not like we have the weather for sitting around a fire pit much here in Houston, but we do enjoy sitting around a fire some nights.

 Bought a chiminea (not BGE)some  years ago and didn't use it much. The fire is somewhat enclosed, so not much fun to watch, and it didn't seem to give off much heat either. Bought another open fire pit, and although it was more satisfying in terms watching the fire,  it didn't seem to give off much heat either, unless you say close to it. Maybe we needed bigger fires?

So there seem to be 2 reasons to buy a fire pit - the visual/entertainment aspect of it, and a somewhat functional heat providing aspect. The Solo satisfies the first - it looks cool! May not be much of an issue if it doesn't provide much heat, as that is secondary, for us at least.

I did consider buying a broken washing machine on Craigslist, and tearing out the SS tub for a fire pit. Probably less than $50 with beers and labor extra. Figured it wasn't worth the effort and figuring out how to dispose of the wrecked washer after I was done. 

One thing that has kept me from buying the Solo fire pit is that it sits on the ground, and I'm not sure what that would do to the pool deck or patio stone. 

There is a small stand you can get with it to raise it a little. 

HeavyG

caliking said:

It's not like we have the weather for sitting around a fire pit much here in Houston, but we do enjoy sitting around a fire some nights.

 Bought a chiminea (not BGE)some  years ago and didn't use it much. The fire is somewhat enclosed, so not much fun to watch, and it didn't seem to give off much heat either. Bought another open fire pit, and although it was more satisfying in terms watching the fire,  it didn't seem to give off much heat either, unless you say close to it. Maybe we needed bigger fires?

So there seem to be 2 reasons to buy a fire pit - the visual/entertainment aspect of it, and a somewhat functional heat providing aspect. The Solo satisfies the first - it looks cool! May not be much of an issue if it doesn't provide much heat, as that is secondary, for us at least.

I did consider buying a broken washing machine on Craigslist, and tearing out the SS tub for a fire pit. Probably less than $50 with beers and labor extra. Figured it wasn't worth the effort and figuring out how to dispose of the wrecked washer after I was done. 

One thing that has kept me from buying the Solo fire pit is that it sits on the ground, and I'm not sure what that would do to the pool deck or patio stone. 

They sell an optional stand for use on potentially heat sensitive surfaces...

caliking

@fishlessman I get the concept of a reflecting wall behind the fire, but since we have so few nights that get really cold, I’m not investing in a fixed pit like that. That’s a nice pit though. 

We built a pit with a reflecting wall when we cooked a whole goat at Brisket Camp a couple of years ago. Worked very well. 

@Lit  @HeavyG thanks for the tip about the stand. I may look into it. 

caliking

I pulled the trigger on a Solo Stove Bonfire it and love it after just one fire. 

The fire burns cleans as long as the wood is below the rim. I raised the pit on bricks, but the bottom stays relatively cool - could easily place my hand on the bottom indefinitely, even after the fire had been burning for an hour. 

It gives off a good amount of heat from the top, enough to warm us on a chilly night. Not a lot of radiant heat from the sides, but it will serve us well enough. And I like that it’s compact and round, posing much less of a threat to my shins than our previous square pit with sides that flared up and out. 

Bonus points for presenting it as a Diwali gift for caliqueen ( which she didn’t buy for a second )

Canugghead

Happy Diwali Ashish!

caliking

Canugghead said:

Happy Diwali Ashish!

 Thanks, Gary I won extra points with the kids because we had fireworks. 

caliking

And of course, there’s this added function...

Cooker count just went up by one

Canugghead

caliking said:

...

Cooker count just went up by one

you need a gasket from @RRP  

Cornholio

Collapsible legs, handles welded on, throws off good heat, and cheap. 

caliking

There’s a big sale on at the solo stove website if anyone is thinking of getting one. 

Canugghead

Was looking at solo stove last year but they don't ship to canuckland.

Found a used Biolite Firepit locally last week and couldn't resist. Great portability with nerdy apps to boot. Definitely not enough heat to keep a large crowd warm especially in the GWN. Fuel grate has two position, lower for firepit, upper for hibachi. Includes a sliding removable cooking grid. Three air tubes enable secondary combustion similar to Solo stove. The condition of 10,000+ mah rechargeable battery is questionable, if/when it fails I'll need to figure out an alternative power supply to run the fan. Unlike their Campstove, this does not come with thermocouple generator that recharges the battery to self power the fan.

Started a small fire with kiln dried furniture grade oak scraps.There was smoke at startup, similar to Solo I guess? Once the fire established it was virtually smokeless. Xray screen allows the fire to be visible from three sides, great ambiance. This thing is small btw, max recommended log length is 16".


Didn't take long for small pile of kiln dried wood to burn down to charcoal/embers. Elevated the fuel rack, put on the sliding grill and got myself a hibachi for some spiedini.


Bluetooth apps controls pit remotely, with display of battery level and reserve run times.



Like I said, not for serious heat but a fun toy.


Edit: handles allow relocating while in use.

gamason

Go to your local appliance repair shop. Its nothing more than an old stainless dryer drum. Can be had for under 20 bucks and does the EXACT same thing.

Canugghead

@gamason I think you meant perforated rigid stainless washer drum, not thin bendable sheet metal dryer drum? I used dryer drum for making red neck DIY Joetisserie.
https://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1220101/redneck-xl-jotisserie-and-maiden-voyage-pic-heavy

My neighbour next door is an appliance repair guy, he gave me two stainless washer drums, $0.  I gave away one and still use the other as firepit. Not the same, not as cool (heat wise literally) and not as cool (fun wise) though 

frazzdaddy

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

Lit

frazzdaddy said:

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

That yours?

frazzdaddy

Lit said:

frazzdaddy said:

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

That yours?

Yes.

Cornholio

frazzdaddy said:

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

“Manganese a few friends to help me move this”

frazzdaddy

Cornholio said:

frazzdaddy said:

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

“Manganese a few friends to help me move this”

I cheated and used my JD front end loader. Trick was leveling it on the rocks.

Tspud1

Been making some covers for these SOLO firepits

Buckwoody Egger

This is a Ranger model in case anyone is curious about the smaller one. Went smaller for several reasons. I like the portability since it is not left outside and this area in pic has other uses. The big flame pic was a bunch of chunk and two 12” birch logs like in the pan by the grass. I will split/ quarter those birch too but not tonight. Also surprising how much flame you get from yard twigs which we have tons of. Gotta feed it—  it doesn’t burn too long if you don’t want it to. 

Time wise—Once you get to embers, you are 1 hour or so away from the whole thing being cool the to touch.  Dump ashes in a galvanized ash can or in a spot in yard that you can water real quick.  So in three hours I had it set up, almost 2 hours of flame and then back in storage. 

The galvanized pan in pics is not for snuffing, just for bringing chunk along, but it could be a lid in case of rain during embers / cool down or I want to leave it out overnight and it might rain. Snuffing is not needed or a good idea since you aren’t snuffing the intake too. 

I splurged on the ultimate bundle and don’t regret it at all. 

If I wasn’t going for portability and had a big spot away from the house (No screen needed), I probably would have gone with the breeo over solo stove. They are great looking and the grill tower/rod is great too.  Or maybe an S+S fire pit.  

Canugghead

@Buckwoody Egger Nice. Forgive my poor eyesight, if it wasn’t for the photo on the left, l thought the contraption on the right is @SGH ‘s anus warmer 

caliking

frazzdaddy said:

1250 lb repurposed crusher cone. I am told it's made of manganese making it to hard to recycle.

Not that I'm the first to say it, but that's a sweet spot you have set up.

frazzdaddy

@caliking Thank you man, it's a labor of love for sure.  Hopefully, when we figure out what normal is going to be you guys can come hang out and teach me to cook.

caliking

frazzdaddy said:

@caliking Thank you man, it's a labor of love for sure.  Hopefully, when we figure out what normal is going to be you guys can come hang out and teach me to cook.

oh, hell NO!! If I'm comin' out there, I fully intend to soak it all up, and drink other people's beer. I'm good at that

frazzdaddy

caliking said:

frazzdaddy said:

@caliking Thank you man, it's a labor of love for sure.  Hopefully, when we figure out what normal is going to be you guys can come hang out and teach me to cook.

oh, hell NO!! If I'm comin' out there, I fully intend to soak it all up, and drink other people's beer. I'm good at that

Come on, three beer fridges no waiting...

FarmingPhD

@frazzdaddy - I looked up that style fire pit after you mentioned it on one of the Friday night sessions I made it to.  Really cool, my wife vetoed the effort to set one in our backyard in town.  She didn’t think a crane, even though the neighborhood kids would think it’s awesome, would be a reasonable solution to get it into the backyard.

frazzdaddy

FarmingPhD said:

@frazzdaddy - I looked up that style fire pit after you mentioned it on one of the Friday night sessions I made it to.  Really cool, my wife vetoed the effort to set one in our backyard in town.  She didn’t think a crane, even though the neighborhood kids would think it’s awesome, would be a reasonable solution to get it into the backyard.

 They are really cool. Glad you got one going and like it. A mid sized skid steer would handle it but will reek havoc on the yard. Hopefully you got a good deal.  I have one down by the pond as well.  One of theses days I am going to weld up some kind of cooking apparatus for it.  

Wolfpack

For those that have one- what accessories did you get? Do I need the stand or shield?

Legume

Wolfpack said:

For those that have one- what accessories did you get? Do I need the stand or shield?

I bought the full kit and it’s good.  The stand gets it 3” off the ground, the spark guard is important for where I am, the cover is necessary as I leave it out and you don’t want water collecting in there.