I don't have any personal experience with a Solo, but sell a lot of firewood to those that use them. Without exception, all the owners love them. A couple of customers that have other brands/types have said they wished they had gone Solo instead of knock-offs. One customer had a cheaper Costco model and said he was returning it and purchasing the bonfire. Also have noticed customers are purchasing the heat deflector for their Solos.
I love my Bonfire solo stove and have enjoyed it for a few years now. One repeat comment friends had was that there wasn't a lot of heat that radiated from the sides like a traditional fire pit. Its certainly hot enough to melt any shoe which is something I can attest to! The construction of the Solo stoves and what makes the super cool secondary burns like my wood stove prevents outward heat lower down for the most part. We don't find this to be a problem during mild weather but once it gets cold we like to put on our deflector like EODDiver mentions. I wish I had a neat pic of all the secondaries in action but all of mine are on video... We lent ours to a friend for a few weeks and they used it a lot. They tend to have bigger groups around their fires so opted for the Yukon. It has the newer grated bottom that is removeable and easier to clean out. The Yukon on Solo Canadas website is going for $589 and my Yukon is going for $310 both of which are sale prices. Like Cash Larue I live in areas where people are very sensitive to smoke due to the forest fire danger during the summer so it being smokeless is a nice feature. Here's a few pics of our recently purchased deflector. I'm not convinced on the look but it does the trick for more horizontal heat.
Late last fall, I was taking a different route out of the woods. I spied a washing machine tub that someone had discarded just laying alongside the road I was on. ( U.P. tradition, sorry to say) Who was it on this site that used one of them for a fire pit? Grizzly adams maybe?
I have a friend who mounted a washing machine tub onto a lawn mower frame. Practical and funny at the same time!
My stacks only have 17-18 inch splits in them as that's what works best in my wood stove. If I use these them they tend to stick up which defeats the purpose of a smokeless fire so whenever I come across smaller ones I use those. This year I plan to pay more attention to the perfect size so I can buck up a pine for a good fit. I would say shorter than 14 inches for sure. I've been burning all my stubbies in there this year.
Excellent! Good to know! I’ve got some softwood I need to cut up so I’ll be sure to size appropriately. Really looking forward to trying the stove out!
I have a tub fire pit, i have used it for many years, cut one side out for perforated metal so i could view the fire.
We had an old washing machine crap out at the fire station. We pulled the stainless tub and made a fire pit out of it… at work. We burned the bottom out of it completely after two uses. Firefighters are hard on everything though. My wife always says we are frat house gorillas.
Um, sir… there is a wolf in your picture. Please be careful. Side note: I’d love a heat deflector like that, but they are so freaking expensive!
