Stop the Smoke, Do THIS to Your Fire Pit

I like the fact that he didn't edit out the mistakes he made and what didn't work in order to demonstrate how the various changes effect the outcomes. Great video!

“Build a man a fire, and he'll be warm for a day. Set a man on fire, and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.” -- Terry Pratchett, from Jingo.

I appreciate you doing all of the homework and expenses. Saving me time and money. I'm a single dad, and I enjoy doing little things like this with my daughter to show her love. Burning firewood and hugging my little one is so great. Every dollar counts, so thanks again.

Just had to say one of the best integration of a sponsor and not taking the whole frame of the video and giving us continued progress of the project at the same time! 👏👏👏

I'm thinking the only thing you could have done that would improve the performance of your fire pit is more depth. The Solo stoves are much smaller in diameter than your fire pit and they are taller in height. That gives much more space for the air to really heat up as it rises from the bottom to the top of the air channel. Great video! I know I learned a lot by watching it.

0:27 fun fact! (Assuming you don't say it later) the reason smoke seems to always be blowing into your face is because of convection. With nothing obstructing the air's movement toward the fire(and no wind) the smoke will rise straight up. BUT! since there is often a person or group of people somewhat clumped together around the fire, the air that would come from behind them is slowed meaning the air on the other side of the fire that isn't slowed will assert more force bending the convection current and thus the smoke towards the people blocking the air. Of course with the wind blowing the smoke will follow the wind but still be affect by the convection

Tip for calculating the airflow: Measure your 4 gaps in the bricks. That's the surface area of the inflow. Ideally the outflow should be similar in size to the inflow, or slightly larger. Number of holes * pi * diameter is the surface area of the exhaust. Compare the two numbers and then adjust the hole size (or number of holes) until the inflow area matches the outflow.

Wow! I have zero intentions of doing this to my fire pit. I don’t even know how this video found me. But, I certainly appreciate the amount of time, money, and work you put into this video. You’ve earned a like. Great job 👏

Really liked your pit design. There is another way to have a less smokey fire. You don't construct a tipi. Instead you pack in tightly the logs at the bottom. You add smaller pieces and at the top you construct the twig, pinecone, dried orange peel pile. One lights the top, not the bottom. The fire burns gradually downwards but having the fire at the top means it burns the gases coming out of the gradually heated logs. Much less smoke and significantly more heat.

There is one detail about fire pits that people keep forgetting. If the fuel (firewood) is higher than the secondary holes, the secondary burn will become a primary burn for said wood and thus produce smoke. If you want to keep your current system then do not build the fire higher than the secondary holes (maybe an inch shorter). If you are going to mod the system, add a 4th layer of stones and keep the firewood below the holes.

Came for the DIY ideas, stayed for the experimenting! It was so entertaining to watch all of the thought process going behind it

I like that you did your troubleshooting on camera so we could see the how and why in a way that's actually helpful to folks who don't build often/have tons of money to try over and over again.

What you tried to build is a gasifier stove. However, that design relies on two things: small enough diameter to heat up the walls, making the secondary air rise up by draft, and small enough diameter to deliver that air into the flames. It's not really well suited for a large but flat firepit, but kinda works if you make the fire crazy big, as seen.

Great video. But having owned several Solo Stoves, the most important factor in the intensity of smoke is the dryness of the wood.

Loved this, I have a Solo fire and it does smoke to begin with even with dry logs. You also get a better secondary burn with a full fire across the width (rather than a tall fire) as the air passing along the side to come up through the holes is heated more... Great job!

This guy is brilliant! How beautifully he explained the various tests he conducted! He was so determined to achieve the objective of building a smokeless fire pit, and he finally met the objective!

One suggestion I would make to reduce smoke, indoors or out, is to build an "upside down" fire. Put the biggest pieces on the grate, on the bottom, then the next smaller, at a right angle to the biggest ones. Keep alternating layers, leaving some space between the pieces for air, then put newspaper and small kindling on TOP, NOT on the bottom. You may have to feed a bit more small kindling at first, but not for long. You will be amazed at how much cleaner, quicker and hotter the "upside down" fire will burn. Each layer heats the layer below as the fire goes DOWN (trust me, it will, even though fire generally does go up), so each successive layer burns readily, and there is hardly any smoke. When you make a fire the usual way, the bigger wood on top isn't hot or dry enough, so there is quite a bit of smoke until the big pieces get going. Once the "upside down" fire gets down to the bottom layer, you just feed it more wood on top as usual. If you try this method once, you'll never go back.

I really appreciate the “I’m not going to give up no matter how long it takes” attitude in this video.😂

I think the next step in efficiency would be to add spiraling channels around the outside so that the air in the walls of the fire pit can't just go straight up, but has to go at like a 45 degree angle around the outside, increasing the time it spends in the wall and therefore the time it spends heating up. This would likely result in a secondary burn happening sooner after starting the fire, and a more complete secondary burn due to potentially increased velocity.

Pretty sure it would be exponentially better if you placed a another layer of stones on top of the steel liner to add as a "ledge" so that the top opening is a little tapered.