Stop the Smoke, Do THIS to Your Fire Pit

“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 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!

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

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

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.

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.

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

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 👏

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.

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.

Dang dude, you put so much work into this video. Thanks for satisfying everyone’s curiosity

You are amazing. So much integrity. You didnt edit out the hard work and mistakes and you listed your references! So many tubers dont do that. Anyway, the results are there, Id like mine to be even wider and more shallow. I might just sacrifice some smoke - maybe. TY

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.

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

... you have a fire in front of you. Why use a lighter😂

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!

so basically a fire pit operates as a high fuel, low oxygen motor and this is an oxygen injecting afterburner.... neat