Who doesn’t love a great hangout around a fire pit in the peak of summer? Good friends, good food, warm fire, fresh air. Except, sometimes the air isn’t so fresh if you find yourself downwind from the fire’s smoke and soot.
Enter, smokeless fire pits - all the heat and ambiance you love, without the annoying and harmful smoke. So, how do smokeless fire pits work anyway?
What is a Smokeless Fire Pit?
A smokeless fire pit is basically what it sounds like - a fire pit that burns so efficiently that the would-be smoke burns off before it can escape into the atmosphere. It does so with an innovative design and technology not found in traditional pits - more on this below.
Traditional fire pits usually are completely open to the environment with a few rocks around the edges, allowing air to enter and introduce much-needed oxygen to the fire, but not holding the heat necessary to burn fuel completely (which is why smoke occurs). Smokeless fire pits on the other hand are usually walled containers, trapping heat to help increase the temperature. They in turn need to introduce airflow in creative ways within their walled design.
How Do Smokeless Fire Pits Work?
Smokeless fire pits are all about efficient, complete combustion. Turns out that means two burns, not one.
Complete Combustion - While traditional fires execute a single burn, smokeless fires have complete combustion to thank for their lack of excess smoke. This happens in two stages. First, the primary burn comes from basic wood combustion, which is followed by a secondary burn that reignites smoke particles, thus ensuring they’re burned off before they can escape into the air (and your face or lungs!). In the case of BioLite’s FirePit+, 51 air-jets powered by a 12,800 mAh rechargeable powerpack strategically inject oxygen into the fire, leading to a consistent temperature and complete double-burn.
Design Innovation - Most smokeless fire pits typically feature a cylindrical design with double-wall construction and air vents evenly distributed around the casing both to draw air in (primary burn) and inject warm air around the top (secondary burn). BioLite’s FirePit+ very notably isn’t cylindrical or closed off. To create a full-view smokeless fire, we introduced an innovative feature called X-Ray Mesh, which allows heat to radiate out with a 360° view: glowing embers at the bottom, the gasifying wood in the middle, and the flames coming out at the top.
Animation of BioLite's FirePit+'s powerpack injecting oxygen through 51 air jets, dramatically improving combustion, while allowing heat to radiate out.
Key Benefits of Using a Smokeless Fire Pit
The most prominent benefit of using a smokeless fire pit is less smoke in your eyes, hair, clothes and lungs. That’s right, not no smoke entirely. Smokeless fire pits like FirePit+ will always emit a small amount of smoke, especially right after the fire starts. But we’re still talking way, way less smoke, to the tune of 99% less.
Thanks to their double-combustion technology, smokeless fire pits are also more efficient and use less fuel than a traditional fire pit. That means less wood and charcoal to haul to your site and keep on hand.
Lastly, the environment and our atmosphere will thank you for switching to smokeless. Open fires are a leading cause of CO2 emissions, a top contributor to warming in the atmosphere. Reducing and avoiding these emissions by using a smokeless fire pit will go a long way towards reducing these impacts. While most of the emissions occur in emerging markets where people use open fires to cook daily meals, we can all do our part in limiting how much carbon we emit.
Choosing the Right Smokeless Fire Pit for You
When choosing a smokeless fire pit, consider these three primary factors:
-
Size & Portability
When choosing the right fire pit for your space, you’ll want to consider size and portability. If you plan to take your fire pit on the road, say to the beach or your next campsite, consider a fire pit designed with portability in mind. FirePit+ has foldable legs (meaning it packs down smaller than a mid-size cooler), weighs less than 20lbs (you can carry it with one hand when it’s in the FirePit Carry Bag), and has a unique rectangle form factor (allowing you to stow it away with your other gear in your truck bed, camper or car).
-
Fuel Type & Cooking Compatibility
Planning to cook with your fire pit? If so, you might consider a dual-fuel option like FirePit+. While most smokeless fire pits only burn wood, FirePit+ works with both charcoal and wood. A popular way to enjoy this dual-fuel capability is to load it up with charcoal for perfect grilling on the included grill grate, then when dinner is done you can throw a couple logs on the hot coals and quickly get a crackling fire. It’s a cookout-to-hangout hack that guarantees a relaxing, cozy and smokeless evening by the fire.
-
Design & Materials
For us, the best fire pit is designed to let you see the full fire, not hide it away behind steel walls. That’s what makes FirePit+ so unique - its air-jets enable a clean, double-burn, while the X-Ray Mesh lets you actually see the fire, much like a traditional fire pit. A hidden gate at the bottom of the fire pit allows you to easily clean out any remaining ashes without having to pick up the fire pit and turn it over. Small details like these, combined with rugged, quality materials, ensure you spend less time fussing with your fire pit and more time enjoying it.
Final Thoughts: Is a Smokeless Fire Pit Worth It?
For anyone who camps, enjoys cooking outside, or likes to have a backyard fire on a nice night, the answer is yes. Not having smoke in your face is reason enough to invest in a smokeless fire pit - imagine not having to dodge smoke or circle the fire all night long! Easy cooking, less fuel used, and a cleaner environmental choice are all aspects that make it so your smokeless fire pit pays itself off in no time.
Explore FirePit+ and the FirePit Collection to see accessories and kits that make the smokeless fire pit experience even better.
