Originally posted 2019-04-01 18:57:48.
Hello to all you outdoors lovers! Last week I did a quick demo on the Biolite Campstove 2 Midnight Edition Bundle, and today I am coming to you with another brilliant outdoors product from Biolite. We all love the outdoors and a campfire is a quintessential part of camping or enjoying a night in the open air. Campfires are great, but they also have their set of challenges, and the biggest one for me is being around the smoke generated by an open fire. Biolite has created a beautiful solution to this problem with the Biolite FirePit. Using an on board battery powered fan system, the Biolite FirePit injects fresh oxygen into the fire, allowing it to burn cleaner and combust more completely, which goes a long way in eliminating the smoke that you would normally encounter while burning wood or charcoals. Let’s check it out.
Biolite FirePit Unboxing
Biolite FirePit operates on a very similar premise to it’s smaller cousin the CampStove 2. A detachable battery featuring 10,400 mAh of power affixes to one end of the FirePit, and when you begin to burn material you turn on the fan system. The fan, which features four different speeds and will automatically react to the intensity of the fire inside the pit, injects fresh air into the FirePit through 51 holes in metal tubes throughout the pit’s surface area. This injection of extra oxygen makes a huge difference in how “clean” the burn is. The battery pack sits on three metal mounts on the left side of the pit and is simply clicked into position when it’s ready for use. The only caveat to note here: Unlike the smaller CampStove 2, FirePit’s battery pack does not have a TEG (thermo electric generator) unit – So with this firepit you are not able to generate electricity from the heat of the flames.
In terms of portability, Biolite FirePit is a breeze to carry around and set where ever you’d like to use it. It weighs in at just about 20 lbs, and the carrying handles are solid for picking it up once you’ve screwed them in place. The metal legs also fold down for more compact storage, and this firepit would be easy to toss into the back of a car or truck for your next trip to the beach or mountains.
FirePit allows the bottom grill grate to be at two levels within the pit itself, either at the lowest setting for use with larger logs, or you can hang the grille on two small hooks, which would allow you to burn charcoal in closer proximity to the sliding hibachi grill at the top of the pit. In my demo below you’ll see that I started on this higher setting and then lowered the metal grates down in order to toss in some larger firewood pieces. Both positions work well, but I would recommend using the higher setting to do your cooking with. You’ll need some sort of metal hook or fire poker in order to accomplish grabbing the grates and lowering them, but it’s pretty easy to “Macgyver” a method to do so. So, let’s see how FirePit performed!
Biolite FirePit Demonstration and Initial Review
I did my test on the FirePit on a cold Sunday morning. Snow had fallen so I felt confident I could set up FirePit on my back deck (do note though this is not recommended, Biolite recommends that you use the FirePit on surfaces such as concrete). I pulled up a patio chair, picked a good spot away from the house, and started to prepared my charcoal – I purchased some “natural” charcoal for my cooking portion of the experiment, while I had some assorted oak, aspen and pine firewood ready to go for my campfire after I wrapped up cooking.
Now, something to take note of concerning smoke while getting a fire started in the Biolite Firepit – there will be some, especially depending on the kind of fuel you’re going to start. In my case, the “natural” wood charcoals were extremely smokey when I was trying to get them started, as they were very stubborn to catch fire. I actually ended up having to toss some smaller pieces of wood into the mix in order to get the fire hot enough to catch the coals going. Once everything started to catch though, I cranked the fan unit on to medium speed and the smoke was virtually eliminated from the mix. I noticed that it might be easier to get a good fire started using some smaller wood bundles, and then toss your charcoal on to the the fire you’ve already created.. but I could have just bought crummy charcoal. Anyway..
My first order of business after getting a good hot FirePit was to get down to grilling! After all, what fun is a campfire if you don’t cook something on it! Biolite Firepit has a sliding hibachi style grill that sits on the top of the pit. It can easily fit 4 ribeye steaks, or 5-6 shish kebob skewers on top of it. What’s also nice is it has two little brackets at the bottom of the grill which allow you to slide it off to the side if you need to add more fuel, or if you have something fully cooked and another item that still needs heat. I began my culinary adventure with some shishkebobs along side of two juicy rib-eye steaks. The heated coals made for quick work on both items and I was done cooking everything within about 20 minutes ( I like my meat pretty rare though, so your mileage may vary)
Now that I was done cooking I really wanted to turn the heat up, so to say. So I lowered the grate down to the lower position using my metal fire poker, and set about putting in some larger oak and pine logs. For this task I turned the fan up to high on the unit ,and within no time I had a roaring toasty fire – all without the smoke you’d expect from burning larger logs.
This was a great way to spend a Sunday morning! The crackling fire kept me plenty warm as I sat and watched the FirePit, and the see through side walls of the Biolite FirePit really allow you to see the entirety of the fire as it burns – as you are probably aware, there’s not many better ways to relax than sitting around watching the fire! Once my bigger logs died down, it was time to get on with the day so I placed the fan on Max setting to help burn out the coals until they were cool. Once everything was dead, I proceeded to clean out the fire pit using the trap door located on the bottom of the pit, and once I had all the big stuff out I was able to blow out the remaining ash – and this ash was very fine, a testament to how completely this firepit burns fuel. Easy to clean, no hassle. I popped on the provided rain cover and stored the firepit in the garage to await its next adventure.
Overall I thought my first use and thoughts of the BioLite FirePit were very positive. It’s small enough to be easily carried to any location, but still packs enough space to get a very hot fire going. The battery pack seemed to still have plenty of power when I was done after use (probably an hour and a half burn time in total) and while it lacks the electricity production of the CampStove, it’s really a pretty simple endeavor to just plug it in until the next use. I didn’t play with the BlueTooth capabilities this time, but Biolite provides a free app that allows you to remotely control the fan unit to optimize the flame size and heat, so on my next go around I will be sure to have that downloaded and ready to play with. While it’s not a small ticket item in terms of price, I was thinking about how much a traditional firepit runs at a big box store like Home Depot, and honestly many of the less tech advanced pits can run just as much, if not more than the Biolite – and the main benefit you’re getting from the Biolit pit is the smoke elimination – so that in itself is worth it to me.
Another benefit with going with a Biolite product is that you are doing some good in the world – a portion of each sale goes to help provide clean energy and power for thousands of people in developing nations. Check out this short film that goes over Biolite’s mission and consider them when you are in the market for a new FirePit!
