solostove.com

Expensive but worth every penny

I had been seeing adverts for Solo Stove for a while but already having a chiminea , decided against such an expensive outlay until last week. The chiminea just wasn't cutting it heat wise on cold UK spring evenings. After a bit of research, I decided to invest in a Solo Stove Bonfire 2. A check of some online reviews , led me to buy the stand, heat deflector and the all weather cover. Expensive? Definitely. Over £500 for the lot. But.. the items looked well made and I reckoned that this would be an investment that lasts for years. Time will tell on that front. I ordered from the solo stove . com website which shipped from the Netherlands to the UK. Delivery was quick, having ordered on a Friday afternoon with the items arriving via courier on the following Wednesday. Upon ordering, I opted for the Route package protection, which was supposed to offer protection if the item was lost or damaged in transit. The cost for this was £16.99. Now, you would probably be protected just by your consumer rights to expect the item to arrive undamaged but I figured at the cost I was paying for the stove , this extra insurance was probably worth it. Maybe it was maybe it wasn't. As it stood, the item arrived well packaged and with no issues. Onto the actual items. The Bonfire 2 came in a large box with the cover, stand and a carry bag also in the box. The heat deflector was a separate box. Setting up was easy , the stand (just a stainless steel ring approx 2 inches in height) sits on the ground and the bonfire sits on top. The deflector has 3 legs which require to be clipped into place and secured with 3 small clasps. Building this took less than 2 minutes. Lighting the fire was incredibly quick, a handful of kindling , a firelighter and within 2 minutes the first log was placed inside and starting to burn .Compared to the chiminea , lighting the solo stove is a dream. Put a few more logs in, sit the deflector on the top and within 5-10 minutes the heat was amazing.I noted that once burning , you could effectively place your hand above the deflector and could hardly feel any heat. At the sides though, where the heat was being deflected to, it was roasting ! So on that note, the deflector does it's job perfectly. I would say without this, most of the heat would go straight up so the deflector allows the heat to be spread outwards around the circumference of the bonfire. A worthy addition.As for smoke, in the first 10 minutes of it getting going there is a bit of smoke but once hot, there's hardly any at all , even when you add more logs.Cleaning was easy. Once you let it go out and cool down there is a removable pan at the bottom. This lifts out to reveal an ash pan which collects MOST of the ash. There was still some around the edges so I would recommend you brush that into the centre before removing.So far, we've used it 3 times and it's lit quickly every time and not once have I went inside smelling of smoke like I did with the chiminea or other open fire pits.As I said earlier in the review, yes, it's an expensive bit of kit but if you like sitting out in the garden with a fire going, this is the way to do it. No regrets so far and hopefully I'll get many years of enjoyment out of it.

Date of experience: Apr 16, 2024