Solo Mesa XL with heat deflector - wood pellets

winter 2024, playing with a Mesa XL solo stove with heat deflector. I am burning wood pellets this burn. Having the heat without the smoke is pretty great. The use of the heat deflector is quite noticeable. Just using pellets is perfect for having a 30-50 minute fire. You can add more pellets and enjoy the fire longer, you just need to add rather slowly as to not snuff the fire out too much and cause it to smoke.

[@PracticalGadgets]

We have a Mesa XL on our RV for smoke "less" fires and some ambience at happy hour. We use hardwood pellets, which burn a bit cleaner and hotter than the much cheaper softwood pellets. Alcohol hand sanitizer gel makes a great pellet starter. I was contemplating adding the heat diffuser, but from your video I see it greatly expands the storage space requirements, which would be a no-go for our little RV. Presumably you could disassemble the diffuser, but that could be annoying and messy if it's coated with soot.

[@justlooking2183]

In Beavis voice “ played around with his unit 😂

[@FlexibleToast]

I think this convinced me. Do you think with the heat deflector you could sit multiple people around it in the spring time? I'm thinking of places that a big firepit would probably be told no, but something like this could probably be alright.

[@mikeford7870]

Yes, especially with no wind.

[@FlexibleToast]

@mikeford7870 perfect. Sounds like a way I can grill a couple hot dogs and marshmallows on a cool spring night. I will say I like the look of the Mesa XL a lot more than the Ozark. That colored coating looks good. Thanks for the response.

[@jeremykindy]

Where did you get the crosspieces shown at the very end?

[@mikeford7870]

We got them on Amazon. I think they were like $14

[@jeremykindy]

Thanks! @@mikeford7870

[@Tunfeld]

Hey Mike,j ust got my Mesa XL with the heat deflector. I seem to have a decent amount of smoke with the deflector on it. None with it off. Did you have to burn yours in several times before it stopped smoking or did yours not smoke from the start?

[@mikeford7870]

What are you burning? I have only burned pellets so far. The instructions state that the flame should not be touching the bottom of the deflector, as it impacts performance. I have found this hard to achieve and the bottom gets a lot of soot on it as a result. However, I have not had any issue with smoke when burning pellets. I suspects burning sticks will contain more moisture and will smoke more. It does seem a bit odd that it would smoke more with the deflector on. With or without, both use a top ring that helps pull in preheated air, which helps burn the fuel entirely, eliminating smoke (in most cases, anyway)