Smokeless Fire Pit - Blue Sky Pellet Fire Pit
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- As much as we love a warm campfire while out in our teardrop camper, recent regulations are making it difficult to haul firewood across state lines to popular vacation campground spots. What are we going to do? Enter the pellet fire pit! Billed as a virtually smokeless solution to a traditional campfire, the Blue Sky pellet fire pit uses tiny compacted wood pellets as a fuel source. We should be able to haul these anywhere we please. In this episode, we test one out to see if it’s worthy of our next teardrop camper or travel trailer camping adventure.
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Music in this video from Epidemic Sound:
“By the Fire” by George’s Town
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Music in this video from the CZcams Creative Commons Library
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The heat is from the two of you smitten! You guys are a cute couple. Thanks for the review
Side note: You can buy pellet style animal bedding and it is the same as standard wood pellets, but usually it is cheaper.
I love how ur wife looks at u . Aww so sweet
It’s pretty nice, I must say!
Thank you for your review. Also I thank those for the comments. Very helpful🇺🇸
12:17 is all you need to know!
Nice review! Love my little portable pit.
Bonus use for using up some scrap hardwood as a starter!
FANTASTIC Review!!!!! Thank you so much! Just ordered me one. Looking forward to it! Thanks Again!
Thank you! After the first 30-45 minute burn, be sure to replenish the pellets slowly.
Happy Birthday Michael! As usual, another great informative video. Keep them coming!
Thank you!
Great review of this product. Just picked one up in the winter
SUPER informative. Thanks for sharing.
I agree with Jayden, the two of you are lovely!! You make me smile :)
Thank you for saying that. We certainly enjoy our time together.
Great review! Thank you😊
Nice and thorough Review! Appreciated the info before purchasing!
Thanks for the review. You seem to know your stuff and I trust your opinion. Got a wife and young daughter that will enjoy this hopefully.
We like our fire pit, but just don’t let it get too low before you add more pellets. If you snuff the flame out, it’s a spectacle how much it smokes!!
Thank you 👍🏻
awesome review. good job!. I appreciate your choice of words as well when you say "smokes like a son of a gun". easy to watch with my kids.
Thank you! You’ll not find any cursing here.
Indeed Happy Birthday. Many more. Good idea.
Thanks so much!!
Appreciate the video. About to order one.
excellent idea, headed to amazon right now. be a perfect addition to our camper, thanks for sharin.
You bet! Enjoy!
We bought a Solo Stove Bonfire last year. Basically the same stove as yours but larger. The Solo Stove line is made from stainless steel and quite a bit more than $80. I've never thought about wood pellets in it...... might be a good way to go. I'm thinking it could get pretty expensive though. Our pit likes to be fed!!! Burning the wood that efficiently burns it up pretty fast. I think you'll love it!
Good video thanks!!
Cool! I have a small ethanol burning pit for our porch. Nice alternative
Smoke solution. If your fire goes out add a fire cube or a small amount of pellets in the center , let it catch fire well enough to add more pellets minimum smoke produced. It is the fire that burns the smoke you just have to have a flame source going to add more pellets. (Problem Solved)
That thick smoke is wood gas. The way this thing works is it heats the fuel to the point where the wood gas is forced out, then when the hot wood gas hits oxygen, the gas combusts. In the case where it started rolling smoke out, your wood gas wasn't hot enough to combust. Probably all you need to do to start the fire again is throw a match or a lit fire starter in there to re-start the secondary burn
I use a just a normal lighter. just stay up wind so you are not in the smoke which will turn to fire once lit.
Great advice
Love this video, thank you so much! ❤
My pleasure
This was such a useful (and hilarious) video. Thanks, man!
Lol! You bet!
great review...prob one of the best i've seen...now subscribed
Welcome to the channel!
You guys seem like folks our family would love to share a campfire with, thanks for the video. I notice this one is a little smaller than the Fire Genie, which might be nice for portability. I'll bet the smell is the finish curing as you mentioned.
Hopefully we’ll cross paths at a campground some time!
Nice video fun and informative superbly done
Great review. Just what folks need to know. For the adding pellet smoke, many others light that smoke immediately and it starts functioning again. I was lucky and found that on Amazon for $49. Snapped it up.
Great info!
I have a little camp stove that works with the same system. The heat that is generated is amazing. Thanks for the review! This looks awesome.
Curious on what brand of stove your talking about . Thanks!
@@festerhairball6588 its one of these. www.silverfire.us/304-stainless-steel-scout-stove. The concept is the same. The heat generated is mostly through the holes around the fire. Looking at mine, I dont know why firepellets wouldnt work in it either.
That looks like a nice product!
Love it 👍👍👍 very nice firepit
Thanks! I hope it holds up over time!
Thank you so much. I found your video very informative and just what I needed to make my decision
Thanks for watching! It does work well, but after the initial 30-45 minute burn just be careful not to snuff it out by adding too many pellets.
I just order a Blue Sky fire pit from your recommendation. I have been debating using a Smokeless vs. a Propane pit because of firewood restrictions and this is a very affordable alternative. Your channel has been a great source of information for this Cookeville Tennessee 5th wheeler. Thanks for all you do.
Great! Hey, we’re practically neighbors! Maybe we’ll cross paths at at campground.
Used Pallet wood cut in chunks and it works well with this firepit.
I just bought the similar InnoStage one for our camper
Good review, same experience with the smoke.
It smokes like crazy when it’s snuffed out!
Thank you…great review! You and your wife are super cute together!!
Thanks so much! She’s definitely the better half.
Enjoyed your review…. Thank you
Thanks! We used it last night with chunks of wood and it did really well with that.
I think you just sold one.. my wife ask if I heard about one of these. I said no. So like always i when right to CZcams, Yours was the second thumbnail to chose from and I liked that picture you had so it was the first video… and only one I watched. You answered every question we could’ve had. It’s my wife
‘ birthday in two weeks and this is now what she wants because of your video. Thanks. You just go a subscriber sir.
Happy Birthday! We love ours, but just be careful not to snuff the fire out with too many pellets when adding more.
Great vlog sir
Thank you!
Very good for a emergency S'mores on the side of the road on road trips
Definitely!
Great video
Thank you!
Great review 👍🏽
Thank you!
I got one of these as a gift. I already burn pellets in my fireplace and buy them in 40 lb bags for about $5 a bag. 50 cents worth of pellets will give you about an hour of fire in this pit. Very efficient. Great Pit. Great video.
A tip when adding pellets.. I fill brown paper lunch bags with pellets and just toss a bag on like adding a log to a fire. The paper bag help get the pellets going too.
Well dang! That’s a great idea! Thanks for the tip.
Hi! Where do you get 40lb bags for $5?
@@MsAngel737 Lowes
@@ralphb.3802 Sweet!! Thank you so much for your reply 😊
To start wood pellets I find it best to use a gel fire starter. You just mix it in and light it.
So u bought yourself a birthday present 🎁 and put a wee bow on it 😆 caught!!
Wow tons of smoke 💨 😱😱😱but now i know not to do that👍 im ordering one
Happy Birthday!
Thanks so much!
Happy Belated Birthday! Hugs!!
Thank you!!
Great review. Looks like a good alternative. I guess the only downside is it will get messy if putting out early with water, But that would be the case with any portable fire pit. Looking forward to your future vids.
I’ll bet it would be messy. It would probably need a good rinse and dry.
bucket of sand?
Keep a soup can with your pellets to throw in some occasionally. That would also be nice for additional 10 minutes burn vs another hour pouring in a big amount that might smothering the fire.
Thanks for posting this Michael! I don’t like having to purchase firewood either especially if we have some right in our backyard. We do bring it when we camp close to home. When we camp in the Adirondack Mts we forage wood. The campsites are so spacious, it’s easy to find fallen branches. But sometimes I just don’t want all the smoke 💨.
I was thinking of a gas firepit but the pellet firepit looks great!
I was just telling Chris that I thought the heat smell might be the black paint and then Joann said it 😁 LoL
Happy New Year to you two!
~ Maria.
Ps. Loved seeing the chickens in the background 🐓
Happy New Year! We’re still learning how to use it. We like it, but learned to never let the flames get too low before feeding it! It went from smokeless to space shuttle launch! Lol! Good hearing from you. Be well!
@@CampandCamera OMGoodness! i saw that - woooow... “a space shuttle launch” is the perfect description! LoL
If you use a gas bottle torch you can reignite the wood gas which is the smoke pouring off. As you are gasifying wood gas without ignition.
I use a hand held bottle gas torch to light wood fires too
Great tip!!!
That seems like a really nice option. I got a propane fire pit a few years ago since I live in an area with regular fire bans. The propane pit technically counts as a cook stove (and emits no sparks or debris), so it's still permitted at most ban levels. Also no smoke and plenty of heat, but it can be a bit bulky and uses a fair amount of fuel.
I’ve heard good things about the propane units.
Megabowl is the name of the propane pit I bought.....I will never burn wood again. I love the smell of a fire, just not in the teardrop.
I love the smell too, but it kills my sinuses!
@Bobby Grumbles yup! 24" model
You should try attaching a Mason jar lid on the underside of your pellet canister lid with a nut n bolt and 2 large washers. That way you can keep your fire starts in the Mason and they won't bury in the pellets
Nice... I like it. Oh, happy birthday.
Thank you Friend!
This is older, but just a few tips - as a pellet stove owner. Yes, that's just what pellets do in the stove - if the flame is going out and you add pellets, first it smokes, then poof - it flames. :-) Most pellets are actually compressed sawdust - so it makes use of even the waste of a lumber yard or wood working facility that couldn't be used otherwise. I suggest using gel fire starter - for a more even distribution at start up. I am surprised they don't have some sort of safety grate - those flames look scary in a forest environment.
When you add pellets, yes add them when there is still flame. It is best to add the pellets with a metal scoop and add them one quadrant at a time. Each time you add pellets, the new pellets will snuff out the flame in the area onto which they are added and will create a lot of smoke. So long as the stove is hot with flame, the smoke will be burned off as it exits the top of the stove. But it you snuff out the entire flame with pellets you will have a large smoke bomb!
Happy late Birthday and New Year
Thank you!!
Check out the Biolite camp stove it's basically the same thing but smaller and you can charge a phone with it. Also just wanted to say you don't need to run pellets in it you can use regular fire wood if it small enough to fit inside.
Good tips! Thank you!
Prolific smoke generators! It takes work to keep them going for >1 hour
👍
Note: I already have a pellet fireplace so, this is a natural for us.
thanks for this, i understood it's not for me. not at present at least. thanks!
Happy birthday.
Thank you!
This is so helpful! Your video was very thorough, way more info than the others I've seen. I have allergies and smoke from camp fires wreaks havoc on me. This looks like a great alternative! I wonder if the pellets are food safe?
You can actually purchase pellets that are made specifically for grilling.
What do they specifically do to make them suitable for grilling?
The Blue Shy is always a good idea for a campfire in Tennessee especially the Gatlinburg area
I didn’t even know those existed! Thanks for sharing, and happy birthday 🎉 🎂
Yeah, neither did I! Thanks for the wishes!
Nice review! This review made me decide I definitely want one. So I searched the internet. Unfortunately nowhere to buy here in Europe. Any ideas?
These things are great but they won't get you past an open flame fire ban. That is what we endure up here. So I stick with my propane campfire. For a log burning campfire I use the inner perforated drum from an old washing machine. I just place it in the fire pit/ring. It just feels safer to me, contains the embers, etc. While that doesn't eliminate all smoke it is less than a regular campfire.
Excellent review, thank you! I definitely want to pick one of these up for my back yard. I was wondering if it is ok to use wood on this too, or should it strictly be pellets?
i've watched a few vids now and still haven't seen it make a small fire, that you can cook on.
An ordinary fire will do the same thing when covered up so that oxygen can't get to the fire below. The smaller the item that's used for fuel, the more it's likely to happen. Like you said, those wood pellets would be better than buying overpriced firewood. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the info! That makes sense.
I have a small stove with secondary burn and i prepackage pellets in paper lunch bags.. makes easy to keep fueling fire.. Also, fire gel is helpful for ignition..
Great tips!
I also wonder if you don't time it right and the flames go out, if you only add a handful of pellets just to get it burning again, then add more. Maybe the smaller amount of pellets would smoke less.
Terrific video. What would happen if you burned regular wood in it? The pieces of wood would have to be smaller to fit in and not pile too high, but, in the event you ran out of pellets, could you use regular wood and would it be smokeless? Frankly, I’m already buying one, but it sure would make for an interesting experiment.
I read a review where someone used small chunks in theirs with good success.
I build a small gas bottle based wood stove for my camper van (obviously I installed a dedicated air inlet to the stove to prevent accidents with carbon monoxide)
In this wood stove I burn wood pellets in a miniature version of this thing. A repurposed stainless steel table top bottle cooler which I drilled and cut to act like a 10 inch tall and 4 inch diameter pellet burning insert for said wood stove.
No smoke to speak of (only when lighting it and a couple of minutes in), about 1.5 pound of pellets for about 4 hours of burning and copious amounts of heat in the van.
I hardly fill up the burner insert to full to get a nice and roaring fire for 2 hours and a even nicer amber/coal heat for about another hour and a half.
The van is not large: about 12 m3 in volume and the wood stove is able to keep a comfortable heat going even when it is freezing out... I sometimes even have to start the roof fan(s) to get rid of some of the heat because it works so well...
The dedicated air supply is basically a tube of 3 inches which acts also also the stand (bolting the stove to the floor of the van) The tube carries fresh air from underneath the van to the bottom of the burn chamber where the stainless steel burner insert sits on top of a metal rim.
The insert is unable to topple over inside the stove. I can also add pellets through a small tube (2 inches in diameter) which is capped. The cap has a scoop attached to it so I can scoop up some pellets from a container and add it to the burner insert.
The wood stove itself is made with an old gas bottle which is rather tall ( I believe about 21 inches) The gas bottle was an old propane bottle which I found at a scrap yard.
The stove is tall enough to house the burner insert and still can watch the flames coming from the burner insert through a heat treated piece of glass set into a hinged door. I can burn regular wood but I have only tried that once because it does smoke quite a lot not using the burner insert. I did use the burner insert with small pieces of wood (just to try it) but getting small pieces of wood - about quarter of an inch or so or even smaller) is not easy, especially if you want enough of it to last a couple of days. Some mulches can be used but only if the wood chip size isn't too large. Also pieces of wood do not pack as well as pellets do in the insert which results in the need to add more wood throughout the evening. Pellets are the easiest fuel to use in small wood stoves and are relatively easy to get hold of...
I used a standard pellet stove exhaust pipe (80mm diameter) to carry any gasses out through the roof of the van. The 5 feet in total stack provides more then enough of a draw...
I have copper pipe wrapped around the lower part of the stack to be able to get some hot water for washing and showering...
How clever!! I love the innovation. I’m all about wood pellets. I’d love to see this in action.
I have two questions :
1.Does it smoke just before it goes out ?
2. Does it scorch the ground below it ?
Love your videos
Smoke isn’t really an issue until too many pellets are dumped on too late. It does scorch the ground as hot ashes fall into the metal base. It would be best used in dirt, sand, gravel, or rocks.
Did you get the 10 inch or 16-in
Good video. Happy Birthday.
Thank you!
Mike, do you RC anymore? It would be cool to have an event where people could get together to camp and crawl for a weekend.
Yep, sure do. I fly RC airplanes and drones, and run a crawler here and there.
Happy birthday! Great video
Thank you!
When you get that smoke plume, that smoke will ignite immediately with any open flame/lighter. Just an FYI.
I’m gonna try that. Thank you!
now if only there were some grilling attachments for it ..... could be easily modified.
Definitely!
Hey Mike, see you have not been posting lately. Hope all is well.
Thanks for checking in. I’ve actually been down I’ll for a bit. I hope to be back at it soon.
I would like to know. When your done with the fire pit and flames are gone. Do you just leave it and does it smoke until it cools off.
When the fire dies and only hot coals remain, it pretty much just radiates heat, but there’s little to no smoke. The only real smoke you’ll get is when you’re first starting the fire, or if you put too many pellets back on it and snuff it out.
That smell you're talking about is wood vapor
Thanks, how do you think you could put it out if you need to?
I’m not really sure, but it doesn’t burn very long, so it should be much of an issue.
If I use a solo cup to scoop my pellets in how many scoops would you say to use while it’s burning?
You’ll need to experiment, but I usually put one ladle scoop on one side of the fire. After a few minutes do a scoop on the other side. All that said, it’s best to follow the manufacturers recommendations for safety.
I wonder what would happen to your burn time if you started with pellets and used Pres-To-Logs to keep it going.
I’ll bet that would work well. I may just try that!
@@CampandCamera Can't wait. Look forward to the video.
Does it smoke once the fire is out? Like when it’s time to go to bed.
Just a little, but nothing significant
If you could estimate the cost of pellets consumption/hr of burn, is it cost effective over wood logs?
I don’t have very much run time with it yet, but based on my limited sample, I’m thinking about $1/hour.
How hot does it get on the bottom? Would it need to be on the ground to use?
Ashes fall in the bottom, so it gets pretty hot. It would be best on dirt, gravel, or sand.
What brand fire starter did you use?
I don’t remember the brand, but it’s the bag of little fire starter cubes that Lowes sells.
That looks like it should work with regular wood, too, if you run out of pellets.
It very well may. I’ll try to do an update with regular wood.
I was thinking the same thing. Maybe cut in short pieces.
@@CampandCamera have you tried it with small logs yet?
No, but a friend has and said it works well with small chunks.
My pellet smoker will do that if you don't clean out the fire box before starting a new cook session. It smokes so bad and then WHOOSH it will blow the lid open. I love this pit but I have a question. For a average 3 hour evening by the fire, how many pellets do you think I would burn through?
This is a very rough guess, but based on my initial run, I’d say maybe 20lbs?
@@CampandCamera Thanks. I really like the burn on that. I will order me one. Easy to transport pellets in my Class C I no longer have a truck bed to haul the wood
Just be sure to feed more pellets while the flames are still high. Enjoy!
Where did u get the wood pellets?
I bought these at a local farm store. You can buy them at Lowe’s, Menards, and the like.
@@CampandCamera tyty
Will this work with regular firewood?
I haven’t tried, but if so, the pieces would need to be fairly small. Check out the Solo Stove. It’s a larger unit just for firewood.
@@CampandCamera thanks for the reply!
So, where there in no smoke, there is no fire in this case!!! Okay, so add pellets before the flame goes out!
What kind of fire wood did you use for this video ? What is it called?
I used wood pellets from a bag.
Did it leave ash behind?
Very little