Today, Solo Stove is announcing a new Pellet Adapter for its Ranger, Bonfire, and Yukon smokeless fire pits. Designed to allow you to use standard wood pellets in your Solo Stove, this adapter is quite simple to use and has the ability to make your outdoor parties more maintenance free. Pricing starts at $40 and goes up, and we’ve spent the past week or so using the Pellet Adapter to give you our thoughts. Keep reading to find out what we think about the Solo Stove Pellet Adapter in our hands-on review.
Solo Stove’s Pellet Adapter is a great add-on for maintenance-free fires
Getting started, why would you want to use pellets in your fire pit anyway? Why not just wood? Well, standard wood is large and burns both hot and fast. Pellets, on the other hand, burn slower and a bit hotter. You can only fit so many wood chunks in the Solo Stove before having to put more in, and, while this has never been a problem for me, I can see how those who are throwing a larger party might want something a little more maintenance-free.
In comes the Pellet Adapter. Solo Stove told us that you can expect approximately two hours of burn time from a full fire pit of pellets, but with our Bonefire 2.0, we experienced what would have been much more than that. We started with about five to 10 pounds of pellets in the Solo Stove, which is somewhere between 1/8 and 1/4 full according to Solo Stove. That amount of pellets burned for a solid hour if not longer, so we could have gone for quite a while with a full Bonefire, and even longer if we had the Yukon. I’m imagining that the two hour burn time is for a full Ranger, which makes sense given what we experienced with five to 10 pounds of pellets, since the Ranger can hold a maximum of 25 pounds.
The Pellet Adapter allows you to use just about any type of wood pellets in your Solo Stove. hardwood pellets will burn slightly longer, while softwood pellets will burn a bit quicker, and there’s also the aromatic difference between all the varieties of wood you might burn. I opted for apple wood pellets from Oklahoma Joe as they were both affordable and fast shipping from Amazon for a 20-pound bag at just $12, while locally it would have cost over $20 for a similarly-sized bag. And, they worked great.
In addition to providing warmth and a place to roast marshmallows (like my wife and I did with ours), you can also use any of the Solo Stove fire pit accessories with the Pellet Adapter, meaning you can still grill and cook with the smokeless fire pit just like before, only, with less maintenance for the fire.
I keep mentioning less maintenance, so let me expand on that. Typically, you have to kinda keep up with a fire. Add more logs here, stir things around to make more room there, it can be a bit annoying. With the Solo Stove Pellet Adapter, you have the ability to fill your fire pit up to the brim (one inch below the secondary burn holes) and just light it and let it go. The Ranger can hold 25 pounds of pellet, the Bonfire 45, and the Yukon 77 pounds, so do keep that in mind. Once filled, you simply follow the instructions for lighting, and then the fire pit does the rest. Because of how controlled pellets burn, you can just let it go and not have to worry about adding more pellets for hours on end, allowing you to enjoy time with your friends and family instead of tending to the fire.
Solo Stove’s Pellet Adapter is available starting at $39.99 for the Ranger, $49.99 for the Bonfire, and $69.99 for the Yukon.
9to5Toys’ Take
In using the Solo Stove Pellet Adapter, it was pretty convenient once I got it lit. Installation was simple, and just required setting the adapter on top of the existing ash tray. Lighting it was a little more difficult than I expected, but only because I was slightly unprepared for lighting pellets. I have little wax fire starters that I typically use with the hardwoods I normally burn, but those didn’t work quite as well for pellets. So, I suggest following Solo Stove’s directions included in the box when it comes to lighting the pellets.
Once the pellets were lit, however, we were off to the races. The fire got nice and hot, and kept my wife and I warm as we sat in our back yard roasting marshmallows and eating grilled pizza. The experience was pretty great once it was going, as well, as I didn’t have to think about adding wood anymore. And, if we did need more, I could just pour some more pellets on top and it would take care of the rest.
Another thing that I didn’t expect, but absolutely love, is there’s even less smoke. When using normal wood in the Solo Stove, there’s essentially no smoke once the fire gets going. But, while you’re getting it going, there’s definitely some smoke to deal with. I can’t say that I experienced much of any smoke while getting the pellets going, outside of the little wax fire starters, which is inevitable. So, using pellets took something that was already almost smoke-free and made it even more smoke-free, making this a win all around.
On that topic, something that slightly surprised me is that even with pellets, there was massive flames coming out of the Solo Stove. In fact, I’d venture to say that the pellets made larger flames than standard wood does, which is what really took me off guard. The pellets seemed to burn hotter and better than normal wood, which is something that’s welcomed on a cold winter night when friends and family are gathered around the fire.
I can honestly see us using the Solo Stove Pellet Adapter semi-frequently when doing family cookouts and having a lot of people over as it really is just a set-and-forget upgrade. Now, don’t actually forget about it, because it is fire, after all. But, it’ll be nice to just pour pellets in, light, and enjoy instead of having to worry about fussing with extra logs, some that fit, some that don’t, etc.
The Solo Stove Pellet Adapter gets a 5/5 from me, as it’s easy to use, does exactly what it claims to (adapt your Solo Stove to use pellets), and even comes in at a fairly affordable price for what it is. If you have a Solo Stove (or are considering buying one), then I highly recommend picking up the Pellet Adapter to go along with it.
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