Solo Stove has an optional heat deflector that helps distribute heat more evenly. The heat can be intense, so we used welding gloves while tending the fire and adding logs. If you want a smokeless fire pit that lives up to the hype, looks great, and fits in at home or on an occasional weekend of car camping, then the Bonfire 2.0 is a solid option. Solo Stove’s Bonfire 2.0 is an update to the Bonfire we previously tested, now including a removable ash pan. While its smokeless performance remains unchanged, the ash pan does add about five pounds to the overall weight.
Today, when he’s not testing tools or writing for Popular Mechanics, he’s busy keeping up with the projects at his old farmhouse in eastern Pennsylvania. Danny Perez is a Commerce Editor for Popular Mechanics with a focus on men’s style, gear, and home goods. Recently, he was coordinator of partnership content at another product journalism outlet. Prior to that, he was a buyer for an independent men’s shop in Houston, Texas, where he learned all about what makes great products great. His spare time is occupied by watching movies and running to impress strangers on Strava. There was some initial smoke when we first lit the wood in the Peak and it took a little longer than others we tested for the fire to get hot enough for the smoke to abate—a good fifteen minutes.
If you want to keep the flat black looking nice, it will likely need touching up over time though it’s heavy-gauge steel construction won’t rust out any time soon. The Breeo Y-Series comes from the brand that introduced the first smokeless fire pit to the market. It’s smaller and lighter than ozark trail canopy previous models with an added handle on the body—it’s positioned to balance the fire pit when carried in one hand at your side. It includes a carrying case with a drawstring closure at the top—which we love—and is essentially a big bag with handles, which makes it easier to transport.
Clean-up required scooping ash out, as the unit is too heavy to dump out easily—Breeo sells a shovel designed to ease this process. The brand also offers several accessories for cooking over the fire, which make the X Series as much as grill as it is a fire pit. We found the interior to be relatively cavernous, which means more wood fit inside, and with that you get bigger fires and more heat. Other than the first couple of minutes when we lit the kindling, the X Series was virtually smokeless, as promised. Wagons can be helpful for all kinds of jaunts, including trips to the beach and the farmers market. This wagon has wider wheels that can traverse sandy terrain with ease.
No other chair in our testing pool—except perhaps the extremely pricey Yeti Trailhead—came close to matching the King Kong’s build quality. Our testers consistently said the King Kong chair was the most heavy-duty-feeling model of all the chairs we tested. The sturdy yet ozark trail screen house simple Mac Sports Collapsible Folding Outdoor Utility Wagon is what most people are probably looking for in a folding wagon—a versatile, easy-to-use, lighter wagon at a reasonable price. The Mac Sports Wagon weighs 22½ pounds and can hold up to 150 pounds of gear.
The Bonfire projects heat—a lot of it—in an even circle, but mostly from the rim and up. If we had the fire roaring, the heat radiated more evenly but didn’t really reach our feet on a cool day. To empty the ash pan, we had to reach in and remove the perforated bottom grate and tip it to dump any ash off and into the pan below. After removing the grate, we could remove and dump the pan though the pan is smaller than the grate, so some ash is going to fall around the outside edge. We’ve come to appreciate Solo Stove’s smokeless fire pit technology, which really does work. The fire pit is a double-walled, stainless-steel cylinder with holes ringing the base on the outside and around the top on the inside.
Compared with cheaper chairs of its kind (like those from Walmart), the REI Co-op chair functions better and will last much longer. A functional cupholder, a convenient carry strap, and durable fabric distinguish this kids’ chair from similar seats. This chair’s big canopy provides ample sun protection at a campsite or sporting event, and it doubles as a backpack-strap-equipped carrying case. This chair costs slightly more than the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair, but it’s still a budget-friendly option. It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs.
It comes with a five-year warranty for its frame and a two-year warranty for its fabric; this rivals the warranty for our top lightweight pick. Renetto licenses its patent to a company called Kelsyus, which makes cheaper versions of the chair. There are also chairs that are hybrids between categories, such as the Nemo Stargaze Reclining Camp Chair, which comes highly rated and recommended. ozark trail canopy Every year, the number of impressive-looking soft coolers grows, and we’ve been expanding our selection of test-worthy models since 2017. Testing consists of a quantitative ice melt test and extensive field use. Field use takes place in various environments, from hot desert hikes to road trips from muggy Minnesota to sunny California, for a well-rounded set of conditions.