It’s a common camper’s trouble: It takes forever to get a fire going and once you do, you can’t even get comfortable around it when it starts blowing smoke in your face. Worst case scenario, the smoke follows you and sends you shuffling around the campfire to find a temporary blind spot until the smoke tries to find you again. Instead of (literally) working around the campfire, Biolite is looking to cut out the smoke altogether.
There is nothing quite like gathering around a bonfire with friends and family. Whether you’re at a campsite or just hanging out in the backyard, the warmth and light generated by a fire can be incredibly relaxing. The downside of course is having to deal with the smoke, which can get into your eyes, permeate your hair and clothes, and even choke your lungs. At times, it can be enough to ruin the entire experience. But BioLite has come up with a brilliant new product that promises to eliminate these problems altogether.
Biolite has had your back on camping supplies before with a portable stove that charges your devices, and now they have a new Kickstarter to stoke their flames. The Biolite FirePit is a wood-burning device that creates an awesome campfire and dilutes all the smoke, leaving only the warmth and glow of a cozy fire to share with your camping pals.
The FirePit uses 51 jets to pump your fire with oxygen, thus creating a better flame (read: more s’mores) and greatly reducing the amount of smoke it lets off. The free app even allows you to control the strength of your flame via Bluetooth while the X-Ray mesh provides a full 360-degree view of your flame to make your camping experience as authentic as possible.
The FirePit is also ideal for burning charcoal and features a grill plate so you can cook up your camp meals with ease. The pit itself is powered by a USB-chargeable battery that can also act as a power bank for your devices.
The company’s new FirePit, which launched on Kickstarter on September 18, incorporates some innovative design elements that are meant to drastically improve the humble campfire. The designers at BioLite know that most of the smoke generated from such fires is due to how inefficiently wood tends to burn. To change that, the FirePit features a built-in fan that can push air through 51 individual jets, providing more oxygen directly to the flames. This helps the wood to burn more efficiently, resulting in less smoke and a warmer fire, that uses less fuel.
The FirePit’s integrated fan is powered by a rechargeable battery pack and features four settings. For a fire that burns a bit less hot, set the fan on low. But on those colder nights where more warmth is needed, you can crank it up to “Max” to create more heat across a wider area. The fan can be adjusted from the FirePit itself, or remotely using the free BioLite Energy app (iOS/Android), which connects via Bluetooth.
BioLite’s designers used what they call X-Ray Mesh to create the body of the FirePit. Essentially, this is a lightweight metal that allows those sitting around the campfire to enjoy a 360-degree view of the flames always. Most other fire pits feature solid metal walls, or are often made from bricks, which typically obscure the view.
