Videos
Fire Pit Ring - DoItYourself.com Community Forums
looking for a better alternative to lousy campground fire ring pit
Do I need a fire pit ring for a DIY fire pit?
has anyone built DIY smokeless fire pit? does it really work? what modification have you made compared to what YouTubers did to it
I bought that same fire ring with the intention of making it a smokeless ring. Buuuuuut I lost interest and just put it out and have been using it happily. ;) There are many other variables that will make your fire smokey or not: dryness of the wood being huge. Secondarily, you can just make that fire bigger. Burn a big fire, and it will smoke less.
Maybe the combo of some fancy breathing holes there, with dry wood, and you'd be made in the shade!!
More on reddit.comHow do you all manage the campfire and cooking simultaneously? I want to cook over the coals, but I need to burn a steady supply of logs to make those coals first. The campfire rings at most campgrounds suck – the grill grate is like a millimeter above the ring so you end up burning your food if you try to use it. I can bring a grill grate from home but I don't have a support stand to elevate it. The steel ring doesn't allow enough airflow so you constantly have a smoky smoldering fire, especially with not-quite-dry "campfire bundles" of pine wood we're forced to buy. I'd like to be able to make a "two-zone" fire like you can do in a Weber kettle grill, with high heat/flames for searing, and coals for slow-roasting.
So I guess I need two things: a hot smokeless fire, and a way to separate out the coals when they're ready. We're car-camping so I can pack some gear, but would prefer to avoid anything too bulky. I've seen the tripod setup but it seems tipsy and raising/lowering it must be a fraught process. It also assumes a smokeless fire which is rare in an air-starved steel campfire ring.
I've seen the Solo smokeless fire-pit, but not excited to pay $300 for it, and it would take up a lot of room in the trunk. I see it has a griddle top option, but that looks like it's only for high-temperature direct-flame searing, not for roasting over coals. Is there any way to sift the coals out of the bottom for a separate fire?
I'm picturing something like my charcoal chimney starter – it's just a cylinder of metal with some air intake holes around the bottom. Once it's lit from the top, the convection draws in air and it gets ripping hot without any smoke after the first five minutes. I wonder if I could fabricate a larger version that would burn log splits? Something with sheet metal sides and hinges so it packs flat. Put a grill grate in the bottom so the small coals fall through, I can push them over to a separate cooking fire.
Any ideas?
I’m planning on building a fire pit out of retaining wall blocks. I’ve seen it done before and I seen people with rings in the middle and without. Is it necessary?