The top grill slides, but stays on, so you can move your small pots or food away from the fire. Also, the bottom grill, those handles hook to little tabs on the sides so you can use charcoal and bring it up closer to your food while cooking. I always keep a medium sized paint brush in the grill when not in use, I found that to be the best way to get the ashes out. And if you haven’t gotten their fire poke, do so, it’s great to hook on to wood to move it around. I use it more than I thought I would. They also have an app for your phone that you can use to control the fan and also shows you the amount of battery life for each fan speed setting.
Thanks great review. I like the comments on heat control. Also the control while starting the fire works great for ending the fire. Have had my pit for a couple years now. At the end of the night it’s as important to have that start stop control. So I crank up the fan to max to put the fire pit away safely at night. Works well. Fans stops when there is no fire left. Again great heat control on a fire pit.
Good review! I've been downsizing and lightening my kit, so this kind of goes the opposite direction for me. I actually replaced my 2 burner propane Coleman stove with a folding Firebox stove, which takes almost no space and is great for just my wife and I on our trips.
Yep, totally depends on what you're trying to do. I feel like for trips with friends or overnight camping trips with the kids, it's awesome for that. If I was going on a week long trip, I'd probably go with some of my smaller options.
I mainly clicked this video because you included a review for the 'griddle' in the title. Then you didn't give a review for it! It was a bit disappointing to find this out two thirds through the video.
I have seen these for a while now but have never pulled the trigger. Do you think the build quality is going to prove durable for longer term overlanding? Also curious how long that battery lasts given a low fan speed that you preferred?
Good questions. I think if you take care of it (keep the moisture off and clean the clumped up ashes out) it should last for a long time. There are also videos out there about refurbing them if they start to get rusty. It's super solid and well built though for sure. I am perfectly happy with the performance on low from the fan. Honestly, with a full battery and not charging any other devices off of it, I think it would go for 10-12 hours pretty easy. You can also pass through charge it while you're using it so if you have other power banks, you could plug those in to pump it up.
The small ones that produce electricity are pretty cool. I'm assuming with a pit this large, it wasn't possible to capture enough energy to offset the expenditure from the fan. But, I just recharge mine off my solar so it's essentially "infinite" power anyway. There are definitely other benefits to the fire pit besides just producing electricity though like moving the fire up off the ground, making it more efficient with the use of the fan, and adding the functionality of the grill and topper. I'm going to WI this weekend and there's going to be snow on the ground, so I'm bringing this to get the fire up off the ground and to make it easier to get started and keep going.
