The 5 Best Smokeless Fire Pits of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

Jun 04, 2025

By Kit Dillon

Kit Dillon is a writer focused on bags and travel gear. He has worked for Wirecutter for a decade and lost count of the number of bags he has tested.

The Burly Scout Fire Pit, our buy-it-for-life pick, is currently out of stock, but a Burly representative told us that the fire pit should be available again in time for the holidays.

Few things are as pleasurable as a toasty fire in the backyard on a chilly evening.

But if you find that the accompanying smoke dampens that pleasure, or if your neighbors prefer to keep their bedroom windows open to catch the cool air, you might consider using a so-called smokeless fire pit, which eliminates some (but not all) of your fire’s smoke and most of the ash.

We spent four months testing (plus years of long-term testing) nine fire pits in Hawaii and California. In the end we chose two as our top picks: the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0, for most people and small backyards, and the Tiki Patio Smokeless Fire Pit, for people with larger yards or those who enjoy its more patio-inspired look.

However, finding the right fire pit for you is a matter of personal choice and depends largely on your needs and personal style. We have picks that are lightweight and easy to move around, aesthetically unobtrusive for a patio, great for cooking over, affordable yet edgy-looking, and the type you might expect to own for a lifetime.

I have worked for Wirecutter for nearly a decade in various capacities, writing about everything from backpacks to luggage to road-trip gear to camping tents. I currently live on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii, and spend a large amount of time at the beach working on our guides to beach gear and camp cooking gear. Years ago, I tested a half ton of charcoal for a Wirecutter guide, comparing burn rates and cooking temperatures. I have been playing with fire at Wirecutter for a long time.

For this guide:

These models are for anyone who has a little outdoor space and wants a simple fire pit that reduces the amount of smoke it produces. We’ve also included one pick that can effectively replace an outdoor grill with a little patience, a bit of practice, and some accessories.

The simple form and stainless steel finish may be exactly the minimalist effect you want—or it may look more like a dryer drum to you. But the light weight of the Bonfire 2.0 makes it a pit that you can drag out to use and then hide away when it cools off.

Get this if: You want a fire pit that’s small and light enough to move easily from storage (say, in a garage or under a cover) onto a patio. If you buy the add-on stand, you can even use it on a deck.

It’s easy to use, easy to store, and easy to move around. Like all the fire pits we tested, the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 is easy to load with wood and easy to light—though due to the pit diameter (at 17.5 inches, it’s smaller than our other picks), you have to stack standard-size logs carefully to make them fit. It is half the weight of any of our other picks, which makes it very portable.

It’s almost smokeless. None of the pits we tested are truly smokeless, including this one. However, once it gets burning, the Bonfire does eat up a lot of the extra smoke; by our admittedly rudimentary estimation, the fire pit reduces smoke by about 70% to 80%. (We compared a fire in the Bonfire with an open wood fire by burning them side by side, using wood from the same source.)

It comes in several sizes and configurations. Solo Stove offers a smaller size (the Ranger 2.0, which is 15 inches in diameter) and a larger size (the Yukon 2.0, which is 27 inches in diameter) and sells a grill grate accessory kit (we haven’t tested it yet). The current (2.0) models of the Bonfire, Ranger, and Yukon come with a removable ash pan and grate.

This updated design fixed the one obvious flaw of earlier models—you had to turn the stove over to dump out the ash—so the entire unit is much easier to clean and hose down after a fire. One nice thing about all smokeless fire pits: They leave behind very little ash compared with a regular fire. Still, some cleanup is required.

If you’re worried about sparks, there’s an accessory for that too. One of our testers lives in a high fire-risk area in Southern California—where flying embers are not ideal—so she also tested the Solo Stove Bonfire Shield, a stainless steel two-piece spark screen that sits on the rim of the fire pit. It’s not a cheap accessory: around $160 for the Bonfire size (medium). But like the fire pit, it’s well made, and she found it nice to have a spark screen that fits just right. It comes with two tools that help you remove the lid to add more wood while the fire is going. (You can easily store it upside down inside the fire pit when neither are in use.)

Avoiding the industrial look of most smokeless fire pits, this has a gentler backyard aesthetic. Though the ashtray is somewhat flimsy, it is simple to remove and clean.

Get this if: You want a sturdy, classic-looking, easy-to-clean fire pit that blends in on your patio.

It’ll fit right in. The Tiki Patio Smokeless Fire Pit is one pit you’ll probably want to leave in place once you set it up; its more classic patio look doesn’t stand out as aggressively as the designs of our other picks. This model feels almost as if someone placed a heavier skin around a Solo Stove Bonfire with excellent results.

It’s easy to clean after your fire and easy to store when not in use. The Tiki fire pit has a simple-to-withdraw ash-collection plate, which makes cleaning the pit after use fairly easy. Smokeless fire pits, because of their “reburning” effect (which recycles the smoke and particles through the fire pit), tend to produce a very fine and easy-to-clean ash without much debris, but in contrast to the Tiki model, many of the pits we tested require turning over and dumping out to clean. Tiki also sells wood-pellet packs as fuel or starter bags, and they’re easy to use, but you don’t need them to start a fire. Like most fire pits, you need to protect its interior from rain; the Tiki fire pit comes with a cover that fits nicely over the entire pit.

The add-on spark screen is easy to use. Tiki sells a stainless steel spark screen kit, the Tiki Patio Screen and Poker, for its fire pit. Our tester in Southern California lives in a high fire-risk area, where keeping sparks and embers contained is essential; she tested this kit along with the Solo Stove screen. The Tiki screen comes with a poker-style tool that you can use to remove the screen when it’s hot and to rearrange logs (the tool also has a handy bottle opener on the handle end). The screen makes the stove’s opening a little smaller, but our tester didn’t have any problems reaching in to tend the fire. We also like that you can remove the lid and hang it off the rim while you add more logs.

Though this is a fine standalone fire pit, its multiple accessories make it very customizable for anyone who loves to cook over an open fire.

Get this if: You want a fire pit that, with some accessories, can replace your grill or smoke pit. Open-fire cooking isn’t for everyone—it’s not as easy or convenient as using a gas or charcoal grill—but some people enjoy the challenge and the subsequent woody flavors.

It’s made for cooking. None of the fire pits we tested can so fully replace a barbecue grill or cooker as the Breeo X Series Smokeless Fire Pit X24. There are few things you can’t cook on the Breeo X Series once you’ve made the commitment. That said, it truly demands a commitment, both in price and time.

You can cook almost any way you imagine over an open flame. The Breeo X Series has the most cooking accessories of any brand we tested: a SearPlate Griddle, a post and grill plate (which you can also drive into the ground over an open fire, if you like), a kettle hook for a cast-iron pot, or even a pizza oven.

One former Wirecutter staffer used a slightly smaller version of the Breeo X Series for just over a year as her only outdoor cooking device with great success: “We were originally looking for a basic fire pit for backyard hangs with friends. We wanted two special features, the combination of which only this one could provide: a low-smoke design so that we wouldn’t bug our neighbors or smoke up the house when opening our back door, and an option for grilling or cooking, because we like to eat when we entertain. The searing rim and grill rack accessory—which is portable, and which we have used on its own while camping—completely replaced our smoky, annoying-to-clean charcoal grill.”

It comes in two finishes and four sizes. The finishes are Cor-Ten steel (pictured), which I think patinas nicely, or, for about $200 more, stainless steel (more like the Solo Stove Bonfire). The X24 size is the second-smallest option; the smallest size has an opening of 18.5 inches in diameter, and the two largest models’ openings measure 28 inches and about 40 inches across. (Breeo sells a spark screen for the X24, as well as the other sizes.)

Breeo makes a bunch of accessories for maintaining the pit as well. For our money, the ash shovel (if you don’t already have a small garden spade or some such thing) and the heat deflector are the best for cleaning up and enjoying the pit on chilly nights.

If you don’t mind the Peak’s stealth-bomber looks, the price is irresistible for a sturdy and well-made smokeless fire pit.

Get this if: You want a heavy-build fire pit with a bargain price.

It’s built well but doesn’t cost a lot. The hefty weight (nearly 50 pounds) and solid construction of Blue Sky’s The Peak Smokeless Patio Fire Pit 2.0 make it a bargain. There’s not much more to it than that.

It’s better for large logs. The Peak has a wider diameter than most fire pits we tested, so you can more easily stack standard logs, without having to set them up like a pyramid. If you prefer to burn large split logs, this fire pit may be a good choice. (Blue Sky makes a spark screen for the Peak.)

It’s now easier to clean. In the 2.0 incarnation of its fire pit, Blue Sky updated the ash collection, a former small flaw in our eyes, with a much easier system. To clean out the Peak, simply reach inside after everything has cooled and pull out the ash collection tray. The tray is similar to the Solo Stove’s except it has handles, which might be a small improvement over our top pick if you’re splitting hairs.

The two-piece construction and wood-handle details separate this pit from the rest, but so does the jaw-dropping price.

May be out of stock

Get this if: You want the highest-quality fire pit—one you can buy for life—and don’t mind spending a lot to get it.

A unique design makes it easier to clean and move. The Burly Scout Fire Pit is the only pit we tested that comes in two pieces (an outer cylinder and an insert that nests inside). So it removes two of the hassles you might expect with smokeless fire pits: cleaning and moving. Of all the pits we tested, it’s the most obviously well-built option, and it’s equally overengineered.

But it does cost a lot. Are you potentially overpaying for a “Made in the USA” stamp, sturdy wooden handles, high-quality steel, and hand welding? Probably. But if you want to know you’re buying the absolute best construction with a handsome look that none of the other pits we tested can mimic, this fire pit is your only choice.

If our top pick from Tiki is unavailable: Consider the Cuisinart Cleanburn Fire Pit, which looks somewhat similar to the Tiki model—maybe even a touch more refined. However, unlike our other picks, the Cuisinart fire pit is a hassle to clean. The main body unscrews from an ash pan (similar to the Blue Sky model’s design), but the rounded basket design and the peculiar weight of the fire pit itself make this process unwieldy.

If you wish you could take the Breeo X Series on the road: Consider the Breeo Y Series Portable Smokeless Fire Pit. From a cooking and design perspective, the two Breeo lines are largely identical. The Y Series is more portable than the X Series: It comes with collapsible handles and spring-loaded feet, which you can set at two height levels. If you see yourself potentially bringing a stove to a remote location for fire and cooking—while truck camping, for instance—then the Y Series is a fine choice. But if you’re looking for a backyard fire pit, you’ll probably prefer the sturdiness of the slightly more expensive X Series.

We gathered a list of possible candidates and tested models in the desert of Southern California and on the North Shore of Oahu, Hawaii. Five of the six models we initially tested made the cut as recommendations. (Since then, we’ve tested three more fire pits, none of which became picks.) In our testing and research, here are some questions we considered:

Biolite FirePit+: Unlike other smokeless fire pit designs, which employ the heat transfer and airflow through their double-wall designs to create secondary combustion, the Biolite FirePit+ uses an electric fan to force air into the pile of wood. It works extremely efficiently, and the fire pit is especially lightweight. However, the device as a whole feels poorly built, of weak materials—especially the mesh grill enclosure, which is made of thin pressed metal that, in our experience, has been prone to rust and brittle spots after exposure to high heat. We’ve already encountered some wear on our testing unit, after only a few uses. For the price, we’re not convinced this pit is worth the investment.

Inno Stage Smokeless Fire Pit: This fire pit is made of two metal pieces that stack when you’re using it. It’s a simple design and certainly keeps the cost low. But the overall lower quality of the metal and small size of the fire pit prevent this from being a pick.

We’re currently testing Hotspot’s Compañero 30″ for backyard cooking. Though it isn’t a smokeless fire pit, its buy-it-for-life construction and handsome looks make it an intriguing option.

This article was edited by Ria Misra and Christine Ryan.

Kit Dillon

I’ve covered luggage and travel gear for Wirecutter for over a decade. In that time, I’ve covered various topics related to this coverage and sometimes far afield from it.

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