This Breeo vs. Solo stove comparison aims to show you what these Breeo Y-Series and Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 fire pits have in common and what sets them apart. We’ll dive into the common questions about whether they’re smokeless and how they distribute ambient heat to people sitting or standing around the fire, and we’ll even get out our thermal camera for some testing. We’ll also talk about their versatility in fuel and portability.
Buy Breeo Y-Series for $495.00 on Amazon
Buy Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 for $344.99 on Amazon
Design and Specs
So let’s start by looking at how and what they’re made of. Both fire pits are made with 304 stainless steel, and while we’d love to use our digital caliper to test the metal thickness on each, we’re unable to, with both units being double-walled.
The internal diameter of both units is the same, coming in at 17.5 inches. This dimension is essential since the longest split of wood you can fit in either one without it sticking out the top is just over 17 inches. The external diameter is 21 inches for the Breeo Y-Series and 19.5 inches for the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0.
The Breeo Y-Series is height adjustable, and it can be set to 11 inches, 15 inches, and 20 inches, depending on what you’re going for. Breeo calls the 11-inch height the stove setting because it’s primarily for moving. The 15-inch height is their burn setting, designed to burn fires, and the 20-inch height is the cook set, bringing the pit higher so you don’t have to bend over to work with food on the grill.
The Bonfire 2.0 is not height adjustable and comes at the height of 14 inches without the stand. It’s important to note, though, that without the optional accessory of the stand, the Bonfire 2.0 will mark up decks and grass when you burn without it. So it’s a must-have accessory if you’re worried about what’s underneath this fire pit.
The Breeo Y-Series weighs 31 pounds, and the Bonfire 2.0 weighs 23 pounds. Breeo, as a company, is headquartered in the United States and manufactures in the United States. Solo Stove is headquartered in the United States and is manufactured overseas in China.
It’s not just the specification that we have similarities with these two fire pits. Both of these units claim to be able to produce a smokeless fire. Our testing found that this claim is valid for both companies. They’re both very similar in achieving it, and we’ll cover how that works in a second.
But both units are designed to be portable, and the new handle on the Breeo changes the game on how easy it is to grab it and go. If you want to move the Bonfire 2.0, you can load it into the carrying bag to carry it around, or you can purchase the additional handle for $34.99, so you can carry it around like the Breeo.
Both Breeo and Solo Stove offer a lifetime warranty on their fire pits. Since we’re members of multiple groups online for each brand’s customers, we’ve heard some excellent customer service stories for both companies. Neither Breeo nor Solo Stove tends to leave their customers hanging regarding the warranty. So that’s something that I feel good about with both brands.
Smokeless Fire Pit Mechanism
So let’s dive into the smokeless idea that each fire pit has in common. Air is supplied into the bottom of the fire pit through holes drilled in the bottom perimeter of each unit. Then, the air rises between the double walls of the fire pit, meaning that there’s an interior and exterior wall along each model’s body.
That cool air rises between two stainless steel walls where the fire is lit, and the heat from the fire superheats the air before its release through holes drilled through the top of the interior wall. That superheated air causes secondary combustion that incinerates particulate matter such as ash and smoke before it can exit the fire pit.
If you haven’t had a chance to see it in person, it’s cool to see the secondary combustion firsthand. The best way to get a smokeless fire is to make sure that your fuel is placed close to the exterior walls of the fire pit, helping that inner wall get hot to heat the air coming up the sides of the pit. The more fuel you have in contact with the outer walls, the faster you’ll get to smokeless.
We measured how quickly Breeo Y-Series and Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 got smokeless, and we lit them using the grill gun. This is the quickest way to light a fire and use the same number and size of wood split to power each one. We started by building a fire with the log cabin method, and we had the same number of logs in each fire pit to get things started.
After those caught around the four-minute mark, we added the same number of splits again to the fire. To get it up to temperature, ensure the double walls are heated. Finally, around the seven-minute mark, we added one more round of split logs to fill each fire pit about halfway full of wood to give it enough fuel to hit smokeless.
We used a poker to arrange the logs in each pit against the walls around the 13-minute mark. Following the same lighting method, fuel quantity, and fire management for each fire pit means they both achieved smokeless between 13 and 15 minutes.
The question is often asked if these fire pits are absolutely 100% smokeless. The answer is no, there will always be some smoke with fire, but I can tell you from burning more than a dozen fires in each fire pit that more than 95% of the smoke is gone when you use either of these.
If you want 100% smokeless, turn on a propane torch and stand around it because, with wood as the fuel source, it’s almost impossible to eliminate 100% of the smoke 100% of the time.
Difference Features of Breeo Y-Series And Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0
The first is the fuel types that each fire pit can use. The Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 can use wood as fuel, and that’s all the Solo Stove recommends. With the Breeo Y-Series, though, you can use wood, wood pellets, or charcoal as your fuel, and that’s three fuel types compared to one with these two models.
The second thing is how the fire pits address height. The Solo Stove is set right out of the box. On the other hand, Breeo Y-Series gives three different heights you can burn with, giving you many options depending on where you’re lighting your fires.
The third major difference is how you clean up after a fire. Both fire pits could be similar in how they clean up. So let’s dive deeper into these differences, starting with the three fuel methods. So let’s discuss why wood pellets and charcoal aren’t suggested to use with the bonfire.
One of the differences between these two units is how the air is supplied to the bottom. With the Solo Stove, there are holes across almost the entire bottom of the burning grate to let air in. With the new feature that enables you to dump ash, there are two larger holes where you can put two fingers to lift the grate, and those holes would act like a pellet drain to fill up the ash pan below.
The Breeo has an advantage over Solo Stove because there aren’t holes all across the bottom of the fire pit, but the holes are a part of the raised section on the bottom, and the air comes out the top of the metal. The holes aren’t large enough for the pellet to fit through, so it’s ready for pellets right out of the box.
Charcoal is a bit tougher to figure out, but since charcoal can burn hotter than wood, there’s a concern with the slotted metal in the bottom standing up to the higher concentrated heat. Breeo doesn’t seem to worry about that, and they say to bring on the charcoal.
Height Adjustment
Next is the issue of height adjustment. The Solo Stove does not have the option to adjust the height. It can use a stand or not if you want to call that an adjustment. The Breeo Y-Series has three height levels.
Firstly, when the legs are entirely retracted, even with the floor of the fire pit, like the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0, if you burn a fire in the Y-Series with the legs in stove position, you’ll burn crisp or melt whatever’s underneath and is in contact with the bottom of the pit. So this level’s designed for storage and moving, not burning.
The burn leg level setting makes it so that the bottom of the fire pit sits about three inches off the ground, similar to what you’d get in the Solo Stove on a stand. We measured with our infrared thermometer and will show you how much heat is in the bottom part.
The last height setting is the cook setting, which makes it so that you’re somewhat hunched over when cooking on the Breeo. Many of the fire pit cooking solutions are designed for when you’re sitting by the fire rather than standing around it. But I find that, more often than not, I’m still standing around the fire when I’m cooking.
So I like the height adjustment on the Breeo Y-Series. The outpost grill accessory also makes it so that you can adjust the level of cooking. Let’s discuss what surfaces you can turn on when using these fire pits. The most common question is, can I burn on the grass with this fire pit?
So let’s start with a Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0. Either you burn without the stand and nuke whatever’s below the bonfire, and it will kill grass, discolor the patio, and melt your decking without the stand underneath. Or you could pick up the optional Bonfire stand, and you don’t have to worry about using it over grass.
With just those few inches of space, the airflow under the fire pit gives you the buffer you need to protect what’s below. So the grass is good to go with the Bonfire 2.0 and the stand. You won’t kill the grass underneath for the Y-series if the legs are set to burn height or even higher with the cooking height. So you have the green light to burn on the grass with either fire pit.
Next, can you burn safely with fire pits on a wood or Trex-style deck? To test this, we pulled a piece of plywood out of the garage and lit a fire to see what would happen. The test was rather underwhelming because, in both cases, no damage was found on the plywood board after a full raging fire.
I completely understand the uneasy feeling of taking a fire pit and putting it on my wood or Trex decking, but here’s what I would say to ease my mind. When we ran these tests, we took our infrared thermometer and measured how hot the wood underneath the fire pit red, and our maximum temperature was no higher than 120 to 125 degrees Fahrenheit on the Breeo.
It’s harder to read the temperature under the solo stove with the stand, but again, neither of these fire pits showed any damage to the wood below after a substantial burnt.
Regarding ambient heat distribution, both units are better at warming those standing around them than those sitting around them. The answer is pretty simple. The double-walled nature of both fire pits means that the cool air from the bottom of the fire pit rises between the inner and outer walls, rapidly coming to a scorching temperature before it’s released through the holes in the top of the inner wall to be a part of the secondary combustion that makes these units smokeless.
Since those walls are sending air up, they’re not sending air out, and your body parts right in front of the double stainless steel walls will be cooler than those above the walls. It just means you don’t get a low seating level ambient heat if you want smokeless.
Breeo has released a fire pit chair that puts you at the best height to take advantage of the heat released from their fire pit, and Solo Stove has released their heat deflector accessory that sends heat out instead of up. Now chairs and accessories aside, these fire pits release their heat in a cone shape above the top of the fire pit.
Now think of an ice cream cone shape that starts at the top of the fire pit, and that’s where you’ll find the heat in both instances.
Since outdoor cooking is also a big part of what we do, we could only finish a review of these two category leaders by looking at how they cook. Breeo has the Outpost Grill as an accessory that you can purchase to turn your Y-series into a grill. The Solo Stove has a cast iron grill top and hub to bring cooking to the bonfire. The primary difference between the two systems is that the Solo Stove hub has a set height that can’t be lowered or raised during cooking.
The Breeo system is attached to the Y-Series through a port at the top of the pit, and the cooking grate moves smoothly up and down the height of the outpost rod to any height you’d like. It’s also worth noting that the Solo Stove Grill top is cast iron, which means that you’ve got to take good care of it, or rust will sneak in.
We do our best to take good care of our gear for Bonfire 2.0, we left the grill outside for a week without realizing it, and some of our tops turned orange. We could get it back to looking good with a few pads, but I’d rather not apply that’s elbow grease in the future. On the other hand, the Breeo Grill is stainless, so no rust issues are present with that one.
Cooking
We ran a few head-to-head cooks on both cooking surfaces for the cooking test, and we started with some Porter Road bratwurst and corn. The bratwurst on the Solo Stove cooked very quickly and split its casings as it was too close to the fire. On the Breeo, we can move up and down as the heat is required. We moved the grate up to get the distance that we needed.
We cooked the corn into esquitas, a Mexican street corn in a bowl, and it was a great dinner. The Breeo won this round, though, since the bratwurst on the Solo Stove ran too hot, and there wasn’t much that we could do about it. We also cooked beef and vegetable kebabs a few days later and finished them with a balsamic glaze.
It made me think of what the glaze would do to the stainless of either fire pit since it was oil and vinegar based. So let me be clear if you want your fire pit to look like a pristine lawn ornament. Then cooking on your fire pit isn’t recommended because they will get dirty.
There was a little more char on the veggies with the Solo Stove just since they were closer to the fire, but both kebab sets have made a great lunch. There’s also a griddle option for each brand. On the Solo Stove, you lift off the grill top and put on the griddle flat top. With the Breeo, you can add the griddle and put it to use at the same time as the grill since it fits around the edges of the fire pit and doesn’t cover up the middle.
We cooked some smash burgers on both griddles and here were our takeaways with the Solo Stove. It’s an incredibly steady and sturdy setup.
I had no trouble putting the smash on these burgers with the Solo Stove. The Breeo sear plate has a different mechanism. The sear plate adds a thick griddle in a circle around the fire, and it screams hot. Smashing burgers wasn’t any problem on the sear plate either, but it was a bit warmer than doing it on the Solo Stove, with the fire quite close to your knuckles.
When using something to smash burgers like the Sasquatch we used, you should use the sear plate when the fire has burned down the coals rather than an active flaming fire. So we successfully cooked on both fire pits, and it comes down to your preference.
Cleaning
After cooking on both, it was time to see what cleaning these fire pits would be like. The first task was cleaning out the ash left over from the fire. The Breeo Y-Series can be cleaned using the Breeo shovel accessory or by picking the unit up and dumping out the ash, or my favorite method, just using the Shop-Vac to clean it out in 30 seconds.
Well, less unlearned with the new Bonfire 2.0. Here’s where they brought about the change that most owners requested. Cleaning out the Solo Stove is made super simple by just lifting out the burn tray and brushing it off. Then you lift out the ashtray and dump it out, and that’s it.
Solo Stove made this process way easier than it was on their previous models. Since I’ve made many trips across the yard carrying heavy fire pits, trying to find a place to dump ash.
Next, cleaning the top and sides of the fire pits was on the list. Our friend in this battle was the liquid soap and some yellow and green sponges. You can get many of the stains off the grill with significant elbow grease and scrubbing, but there are some stains that we couldn’t get out of. Once you cook on the fire pit, you have to be okay with some stains setting in.
My Verdict on Breeo Y-Series Versus Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0
That brings us to the point where we must discuss which fire pits are better for you. After many fires in these fire pits, here are my conclusions. The Breeo Y-Series is for you if you want a fire pit that you can grab by the handle, toss in the back of the truck, and drive to your campsite. If you plan to set the fire pit on the deck and never move again, go with a Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0.
If you plan on cooking with your fire pit and want to maximize cooking space and options, the Breeo allows you to use both the griddle and grill simultaneously, giving you many cooking options and loads of space. If ease of cleanup is a deciding factor, you can go right with the Bonfire 2.0 with the effortless ash clean-out system.
If it’s street cred that you’re looking for, either one of these is going to do that for you. They’re both the leaders in the category and command attention from people when they come over. If you want the fire pit that burns the hottest between the two, that round goes to the Solo Stove based on multiple readings from our thermal imaging camera.
If you want the one made in the United States, that’s the Breeo. If you’re okay with overseas manufacturing, that’s the Solo Stove. I could go on and on, but it’s up to you to take the most important things. Tabulate which one checks the most boxes for you, and click the link below.
Buy Breeo Y-Series for $495.00 on Amazon
Buy Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 for $344.99 on Amazon