How Does a Smokeless Fire Pit Work?

Wondering how a smokeless fire pit works? It’s really pretty simple once you know know some of the basic science behind smokeless fire pits!

We’ll show you exactly how it works with a cut away model of a DIY smokeless pit with this short, easy to watch video.

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All smokeless fire pits, whether you made a DIY smokeless fire pit or purchased something like a Solo Stove, work on the same basic principle.

This post uses picures of our DIY tabletop smokless fire pit, but the science works the same way for our large DIY smokless fire pit.

A smokeless fire pit must have double walls with air intakes both on the outer shell and the inner shell.

The fire pit sucks cold air in from the outside, pre-heats it as it travels between the inner and outer shells, and then creates a secondary combustion.

This “secondary combustion” burns a lot of the particulate matter in the smoke, making the smokeless fire pit much less smokey.

How a smokeless fire pit works video

It’s very easy to see how this works once you watch this video explaining how a smokeless fire pit operates:

Are smokeless fire pits actually smokeless?

No, a fire pit can never be 100% smokeless.

However, they can get pretty darn close once the fire is hot!

You’ll always experience some smoke until the fire gets going, but the tabletop fire pit shown in this video goes smokeless in less than two minutes when fueled with wood pellets.

Large pieces of wet or green wood will increase the amount of time needed for your fire pit to become smokeless.

Check out this video on how to make your own tabletop smokless fire pit to see how quickly the smoke dissapears!

This DIY smokeles fire pit is similar to the Solo Stove Mesa, but at half the price.

We hope you enjoyed this look at how a smokeless fire pit works! Be sure to find us on YouTube for more fire pit videos.