Solo Stove Camping Stoves: Campfire 2 for $100, Titan 2 for $90, Lite Expired

The chimney starter burns very hot and very quickly--they're completely open on the bottom so a high volume of air goes through it. Chimney starters are great for starting charcoal fires, or even lighting wood fires by starting wood sticks/logs in the chimney and then dumping them onto s stck of wood logs, and really great for searing food over a very hot flame by placing a grill on top of it (which you can also do with the Solo stoves like the larger Campfire model).

EDIT: However, cooking food directly on a grill over flames on a Solo Stove is not the best way to grill because the flames are more likely to put a layer of soot on the food and it is more likely to catch fire. Chimney starters using charcoal is a much better way to do a high temp grilling than using the Solo Stove units with a wood fire unless you can hold your food high enough to not burn.

Chimney starters work great with charcoal, whereas these Solo Stoves do not work well with charcoal at all--they work best with small pieces of wood, twigs, pine cones, needles--basically any small burnable bits that are a couple of inches in size or smaller.

These Solo stoves are made for slightly slower and more controlled burns. Plus, they have bottoms, so you don't need a fireproof surface underneath them like you need for chimney starters (which will constanly drop hot embers). You can also feed them with small and random pieces of burnable material--chimney starters need objects bigger than a couple of inches otherwise they fall through the bottom.

I can use the Campfire model of these stoves as a small campfire pit for a few people sitting closely around it. Coupled with an inserted stainless steamer basket, I can fill it with wood pellets for an easy fire. A cupful lasts about 30 min.

For those interested in seeing what other Solo Stove owners do with their stoves and firepits, you can visit their FB page (though almost all the posts deal with the larger firepits):

https://www.facebook.com/groups/201583924000120

Dang. Got excited when I saw this. But I wasn't fully aware about the differences between the camp stoves and the fire pits. I'd jump on the BOGO if it was for the fire pits.

Biggest thing with their fire pits is, because of the double wall design, you feel basically zero heat until the flame is above the top rim, which means you end up standing right next to it to feel warmth. If you're sitting in a chair, your legs basically need to be touching the fire pit to feel warmth. While the fire is mostly, like 90% smokeless, I would go with a $10 old washing machine drum.