Solo Stove fire pits are among the best smokeless fire pits out there, and while they work great and their stainless steel construction gives them a sleek appearance, they have one flaw: they’re not so easy to clean up. However, that’s changing with the arrival of the new Solo Stove 2.0 fire pits, which are available in the same three sizes — Ranger 2.0 (small), Bonfire 2.0 (medium) and Yukon 2.0 (large) — and have a removable ash pan, a feature missing from the 1.0 models.
I tested the midsize Bonfire 2.0 model, and it’s been a breeze to get fires started — the 2.0 fire pits have the same 360-degree Airflow Technology that allows for smokeless fire — and on the outside, the 2.0 fire pit looks the same as the 1.0 version. The difference is on the inside: once your fire has gone out and fully cooled down, you simply remove the screen over the pan, which collects the majority of the cinders, then remove the pan itself and dump the remaining ash (you no longer have to turn over the fire pit to remove the ash). A bit of the finer ash can end up at the bottom of the fire pit basin after you remove the pan but that’s easy to remove with a wet rag or paper towel.
I was able to get a robust fire going in just under 10 minutes.
David Carnoy/CNET
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Alas, if you already own a Solo Stove 1.0 fire pit, you can’t buy the new removable ash pan for it. “There is no way to retrofit the 1.0 Fire Pit to have a removable ash pan,” a Solo Stove rep told me. That’s unfortunate, but it’s certainly a good thing that Solo Stove has finally delivered the most-asked-for feature from its users.
The cinders the next day (they got rained on a bit).
David Carnoy/CNET
Here are prices for the new Solo Stove 2.0 models:
And note that with the arrival of the 2.0 version, the 1.0 models are all on sale if you can live without the ash pan:
Eventually, we should see some discounts on the 2.0 version, but for now you’ll have to pay full fare to get the ash pan. But at least Solo Stove has lowered the list prices of the new 2.0 models compared with the originals, and I do think the ash pan is a significant enough upgrade to spend the extra dough on.
