In my opinion, the hub and deflector should have been a single unit for less than both separately. It doesn’t take long to turn a bonfire into a $1000 investment. I hope to see more aftermarket accessories at a more reasonable price.
Solo stove offers amazing products. But I 100% agree. You're going to spend a fortune by the time you get everything. You really need to enjoy it. And the accessories are not cheap. Everything has a lifetime warranty so you know it is going to be a solid investment. But in the rare occasion that let's just say 10 or 20 years down the road. This company is out of business. If you have any kind of issues then you're just stuck. But I agree 100% a lot of companies are doing this now. The pellet smokers and regular grills. Everything has all kinds of attachments and add-ons and they are very expensive. It's just like the cooktop They make for fire pits. You have to buy the stand and the griddle separately. It should all be in one package
@@ReviewThisThing That's right, I guess I've always looked at things and see both sides of it. As a consumer. You want to save money. But if you have a business you want to get the most money you can out of something. I just know I found a solo stove bonfire on sale in the store and it was the kit. It came with the cover that came with the bag. It had the screen for the top. And it was actually a really good deal. And they do offer some of those things on their website but I feel They are still overpriced on their website. But at the same time these things are built to last and have a lifetime warranty so they have excellent value
I absolutely appreciate the review! It seems like they followed the same business model as companies like yeti or Apple, where they make a product with a solution to an inconvenience, and in doing so they create a new problem, that they happen to have separately sold solution for.
Appreciate the thorough review. Just bought a Bonfire last month and was looking at all the add-ons available, the heat deflector was the one that caught my eye the most since July-Sept here in the PNW is generally a no-go for wood fires due to high fire risk and burn bans county/state-wide, so we would mostly use it in the cooler months out of the year. The idea of sitting out back, in the snow with the bonfire and heat deflector actually sounds pretty nice. I've heard the heat deflectors have gone down to the $120 price range, I think 4th of July and BF sales. If I had known what I know now, I would have grabbed one at $120 with my bonfire, but looks like I might have to DIY until the next price drop!
Absolutely! I’m glad you found it helpful! They will definitely go on sale again, I’m sure. We really do like it. We used ours again last night and just kept commenting on how well it works! I hope you enjoy. A fire by the snow sounds amazing!
heat deflector works great. If you put the stove on the ground, it will warm your knees really well. I wanted it to warm my core, so I bought a very inexpensive stand off ebay and now all the heat is coming at my core. If your wood isn’t really dry, the sparks may get you, with the stove a little higher. If you get it hot, we’ve been able to feel comfortable at 40F. It gets really sooty, so I purchased welding gloves to put it on and off.
My heat deflector fell off in a gentle breeze and is left massive scratches in the blue finish. Solo is calling it misuse when I recommended they make a better product that attatches properly seeing how much they charge for their products.
Made one from a 55gal drum lid. Cleaned it up really well. Spray Painted with High Heat Black Spray paint. Used a broken old wrought-iron table leg. And 3 L Brackets. also painted. Looks very nice. About $12.00 dollars and some change. Wook's great and looks fantastic. store bought.
I didn't specifically "test" it, but I don't remember feeling a great deal of heat deflecting down from the griddle. I think it might not be wide enough to accomplish the same thing.
@@ReviewThisThingnot only the width, but the thermal properties of cast iron are to absorb and retain heat, rather than deflect or reflect it. I’d still rather have the cast iron pan and McGuiver some sort of deflector to sit atop of it.
One advantage of using the hub to elevate the deflector is that the hub can be inverted into the fire pit for storage. I agree the fixed legs are a bit of a hassle especially if you’re short on RV space for storage. Solo stove is a great company that backs their products.
I'm surprised this didn't come up in the review, but I am wondering how the heat deflector impacts your ability to easily tend the fire. I'm not sure I could add additional logs or really move my burning wood around easily with this on it. It almost seems like you would have to remove the deflector to add more logs which seems like it would be a nightmare safely issue.
They should incorporate a way to easily lift it off the base. Even a SS eye bolt attached to the center (or two equally spaced) that you can hook and lift off/on as needed.
Attaching the legs is problematic. Almost cut myself when trying to put them on. I would leave it put together rather than have to go through assembly again for future use. Even with the legs on, it seems a wobbly chintzy piece. I don’t know if I would buy it again and I am thinking about returning it and waiting to see if Solo can come up with a better solution before buying again.
@@ReviewThisThing Good review. I’ve been wondering the same thing about how the griddle deflects heat compared to the heat deflector. Were you able to test it yet?
It definitely doesn’t do as good of a job. The deflector is shaped more angled and is bigger. I’d say the griddle will push it down but not out as much. (Not scientifically proven 😊)
Great review. The deflector is a nice addition to the Solo stove offering. Do you know if it can be used in conjunction with the newly released Surround that you recently did a short video of?
I used them together for a few minutes just to see. The Surround does get a bit warmer with the heat deflected toward it, but I don’t know that it would cause a problem. Thank you for watching!
So…according to what someone else told me, Solo Stove doesn’t recommend using them together - I suppose just to make sure the Surround doesn’t get too hot. Now, we’ve used them together a few times and like it. The Deflector still directs the heat down and out, but, of course, the Surround table is going to block the heat from getting to your legs/whatever is below the table. I still like that it pushes it out more instead of most of it going up and away, which is why we’ve used them both that way. Did that answer your question at all? 😊
You can get a whole patio heater plus a 20lb bottle of propane for less than this whole attachment…. Which is just insane to me. For just an attachment, the price is insane. A good premium price maybe $120 for the brand? But man the original price for these are absolutely insane
Yes I love my Bonfire however I couldn't justify the price. Even on Kijiji i spent 400CAD for the backyard bundle completely new. You hit it right on the nail... It's too expensive!!!! Hubs are 200 CAD and the Heat Deflector is abother 250 CAD. As watching this video I wasn't a fan of the 3 legs the deflector comes with.... That would be another 500 CAD new /w tax....
@@ReviewThisThing It does, but it really heats just fine without it. We got our Yukon before we left for an RV trip to Acadia Nat'l Park. It fit nicely in the basement of our 5th wheel. We used it every night for 2 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it. We also got the pellet adaptor and tried pellets and pellets and mixed hard/sofwoods. It's not "smokeless", it "smokes less". A very noticeable improvement over a conventional campfire.
Just wanted to add some input, firewood takes forever to get going and doesn’t radiate heat or get that hot in solo stoves… you need to use pellets and pellet adapters.. I use cooking pellets but you can use the cheaper low quality pellets too.. they slowly burn evenly once going and the heat in Btus from pellets is much greater than wood…. Also in bonfire 2.0 with pellet adapter on top of base plate, 10-15 pounds gets you 30-40 mins of hot secondary burn and then 2-3 hours of non flammable heat from pellets turned into hot coals.. Now if you use pellets, as they burn down towards ground in stove, it heats up sides and top of stove and a big radiant area around it, got to sit 4-5ft from stove or legs burn and upper body from pellets being hot. This is without deflector…. If you use one with pellets, it will heat up 5-10ft radius area hot..
Thanks for the info. I’ve never used the pellets, but our stove has always gotten pretty hot with a nice secondary burn. I’d be interested to see how they do.
True. But these are great for a lot of reasons. We have/had a fire pit in our yard but never used it. We use this a lot more. Plus the whole smokeless fire thing is pretty awesome. You don’t have to get up and change positions because of smoke.
@@ReviewThisThing With the presence of considerable amounts of soot on the underside, I attached a chain handle to remove shield off the stove without soiling my gloves. I use the cone to keep it simple. The shipping box and foam inserts make a suitable means of preventing getting soot over everything while transporting and helps protect the shield as well.
Skip this junk. Made in China using the cheapest metal they could find. If you want something quality check out Breeo, made in America and 10X better than this.
**$10 OFF**
Use Link bit.ly/SoloStoveDeflector
And coupon code: REVIEWTHISTHING10
(affiliate link)
In my opinion, the hub and deflector should have been a single unit for less than both separately. It doesn’t take long to turn a bonfire into a $1000 investment. I hope to see more aftermarket accessories at a more reasonable price.
That would have been a great idea! It definitely adds up quickly.
Solo stove offers amazing products. But I 100% agree. You're going to spend a fortune by the time you get everything. You really need to enjoy it. And the accessories are not cheap. Everything has a lifetime warranty so you know it is going to be a solid investment. But in the rare occasion that let's just say 10 or 20 years down the road. This company is out of business. If you have any kind of issues then you're just stuck. But I agree 100% a lot of companies are doing this now. The pellet smokers and regular grills. Everything has all kinds of attachments and add-ons and they are very expensive. It's just like the cooktop They make for fire pits. You have to buy the stand and the griddle separately. It should all be in one package
That would be much better for the consumer! I suppose not as good for the company.
@@ReviewThisThing That's right, I guess I've always looked at things and see both sides of it. As a consumer. You want to save money. But if you have a business you want to get the most money you can out of something. I just know I found a solo stove bonfire on sale in the store and it was the kit. It came with the cover that came with the bag. It had the screen for the top. And it was actually a really good deal. And they do offer some of those things on their website but I feel They are still overpriced on their website. But at the same time these things are built to last and have a lifetime warranty so they have excellent value
@MrScubajsb all good points! Sounds like you got a deal!
I absolutely appreciate the review!
It seems like they followed the same business model as companies like yeti or Apple, where they make a product with a solution to an inconvenience, and in doing so they create a new problem, that they happen to have separately sold solution for.
It sure seems you’re right!
It’s a perfect time of year for a product like that. Nothing like a nice warm fire. Thanks for sharing, be well guys.
Absolutely! Thanks for your support!
Appreciate the thorough review. Just bought a Bonfire last month and was looking at all the add-ons available, the heat deflector was the one that caught my eye the most since July-Sept here in the PNW is generally a no-go for wood fires due to high fire risk and burn bans county/state-wide, so we would mostly use it in the cooler months out of the year. The idea of sitting out back, in the snow with the bonfire and heat deflector actually sounds pretty nice. I've heard the heat deflectors have gone down to the $120 price range, I think 4th of July and BF sales. If I had known what I know now, I would have grabbed one at $120 with my bonfire, but looks like I might have to DIY until the next price drop!
Absolutely! I’m glad you found it helpful! They will definitely go on sale again, I’m sure. We really do like it. We used ours again last night and just kept commenting on how well it works! I hope you enjoy. A fire by the snow sounds amazing!
heat deflector works great. If you put the stove on the ground, it will warm your knees really well. I wanted it to warm my core, so I bought a very inexpensive stand off ebay and now all the heat is coming at my core. If your wood isn’t really dry, the sparks may get you, with the stove a little higher. If you get it hot, we’ve been able to feel comfortable at 40F. It gets really sooty, so I purchased welding gloves to put it on and off.
Great info!
Thank you for the nice review, I am going to make one. Solo, in my opinion has priced themselves out of the market on all of their products.
Thank you for watching! The products are definitely not cheap!
My heat deflector fell off in a gentle breeze and is left massive scratches in the blue finish.
Solo is calling it misuse when I recommended they make a better product that attatches properly seeing how much they charge for their products.
Wow. How fast would you guess it was blowing?
Thanks for the info! We actually were sitting by our Solo stove as we watched this. This is a great idea for an already great product!
Nice! It actually works well. Maybe you can borrow ours 😊
Great Review Thanks !!
You’re welcome. Thank you for watching.
For the money I'll go with the cut down, inverted tomato cage with the pizza pan on top . Love your reviews even when I ($$$) disagree.
I can’t blame you for that! I definitely appreciate you watching our videos!!! And you can feel free to disagree at any point ☺️
always enjoy your reviews 😎
I always appreciate you watching!
Made one from a 55gal drum lid. Cleaned it up really well. Spray Painted with High Heat Black Spray paint. Used a broken old wrought-iron table leg. And 3 L Brackets. also painted. Looks very nice. About $12.00 dollars and some change. Wook's great and looks fantastic. store bought.
That sounds awesome!!!
Got a video or guide
Where can I get the longer legs for the heat deflector to use with the surround?
I sent an email to customer service, and they sent them.
Would be interesting to know how the cast iron griddle vs the heat deflector compared in your test?
I didn't specifically "test" it, but I don't remember feeling a great deal of heat deflecting down from the griddle. I think it might not be wide enough to accomplish the same thing.
@@ReviewThisThingnot only the width, but the thermal properties of cast iron are to absorb and retain heat, rather than deflect or reflect it. I’d still rather have the cast iron pan and McGuiver some sort of deflector to sit atop of it.
Good point
One advantage of using the hub to elevate the deflector is that the hub can be inverted into the fire pit for storage. I agree the fixed legs are a bit of a hassle especially if you’re short on RV space for storage. Solo stove is a great company that backs their products.
That’s a great point! Thank you!
Have you tested the pellet accessory?
I haven't yet. Have you tried it?
How does this work with the fire pit surround.
I think they recommend not using it, but we use the one with the taller legs and it does fine.
Fantastic Review (as they all are) 👍👍👍
Thank you so much! Thank you for watching!!!
I got a 22" fire pit made by members mark. Are the legs fixed? I'm wondering if you can fit it on fire pits of different diameters.
The legs on the deflector are fixed, but there is a little play in them. Let us know if it works.
I'm surprised this didn't come up in the review, but I am wondering how the heat deflector impacts your ability to easily tend the fire. I'm not sure I could add additional logs or really move my burning wood around easily with this on it. It almost seems like you would have to remove the deflector to add more logs which seems like it would be a nightmare safely issue.
So this one has 7” legs. They do have some 10/11” legs, too, which would make it easier. We have the grabber tongs, too which helps a lot.
They should incorporate a way to easily lift it off the base. Even a SS eye bolt attached to the center (or two equally spaced) that you can hook and lift off/on as needed.
@kenwb1dx844 that’s a good idea
Attaching the legs is problematic. Almost cut myself when trying to put them on. I would leave it put together rather than have to go through assembly again for future use. Even with the legs on, it seems a wobbly chintzy piece. I don’t know if I would buy it again and I am thinking about returning it and waiting to see if Solo can come up with a better solution before buying again.
We have definitely left ours out together - excellent point.
Looks like you can just put a pan, wok right on top and cook or boil water? That would’ve been a good add on for the review
I suppose you could, but we didn’t try it. It’s sturdy enough but I don’t know that I would place anything really heavy on it.
Can you compare how much heat is reflected by the deflector compared to the griddle top? I feel like the griddle also reflects heat
That’s a good question. I’ll let you know.
thank you!
👍🏻
@@ReviewThisThing Good review. I’ve been wondering the same thing about how the griddle deflects heat compared to the heat deflector. Were you able to test it yet?
It definitely doesn’t do as good of a job. The deflector is shaped more angled and is bigger. I’d say the griddle will push it down but not out as much. (Not scientifically proven 😊)
Can’t you just use the griddle to do the same thing? That’s my plan with a cast iron powerless fan.
It might work, but I’ve definitely not noticed as much heat deflection with it. It may be the shape?
Love your energy subscribed!
Thank you so much. That means a lot!
Great review. The deflector is a nice addition to the Solo stove offering. Do you know if it can be used in conjunction with the newly released Surround that you recently did a short video of?
I used them together for a few minutes just to see. The Surround does get a bit warmer with the heat deflected toward it, but I don’t know that it would cause a problem. Thank you for watching!
If you have the hub from the griddle, I bet you could just sit a heavy 26 diameter stainless steel pan on top?
That might work. I haven’t tried it, though.
I love my solo ranger
How long have you had it?
Funny how a year later the MSRP is $175. The “sale” price a year ago. When they drop this down to $99 I’ll buy.
Hey! That’s a good catch. Smart thinking.
1000000$ question - does it make sense to have a deflector and the surrounding table at the same time?
So…according to what someone else told me, Solo Stove doesn’t recommend using them together - I suppose just to make sure the Surround doesn’t get too hot. Now, we’ve used them together a few times and like it. The Deflector still directs the heat down and out, but, of course, the Surround table is going to block the heat from getting to your legs/whatever is below the table. I still like that it pushes it out more instead of most of it going up and away, which is why we’ve used them both that way.
Did that answer your question at all? 😊
Yes it did. Thanks a ton!
@kabool13 you got it!
Does it fit my Turbro firepit?
Hmmm...not sure what that is.
You can get a whole patio heater plus a 20lb bottle of propane for less than this whole attachment…. Which is just insane to me.
For just an attachment, the price is insane. A good premium price maybe $120 for the brand? But man the original price for these are absolutely insane
They’re definitely not cheap!
Yes I love my Bonfire however I couldn't justify the price.
Even on Kijiji i spent 400CAD for the backyard bundle completely new. You hit it right on the nail... It's too expensive!!!! Hubs are 200 CAD and the Heat Deflector is abother 250 CAD. As watching this video I wasn't a fan of the 3 legs the deflector comes with.... That would be another 500 CAD new /w tax....
It definitely CAN add up!
I just use the cast iron skillet as a heat deflector/cook-top.
Does that work pretty well for you?
@@ReviewThisThing It does, but it really heats just fine without it.
We got our Yukon before we left for an RV trip to Acadia Nat'l Park. It fit nicely in the basement of our 5th wheel. We used it every night for 2 weeks and thoroughly enjoyed it. We also got the pellet adaptor and tried pellets and pellets and mixed hard/sofwoods. It's not "smokeless", it "smokes less". A very noticeable improvement over a conventional campfire.
@markridgemr heck yeah. Sounds awesome.
New subscriber ❤
Thank you!!!
That’s neat 🎃
Thanks, Dave!
Seems like they could design a combined lid and heat deflector.
That’s a good idea!
Just wanted to add some input, firewood takes forever to get going and doesn’t radiate heat or get that hot in solo stoves… you need to use pellets and pellet adapters.. I use cooking pellets but you can use the cheaper low quality pellets too.. they slowly burn evenly once going and the heat in Btus from pellets is much greater than wood…. Also in bonfire 2.0 with pellet adapter on top of base plate, 10-15 pounds gets you 30-40 mins of hot secondary burn and then 2-3 hours of non flammable heat from pellets turned into hot coals..
Now if you use pellets, as they burn down towards ground in stove, it heats up sides and top of stove and a big radiant area around it, got to sit 4-5ft from stove or legs burn and upper body from pellets being hot. This is without deflector…. If you use one with pellets, it will heat up 5-10ft radius area hot..
Thanks for the info. I’ve never used the pellets, but our stove has always gotten pretty hot with a nice secondary burn. I’d be interested to see how they do.
Just build a wide low fire pit , great heat and cheap.
True. But these are great for a lot of reasons. We have/had a fire pit in our yard but never used it. We use this a lot more. Plus the whole smokeless fire thing is pretty awesome. You don’t have to get up and change positions because of smoke.
How are you going to charge nearly$200 for a stainless tripod and not finish it with sanding?
🤷🏼♀️
this looks so lightweight, the wind in our field would blow it off!!
I don’t leave it on when I’m not using it. If you did, it probably would blow away!
Your homemade deflector will work just as good if it had shortly legs.
👍🏻👍🏻
The stove needs a dampener to tun the air flow down. It consumes wood at a voracious rate. Unless you have 100 acres of woods, it is too much.
It does burn fast!!
I wanna cook on the heat deflector
If you do, let me know how it goes.
They should just make the top plate from cast iron
I think it’s not so it will get light weight.
Rust and weight concerns made that option undesirable.
👍🏻
@@ReviewThisThing With the presence of considerable amounts of soot on the underside, I attached a chain handle to remove shield off the stove without soiling my gloves. I use the cone to keep it simple. The shipping box and foam inserts make a suitable means of preventing getting soot over everything while transporting and helps protect the shield as well.
That’s an excellent point. Thank you!
Fester please 😂
🤔🤔
These are great stoves but overpriced (like everything else) sad
They are definitely not cheap!
In the first place who can afford a solo stove let again attachments
They aren’t cheap
A lot of gush for a way overpriced item.
👍🏻
Skip this junk. Made in China using the cheapest metal they could find.
If you want something quality check out Breeo, made in America and 10X better than this.
We did a Breeo review, too. They are quite nice!
Snow peak takibi firepits are elegant and built like tanks, check them out 🔥
@gearhead-do1xh I’ll have to check them out.
Yawn.....
@nd4091 😊
I recommend that you ingest a lot less caffeine before recording your presentations.
😂😂
You are talking Waaaaay to fast…..
Thanks for your input.
UA-cam has an option for playback speed all the way down to 0.25x if you aren't able to keep up-
@@sadfur8728 Thank you. Good tip!
Maybe youre listening too slow..
😊👊🏻
that price is ridiculous I'll just sit closer to the fire looks like nothing but a bullshit money maker
That’s one way to do it!