Anyone use wood pellets in the fire pit

[SMR]

Was at Tractor Supply and purchased a bag of wood pellets to try in our fire pit.
Anyone have any experience using them? Do you just light them or have to use lighter fluid or fire starters?
The rain may stop soon and I will be able to try them out, I used all the wood I had for the ark......
Thanks

 

[Rene T]

I wouldn’t think it would burn very good because you can’t get air under the pellets for them to burn.

 

[Oldgator73]

I’ve Not heard of anyone using wood pellets in anything other than a pellet stove.

 

[si camper]

You need a fire pit designed to burn wood pellets to get air under them like Rene T said. I used to have a fire pit called a Flame Genie. Made a beautiful campfire but I got tired of packing it around.

 

[jims94vmx]

I cut a stainless sheet that had small holes and use with my Solo Stove. As others have said, you need air underneath. I get about 1.5 to 2 hours burn without touching it using about 30lbs of pellets. 40 lbs seems to not let enough air in. Solo stove now has an adapter. My screen cost maybe 20 bucks....

 

[Rene T]

I cut a stainless sheet that had small holes and use with my Solo Stove. As others have said, you need air underneath. I get about 1.5 to 2 hours burn without touching it using about 30lbs of pellets. 40 lbs seems to not let enough air in. Solo stove now has an adapter. My screen cost maybe 20 bucks....

Is their much flame or does it just smolder?

 

[Mountain high]

I had a few 40 pound bags of wood pellets that were damaged during Spring from moisture. They were dry when I tossed them onto a large bonfire when I was burning large tree limbs and dry brush. The wood pellets smoldered. Had to use a shovel to get air to them to somewhat burn, but they still smoldered. We burn 3 to 4 tons of wood pellets annually for home heating.

 

[jims94vmx]

20 to 30 lbs burn great. Nice flame for a go I d 1.5 hours. Add too much and it will smolder. Trial and error. The pellets produce that secondary burn for most of that time. I the throw a cup full or 2 at a time to keep it going.

 

[jims94vmx]

A quick video when I 1st tried pellets. I have since gotten a better screen.

 

[DonTom]

I’ve Not heard of anyone using wood pellets in anything other than a pellet stove.

There are areas near here that do not allow natural gas or propane. All electric homes. Most also have a pellet heater in their living rooms.

They use something like this to light the pellets.

I never even heard of such until recently, A ham buddy, Mark, (K6JJR) near here has such a home. I was there yesterday helping him with a ham antenna.

He also lives in Auburn but in a different county. Auburn covers two different counties, Placer and Nevada County).

Here at my Auburn house, I have a propane tank. Furnace works on propane here.

-Don- Auburn, CA

 

[Tulecreeper]

What is the purpose of burning pellets in a fire pit? Seems like a rather expensive way to have a cookout. Why not just burn actual logs?

 

[jims94vmx]

6 bucks a 40lb bag gets me about 2 to 3 hours burn time. Buying wood at campground is more expensive and doesn't last as long. Also no smoke after it gets going....wood pellets are dried.

Don't confuse cooking wood pellets for heating wood pellets. Big price difference.

 

[Rene T]

They use something like this to light the pellets.

I

My pellet stove lights using an electronics ignition set up. It’s just a heating element that heats up the burn pot to a point where we have combustion.

 

[Tulecreeper]

6 bucks a 40lb bag gets me about 2 to 3 hours burn time. Buying wood at campground is more expensive and doesn't last as long. Also no smoke after it gets going....wood pellets are dried.

Don't confuse cooking wood pellets for heating wood pellets. Big price difference.

I would just carry my own. It's amazing how much dry manageable-sized pieces of firewood you can find just stopping here and there along the road.

 

[Skookum]

A quick video when I 1st tried pellets. I have since gotten a better screen.

Thanks for sharing. After the hour was up and the fire from ~15lb of pellets had died down, how much waste/unburned/charred pellets were left in the stove? Looked like 15-30 minutes from startup to reach operating burn, and an hour of burn time doesn't sound too bad. But it looks like there's a lot of unburned fuel at the end...or is that not true?

Reason I ask is because my father in law just called to ask us on Sunday to ask if we knew if pellets would work in a Solo Stove. I said I'd look. He is interested in buying one because he heats with pellets and does not want to search for, separately buy, or store firewood for his camping trips (he's old). (Also - bringing in outside firewood is discouraged and sometimes illegal due to pest issues, and for good reason).

 

[jims94vmx]

Thanks for sharing. After the hour was up and the fire from ~15lb of pellets had died down, how much waste/unburned/charred pellets were left in the stove? Looked like 15-30 minutes from startup to reach operating burn, and an hour of burn time doesn't sound too bad. But it looks like there's a lot of unburned fuel at the end...or is that not true?

Reason I ask is because my father in law just called to ask us on Sunday to ask if we knew if pellets would work in a Solo Stove. I said I'd look. He is interested in buying one because he heats with pellets and does not want to search for, separately buy, or store firewood for his camping trips (he's old). (Also - bringing in outside firewood is discouraged and sometimes illegal due to pest issues, and for good reason).

20 lbs using my new screen does about 1.5 hours. You can see the amount of pellets decrease to a small film on top that while isn't giving a flame it will keep burning to a more fine ash. Just experiment and enjoy. I can tell you you will get a secondary burn for most of that time. I will look at updating my video. Definitely worth it.

 

[Astrocamper]

I use pellets now when I go camping. They won't let you bring in wood because of pests, often the campground wood is not well-seasoned, and you still need kindling. I like a fire for an hour or so and 8 lbs. of pellets work well for that.

You can burn them in any fire ring using reusable stainless steel baskets. There's a guy in Maine who makes them (Repose Fire Logs), but being a cheapster I made them myself out of welded stainless mesh (Stainless wire mesh from Amazon), as in the photo attached. You use a couple of angled pieces to raise the baskets off the ground for air, or you can set them on logs. I stick a small fire starter in the top and it burns down completely to the bottom. All that remains are some pellet sized coals- they all burn. The pellets I've been using were left over from a failed attempt to use them as cat litter (pelletized pine bedding from Tractor Supply).

 

[SMR]

I ordered the mesh from Amazon, prime here takes 5 to 6 days. Will let you know how it goes.

 

[Skookum]

A couple days later...did some poking around online. Solo sells a "pellet adapter" now, just a metal riser so air can be drawn up through the pellets. We just ordered one (and the stove) and are having it sent to my father in law. It's not something he'd order for himself, even though he's been interested and asking questions about one, so we just did it for him. If he doesn't like it, he can give it to one of his friends. We'll see him in about a month and will plan to ask him how it works!

 

[Astrocamper]

I ordered the mesh from Amazon, prime here takes 5 to 6 days. Will let you know how it goes.

Just be careful- the cut ends are sharp. Use leather gloves. It took me a couple of hours to make each basket- you have to cut squares out of the corners and hook the cut ends around the uncut sides to keep it together- very time consuming but worth the effort. You can make two baskets around 12 inches long and two angled pieces for them to sit on out of one pack. Good project for a rainy day.