WHEN is a fire pit not a fire pit? When it’s a swanky, sleek, smokeless Solo Stove bursting with flames in your outside space.

Boasting an ultra efficient ‘burn technology’, the company claims it means there’s far less ash and smoke.

And there’s all sorts of versions – from the large ‘Bonfire’ – ideal for a big garden, to the lovely little table top ‘Mesa. ’

Sun Shopping braved the cold to test two out  and the results will warm the cockles of your heart… and your face… and your entire body, in fact!

Solo Stove, from £84.99

Ordinary fire pits are all very well, but they do require quite a large amount of space.

And this can cause problems if you don’t have a big garden, or you have a pretty rigid area zoned off for eating, drinking and relaxing.
But this is where the Solo Stove comes in; its efficient, cylindrical space-aged shape is much more capable of slotting into an available space

And, to be honest, it looks so good it’s worth moving the table for.  
Shiny, smooth and unblemished stainless steel, it works by having a 360 degrees airflow – i.e. holes in the base – and a ‘secondary burn’ which it claims reduces the amount of smoke.

It’s something to do with the double wall, which sends hot air over the flames, reducing the smoke.

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But you don’t need to worry about the ‘science bit’; all you need to know is that after thorough testing one Saturday night, this actually proved to be true.

Obviously you have to be careful with the kind of wood you use, (using dry wood is important) but we managed to sit around it for hours without eye-fulls of smoke sending us coughing down the garden.

We didn’t even need to swap seats when the wind changed direction.

And afterwards there was none of that irritating ’emptying of 3kg of ash with it all blowing back in your face’. 

And blimey does it get hot; it feels like no flame is wasted. 

Solo Stove Ranger from £184.99

We first tested the midsize Ranger, which is portable and could be carried to the beach/campsite/fields with ease.

It was a real success and, although you will need somewhere to store it unless you get the cover as well, it just looks fabulous. And it really did pump out an incredible heat.

There’s even accessories to add – although they are pretty costly – which turn it into a grill, wok or hotplate.

And you can get a stand, which means you can put it anywhere without worrying about the ground underneath.

Solo Stove Mesa XL, from £99.99

The much smaller Mesa XL comes in all different colours and just sits on your table top looking super cool.

This is the one for you if you don’t have space for the full fire pit – as it looks great and still pumps out smokeless heat. And you could definitely find space for it for camping.

Again it uses the same clever technology, and although it didn’t give you full body warmth, placed on the table it was perfect to give your face a warm glow. 

My only concern is that it burns through kindling pretty quickly and isn’t big enough for a log – but as long as you’ve got plenty of wood to hand, you should be fine.

Solo Stove also offers wood pellets to burn, which last longer than normal wood, so it might be worth investing.

And as well as it being very portable, which is a massive plus, it’s absolutely perfect for marshmallows. Win win all round.