Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I suspect that all these portable metal fire rings work pretty much the same way. This one works fine, but I would issue a caveat about pellets. The first layer of pellets that you ignite burn well. The difficulty comes when you add more pellets. If you add too many, there's an enormous amount of smoke until the new layer catches; if you add to few, there's little smoke, but you need to constantly add new pellet every few minutes. This why pellet stoves have automatic feed mechanisms. But here's the strange part: The instructions say that this device is for use with wood pellets only, and you should not use manufactured logs. After going through the frustration of the "smoke or constant feed" cycle, I decided to try some manufactured wood bricks. These are made from kiln-dried compressed sawdust, and are about the size of regular masonry bricks. I put a teepee of three bricks on top of the smoldering pellets, and had a great fire. It was smokeless, burned a long time without constant tending, and left very little ash. I'm puzzled as to why the instructions tell you not to use what works best!