Breeo: Smokeless Fire Pits Made in Pennsylvania
We all know the backyard fire dance. You pull up a chair, get comfortable, and the wind shifts. Now you're standing up, eyes watering, shuffling around the circle while everybody laughs. Thirty seconds later it follows you again. Your hoodie will smell like a campfire until next Tuesday.
A crew in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania decided that was a problem worth fixing. That crew is Breeo, and they've been building smokeless fire pits right here in the USA for over a decade.
A fire pit that took a road trip
The story starts in 2011, when Andy Kaufman and Jr. Troyer built what Breeo's history page calls "the first ever smokeless fire pit" in Apple Creek, Ohio. A couple of years later, a young guy from Lancaster named Jonathan Miller got his hands on one. He had a background in marketing, a love of cooking over open flame, and a soft spot for off-the-grid living. Andy and Jon teamed up and launched Breeo Industries in 2014.
Here's where it gets good. On Christmas Eve of 2014, Jon and his wife Janessa moved out of their apartment, sold whatever furniture wouldn't fit in their '96 Casita travel trailer, and hit the road. For two years they toured the US and Canada showing off the fire pit, cooking as many meals as they could on it, and selling them one conversation at a time. That's commitment.
In 2017 they came home to Pennsylvania and manufacturing moved from Ohio to Lancaster, where Amos Stoltzfus and his shop, PennEagle Fabrication, started building the pits. The two companies eventually merged into Breeo, LLC, with Amos and Jon as partners. The company has been rooted in Lancaster County ever since.
Built in Amish Country
Breeo doesn't just slap a flag on the box. They say right on their Our Story page that keeping operations in Lancaster County lets them "keep a close eye on your fire pit from start to shipping." A large number of their team members are Amish, and the co-founders give a lot of credit to that local work ethic.
"Over generations and generations, Lancaster farmers and craftsmen have built a reputation for quality," they explain. "Breeo cares about quality, and so does Lancaster."
Every fire pit is handcrafted at their Pennsylvania facilities, which is why they note the pits are "available in limited quantities." You can even call their PA office and talk to an actual person who works there. Imagine that.
So how is a fire smokeless?
It's not magic, it's airflow. According to Breeo's How We're Smokeless page, fires smoke because of "lack of heat, lack of oxygen, or the wrong fuel." Their fix is a double wall design. Air gets pulled into the gap between the walls, heats up as the fire burns, and shoots out through a ring of holes around the rim. That hot, pressurized oxygen mixes with the smoke and burns it a second time. Nerds call it secondary combustion. We call it not having to play musical chairs around the fire.
Their patented X Airflow vent on the bottom keeps oxygen feeding the fire even after ash piles up. The Breeo FAQ is refreshingly honest about it too. They don't promise zero smoke, but a well built fire in a Breeo puts out a whole lot less than the old ring of rocks in your yard.
The fire pit lineup
The flagship is the X Series Smokeless Fire Pit. It comes in four sizes (X19, X24, X30 and X42) in either 304 stainless or Corten steel. The Corten version shows up with a blue steel finish and slowly develops a rusty orange patina, the same weathering steel used on bridges. The X24 is their bestseller, while the X42 is built for the folks who host the whole neighborhood.
Want to take the fire with you? The Y Series Portable Smokeless Fire Pit weighs just 31 pounds, has collapsible legs and a carry handle, and burns wood, lump charcoal or pellets. It even has a built-in heat shield so you can use it on a wood deck. Tailgating just got a serious upgrade.
If you already have a stone or block fire ring, the Zentro Smokeless Fire Pit Insert drops right in and turns it smokeless. Each one is over 100 pounds of 304 stainless, and Breeo says the Zentro is "built 100% in America" and backed by a lifetime warranty.
And for the fancy folks, the Luxeve Smokeless Fire Pit comes in four exterior colors and five decorative glass colors, with a lid included. It's the one that makes your neighbors a little jealous.
You can see the whole family on the smokeless fire pits page.
Dinner is served (over the fire)
Here's the thing about a Breeo. It isn't just for sitting around. It's the base of a whole live-fire cooking system.
The Outpost Grill is a 304 stainless grate that rotates 360 degrees and adjusts up and down so you can control the heat. It's made by Breeo in the USA, and once you sear a steak over real wood on it, the gas grill is going to feel a little left out. There's also an Outpost Sear Disc for when you want that crust.
Pizza night? The Live-Fire Pizza Oven sits right on top of your fire pit and turns it into a wood-fired oven, complete with thick pizza stones and an adjustable chimney vent. If you'd rather have a dedicated cooking station, the Live-Fire Grill runs on charcoal or wood at a comfortable standing height. And they'll even ship kiln-dried Oak Firewood right to your door.
Pull up a chair
Breeo also builds fireside furniture, and it's designed around the fire instead of as an afterthought. The X Series Chair is made in their Lancaster shop from poly lumber with 304 stainless accents. It sits you up a little higher than a typical patio chair, so you stay "in the warmth, and in the conversation" instead of sinking into a low slung seat. It's warrantied against chipping, peeling, rotting, splintering and cracking.
Round it out with the X Series Table for food prep, an X Series Side Table, or the classic Breeo Adirondack Chair. Little add-ons like the OutRig Cupholder mean nobody has to set a drink in the grass.
Worth the money?
These aren't the cheapest pits on the block. The X Series starts at $399, and the Luxeve sits up around $1,899. But you're getting heavy gauge steel built by people in Pennsylvania, free standard shipping in the contiguous US, a 30-day return policy and a limited lifetime warranty. If you want to save a few bucks, check out the seconds page for pits with small cosmetic blemishes, or grab one of their bundles.
Another Pennsylvania favorite
Pennsylvania keeps showing up on our list, from the cookware at All Clad to the pliers at ChannelLock. Breeo fits right in. It's a company that started with a couple living out of a travel trailer and grew into a Lancaster County shop turning out fire pits that are built to outlast the trees you're burning in them.
So stop doing the smoke shuffle. Pick up a Breeo X Series, pull up a chair, and stay put for once.
Just another great reason to buy American!