Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Best outdoor product of 2017

Where there's smoke there's fire. But does fire have to come with smoke?

Best Products of 2017 Outdoor AwardEvery year, Digital Trends editors hand pick the most exciting products we’ve had the privilege of handling this year. Make sure to check out award winners in categories from cars to computers, plus the overall best product of 2017! Read on for the outdoor products that floored us this year. 

Winner

BioLite FirePit

There are few things as relaxing as sitting around a campfire – be it while camping, enjoying an evening on the beach, or simply taking a load off in your backyard. However, this bliss does come with one buzzkill: eye-searing, lung-choking, clothes-permeating smoke. The BioLite FirePit, a gadget from the same company that brought us electricity-generating backpacking stoves, aims to make playing musical chairs to avoid smoke a thing of the past.

 

An internal fan pumps oxygen to your fire through 51 separate jets, allowing the wood to burn more efficiently, creating a warmer fire with less fuel, and crucially, minimizing smoke. Unlike BioLite’s smaller CampStoves, the FirePit doesn’t feature a thermoelectric generator – which would charge the on-board battery via heat. Instead you charge the hub via USB. A range of settings let you choose how much you want to stoke your blaze: Max stirs up an inferno for chilly nights, while Low keeps the fire humming along with a relaxing ambience.

Recommended Videos

We enjoyed a perfectly cooked cheeseburger along with a smoke-less bonfire in a mere matter of minutes.

When you get hungry, the FirePit will also act as a portable grill, capable of cooking up a batch of hot dogs or burgers using either charcoal or wood. When the food’s done cooking, simply sliding the grill into the pit allows your bed of coals to transform from cooking fuel back to fire starter. During our own demo, we enjoyed a perfectly cooked cheeseburger along with a smoke-less bonfire in a mere matter of minutes.

No stranger to Kickstarter, BioLite chose to yet again launch its latest piece of tech on the popular crowdfunding site. Similar to its past campaigns, backers flocked to this innovative fire device in droves, helping the company raise more than a whopping $2.5 million during its month on the site. With its fundraising goal easily met, BioLite’s FirePit is now in production with the company aiming to ship the first wave of product to backers in May of 2018. At $200, BioLite’s FirePit was our favorite piece of innovative outdoor tech we saw this year.

Read more about the BioLite FirePit

See it

Runners up

Rick Stella
Former Associate Editor, Outdoor
Rick became enamored with technology the moment his parents got him an original NES for Christmas in 1991. And as they say…
Topics
Be ready for storm season: Dual fuel portable generator is $150 off today
Pulsar dual fuel portable generator with gas can in background

Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that a ton of early Black Friday deals have dropped. There are the usual suspects like laptops, electronics, gaming gear, and beyond. But me, I prefer to pick up unusual items during the huge holiday sales. You know exactly what I mean, the kind of stuff that doesn't usually go on sale any other time. One of those items is a portable generator. Where I live it seems like they rarely go on sale, and when you need them most they're never in stock. People flock to the stores to buy them just before a big storm. Well, right now, Pulsar and Walmart have an incredible deal on a 12,000-watt dual-fuel generator. Normally $900 it's down to $749 which saves you $151. It can run for up to 12 hours on an 8-gallon fuel tank.

 
Why shop the Pulsar 12,000-watt dual-fuel portable generator for Black Friday?

Read more
The BLUETTI Handsfree 2 is a solar backpack and power station — It’s $200 off
BLUETTI Handsfree 2 solar backpack and power station -- black friday deal

While you're busy shopping through all of the Best Cyber Monday deals, here's a little something that might pique your interest. You'll be even more excited if you spend a lot of time outdoors or off-grid. You might want to wait on grabbing that Cyber Monday portable power station deal. Allow me to explain. The BLUETTI Handsfree 2 is a backpack, like any other outdoor pack you might encounter, except for one thing. It's also a power station and solar generator. Believe me when I say this thing is insane and super useful. But for Cyber Monday, there's a deal that includes the BLUETTI Handsfree 2 and a 100-watt solar panel to charge it on the go. Normally $799, it's yours for just $599, saving you $200. Wow. You have to read what it can all do, so don't leave just yet.

 
Why buy the BLUETTI Handsfree 2 solar backpack and power station?

Read more
Cyber Monday is here: Shop these snow blower deals while you can!
The Ego 24-inch Self-Propelled 2-Stage XP Snow Blower on a white background.

When you think of Cyber Monday, you might think of Cyber Monday TV deals, but now is also the time for more practical items like snow blowers. We’ve picked out all the best Cyber Monday snow blower deals with big savings on popular brands, and we’ve also taken the time to provide you with some buying advice so you know what to look for when buying one.

With so many different snow blowers out there, we’ve considered everything you need to know about and included different budgets in our decision-making process, too. Read on, and we’ll take you through all these great Cyber Monday deals. If you’re looking for something a little more fun (but still practical), we’ve picked out all the best Cyber Monday Apple Watch deals, too. Let’s take a look together.
Our top pick: Greenworks 40V 20-inch Brushless Cordless Snow Blower -- $247 $420 41% off

Read more