Back to school may be in sight, but summer’s far from over. Whether you want to upgrade evenings in your backyard, take a summer camping trip, or add another adventure to your summer bucket list, end the season on the right foot with one of these outdoor gear splurges. They’ll make your time outside that much better.
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I’ll be real—I’ve tested a ton of outdoor gear this summer. Out of everything I’ve tried, these three items stand out as splurges that are worth the investment.
Top 3 Outdoor Gear Splurges for Summer
- Best Splurge for the Backyard: Breeo X Series Smokeless Fire Pit + Live-Fire Pizza Oven
- Best Splurge for Summer Camping: Dometic CFX3 75DZ Electric Cooler
- Best Splurge for Your Summer Bucket List: Oru Kayak Haven TT
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Best Splurge for the Backyard: Breeo X Series Smokeless Fire Pit + Live-Fire Pizza Oven
If you love to sit around a campfire, grill in the backyard, and/or eat pizza, Breeo’s smokeless fire pit and live-fire pizza oven is the summer splurge for you. My family made pizza in our Breeo pizza oven for the first time in the backyard on the 4th of July. It was hilarious and fun and messy—and also delicious. We’ve enjoyed experimenting and honing our pizza-making skills, because, let’s be honest, homemade is just better and more fun.
Breeo’s smokeless fire pit is made of stainless or corten steel, depending on the option you choose. We have the stainless steel version of the X Series 24, which has a 24-inch inside diameter. Each fire pit in Breeo’s line is made in the U.S., has Breeo’s X Airflow technology to help get your fire started quickly, and features double-wall construction and secondary combustion holes to keep it as smokeless as possible.
Best of all, Breeo’s fire pits are compatible with a whole bunch of cool live-fire cooking accessories—like the pizza oven. The pizza oven fits right on top of the X Series 24 fire pit and matches its color. It includes two pizza stones and a built-in temperature gauge. Your goal is to get into the “pizza zone” (700-900°F).
Breeo Pizza Oven Tips
We’ve learned that it’s easier to keep the oven in the pizza zone if you use Hot Wood. Plus, some wood pops too much, which creates ash in your oven that can end up on your pizza. The pizza cooks faster than you think, but don’t make your dough too thick, otherwise it’ll be really hard to cook it all the way through without burning the outside of the crust.
Also, don’t forget these accessories, which will make your experience SO much better:
Best Splurge for Summer Camping: Dometic CFX3 75DZ Electric Cooler
Earlier this month, we took one of our annual summer camping trips, and we had our annual summer-camping-trip dilemma: ice. It’s hot outside, ice melts, but we need our food to stay cold. What to do? An electric cooler is pricey, but it solves the ice problem (finally). That’s why I say the best splurge for those who love summer camping is the Dometic CFX3 75DZ.
This dual-zone powered 12-volt cooler holds 75 liters, enough space for our family of four for several nights away from home. We like that you can set each side of the cooler to a different temperature, giving you a “freezer” and a “fridge” space. We were pleasantly surprised that it took just under an hour to get down to freezer temps, even while sitting in the direct sunlight. And it didn’t draw as much power from our portable power bank as we expected. When we had our solar panels up, the power bank was charging up even with the Dometic running off of it.
The Dometic CFX3 75DZ can hold up to 113 cans, if you happen to count by cans, and its powerful VMSO3 compressor refrigerates and freezes down to -7 °F, in case you need it that cold. There’s a display on the side of the cooler, which makes it very easy to control, and Dometic’s three-stage “dynamic battery protection system” helps prevents dead car batteries.
Dometic Electric Cooler Tips
If you’re freezing down to 0°F, give your cooler 45 minutes to an hour to do its thing before you stock it. We found that it likes to hover a degree or two above where we set it, but only at those really cold temperatures.
The CFX3 75DZ comes with organization baskets for both zones, which are handy for packing your camping meals and snacks, but you can always remove them to gain even more space.
Finally, we don’t recommend getting your hopes up about being able to control your Dometic cooler via the CFX3 app. We have not been able to get it to work, and judging by the app’s reviews, neither have many other people.
Best Splurge for Your Summer Bucket List: Oru Kayak Haven TT
If you haven’t taken a kayak out yet this summer, don’t let the season pass you by before you do. Oru Kayak’s Haven TT is a 16’1″ tandem kayak that folds down into a box, and it’s your ticket to summer fun. In fact, let this be your outdoor gear splurge that adds an item to your summer bucket list!
Our Haven TT sits up on a shelf in our garage until we’re ready to use it, then it goes in the trunk. It doesn’t take up a whole wall in the garage, and we don’t need to use a roof rack to take it out. Set up takes about 15 minutes (give yourself double that time for your first trip), and once you’re in it, you’ll love it. It’s light, responsive, and comfortable.
Oru’s foldable kayaks are made from 5-mm double-layered polypropylene with a 10-year UV treatment. This means they’re lightweight yet puncture and abrasion resistant. They also make a statement. The Black Edition of the Haven TT is particularly striking, and we always turn heads when we’re in it.
Oru Kayak Tips
Use the YouTube videos by Oru to help you navigate your first set up and break down. It’s very helpful to watch someone do it versus just reading about how to do it. Breaking the Haven TT down can be tricky—trickier than set up—but once you get it, you get it.
I highly recommend using Oru’s accessories along with their foldable kayaks:
See my full review on this foldable tandem kayak.
What outdoor gear splurges would you add to this list?
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