Fire Pits & Fire Tables

Gas or solid fuel

Gas lights at the turn of a knob, makes no smoke, produces no ash and stops when you stop it. That makes it the practical choice on a terrace, near the house, on decking, or anywhere neighbours are close. Solid fuel gives more heat for the money and the smell and sound people associate with a fire, at the cost of smoke drift, ash and needing somewhere dry to keep the fuel. Neither is better in the abstract. The question is where it will stand and how often you will light it.

Running costs pull in the opposite direction to convenience. Gas is metered by the bottle and a fire pit will get through one faster than a barbecue does, so a model with an adjustable burner is worth having. Wood is cheap if you have a source and expensive if you buy it bagged from a garage. Think about storage too: a gas bottle needs a sheltered upright spot and logs need somewhere dry and airy, and neither is a small consideration in a courtyard garden.

There is a practical middle ground people overlook. A gas fire table for the evenings you use most often, and a small solid-fuel pit or basket for the handful of nights you want a real fire, costs less than one large everything-machine and suits both occasions better.

Fire pit or fire table

A fire pit is about the fire: a bowl or a basket, low to the ground, with seating arranged round it. A fire table is built at table height with a usable surface round the burner, so for most of the time it reads as a low table and the fire is a feature you switch on. If the garden is small, the table earns its footprint twice and is usually the better buy. If you want the heat, a pit puts more of it where people are sitting.

Flame lanterns are not heaters

Gas flame lanterns sit apart from both. They are a contained flame for atmosphere, the outdoor equivalent of a candle rather than of a stove, and they read as light along a table or a path. They light instantly and can be moved, which makes them the easy answer where a fire pit would be too much. Treat any warmth as incidental, and choose a fire pit or a table if heat is what you are after.

Safe siting

Keep any fire well clear of fences, furniture, parasols and anything overhanging, and stand it on something that will not scorch or crack. Decking and artificial grass both need a heat-resistant plate underneath. Never use a solid-fuel pit under a canopy or in a partly enclosed space, and never bring one indoors or into a tent, including to keep warm: the carbon monoxide it gives off as it cools has killed people. Gas models need ventilation and want their connections checked before each season. Keep a means of putting a fire out beside it rather than in the shed.

Think about where people will sit and walk before you decide where the fire goes. Seating wants to be close enough to feel warmth and far enough that nobody is stepping over the fire to reach a chair, and a route past it in the dark is worth keeping clear. Children and dogs move faster than adults expect, so a spark guard on a solid-fuel pit and a moment's thought about the height of a fire table both matter. Radiated heat reaches further than the flame does: check what is overhead, including a parasol canopy, and remember that a fire pit stays hot long after it looks out.

Fuel and accessories

Gas fire pits run on bottled propane or butane, and the bottle needs to sit somewhere sheltered and upright, which is worth planning before you buy. Solid-fuel pits burn seasoned hardwood or charcoal, and softwood or treated timber should never go in one: they spit, tar the bowl and put out smoke you will not be thanked for. A lid or cover keeps rain out of the bowl, a spark guard matters where children are about, and a cooking grate turns a solid-fuel pit into something you can eat from.

Care through the year

Empty ash once it is completely cold and keep the bowl dry, since standing water is what rusts a fire pit from the inside. Steel will develop a patina and some pits are made to; stainless and coated finishes stay as they are if kept clean. Cover it, or bring it in, and on a gas model disconnect and store the bottle somewhere ventilated over winter.

On a gas model, check the hose and regulator at the start of each season for cracking or perishing, and replace rather than patch. Clear leaves and cobwebs out of the burner before the first lighting of the year, as a partly blocked burner lights unevenly. Keep fire glass and lava rock dry over winter, because trapped water in the media is what makes it crack when the burner next runs.

Making the evening work

A fire is the anchor, but it is rarely enough on its own. Seating wants to be close enough to feel the heat and far enough to be safe, which in practice means the fire at the centre of a group rather than off to one side. Low, deep seating with outdoor cushions is more comfortable for a long evening than dining chairs. A little light away from the fire helps, since eyes adjusted to a flame cannot see a step, and flame lanterns or outdoor lighting along a path solve that without flattening the atmosphere. Something to put a drink on matters more than people expect, which is the quiet argument for a fire table over a pit. Have something to put a fire out within reach before you light it rather than after, and if the evening is going to run late, work out where the last of the heat goes: a pit that is still warm at midnight needs to be somewhere nobody will walk into it in the dark. A torch by the back door is worth more than it sounds on an evening that runs on.