Chiminea or Fire Pit for a Small Patio

How Each One Handles Smoke

A fire pit is an open bowl, so its smoke goes wherever the breeze sends it, usually into somebody's face. A chiminea is a firebox with a chimney on top; the smoke rises up the neck and leaves above head height, which is the main reason people choose one for a tight patio. EPA lists both, along with burn barrels, among backyard sources of wood smoke, so neither is smoke-free, and both burn cleaner with dry, seasoned wood.

Fuel suits the chiminea's shape. One chiminea supplier explains that wood burns with air from above, while charcoal and coal need air from underneath, and that clay chimineas work best with wood for that reason.

Footprint and Where Each One Can Stand

A chiminea's base is small, but its rules for placement are strict. The supplier's safety instructions ask for a flat surface of stone, gravel or brick, never grass or bare decking, away from bushes and overhanging trees, never under an awning, and at least one metre from garden furniture. On a small patio that last distance is the one that decides.

A fire pit needs a wider clear circle because people sit all the way around it. Block and paver makers also warn that direct heat from a wood fire can crack or discolor pavers, so a pit on a paver patio needs a steel ring or liner and a stable base.

Heat and the View of the Fire

A fire pit gives the open fire people picture: flames in the middle, heat in every direction, room for a circle of chairs. A chiminea shows its fire through the mouth on one side, and the clay body itself warms up and radiates heat outward, as the supplier describes. It suits two or three people facing it better than a group.

Cooking is possible on both, but the supplier calls the chiminea at best an occasional barbecue and says a proper grill is better for real cooking.

Choosing Between Them

Match the choice to your patio and the way you use it.

• A small patio or lanai edge where smoke drifting at the seats would end the evening points to a chiminea.
• A group of four or more who want to sit all the way around the fire points to a fire pit.
• A paver patio with no room for a separate base points to a chiminea on a stand or a pit with a steel liner set on its own base.
• Kids and pets around points to a guard for either one; the supplier sells guards for chimineas for that reason.
• Wanting to move it around the yard points to a steel chiminea or a portable pit, both far lighter than clay.

Clay, Cast Iron or Steel

Chimineas come in three materials, and the supplier is frank about each. Clay is heat-resistant earthenware fired in a kiln; it looks handmade and needs the least maintenance, but it is fragile and will crack if knocked over, banged, left in frost or over-fired, and it soaks up rain because it has no drainage holes. Cast iron is the longest-lasting and unaffected by high temperature, but heavy and prone to rust. Steel is light and heats up quickly, and it also rusts and has the shortest life.

Fire pits come in steel bowls, block rings with steel liners and gas units with burners. Our guide to using a chiminea covers the first fires and the rain.

Under a Lanai Roof, Neither Belongs

Neither a chiminea nor a wood fire pit goes under a covered patio roof or inside an enclosed room. The supplier rules out awnings, conservatories, summer houses and sheds, and warns that fumes from wood or charcoal are toxic. A fire under a roof calls for an outdoor fireplace whose maker's instructions allow that spot, with its own chimney, which is outdoor fireplace installation work.

A free inspection of your patio, with a written estimate, comes from a locally owned family company and its experienced crew. We are Proudly American and practical, and the Proudly American family behind the business will tell you when a chiminea on the slab is the better answer.