Why a Fire Pit Smokes So Much, and How to Stop It

Wet Wood Is the Main Cause

Most fire pit smoke is water and half-burned wood. EPA explains that when wood does not burn completely, the smoke carries fine particles and other pollutants, and calls the smoke you see lost energy. Wet wood guarantees that: the fire spends its heat boiling off water and never gets hot enough to burn cleanly.

Test it rather than guess. EPA recommends a moisture meter and wood under twenty percent; seasoned wood is also darker, lighter for its size and sounds hollow when two pieces are knocked together. One outdoor fireplace maker puts seasoning at about nine months for soft wood and eighteen months for hard wood, and says to split any piece more than 6 inches across so it dries.

Getting Air Under and Through the Fire

A fire smothered in its own ash smokes. Wood burns with air reaching it from above and around, a chiminea supplier notes, and a smokeless fire pit maker warns that ash building up in the bottom blocks airflow and makes the fire smokier. Clear the old ash, use a grate if the pit has one, and do not bury the base of the fire in a heap of coals.

Wind decides where the smoke goes. EPA asks backyard burners to be good neighbors and consider wind direction before lighting, and never to burn on air quality alert days, when the air is already dirty. A pit tucked into a corner against a wall can hold its smoke around the chairs, so leave it room to breathe.

Smoke is not only a nuisance. EPA lists children, teenagers, older adults and people with heart or lung disease, asthma and COPD included, as particularly sensitive to the fine particles in wood smoke, and a smoky fire puts the most of them in the air.

Stacking for a Hot, Fast Start

The outdoor fireplace maker's lighting method works in any pit.

• Ball up newspaper or use a natural fire starter, never gasoline, kerosene or charcoal lighter fluid.
• Lean dry kindling over it in a loose tent so air can move through.
• Add small split pieces until there is a hot bed of embers.
• Then add larger logs, spaced so air and flame reach between them.
• Add wood a little at a time; a big load on a small fire cools it and smokes.

Fuels That Always Smoke

Some things will smoke whatever you do. EPA lists green wood, construction waste, plastic, garbage and yard waste as never to be burned in a backyard fire, along with painted, coated or pressure-treated wood, plywood, particle board and wet, rotted or moldy wood, because they make more smoke and some release toxic chemicals. Palm fronds and fresh clippings are yard waste; they belong in the yard waste cart, not the fire pit.

Storing Firewood So It Stays Dry

Dry wood can go wet again on a Florida patio. EPA's storage advice is to keep the stack outdoors, off the ground, with only the top covered, because covering the sides traps moisture. The fireplace maker adds that both ends of each piece should be exposed to the air and the pile raised so air circulates under it.

Buy ahead when you can. Wood cut and split months before you burn it smokes far less than wood bought by the bundle the afternoon of the fire, and a cheap meter tells you which pile is ready. Keep the stack out of the space right in front of the fire and out of the room you need for loading and ash removal, two placements the outdoor fireplace maker forbids in its fire safety warnings.

When the Smoke Comes From the Pit Itself

A built-in pit with no drain, a liner sitting in water or a gas pit sooting up can smoke for reasons dry wood will not fix. Our outdoor fireplace technicians look at drainage, airflow and the base during a free inspection, and the written estimate follows.

Family-owned and locally run, with an experienced crew, we would rather teach you a cleaner fire than sell you a new pit. We are a Proudly American company, and that is what Proudly American service means to us.