Best fire pit for 2021 – CNET [CNET]

Sitting in front of a fire pit is a surprising way to unwind and relax, and you don’t need to be a hiker or committed to camping in order to enjoy a good bonfire. It’s also unnecessary to build a permanent brick or stone fire pit in your yard because some of the best fire pits are portable and can be purchased directly from fire pit manufacturers and major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Amazon.

These transportable fireplaces range widely in price, size and weight. There are inexpensive $60 models and high-performance pits that’ll set you back as much as $350. You can even spend $1,500 or more on a fancy propane fire pit. Lots of them also come with extras like a cooking grate, so if you’re feeling extra outdoorsy, you can grab your cast iron cookware and make your dinner over the embers in your backyard fire pit instead of the kitchen.

There are lots of outdoor fire pit options out there, including propane fire pit and fire glass models, but in this roundup, we focus on genuine, wood burning fire pit options. The good thing about these wood fire pits is their ease-of-use and versatility. You can use them for heat and also for cooking food, including by grilling. Most importantly, a wood fire offers a great way to roast marshmallows for tasty s’mores. The models on this list are either bestsellers, highly ranked or worthy challengers for the best fire pit from established outdoor brands. We tested them to determine their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the quality of the tools that come with them, whether that’s a cooking grate or just a fire poker. If you need help choosing a fire feature that matches your needs and your outdoor space, you’ve come to the right place. I’ll update this list periodically.

Others we tested

Pop-Up Fire Pit

The most portable fire pit idea in this roundup is the Pop-Up Pit. Its collapsible design lets you assemble it and break it down quickly. It also uses a heat shield so it won’t scorch the ground below. The pit offers a large (2-foot-square) burning surface for your fire, too. Since its frame is constructed from stainless steel, the Pop-Up Pit is rust-resistant. However, because the pit is so large and has low walls, it creates a lot of smoke. 

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Solo Stove Ranger

Squat, cylindrical, compact and made from stainless steel, the Solo Stove Ranger appears simple at first glance. Tucked away inside this pit, though, is the same sophisticated airflow system that its larger sibling, the Solo Stove Yukon, has. The system is designed to enable fire in the pit to burn hotter and consume more of its wood fuel.

We can confirm that the Ranger delivers on these promises. It starts fast, with its logs aflame in just five minutes, and it burns for hours. The fires we started in the Ranger also burned with incredible ferocity. The flames inside the pit focused into an impressive rolling vortex. Despite the conflagration, the Ranger emitted very little smoke.

The Ranger does have a few drawbacks. Its compact size means it can’t accept standard 15-inch firewood logs. It’s also not the best for large groups or families. More than two people roasting marshmallows at once quickly becomes a crowd.

Kingso Outdoor Fire Pit (22-inch)

Though it’s a bestseller on Amazon, we don’t recommend purchasing the Kingso Outdoor Fire Pit. Its small size (22 inches in diameter) feels cramped. And since airflow throughout the small fire pit unit is poor, we consistently had difficulty both starting fires and keeping them lit inside this pit. It doesn’t come with a protective cover, either.

Hampton Bay Windgate 40-inch diameter round steel wood-burning fire pit

The Hampton Bay Windgate is by far the largest fire pit in this group. It has a massive 40-inch-diameter fire bowl, roomy enough for big groups to gather around. As the pit weighs in at a substantial 60 pounds and is constructed from heavy-duty steel, it takes a lot of effort to set up the pit where you want it. Unfortunately, the Windgate suffers from poor ventilation. As a result, fires we started in the pit consistently died out in 15 to 20 minutes. That makes it difficult to recommend this wood burning pit model. 

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Diamond Strike-a-Fire fire starters that were available at our neighborhood Kroger supermarket. One of these starter matches should be all that’s required to get a fire pit’s fire burning. We then logged how long it took to establish a fully sustained fire. 

A good fire pit will fully ignite in five to 10 minutes. A pit with poor airflow and design will take a lot longer, or even flame out after 15 minutes no matter how well you’ve stacked your wood. Additionally, we made note of how much smoke escaped each pit. Ideally, a fire pit will generate a lot of flame and little smoke. A quality fire pit will also burn fuel efficiently, leaving little solid material remaining once its fire burns out naturally.

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