This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Fire Pits Done Wrong
Apr
25
2018
I was looking at fire pit designs. There’s no shortage of ideas out there in internetland if you want examples.
But the examples fall into one of two categories: designed to look good (impressive/sleek/rustic/etc.) or DIY for cheap.
The examples that make it into the blogs or websites with the title of “42 Awesome Fire Pit Ideas” (or similar) are not designed to function well.
Caveat: this applies to fire pits meant to burn wood. Gas-burning fire pits are a different matter.
The common theme I noticed with the vast majority of the fire pits is that their designs are bad for combustion. Good combustion requires fresh air. The designs I saw had no fresh air inlet.
“But it’s outside – there’s fresh air all around! You don’t need an air inlet,” you may object.
I’d agree if the fire pit were wide enough. But most of these fancy-looking designs are smallish boxes that don’t leave much room around the outside for new air to filter in.
Think of the fire pit as a very short chimney. What would happen to a normal fireplace if it was closed except for at the top of the chimney? Something like that is happening on these fire pits with solid walls and floor. The hot air is going out the top. The only way for replacement air to get in is to fight against the exhaust air by coming down the sides of the fire pit.
For best results (better fire, less smoke, more complete combustion), a fire pit needs to have a way for fresh air to get at the bottom of the fire.
My suggestion is to space some holes in the fire pit walls near the bottom and to have the logs up on a grate.
In case you are wondering, all our fires so far have just been logs on the ground – no grate, but no walls either.
For wickedness burns like a fire; It consumes briars and thorns; It even sets the thickets of the forest aflame And they roll upward in a column of smoke.
Isaiah 9:18
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 1:01 pm and has been carefully placed in the Projects category.
