But there have been many positives on this journey. We have fulfilled the dream of building high quality fire pits that last and we sold over 700 in our 1.5 years of trading. I have personally fulfilled a dream of running a D2C (Direct to Consumer) business with personalisation of the product at it's core.  We sold over £250k worth of fire pits, impressive for less than 2 years of trading. We have many satisfied customers and a very very small number of returns. (I could count them on one hand.) ​

It's worth noting that we have had no support from the government as we set up after the support monies were put in place. No furlough money for us. No government loans or grants. We survived on the quality of our product and our abilities to market it.

The final straw for the business was being hit by the vagaries of the British weather. The unusually wet summer of 2021 being very disappointing for all of us living in the UK. This left our projected sales in tatters and like many in the outdoor and gardening sector, we found ourselves having to scale back dramatically, losing our lovely staff whom we had trained and looked after for many months.

Running any business is hard work and both directors have been running businesses most of their careers so used to that effort. But starting and running a UK manufacturing business in the midst of a pandemic, then dealing with unexpected rising steel and energy costs has become untenable.  It's a painful decision to wind down our lovely ethical UK business but we are now in the process of scaling it down and selling off remaining stock. We are hoping to continue selling smokeless fire pits.

A growing trend for outdoor heating, these things look super funky and promise the earth!

​I recently attended an outdoor diner party with a few friends. We sat under a gazebo for the evening and had a lovely meal. But we were all freezing cold, wrapped in blankets and holding hot water bottles while we ate. Lockdown makes us do the craziest things! 

In the centre of the table was a 1500w halogen heater. That's the equivalent of having an electric kettle on the boil permanently. Sitting at the table I could feel a light warmth on the very tip of my nose. You know kind of heat you get from putting you nose against a puppy.  It was utterly useless for keeping warm on a cold evening. 

It's fair to say that these pieces of kit do look pretty cool - like some kind of flying saucer floating above the food. Also, the promise of them sounds very appealing. But they simply don't work in the cold. At prices from £40 to over £200 or more they are in my opinion a complete waste of money. You can buy sculptures that provides more cerebral warmth than these things!

Then there are the bulbs. They fail over time - read the reviews carefully! And usually you can't get replacement bulbs anywhere rendering your heater to landfill. Type in "halogen" into Google and you'll see the number one predicted result after "heater" and "oven" is "halogen bulb"! And these bulbs can cost as much as the heaters themselves! Don't be fooled into buying one.

I shudder to think about the cost to the environment. All the energy that goes into making these products. Shipping them from China or the USA. All the energy that went into manufacturing the bulbs and filling them with rare gasses extracted from the air with yet more energy and shipping!  And for what purpose? To shackle you to 1500w per hour or more electricity consumption costs of running the darn thing and to end their short lives in UK landfill. :-(

And all of this is in part driven by fake review sites and fake reviews trying to get a small commission from Amazon or Wayfair. Please, "for the love of your god", stop buying these halogen heaters and get a blanket and a hot water bottle and buy a piece of art instead. You're going to need half a dozen of these things and a fat wallet to achieve the kind of heat even a very basic fire pit kicks out!

If you have had a good experience with your halogen heater, one that can heat 6-8 people socially distanced at a sensible purchase price and running cost, please contact me and I will update this article! 
​<insert tumble weed image here>​

Honestly, I can't believe you can still buy these things in 2021. They should have been banned years ago.

Probably the most costly way to heat your outdoor space and the most costly to the environment. Each gas bottle lasts only a couple of long evenings and you'll be back and forth to the gas shop spending £100s in fuel and giving yourself back problems lugging the darn things around.

​"Keep warm on your patio all year round!" the marketing says. No, no, no and no. Do not believe the hype. They are not that great at heating an outdoor space! With the tall ones, if you are bald you might stay warm as they gently roast the top of your head whilst 90% of your money literally goes up in flames. With the fire pit ones, they look lovely but smell a bit of unspent gas and don't actually generate that much heat and certainly not enough for practical outdoor use.

Further, by purchasing gas patio heaters and fire pits you are massively contributing to global warming. Directly by heating the air (and not you) and indirectly by burning gas, a fossil fuel. Stop it now!

I'll leave these articles from the Guardian in 2015 and 2005 for the final word on gas heaters:
​https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jan/04/how-can-i-get-rid-of-my-patio-heater
​https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/oct/11/shopping.ethicalmoney

Ok, now we are on my pet subject and where I do have a vested interest. I set up Fabulous Firepits in 2020 in the middle of lockdown here in the UK. The reason I did this was because a) I was out of work having been in the travel and weddings industry and b) because the choice of fire pits was very limited and of exceptionally poor quality and c) because I genuinely care about our environment.

There is something rather magical about sitting around an open fire. It's actually better than watching most television these days. It's real, tangible and warms the heart and soul when shared with friends. The flames dance, you keep warm. Simples. It's also fun adding logs to keep the fire going and you can cook on many fire pits these days, even if it's to just toast some marshmallows.

One downside of fire pits can be the smoke, but with careful choice of wood this can be minimised. ​See my article on reducing the smoke from your fire pit here or buy a smokeless fire pit.

The other problem with fire pits is that they don't last very long. They are usually built from very thin steel which makes them prone to rust, warping or blowing around the garden in the wind.  After nearly a year selling Fabulous Fire Pits I have discovered the truth about why you can't find a decent fire pit anywhere.

Firstly, most retailers have such high margins (up to 75% or more) on their products that they are forced to buy cheap fire pits wholesale. That means, when you buy a fire pit in the shops for £200-£300 the company that made that fire pit is getting about £50-£75. Fire pits cannot be built for that price in the UK so almost all fire pits are made in India or China and imported here - so part of that £60 goes into shipping leaving even less for the product itself. If that fire pit in the shops costs less than £200 either the retailer has cut their profit margin to barely profitable levels or the fire pit costs even less to make than £50.

Secondly, steel costs have been rising globally for years and look set to rise even further in 2021. Any product that uses steel as it's main component is getting much more expensive or is having the steel content reduced to a point where the product will barely last a few uses before it warps or rusts through in the harsh UK weather.

There is only one answer to this problem. Buy a decent quality fire pit direct from a manufacturer like us or an artisan maker. But before you buy a fire pit, read our article on choosing a fire pit here.

Finally, if you want to keep warm outside, the other reason to buy a fire pit is to help our environment. Fire pits use wood which is not a fossil fuel. Wood is part of a sustainable energy cycle: Trees grow, trees fall or are cut down, wood is harvested, wood is burned, CO2 is released, trees absorb the CO2, trees grow...

If wood from trees is not burned, it rots and that CO2 is released into the atmosphere anyway!

​So stay outside longer, enjoy the experience of a real fire outside, cook on it with friends and when it's time for bed retire to inside and put on your heating knowing that you've spent less on heating your home or using your oven while sitting around your fire pit.

​In summary, if you must keep warm outdoors, buy a fire pit.

The legislation is going to mean wood is a little more expensive to buy in the shops than previously, but also means you'll get a better burn as wood will be dryer. It's really a win-win for fire pit users: Better health & better burn with less smoke.

Lower moisture content allows wood to burn more efficiently and more completely. Besides improving health, it has many side benefits, not least reducing chimney fire risk, prolonging the life of wood burning heating appliances and getting more heat out of the same quantity of wood making it cheaper to run these appliances.

For fire pit owners it means less smokey and hotter fires when burning wood with lower moisture content. You  can read my article on reducing the smoke in your fire pit here.

If you have your own wood sources there is nothing to stop you from using that wood for your fire pit. However, you need to consider the advice from DEFRA and Woodsure and be aware that burning wetter wood can be harmful to you, your family and more generally to the environment.  In my experience most people who burn their own wood are well aware of the benefits of burning seasoned and dry wood and this is not really an issue for that community of users.

Smoke is caused by firewood not burning completely and is due to either a fire that is not hot enough or excess moisture in the wood itself.

When you first start a fire with kindling you can expect some smoke as the fire temperature is initially relatively low. As the fire takes hold, the temperature of the fire rises and smoke will reduce. Once the fire is going well there should be much less smoke and at this point it is important to keep fueling the fire with wood to keep the temperature hot enough to continue to stop smoke being released. Letting the fire die down and then adding wood will increase the chances of smoke as the fire has to get hot again. When adding wood to the fire place it directly in the middle of the fire on the top, this will ensure the newly added word burns more efficiently.

If you are still getting smoke it is almost certainly due to excess moisture in the wood itself. Water in the wood has to be evaporated before the wood can burn and so massively impacts the burning temperature of your fire and this leads to smoke.
Excess moisture in wood is due to two factors:

• the wood is too wet
• the wood is too "green"... or both.

Wood that is not properly dry before burning will generate a lot of smoke. This may be because it was left out in the rain or poorly stored in a damp location. Even wood that you buy from shops that is supposedly ready for burning may contain too much moisture for an efficient smoke free burn.
The new "ready to burn" laws in the UK mean that it will become increasingly difficult to buy wood that is wet. From 1st May 2021 retailers must sell wood with a moisture content less than 20%,

Unseasoned wood (wood that is too "green") should not be burned. You cannot just cut down a tree (unless it has been dead for a long time) and expect to be able to burn it without smoke.  Green wood contains sap which is mostly water. 

You can buy a moisture meter online for about £10. These are very useful devices and can help you to select wood that is ready for burning. We've used them to check wood sold in shops and the results are very surprising. Many string bags of wood we tested showed that the moisture content of the wood was too high for a smoke free burn. Sealed bags of kiln dried wood faired much better in our tests and we'd always recommend these bundles for fire pits. They are slightly more expensive, but well worth the extra money if you want a relatively smoke free fire.

When standing by a large bonfire, you will have no doubt felt the heat from further away compared to, say, a small campfire.  In short, size matters when it comes to generating effective heat. Small fire pits just don't radiate much heat.  And by small we mean ones that are less than 50cm in diameter.  

If you do buy a smaller firepit you need to be closer to it to keep warm. This is not a problem if there are just two of you, but it will not be big enough if you are meeting outside with friends or family. Also, during government covid restrictions it can be difficult to adhere to social distancing rules with a smaller pit as everyone wants to be nearer a smaller heat source.

​So if you are buying a firepit to keep warm on cold evenings, you are going to need a decent sized one that is capable of burning a good number of logs. But can it be too big?

If your firepit is too big you may find you burn a LOT of logs very quickly so there is an optimal size. We think this is between 50cm and 1m in diameter.

Bare in mind that it can also be more difficult to clean out very large fire pits. Also moving very large fires can be cumbersome due to their weight. Worse still, large lightweight fire pits can be dangerous as they could be lifted up by a strong gust of wind.

So before buying, consider size first and foremost as a small firepit is probably not fit for purpose.

Colour: Most fire pits come in raw or painted steel options. If you want other colours there are spray paints available to cover most tastes. (Blues, reds, sandy colours and various shades of grey are available.) We can offer custom paint finishes but it costs a little more or you can respray them yourself quite cheaply.

Black fireproof paint is widely available and is the most common painted finish for a fire pit. It also helps to protect your fire pit from rusting but over time because fire pits are made of steel they will eventfully develop rust. Simple annual maintenance (a respray) can help keep your fire pit looking good.

Raw steel can provide a very contemporary look, but obviously will develop rust more quickly. Some people like the rusty finish steel and Corten steel is actually designed to rust on the surface whilst maintaining it's strength and longevity. (More on this later.) Corten steel costs about 5x as much as mild steel so is more expensive.

Stainless steel can be less prone to rust, depending on the grade of stainless steel used but is not immune to rust as you might think. Also stainless steel is much more costly, up to 10x the price of "mild" steel! So heavy stainless steel firepits are not widely available as their cost puts them out of reach of all but the most affluent.

Style​: There are many designs available on the market to satisfy all tastes, but beware of some designs that place form too far above function.

Fire pits burn a lot of wood so larger logs will mean less getting up and down to fuel the fire. Sadly, some fire pit designs cannot accommodate larger logs as the opening aperture can be too small. This means buying more expensive kindling or chopping up regular logs into smaller pieces to make them fit through the gap. 

It's a fact of life that all fire pits rust too. Rust is caused by the combination of heat, moisture and acidity of the ash.  Any small parts, mesh grills or other "fiddly bits" will be the first pieces to crumble away and can render your firepit unusable.

While style is subjective and a matter of taste, there are certainly a lot of "ugly ducklings" on the market. Do you really want your fire pit to look like a rusty old dustbin?  The inside drum of an old washing machine can be used, but this takes a lot of work to make it into something that works practically and in the end looks like the drum from a washing machine! We've even had suggestions that a wheelbarrow can be used as a fire pit - sure it can, but why would you risk destroying your wheelbarrow which was never intended to be used as a fire pit? 

Some firepit designs we have seen on the market are also quite dangerous. Top heavy designs are prone to falling over and lighter steel firepits can easily be blown over in strong winds.

Chiminea style firepits, whilst looking monumental, also restrict heat from radiating out in all directions making them less useful for groups of friends wanting to get around the fire.

In summary, make sure your choice of firepit design puts function and safety first, and consider how the shape of it fits in with it's surroundings.

The fire pits you can buy in the shops are generally lightweight and made of thin steel. This is to reduce their cost but also to make them easy to stack on a shelf in the shop and easy for the buyer to carry them away. But lightweight thin steel fire pits are not very durable, especially if left outside in the elements.

So always check the weight and/or steel thickness of the fire pit you buy, it will give you an indication of the quality. Large fire pits weighing less than 20kg are probably not going to last long!
​
You can expect to get one or two years of use from a thin fire pit. This is not only because they rust through quickly, but also because they tend to warp under the heat stress of a fire.

It's fair to say that we live in a disposable society. Many products are not made to last and end up in landfill pretty quickly. For the consumer, this reduces the initial outlay but when viewed over the longer term makes the cost of ownership more expensive than products made of higher quality materials.

​When buying a fire pit the same is true.  A cheap (less than £150) fire pit is often not made to last. So when buying a fire pit consider spending a little more to get one that is going to last longer. This is good for the environment and good for your purse. You can also prolong the life of your fire pit by placing sand in the bottom of it to protect the base, cleaning it shortly after use and putting it away in a dry place when not in use.

At the time of writing (Feb 2021) steel prices are on the rise. In the last 6 months steel prices have nearly doubled. Buying a stronger fire pit will therefore cost more purely because it contains more steel. If steel prices continue to rise, investing in a stronger steel fire pit now could be a wise move.

STOP PRESS : July 2022 Update : Steel prices have now increased five fold since 2019 and import costs have risen dramatically. As a result prices of cheaper fire pits have gone up. Be sure to check steel thickness is at least 3mm if you want a fire pit that lasts.

Another thing to consider is the cost of fuel for your fire pit. Wood for burning is expensive, especially kiln dried wood which is what you should be using to reduce smoke. If you're an occasional fire pit user then the cost of the wood is not going to be a big issue. If you use a fire pit regularly, consider using your own trees (if you have any) and store your wood in a dry place for at least a year before burning.

When ordering your fire pit, be careful to note delivery times. At the time of writing, many fire pit suppliers are struggling to keep up with demand as most fire pits (or their components, such as fire pit bowls) are imported from the far east.

​If you are in a rush to get a fire pit for a specific event, just ask the supplier if they can get it to you more quickly - most will do their best to deliver your fire pit quickly if asked.

We've seen some frankly quite dangerous fire pits on the market.  Tall fire pits can be unstable and topple over in the wind or if knocked. Lightweight fire pits can also be blown around the garden in strong winds. Heavier lower fire pits are generally safer than taller lighter ones.

Fire pit spark guards can reduce risks of hot embers being spat out by a fire pit, but burning drier wood would also helps to reduce sparks. Guards should never be relied upon so you should always keep a safe distance from a fire pit. Extra care must also be taken if young children are around. 

See our full fire pit safety guide for more safety concerns.

There are many possible options for the table surface including:
​
Tempered Safety Glass
Tempered glass can be purchased from your local glass supplier.
They will also shape the corners if you request it.
It's a relatively expensive solution, but you can customise the size to your exact needs.
We'd recommend a small overlap of around 1-2cm.
Square fire pits - 63cm square glass.
Rectangular fire pits - 93cm x 63cm glass.

Splashbacks
Made from tempered glass or stainless steel, these are widely available at 60cm square and 60cm x 90xm rectangular sizes from around £40 delivered. 
Glass splashbacks tend to have painted backs which are not usually very scratch resistant, so some care must be taken when placing them on your firepit. They are available in various colours - but usually black, grey or white.
Stainless steel splashbacks can also be purchased, but be careful with these as edges are usually sharp so they are not ideal.
(Stainless steel will also develop rust spots if left outside.)

Acrylic / Perspex
Slightly cheaper than glass (and safer), acrylic or perspex sheet can be bought online and cut to any size.
These are available in almost any colour.
Prices vary depending on the colour but can be purchased from around £30 for a 60cm square piece.

Wood
Wood will need to be treated to protect it from the wet, but is perfect if you wish to match your fire pit's look to wooden furniture.
You can often find second hand square table tops you can use to cover a 60cm square firepit but do bear in mind they may not last long outdoors!

Corian
Corian is an expensive but robust table surface and is available in various finishes.
Off cuts of corian can be obtained relatively cheaply compared to new.

Large Floor Tiles
Floor tiles are available in sizes over 60cm and can be used as a tabletop.
These are probably the cheapest solution as odd ones can be picked up on Facebook marketplace and ebay very cheaply.

Slate / Stone
A natural slate or stone slab can work really well. Just be aware that these can be quite heavy so be careful when lifting them.
Our firepits are very strong so won't have any issues supporting lift-able surfaces.