Fire Pits

[MrsK]

DrK wants a charcoal grill. I want a wood burning fire pit. So, we are thinking of getting a wood burning fire pit with a grill. We don't want something that needs to be professionally installed and we are thinking that we want to get something sizable -- about 36". But, we don't know anything about fire pits. Can someone educate me?

[Pollyanna]

How would you keep the kiddos away from it? I'm kind of anti-fire anything until kids are much older so that stuff freaks me out.

You can get a quality Weber charcoal grill for a reasonable price. We had a fairly basic one (less than $200) and it was great. I'd get that before a fire pit.

Basically, I'm no help

[SoonerTexan]

They really serve different purposes--you cannot grill over a firepit. I'd get separate ones. You can get a firepit from Home Depot or Target for under $100. We like doing it in the fall at my moms house (marshmallows), but I agree it might not be so much fun with 3 little ones to chase. When we do it I always have adult siblings to help me out.

Any reason DrK wants charcoal vs gas for a grill? Gas is just so much easier. I go out on the porch and grill all the time. I did hot dogs in under 10 min tonight. Dealing with charcoal is a PITA, though I know some like the flavor better

[Thirteen]

We only have the charcoal Weber, but we love it and use it frequently.


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[ladymoreta]

I know it's not at all what you said you wanted, but we have this fire pit and love it: http://amzn.com/B0017I8RRW. It's a gas fire pit, so you just turn it on and off when you want to use it, and you don't have to worry about embers or leaving the fire to burn itself out. I also love the surface around the actual fire part, so we can eat around it and have room to set our plates and glasses, and the kids can't get too close to the flame.

[spotty_dog]

We went through a couple of ~24" stand-alone fire pits from places like Kmart and Amazon, but when they sit out in the rain they rust through. Finally DH decided to get serious and dug his own pit in the front yard. We have a metal campfire grill thing that we put over it for cooking. It is a LOT less, um...subtle, than normal grilling. We just throw the food in the fire and enjoy the carcinogens, LOL. We're in the market for a gas grill for this summer, because lighting up the propane is a much easier proposition than either starting a wood fire (have to have a wood pile for that, as well as kindling and fire starters -- or a jug of gasoline as the case may be -- FYI) or even lighting charcoal briquets. Plus you can actually fine-tune the level of charring. (I kid, DH is an excellent grillmaster whether on charcoal, gas, or firepit. But though the inside of the food is always perfect, the outside generally *will* be charred with the firepit method.)

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

We have a gas grill and a firepit. 90% of the time, we use when the kids are asleep because D likes to hurl herself towards it and C is better but still not careful. We have them sit with us WAY back but she often gets up/move erratically because she's excited and I'm just so terrified of her accidentally touching the sides or tripping into it.

We usually fire it up (ha), roast one s'more with them, hustle them off to bed and then come down to actually enjoy it.