Fire Pit Table Height: Chat, Coffee, Counter and Bar Heights

No standard sets fire pit table height, so every maker draws its own lines. The heights I found run from 12 inches on a low rectangular table to 38 inches at counter height, and O.W. Lee offers one 54 inch round table at 19, 24, 29 and 38 inches. Pick the height from the seats you own, then check the manual's overhead clearance, because a taller table lifts the burner toward the roof.

This compares published specs and documents, not tested products. Every figure is a maker's printed dimension, and the arithmetic is shown. Where no maker prints a number, I say so.

What Heights Do Fire Pit Tables Come In?

Heights are in inches. The label is the maker's own word, where it uses one.

Sources: O.W. Lee Elba and 42 inch chat spec sheet, Regency Plateau, Outdoor GreatRoom Kenwood Linear Dining and Beacon, American Fyre Designs catalog, Paloform Nimbus, Prism Tavola, Real Flame Estes, POLYWOOD.

The labels don't line up. Outdoor GreatRoom's chat height spans 20 to 26.63 inches, O.W. Lee's chat height is 24, and Regency calls a 20 inch table a coffee table. Read the inches and ignore the label.

What Footprint and Input Come With Each Height?

Height says little about size or output. These are the dining, counter and chat height tables, with the numbers their makers print. Longer, narrower tables have their own linear fire pit guide.

Input does not climb with height. American Fyre Designs rates its 25 inch Fiesta and its 28 inch Fiesta Dining at the same 60,000, and O.W. Lee's 24 inch Nova matches that figure. A taller table does not mean a stronger fire. The BTU ratings guide covers what the number means.

Is There a Coffee, Counter or Bar Height Fire Pit Table?

The categories exist, but the evidence is thin. Regency is the one maker I found that uses the words coffee table, for its 20 inch Plateau, and the nearest in O.W. Lee's line is occasional height at 19 inches. O.W. Lee prints counter height at 38 inches.

Bar height is the weakest. Telescope Casual's catalog lists a Dining Height, a Balcony Height and a Bar Height lift kit for its fire tables, and the page text carries no inches. Outdoor GreatRoom's blog calls its Westport a pub table with a taller table height and prints no number. Outdoor GreatRoom's Kenwood and Brooks linear table lists 20 and 21.5 inches and includes a riser kit, and its page doesn't say how much the kit adds. If you want a bar height table, get the inches from the maker in writing before you order.

Which Fire Pit Table Height Suits Your Seating?

HPC's 2018 dealer newsletter says an above-ground fire feature should typically be 12 to 14 inches tall, a few inches shorter than standard patio furniture seat height. It says to drop to 6 to 12 inches if people will rest their feet on the ledge, and to stay at 18 to 20 inches or lower if guests will sit on the coping. Above that, it says, the heat is held in and the fire is harder to enjoy from chairs. That advice is for built pits, where the fire sits at or below the seat.

Two makers publish seats beside their tables. Outdoor GreatRoom's Kenwood Long Bench is 17.75 inches high, and its page says to pair it with the 30 inch Kenwood Linear Dining table, a 12.25 inch step. POLYWOOD sells its Classic Adirondack chair, with a 13.5 inch seat, in a set with its 48 inch round table, which stands 23.8 inches, a 10.3 inch step. The subtraction is mine and two pairings are not a rule, but both put the top 10.3 to 12.25 inches above the seat.

Fire tables sit well above HPC's built-pit numbers, and makers sell the top as surface space. Prism's page describes room on its Tavola 5 for drinks, decor and serving, and Outdoor GreatRoom's Kenwood converts to a dining table. A low table at 12 to 18 inches is the closest to a pit, and chat height and above is a table first. Decide which one you are buying.

O.W. Lee shows what else changes with height on one footprint. Its 54 inch round Elba is 19 inches high with a 24 inch burner, 24 with a 24 inch burner, 29 with a 20 inch burner and 38 with a 20 inch burner. An older O.W. Lee Q&A, dated 2018 to 2019, rates its 10 by 30 inch burner at 32,000 Btu/h on propane and 44,000 on natural gas at dining and counter heights, against 47,500 and 56,000 at chat and occasional heights. It doesn't say why, so read the rating plate for the height you buy.

For dining use, one published range exists. The 2010 ADA Standards put the top of an accessible dining surface 28 to 34 inches above the floor or ground (Section 902.3). They apply to public places, not your patio, but the 28 to 30 inch dining tables above fall inside that range and the 20 to 24 inch chat tables fall below it.

A dining height table is a table when the fire is off. Outdoor GreatRoom's Kenwood Linear Dining includes a glass burner cover and converts to a dining surface, and says to remove the cover before lighting. Regency's Plateau includes a dining leaf. Prism's installation guide says its fire features are not for cooking and to place nothing on or in them, so read your own manual on what may sit on the top while the burner is lit.

How Much Legroom Is There Under a Fire Pit Table?

No fire table manual I opened states legroom or knee clearance. What manuals say about the space around a table is about heat, gas and hot surfaces. Outdoor GreatRoom gives 8 inches below the burner as clearance to combustibles, Prism says not to jump or walk across the unit, and Real Flame says not to sit on it.

The one published yardstick is the ADA's knee clearance (Section 306.3). It counts the space 9 to 27 inches up as knee room and asks for 30 inches of width, 11 inches of depth at 9 inches up and 8 inches of depth at 27 inches up. Treat it as a comparison, because a fire table's base is usually a cabinet. American Fyre Designs says its Fiesta accepts a 5 gallon propane tank inside, and several Outdoor GreatRoom tables conceal a 20 pound tank behind a door. Plan to sit beside the table, with your knees clear of the base.

Do Taller Tables Need More Overhead Clearance?

The clearance stays the same, but the ceiling it needs goes up, because the manual measures from the burner or the top of the unit. Outdoor GreatRoom says 72 inches above the burner and Prism's Tavola guide says 6 feet from the top. The ceiling or beam height you need is the table height plus that number. This is my arithmetic with 72 inches, assuming the burner sits near the tabletop.

Use your own manual's number in place of 72, and check that the manual allows a roof at all. Real Flame's La Valle manual gives 60 inches from the top, and in the same line says not to place the table under any overhead structure or vegetation. The clearance checker lists more makers, and the covered patio guide shows where this bites hardest.

Does Table Height Decide Where the Propane Tank Goes?

It sets the lowest place a tank can hide. The shortest table I found with a tank in the base is American Fyre Designs' Contempo LP Select at 18.5 inches, with a drawer for a horizontal 20 or 11 pound tank. At 20 inches, Regency's Plateau takes an 11 pound tank inside the frame, and Outdoor GreatRoom's Kenwood and Brooks and Real Flame's Coden hide a 20 pound tank in the base. Real Flame's 12 inch Estes says the tank must sit outside the table, and Firegear's 16 inch Sanctuary 1 manual says to keep propane tanks out of the enclosure, in a separate approved one at least 60 inches away. The hidden propane tank guide covers the tradeoffs. Natural gas has no tank to hide.

Footprint is a separate decision, and the size guide covers diameters. If warmth is the goal, the BTU calculator sizes a patio heater by area. I wouldn't pay for height as a heating feature, because HPC says a built pit taller than 18 to 20 inches holds the heat in.

Before You Choose a Height

• Measure your chair seats. The two pairings above put the top 10.3 to 12.25 inches above the seat.
• Decide if you will eat at it. Dining use means 28 to 30 inches and a burner cover.
• Subtract the table height from your ceiling or beam height and compare the result with the manual's overhead clearance. Some manuals allow no roof at all.
• Ask where the tank goes, or confirm you have natural gas.
• Get inches in writing for any bar or pub height claim.
• Check local code and the installation manual for the exact unit, and look up your state in the code library. A licensed gas fitter connects any gas line.

We don't sell any of the brands named here yet. Every figure above comes from the maker's own document or from the ADA Standards, linked where it appears.