Gas Fire Pit vs Wood Fire Pit: Heat, Cleanup and Local Burn Rules

Choose gas if you want a fire that lights with a key or an igniter, leaves no ash and burns no wood. Choose wood if you want a real log fire and can live with smoke, ash and the open burning rules that come with it. Where an air district or city restricts wood fires, a gas pit can be treated differently, but the rule is local, so read yours before you buy either.

This guide compares published documents: maker manuals, the model fire code, air district rules and federal research. Nothing here comes from running a pit.

Gas Fire Pit vs Wood Fire Pit at a Glance

The sections below source each row.

Heat: What the Specs Say

Gas pit makers publish input. Bull's Small Square fire pit is rated 35,000 Btu/h on propane, Real Flame's Forest Ridge 50,000 and Prism Hardscapes' Moderno bowls 65,000. A rating is the gas the burner can burn in an hour. It does not measure how warm you feel. Real Flame's manual gives a flame height of 8 to 14 inches, adjusted with a control knob.

Wood pit makers publish size. Ohio Flame's Patriot page lists diameters from 24 to 48 inches, heights, bowl depths and weights from 46 to 255 lb, and no heat figure. How much heat a wood fire gives depends on the wood. EPA and the USDA Forest Service both say to burn seasoned wood, EPA at about 20 percent moisture and USDA at less than 20 percent.

The documents cited here give no heated-area figure for either kind of pit, so no number settles this. If the job is a warm seat, a patio heater is rated for an area, and a BTU calculator can size one. The guide on whether gas fire pits give off heat takes the question further.

Cleanup: Ash Versus Burner Care

Wood leaves ash, and the ash has to cool before it goes anywhere. EPA says to remove ashes into a covered metal container stored outdoors on a nonflammable surface. The U.S. Fire Administration says to let ashes cool first, keep the covered metal container at least 10 feet from the home and other buildings, and never empty ashes into a trash can. Its pictograph shows ashes from a fireplace, and a backyard pit leaves the same hot ash.

Ohio Flame's Patriot has a rain drain, and a blocking plate closes it if you do not want ash falling through. Its natural steel finish develops an iron oxide patina and darkens over time, which the maker's warranty page says to expect.

Gas leaves no ash and still needs upkeep.

• Real Flame warns that spiders and other insects can nest in the burner tube, block the gas flow and cause a flashback, and tells you to clean the tube with a pipe brush and compressed air. It says soot can form on some surfaces and usually wipes off with water and mild soap.
• Prism says to wipe the unit before every use, check hoses and fittings monthly, and never to light the media while it is wet. It also says an NFI certified gas technician should service the appliance annually.
• The Outdoor Plus says to clean the appliance at least annually and have a qualified field service person inspect it.

Smoke, Smokeless Pits and Gas

EPA says wood smoke is a mixture of gases and fine particles, and that fine particles, PM2.5, are its biggest health threat. EPA's backyard fire page adds that outdoor recreational fires can become a considerable source of fine-particle pollution, especially in some metro areas.

Low-smoke wood pits do cut smoke. USDA Forest Service scientists measured two self-advertised smokeless pits and a campground pit in a lab, over 31 burns. The average was 2.2 grams of fine particulate per kilogram of firewood, which they report as 80 percent below the 11.3 grams the EPA national inventory uses for traditional pits. The three pits tested had similar emissions, probably because of their similar barrel design. The USDA writes that pits like those tested can give robust fires with much less smoke if you follow the maker's instructions and burn firewood below 20 percent moisture.

Two limits matter. The study measured wood pits only, so it gives no comparison with gas. And a smokeless pit is still a wood fire. Firegear describes its LUME as a smoke-less insert for wood-burning pits, and its page gives no emissions figures. The burn rules below draw the line at the fuel. South Coast Rule 445 covers any portable outdoor device burning wood-based fuel on residentially zoned property, Maricopa's P-26 bars a fire pit or similar outdoor fire on restricted days, and Denver's page says wood fire pits are prohibited. None of those texts carves out a low-smoke pit.

Local Burn Rules for Wood and Gas

The model fire code treats the two differently. A recreational fire is an outdoor fire not contained in an incinerator, outdoor fireplace, portable outdoor fireplace, barbeque grill or barbeque pit, with a fuel area no more than 3 ft across and 2 ft high, and the code keeps it 25 feet from a structure or combustible material (IFC 307.4.2). A portable outdoor fireplace is a solid-fuel-burning fireplace that may be built of steel, concrete, clay or other noncombustible material. It is used per the maker's instructions and kept 15 feet from a structure or combustible material, with an exception for one- and two-family dwellings (IFC 307.4.3). Whether a steel fire bowl counts as one or the other is a question for your fire official. Both rules sit under an attendance rule: the fire must be constantly attended until it is out (IFC 307.5).

A permanently installed gas fire pit is an appliance. The International Fuel Gas Code requires permanently fixed-in-place outdoor decorative appliances to be listed to ANSI Z21.97 and installed per the manufacturer's instructions (IFGC 635.1), so the distance that applies is the one in the manual. The manuals give 4 ft to the sides and 6 ft overhead for Prism, 48 inches and 60 inches for Real Flame, and 48 inches and 96 inches for The Outdoor Plus. Run yours through the clearance checker and read your own manual, which controls. Your city's adopted code can change any of this.

Air rules add a second layer, and they are where gas and wood part ways.

EPA notes that some local governments have adopted ordinances to restrict backyard recreational fires. Ask your fire department and your air district, and check your local code and the appliance's installation manual.

Can One Fire Pit Burn Both Gas and Wood?

No. Five makers' documents say not to burn solid fuel in their gas fire features. Prism says at no time are solid or alternative fuels to be used, and that using wood voids the warranty. Real Flame lists natural or treated wood among what not to burn. The Outdoor Plus says not to use solid fuel such as wood or charcoal, HPC Fire Inspired says solid fuels shall not be burned, and Firegear says not to burn any solid fuels in the appliance.

Ohio Flame makes wood-burning pits and rings, and its Gas Burners collection page says products are coming soon and lists none. EPA notes that kits exist that convert existing fire pits to natural gas or propane burners. That is a separate project with its own rules, covered in our burner kits and inserts guide.

Are Gas Fire Pits Worth It?

Here is what the documents show you gain and give up.

For gas:

• No ash and no wood smoke, and EPA says switching reduces harmful air pollutants.
• A simple start. Prism's table lights with a key valve and a fireplace lighter, and Real Flame's with an igniter button.
• A different footing under some burn rules, as the table above shows.
• Clearances set by the manual, 4 ft to the sides in these manuals, where a wood recreational fire carries the model code's 25 ft.

Against gas:

• Fuel logistics. A 20 lb cylinder runs a 50,000 Btu/h burner about 8.6 hours and a 65,000 Btu/h burner about 6.6 hours at full flame, and Real Flame says cold outdoor temperatures can lower tank pressure and the flame. Natural gas removes the cylinder and needs a line from a licensed gas fitter.
• Wind. Real Flame says winds above 10 mph may extinguish the flame, and Prism says never to use its fire feature in windy conditions.
• Upkeep. Prism says, and HPC suggests, that an NFI certified gas technician service the appliance every year.
• No log fire. A gas pit burns gas over media, and none of these manuals allow wood in it.

As I read it, gas is worth it for someone who lights a fire often and wants it to start from a valve or an igniter, lives where wood fires are restricted, or does not want to manage ash. Wood is worth it for someone who wants the real thing and has the yard, the firewood and a city that allows it.

Which Fire Pit Fits Your Yard

Ohio Flame fits a buyer who wants a real wood fire in a heavy steel pit. The Patriot uses 3/16 inch steel in the 24 to 36 inch sizes and 1/4 inch in the 42 and 48 inch sizes, and the maker's lifetime warranty on registered bowls covers structural integrity and welds and excludes screens, grates, paint and finishes. The Patriot page gives no clearance or fuel instructions, so ask Ohio Flame and your fire official. Prism's Falo 21 and Falo 33 are portable wood-burning bowls of 30 and 40 lb.

Gas pits suit the buyer who wants a pit that works without wood. Prism and The Outdoor Plus make finished gas pieces, and Firegear and HPC Fire Inspired mostly make burners and inserts for pits you build. These are the makers cited above, and this guide compares what their documents say.

Before you choose, check these.

• Your city's burn rules and your air district's burn-day rules.
• The clearance in your manual or, for wood, in the code your city adopted.
• Where the fuel comes from: a cylinder, a gas line or a firewood stack.
• Who does the work. Gas piping goes to a licensed gas fitter, and a fuel conversion takes the maker's kit and a qualified installer.
• Attendance. Real Flame says never to leave its table unattended, and the model fire code says the same of wood fires.