Fire Pit Inserts and Burners

What to Know Before You Buy

Five decisions shape a burner kit or insert.

• Kit, insert or drop-in pan. A burner kit is a burner with a valve and flex line, and a pan only if the kit says so. An insert adds the pan and the controls in one assembly, and a drop-in pan has a lip that sits in an opening in the enclosure. Firegear's Pro burner kits come without a pan, and its manuals tell you to supply a non-combustible one, recommending 304 stainless steel. The guide on which burner, pan or insert fits covers parts lists, pan sizing and vents.
• Ignition. HPC offers match lit, push-button flame sensing and two electronic tiers, The Outdoor Plus offers five systems, and Firegear offers match throw, electronic AWS and thermopile TPSI. See match-lit or electronic ignition.
• Output and supply. The burner's rating sets the gas line, the tank and the clearance tier. The BTU ratings guide explains the number, and the linear fire pit guide covers long burners.
• Fuel. Natural gas or propane compares supply pressure, pipe size and conversion kits.
• Media. The pan needs approved media at a safe depth, which fire glass or lava rock covers. If a flame will not hold, a gas fire pit that won't stay lit sorts the causes.

Sizes, Output and Fuel

Burner makers publish sizes and a rated or recommended output for each shape, and shape does not set output. HPC lists a 24 inch round burner at 150,000 BTU and a high-capacity 24 inch round at 300,000.

HPC's drawings label their figures recommended BTU and say they are for sizing and planning, and Firegear's Pro H manual gives the 30 inch natural gas burner as 90,000 BTU on its cover and 95,000 in its table. A listed unit's rating plate is the figure to design to.

HPC and The Outdoor Plus list a natural gas supply of 3.5 to 7.0 inches of water column and a propane supply of 8.0 to 11.0. Either way the line has to carry the burner's full load, so a licensed gas fitter sizes it. The propane tank runtime calculator and the fire glass calculator cover a cylinder's hours and a pan's media.

Who Makes Them

These makers' own documents show they build burners, kits or inserts. The order is not a ranking.

HPC Fire Inspired, of Miamisburg, Ohio, is the trade name of Hearth Products Controls Co. Its core business is the burner system and the controls that run it. It offers stainless inserts, with round bowl sizes of 13, 19, 25, 31, 37 and 43 inches, plus burner kits and Penta burner kits. Its warranty page lists stainless steel fire burners as lifetime, while a kit manual dated 5/21 gives a stainless burner and pan 5 years residential, so confirm the term in writing.

Firegear, of Huntington, Indiana, mostly makes the hardware that goes inside a gas fire pit. The Pro Series puts brass burners in stainless pans as round, square, linear H and linear T systems, and its Block Burner Systems are built for block and paver pits. For consumer use on products made after January 1, 2026, stainless steel burners and pans and Pro Series burners carry a lifetime warranty.

The Outdoor Plus, of Ontario, California, also makes the components. Pans come in drop-in, lipless, flat and raised-lip styles in 304 stainless, and bullet burners come in round, square, H, linear and other shapes. Its ignition systems are offered on their own, and its burner ring and burner bars carry a lifetime warranty.

Bull Outdoor Products, of Athens, Tennessee, keeps its fire products inside a larger outdoor kitchen line. They include two build-in kits, a rectangle pan with a 35,000 BTU H-burner and a round 10 inch ring kit, and Bull lists both as CSA Approved. The round kit's documents give no BTU figure and are inconsistent on fuel, so confirm both with Bull.

Rules and Placement

The 2024 International Fuel Gas Code, Section 635.1, requires a permanently fixed-in-place outdoor decorative appliance to be listed to ANSI Z21.97 and installed per the maker's instructions. Not every kit carries a listing. HPC's insert pages offer a non-certified option, and its burner kit manual shows no listing mark. Firegear's AWS valve and control system is certified to ANSI Z21.97-2014, which covers a component and not the whole appliance. Ask your building department what it accepts, and get the listing label for your exact configuration. See the fire code library for state rules.

HPC, The Outdoor Plus and Firegear all call for a non-combustible, vented enclosure. HPC and The Outdoor Plus ask for 18 square inch vents on at least two sides, HPC also accepts vents totaling 36 square inches, and Firegear asks for 18 square inches per side. HPC and The Outdoor Plus want the pan and burner at least 2 inches below the top of the enclosure, and The Outdoor Plus shows a drop-in pan recessed 4 inches against 2 for a flat pan. None of them allows the cavity to be filled with gravel, rock or concrete.

Converting a wood pit to gas is not a weekend job, and a burner kit does not turn a wood pit into a gas appliance by itself. The pit needs a non-combustible, vented, above-grade enclosure, a pan and burner sized to it, and a gas line sized and tested by a licensed gas fitter. HPC says a permanent gas supply typically needs a permit, so ask your building department before anything is cut. The gas line sizing calculator shows what the burner's load asks of the pipe.