The Best Fire Pits for Cooking

Because this pit came fully assembled, we needed only to put together the grill rig and start a fire to get cooking. The cooking grate fastened onto a metal pole that slid into a port in the rim of the pit. We could adjust the grate vertically and swing it laterally, moving food toward or away from the heat as needed to add logs to the fire or speed up cooking. The diamond-mesh cooking grate had small gaps that didn’t let food fall through, and it was sturdy enough to support a full Dutch oven of chili. The pit’s 19-inch diameter was roomy enough to construct and maintain a single-level fire, but slightly cramped for the multi-zoned fires. We were still able to cook beautiful, delicious food after some trial and error. The grilling bundle includes an ash shovel that worked well; digging out ash with it was fairly simple, but we would have preferred a lift-out ash tray. We were also impressed with how effectively this model reduced smoke. The pit’s Corten steel exterior is meant to gain a handsome dark brown patina over time, which happened for us over the course of a few months.

We loved many things about this simple, rustic fire pit bundle. It had just three parts—a wide, shallow pit; a cooking grate; and a vertical bar on which the height and position of the grate could be adjusted—so it was very easy to set up and take apart. At 30 pounds, it’s portable enough to take on a car-camping trip or to a cookout. The pit provided plenty of room to build fires, letting us make one zone for cooking-ready embers and another for newly lit logs. The semicircular diamond-pattern grate didn’t provide quite as much room for cooking as some, but it was still big enough to fit a spatchcocked chicken and sides. And by the end of testing, we rather liked that the grate didn’t span the entire width of the base, as the semicircular design made it easy to toss in new logs when we needed them. We just wish this pit were a touch easier to clean; you have to either scoop out the ashes or upend the whole base to turn them out. And although the unit is sturdy and otherwise well-built, it did develop some rust on the interior even though it was covered, so keep this unit inside when not in use.

Setting up this smoke-reducing fire pit and cooking grate was a breeze You simply place the ash catcher on the ground and then position the fire pit on top of it. The 24-In Swing Away Grill (sold separately) consists of a round cooking grate on a long metal pole that stakes into the ground beside the pit. Unfortunately, the bars of the cooking grate are spaced far apart with a single cross-bar bisecting them, and quite a bit of food slipped through the gaps and into the fire. At about 19 inches in diameter, the pit is a little narrow. However, with practice, we became skilled at building and maintaining a fire inside it. Emptying the ashes is a bit of nuisance. You must lift up the bulky fire pit and set it aside to access the ash catcher. (A new model improves on this with a lift-out ash catcher, but we have not tested it yet.) As a fire pit, it reduced smoke and produced enough heat for several adults to stay warm on a cool night. The protective cover cinched tightly and was impressively waterproof, protecting our fire pit from months of cold, wet weather and the effects of several Nor’easters.

This popular model was lightweight and portable. It slipped into a convenient carrying case for easy transport on car-camping trips or picnics. The cast-iron cooking grate attached easily to the fire pit via a triple-columned pedestal called a “crown,” which kept the grate at a fixed height of 8 inches above the rim of the pit. The cooking grate had thin slits that prevented smaller vegetable pieces from falling through, and it was simple to remove and scrub clean at the end of cooking. We also liked this model’s lift-out ash tray, which streamlined cleanup, and appreciated this pit’s ability to significantly reduce smoke output. A few design factors made cooking on this fire pit challenging. The fixed cooking grate hindered our access to the fire; we weren’t able to add or rearrange logs during active cooking without removing the grate and the food on it. Our inability to adjust the grate also meant that we weren’t able to vary the proximity of the food to the heat, which led to food cooking less evenly. This pit’s perforated bottom is designed to let coals and embers easily disintegrate into ash and fall through to the tray below. The many holes made it very difficult to sustain a smoldering bed of coals, which is essential for cooking longer recipes using a two-level fire.

This big, sturdy, well-designed model makes a terrific fire pit and an OK grill. The biggest issue is that the adjustable-height, swing-away cooking grate can’t get any lower than 14.5 inches from the bottom of the base; on a cool night we couldn’t get enough heat from the coals to cook a whole spatchcocked chicken over indirect heat. We learned to build up the fire and cook over the flames, which isn’t ideal. The rim around the pit is sturdy and stays cool to the touch, so you can put items down on it and not worry about scorching yourself inadvertently. The fire has great ventilation through huge cut-out letters spelling PIT BOSS on the sides of the bowl, so it’s quite easy to build a fire and keep it burning, and there’s plenty of room in the generous bowl to add wood and adjust coals to your liking. After cooking, it was very easy to clean. A separately purchased cover fit perfectly and kept it from filling with fallen leaves or rainwater. Assembly was not simple; you’ll need two people—one to hold parts in place while another screws them together.

This fire pit was easy to set up, lightweight, and highly portable, making it useful for camping trips and beachside fires. It produced less smoke than traditional pits—a boon for folks who don’t like smelling like the fire pit after they come inside for the night. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t all that easy to use for cooking. The pit itself was small and cramped, so we could only position logs vertically within it. And we certainly didn’t have enough room to make two-zone fires. Its small size also made it impossible to add logs to existing fires without completely altering the heat output, making it difficult to complete longer cooks at a steady, even temperature. In addition, the cooking grate was on the small side, though still big enough to accommodate a spatchcocked chicken. The grate itself wasn’t adjustable, so we had to be sure that we’d gotten the fire to just the right level of heat before we placed any food on it. As such, we think this unit is best used for shorter-cooking foods. We had to scoop out the ashes or upend the unit to clean it; while this wasn’t too hard, given the pit’s relatively light weight, we would have preferred an ash catcher.

This pit arrived in pieces and required additional tools to assemble. The steel used to construct this model was notably flimsy; its accompanying cooking grate warped when licked by flames and remained bent thereafter. We had to perch food on the cooking grate and pay extra attention lest it all roll off due to the angle of the warping. Its adjustable cooking grate also didn’t slide or swivel smoothly. The heat-resistant paint chipped and discolored after only two uses. This model’s manual warned against building a fire directly on the floor of the pit, instead mandating that we use a flimsy and unstable wire tripod log rack that collapsed after only a few minutes. We liked this pit’s spacious base, which allowed for fires with multiple zones, but disliked that we had to lift and invert the entire pit to empty the ashes. Between the flimsy material, poor construction, and baffling log rack, we think you should pass on this model.

A large fire bowl with two encircling rims made this fire pit exceptionally broad, but it was so large that we had to use a ton of wood to get a fire substantial enough to cook food. Assembling the pit took an hour and a half for one person. Even when we followed the directions precisely, the top rim didn’t sit completely flat, bowing a bit where the parts connected (troubleshooting messages to the company went unanswered). The company says you can rest your feet on the rims, but during testing they were mostly too hot to be a footrest but not hot enough to do any light cooking, like toasting buns. We liked that the cooking grate swings out laterally so you can add logs mid-cook, but wish it was easier to adjust the grate’s height. There are only 3 height levels to choose from, and adjusting the stubborn mechanism while cooking felt difficult and potentially dangerous. The grate was spacious and tightly crosshatched, but it had no rim and warped over hot flames. It warped and threatened to roll hot dogs and asparagus into the fiery abyss. It also wasn’t sturdy enough to confidently hold a cast iron skillet (let alone a Dutch oven), so you’re limited to directly on-grate cooking. The instructions suggest using the included charcoal cooking tray (which allows you to also grill over charcoal) for “more concentrated” wood fire cooking but its shallow rim made arranging both coals and logs a surgical procedure. The pitt’s base has some small holes, but you still need to tip it over (probably with an extra person) to dump out accumulated ash, or buy an additional shovel,