Should I add holes to my fire pit/bowl?
I own a cheap but relatively effective solid metal bowl-shaped fire pit:
(football [soccer ball] provided for scale)
We sometimes have difficulty getting it lit - the smallest kindling takes well, but I think it doesn't burn hot (or long) enough for larger twigs to catch. I've been wondering if maybe a bit more airflow would help.
Would you recommend drilling some airholes in the base of the pit? If so, any tips on size and/or location? Anything else I need to be careful of - such as integrity of the weatherproof paint?
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It looks like you clean out and store your metal fire pit someplace after each use; there are no ashes in it, you don't have a hole to drain rain water, and the grass under it is green.
Drilling holes will be areas for rust to form. While that is an option, it will quicken end of life as well as let embers fall through.
I suggest you get a fire proof container like a metal coffee can, and place the ash and charcoal in the fire proof container. Starting a fire on a bed of ash with some charcoal from the last fire, makes fire starting much easier. The ash container should always be stored outside away from buildings and anything flammable.
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I would work on a fire starting technique which doesn't rely on airflow from holes in the bottom.
- Basically use any technique that you would use in an old-fashioned chimney or a campfire on flat ground - in both cases you have to make due without venting from directly below.
While creating holes would certainly help, it would also create problems:
- Ashes, embers, coals, etc. would fall through while using it. To avoid damaging whatever you use the fire bowl on you'd have to add some heat-resistant container to catch them.
- As @JamesJenkins mentioned, drilled holes will speed expose the non-coated core of the bowl, and thus allow for rust.
- Last but not least: you'd have to make quite a bunch of holes to get a lot of airflow, at least if you're not paying a lot of attention to fire starting/building technique. And if you are, I'd say there shouldn't be any air flow problems even without holes. :)
This post was sourced from https://outdoors.stackexchange.com/a/15873. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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