Lava Rock or Glass chips in fire pits

Recently I received an email from an individual who had a fascinating problem and I want to share it with you because you may of faced the exact same thing. His email was this:

We built a natural gas fire pit and put a lot of colored glass chips in it. It works great, looks amazing but is worthless for roasting marshmallows : (.

It feels like an open flame just lights the marshmallows … We need coals. But I don’t want to put wood in and handle the ashes.

Suggestions?

Thanks!

We here at Lava Rocks for Fire Pits.com never had a question or problem of this nature presented to us, but upon reflexion and talking about it with our staff this was our solution to this problem. We had seen it done before but only by 2 people.

our return e-mail went as follows:

Your email was fascinating, we hadn't ever heard about this type of problem before.

Glass chips make for a pretty fire, one where you would not want to mess it up with food drippings like marshmallows or hotdogs for example. And glass will not hold heat very well; or reflect glowing heat too.

Lava rock appears to get only better with age because of the carbon build up caused from food burn to a “carbon crisp” (and lava rock hides these crumbs as the rock isn't so uniform in size and colour and is porous). The heat built up in the lava rock with natural gas or propane generates better for roasting those party favourites thanks to the thin walls of the lava rocks ‘ micro caves, sometimes turning them growing red (therefore creating ember like effects).

It all boils down to a pair things you want to choose for yourself, and only you can answer them. Do you want a pretty fire pit or a useful fun fire pit? Or better yet , why not both?

I've seen both functions built into the same fire pit.

In this one case we have seen, they put a double gas ring in the pit with one rings being bigger in diameter than the other. And dependent on your taste and style you are trying for, they put coloured glass chips in the center over the smaller gas ring and lava rock on the outside over the bigger diameter gas ring.

What this did was kind of cool. When these people wanted just pretty flames they turned on the center gas ring which was under the glass chips; but when they wanted a fun roasting flame they might turn on the larger outside ring, the one under the lava rock.

This may be something to think about.

I wish you all of the best and have a great time with this.

Lee

Building a rear yard fire pit is fun and still can be very useful. There is no need to sacrifice one for the other when you may have both. I am hoping this article allows you to see you can make a extraordinarily unique and fun fire pit for you own back garden. Its something new to contemplate.

Lee Miller is your source for lava rock for fire pits and lava rock for bonsai check him out at his sites and if you have got any comments or questions contact him from there.

categories: lava rock,lava rock for fire pis,fire pits,fire pit

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