What good is having a fire pit if you can’t use it to its full potential? That is where all the fun accessories come in! In our last post in this series, we focused on items that are absolute must-haves and non-negotiable for operating your fire pit safely and being prepared for any scenario. In part 2 of this series, we will discuss the various items you need that will make your home fire pit experience easier and will ensure everything runs smoothly. Read on to learn more about the accessories you need to use your fire pit effectively.
1. Pair of Fire Pit Tongs
This one likely does not need a lot of explanation, but having a good set of solid fire pit tongs can be a big help when moving firewood around or to your fire pit safely, especially when you are trying to add wood to a specific spot in a hot fire. Tongs can help you do all of that with less risk to yourself or your clothing, and as you know by now, safety is paramount when it comes to fire pit use. There are a lot of cheap flimsy options out there, so do your homework. Check out a pair at your local fire pit/fireplace specialty store and actually pick them up and handle them, or go with a trustworthy, well-made option like our handcrafted fire pit log tongs.
2. Fire Pit Poker
This is another pretty common fire pit tool. Having a poker on hand is great for repositioning wood already in the fire pit. If you are adding wood and trying to avoid having your stack collapse under the weight of what is being added, being able to safely move wood around to a better location without getting too close to the heat source is a must. However, the main problem with traditional pokers, like the ones used in fireplaces, is their length. Most fireplaces are not particularly deep, and the need for a long poker just is not there.
Wood-burning fire pits, on the other hand, are getting larger and larger as demand grows, and the need for longer pokers to get good there, while maintaining some distance, is growing with it. When shopping for a fire pit poker, try to pick up the longest option you can find. Most fire pit pokers generally come in the 25 to 45 in. range. If you are able, shoot for a poker that has a combination of length and light weight to minimize fatigue when moving wood around your fire pit while still allowing you to keep your distance. A solid but lightweight option is our fire poker with ball. It is even stylish, with a lovely decorative touch!
3. Heat-Resistant Gloves
On occasion, you may need to move your portable fire pit a few inches over for one reason or another while it is in use, or you might need to handle the spark screen when adding firewood. Like most people, you probably do not enjoy burning your hands, so it is a good idea to keep at least one heat-resistant glove in your pocket or nearby and handy when using your fire pit. Having a pair of gloves is quite nice, especially when you need to lend one to someone who is helping you out with maintaining the fire or cooking over it.
Like most accessories on this list, there is a range of options you can choose from. Splurging for the pricier gloves may seem like overkill, but the confidence you gain knowing you will not get burned when you use them to touch something hot will be well worth it. There are some slightly cheaper options out there, but just make sure you are getting what you pay for and that they are properly rated for the temperatures you will be handling.
4. Homemade Fire Starters
Save your newspaper for your wood-burning fire pit, just like you would for a fireplace! It is a cheap and easily accessible for starter and does a pretty good job getting the kindling started. Once your initial firewood stack is ready, just loosely ball up a couple of pages of newspaper and stuff them into pockets of space at the base of the stack. Light when you are ready – it is as simple as that.
Another cheap and very effective tool in getting fire pit fires started is using toilet paper rolls stuffed with dryer lint. Dryer lint lights very easily and burns quickly, lighting the paper in the roll, which lights your kindling and so forth. You can probably get creative with other types of fire starters you can find around the house, but always make sure you use a material that is safe to burn and will not cause any toxic fumes or other hazardous situations.
Of course there is nothing like cheap or free for effective fire pit accessories, but sometimes it makes more sense to spend a little more and save some time with a purchased product. There are a number of commercially available fire starter products on the market if you do not want to bother with the suggestions above. Most are made from cedar or fatwood shavings and some sort of wax binder.
5. Lighter or Fire Steel
You know that cheap disposable plastic utility or barbecue lighter that you keep hanging around in the junk drawer in your kitchen? The one you have to try to light several times before it produces a flame and whose spark blows out in the slightest of breezes? Believe it or not, there are better options out there for lighting your fire. If you are not using a windproof butane or electric arc lighter to light your fire pit, you are missing out on making your life a whole lot easier. When they work as they were designed to, they can’t be beaten for performance. Electric arc lighters are easy to operate, do not need too be refilled with gas, and are cool to look at, but be warned that if you have a dog or are considering getting one, they typically do not like the high-pitch sound arc lighters can make and may start barking in response. In this case, you may want to opt for a windproof butane lighter instead.
If you are a little more traditional, a fire steel or ferro rod, is a solid choice as you will not need to fill it with butane or charge its battery – it always works out of the box.
6. Firewood Ash Bucket
When cleaning out your wood-burning fire pit the day after a burn or removing hot ash from the fire pit during or after a fire, having a solid firewood ash bucket on hand is a definitive must-have. Whatever the situation, an ash bucket is a safe, clean, and durable option designed for storing your ash until disposal or use for other purposes.
It is important to choose a durable option. Look for features such as a double bottom to avoid burn through and galvanize iron which means it will be more resistant to rust while handling whatever heat is thrown at it. You will also need something to scoop the ash with. Try our handcrafted ash shovels, which are made from recycled 55 gallon drums. The curve of the handle follows the curve of our pits making it easy to scoop out your ashes.
