Portable fire pit propane usage & models

That's why we got ours after a few years of bans. Haven't had a ban since. lol

It is nice the first night when you are pooped from driving and setting up, don't feel like finding wood for a fire, much less cutting it up. It's nice when you want to sit out a bit but not hours. It's a pain to build a fire only to put it out half burnt. Same thing when it might rain or get windy. Sometimes it is just nice to twist a knob and go in.

Ive got an Outland fire bowl from Costco here in Canada and kinda like it. Only used it for a couple hours but seems like it doesn't use much fuel. I think the box said 7 to 11 hours on a 20 pound tank.

Outland from Costco Canada as well. had to switch to propane when the wife's asthma flared up a few years ago. Had one for most of three years now and would not go back.

Had it fired up for most of the rainy August long weekend. Running on low for two full days (noonish to late) killed a 20 lb bottle. As I said in an earlier email 20,000 btu = 1 lb roughly of consumption per hour. So, running a 35,000 btu unit on high will kill a 20 pounder in short order.

Whatever you get, think about some kind of container for it as the lava rock will shake out as most are open bottomed and might create a mess. I am getting a friend to make up a draw string bag to stick the whole thing in.

Outland now sells a bag to fit you can get it from there website or amazon

I also have the costco Outland with lava rocks. Love it! Propane is so much cheaper than buying wood at a campground. We took it for a week long trip and had a fire every night and didn't run out of propane from one 20lbs tank. We find that the low setting works great. Did up s'mores and did the jiffy pop popcorn too.
It's great that the bottom stays cool enough that you could put this on a deck. 5 to 10 minutes after turning it off, you can put the lid on and put the whole thing away.

Thanks, I'll check these brands out. There's a campfire ban in Washington state (three firefighters died this week) so maybe even propane fires will not be allowed. We will be camping around Wenatchee, South of Lake Chelan where the largest fires are right now.

hedge wrote:
Up here the outland fire bowls are pretty popular, Costco sells them for $90 CDN so the price is right. 58,000 btu.

I bought one but haven't used it yet so can't comment on it. I only got it for when there's a fire ban.

was gunna say I don't understand the point of these but if they beat a fire ban it makes sense to me. nothing sucks like being camping and not being allowed a camp fire.

not sure the yogis around here would allow that under a fire ban though.

We have the Ban Buster "campfire in a can". Was a freebee with a previous new TT purchase. Has the loose vermiculite insulation in it. It's a PITA to set up as the vermiculite gets all messed up from travelling and handling. I'd get one that doesn't have vermiculite insulation.

Here's a comparison of 5 different brands and only one doesn't have vermiculite.

Love it when we are using ours after dark during a fire ban and we get reported to the office or even yelled at... :) I wish they made a simulated smoke smell 'cuz they're just not the same without the smell of real burning wood.

Here are current prices @ Amazon -

Campfire in a can - US$229.99
Camco Little Red Campfire - US$110.81.
Heininger 5995 - US$ 115.
Outland Firebowl 820 - US$ 123.37.

Campfire in a can seems expensive. Heininger is not in the comparison linked by myredracer. Here is another comparison.

How about size? These things look huge. This is the outland:


Campfire in a can seems smaller but, as I said, more expensive...