Natural Gas Firepit???

[lawfarm]

My wife wants me to build her a natural gas firepit (brick / pavers in a circle about 2' high, with a natural gas burner in the center). I've looked at several burners online, and they all appear to just be a stainless steel or black pipe ring or square with a 1/2" NPT fitting and a bunch of holes drilled in it...nothing too fancy...so I'm contemplating building my own. None even appear to have venturis or anything on them. Given that natural gas is at such low pressure, I can't imagine that they'd do so well without a venturi, but that appears to be the way they're set up.

Anyone have any sage advice on building my own? I'm contemplating just getting some black pipe and making a double square, welding the joints, drilling a bunch of 1/16 holes in the top, and calling it a burner. Any thoughts? How 'bout a homemade venturi? All of the posts I see online about venturis are for propane (much higher pressure) and use really, really small nozzles (e.g. Mig welder tips). Is a venturi even needed? Ideally, we'd have maybe 12-18" tall flames...

[tatra]

probably will void any insurance coverage you have as not u/l or csa approved...........but when has that ever stopped a red blooded male?...........hell, it's for entertainment, not survival, so i would wait until tiger torches go on sale and then weld those up on a frame and then let my big game buddies know what i have bulit...........remind them how much work goes into butchering when roasting on a spit is so much more conducive to elbow wear, the same as cutting, could be the result of tipping brewskis.............hmm, just reread this and i need to slo down on the bubblys

[MrBeast]

Mmmmmm Red MEAT!

[swhite832]

water heater burner turned upside down covered with recycled glass(sometimes free)

[akdiesel]

If you drill the holes on the top you will want to get a cover plate for the burner to keep water out. or you can drill them on the bottom sides.

When you build your fire pit you might also think of adding some windows on this sides. In other words leave out some bricks on the side for air flow. this will aid in air/fuel mixture and give out some heat on the side as well.

[D KRAGER]

I've been thinking about doing that same thing, except with propane. I've already made a fire starter with an old regulator off an old grill. Just took the hose and ran it to some rigid pipe, works great to start a camp fire or charcoal.

If you do it, make sure you have it regulated properly, also put a gate valve in (or to get fancy a adjustable regulator) , this will allow you to adjust your flame. Although natural gas is already pretty low pressure.....

A piece of black iron pipe with holes should work fine, you may have to play around with it to see what kind of flame you get. May have to play with how to get the proper draft. Look at all those gas log fireplaces... same thing just homemade.

[russlaferrera]

If you google "Fireplace glass" their are companies who sell fireproof glass. You use a standard burner and cover it with 3" of glass beads. The flame burns on top of the glass.

I THINK the burner gas mix is not that important because the fire is on top away from the burner.

[rickairmedic]

They actually make what you are looking for its called a log lighter . We use them all the time in fireplaces when peaple realise thata burning wood is alot cheaper than brning NG all the time but still want the ease of gas for lighting.


http://thecustomfireplace.com/s17n.html


Rick

[porschedude996TT]

You are not looking for a flame that has oxygen mixed into it with a mixer shutter or valve. Mixing at the stochimetric mix of fuel and oxygen will give you a blue/green flame. i believe that you should be looking for yellow flame. Go with a drilled pipe.

[jmack]

Why not just build your firepit and burn actual firewood in it?

Gas fireplaces make sense for in the house, but in your outdoor space, and actual fire (from burning wood) can't be beat for atmosphere. The plesant aroma and crackle of wood. Plus it's cheaper to do that way. Build some cleats inside the walls and get yourself a large grille grate. That way it does double duty as a massive BBQ for some impressive meals (whole pig roast?)

[200horse]

Originally Posted by jmack

Why not just build your firepit and burn actual firewood in it?

Gas fireplaces make sense for in the house, but in your outdoor space, and actual fire (from burning wood) can't be beat for atmosphere. The plesant aroma and crackle of wood. Plus it's cheaper to do that way. Build some cleats inside the walls and get yourself a large grille grate. That way it does double duty as a massive BBQ for some impressive meals (whole pig roast?)

sounds like jmack knows what he is talking about good idea and comment

[JebNY]

I built a small portable fire pit to haul in my truck camper in one of the wheel well storage compartments. I burn scrap wood in it when I want a long burning fire that I can add to. If I want a cleaner shorter burn length I use chunks of wax logs. In my setup I dump lava rocks over the wax log after I get it started to slow down the burn and get a more uniform looking fire. If I change my mind I can add wood or more wax log chunks, it is just a little more messy fishing out the lava rocks when it cools. For only occasional fires the wax logs are fairly reasonable and clean burning if you watch for good sales. I can get about 2 hours out of a chunk about a 1-1.5lbs a whole 5-6lb log can be bought on sale for $3-4. In a bigger fire you would need more but one log is rated for 3 hours.

Would be easy to scale up the design. Was hard to find the parts to make it small. Even though it is small we had numerous camp fires this summer with as many as 6 enjoying the fire.



Jeb

[banned wagon]

I built one. i made a frame of wood then covered it in slate. the fire bowl is a reused bbq i made a manifold out of black iron pipe.
there is a air gap around the heat shield of the manifold. the bowl doesn't heat up the wood at all the bowl sits on thew slate.

[JebNY]

Originally Posted by banned wagon

I built one. i made a frame of wood then covered it in slate. the fire bowl is a reused bbq i made a manifold out of black iron pipe.
there is a air gap around the heat shield of the manifold. the bowl doesn't heat up the wood at all the bowl sits on thew slate.

Very nice job. I'll have to think about where I would put something like that.

Jeb

[hidollartoys]

Pipe with holes is just fine. Hole dia will have an effect on the type of flame you get. Make sure you cap the ends of the pipe. No venturi will be needed. you can use fireplace gas valve to comtrol the gas flow volume and control the flame height. You will make up a burner with some holes and test it. You may want to add more or bigger holes. No rocket science here.

[therealjakeg]

I work for a western gas company on the west side of the stated and your not gonna get any heat from that sucker. Its just gonna ride your bill up and then your gonna complain and then shes gonna feel guilty when she uses it. So just build a pit and throw wood in there. Enjoy

[rburke65]

About 18 months ago we bought a portable fire pit off the internet. 30" square, stainless steel,spark screen etc. We have had more enjoyment from that purchase than I could have ever inagine. It is out on the wooden deck, so I bought a 16"x16" pc. of SS and put it under the pit as the wood deck was getting quit hot! But when we have folks over, and just before dark I light it off. There is something so mesmerising about a fire....It stimulates the conversation and just makes everthing alright. Should have bought this 20 years ago when I built the deck....Highly recomended.Won't be sorry.
"

[Steevo]

bandwagon:
Very nice job on that firepit. And you know you can always get a grill or a lid for it at almost any home improvement store, too!

[jxxxoxxxe]

any update to this? Did you make a homemade burner? If so, what size holes did you drill, and did you place them on the top or bottom of the burner?

[lawfarm]

Update...

I did build the firepit, but I ended up finding a stainless steel burner for $50...too cheap to pass up for stainless. The holes are about 1/8", and are spaced every 1.5". Diameter of the burner is 30", with an inner ring that is about 18" (so there is an 18" circle and a 30" circle, joined by a straight line).

I pointed the holes up, and have had no problems. It works great.

Only mistake I made was in using flexible stainless steel tubing (epoxy coated) for my supply line. It was easy to run, and I used 3/4" which provides more than enough flow. Buuuuuut...if you run the gas wide open, the corrugations in the tubing, when bent, whistle. So if you run the firepit on full blast, it whistles away. It's easy enough to throttle the gas back a bit, but if I were doing it again, I'd use black pipe.