To get a fire pit or chiminea?

[uhohimbad]

Really want one for the garden... are they considered a nuisance to neighbours? I don't want to upset them as get on well with them but I want one!

I had a chiminea that you could cook in. I hardly used it once I'd bought a BBQ. I decided that paying out for the wood to burn was a waste or money and wood.

It depends on whether you'd actually use it, or it would be another thing to clear from the garden in a years time. Cleaning the chiminea was a pain. They get full of insects and i don't like the idea of setting them on fire, so had to clear them humanely.

I live in a block of flats (low rise, with a courtyard in the middle), and two of my neighbours (who are right in the other corner of the building, and on a different floor to me, i.e. as far away as they could be) have them (one has a fire pit and the other has a chiminea). They bother me (both sensorily and breathing-wise) when they're lit, so it would be even worse if they were next door.

Wood smoke is evil. In one minute, a fire pit produces as many particulates as 800 cigarettes would (and again the next minute, etc). And the particulates lodge in your body and cause ongoing health issues (i.e. it's not just lungs it affects).

If you must burn something, bioethanol or gas are the cleanest fuels, but combustion is inherently non-eco.

Go for a chiminea, they produce much less smoke because the fire bowl prevents a lot of air. The chimney part also gets rid of any smoke. Most important of all you need to make sure you use seasoned and dry firewood as this will stop smoke. Take a look at www.justchimineas.co.uk and especially the article www.justchimineas.co.uk/how-to-stop-a-chiminea-smoking