Some links on our site may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. Learn more.
Fire pits involve open flame. Always follow your local burn ordinances and HOA rules, and follow the manufacturer’s clearance and placement instructions for your specific model. Nothing in this article is safety advice, and no fire pit type is being called “safe” in an absolute sense — only compared on documented, manufacturer-sourced design differences like smoke output.
A classic wood-burning steel fire pit like the Pleasant Hearth Hudson wins on ambiance and upfront cost if you’ve got somewhere dry to stack wood. A propane fire pit like the Outland Living Firebowl 883 Mega wins on convenience — on and off in seconds, no ash, and by far the cheapest to actually run. A smokeless wood-burning fire pit like the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 splits the difference: real wood flame and crackle with meaningfully less smoke in your neighbor’s yard, per the design specs both Solo Stove and Breeo publish for their secondary-combustion pits. There’s no single winner — the right wood-burning vs. propane vs. smokeless fire pit pick depends on whether you’re optimizing for nostalgia, convenience, or the person next door.
At a Glance
- Best Overall: Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 (smokeless wood-burning, $259.99) — real wood flame with dramatically less smoke, works in more yards and under more HOA rules than an open pit.
- Best Budget & Cheapest to Run: Outland Living Firebowl 883 Mega (propane, $214.99) — lowest purchase price and, per our fuel-cost math below, the cheapest fire pit to keep lit night after night.
- Best for Classic Campfire Ambiance: Pleasant Hearth Hudson 34″ (wood-burning, $219.99) — the lowest-cost way to get true wood crackle, sparks, and s’mores-night nostalgia.
Jump to: Wood-Burning | Propane | Smokeless | Spec Comparison | 5-Year Fuel Cost Math | Footprint & Clearance | How We Compared | FAQ
Best for Ambiance and S’mores Nights: Wood-Burning Fire Pits
A traditional wood-burning fire pit wins when the goal of the evening is the fire itself — the crackle, the sparks, the wood smell on your jacket the next morning. The Pleasant Hearth Hudson 34″ Square Wood-Burning Fire Pit (model OFW191S, about $219.99 per Walmart’s listing) is a straightforward steel pit with a 30-inch fire bowl, a wood grate for airflow, a removable chrome-plated cooking grid, and a mesh spark screen, poker, and weather cover included.
The dealbreaker here isn’t the pit, it’s the wood: you need somewhere dry to store it, it produces genuine smoke that drifts wherever the wind takes it, and cleanup means shoveling out ash and half-burned logs the next morning. If your yard backs up to a neighbor’s open windows, or your HOA has any language about “open burning,” a traditional pit like this is the riskiest of the three to run regularly — always check your local ordinance before buying one.
Pros
- Lowest sticker price of the three main styles
- Real wood flame, sparks, and smell — no substitute for ambiance purists
- Doubles as a cooking grate for hot dogs and cast iron
Cons
- Requires dry wood storage and regular ash cleanup
- Produces the most visible smoke of the three types, which can trigger HOA or neighbor complaints
- Slowest to light and slowest to fully extinguish
Best for Low-Maintenance Weeknight Evenings: Propane Fire Pits
A propane fire pit wins when you want fire on demand with none of the prep or cleanup — turn a knob, hit the igniter, and you have flame in seconds; turn it off and you’re done. The Outland Living Firebowl 883 Mega (about $214.99 per Outland’s own site) is a 24-inch round steel pit rated for 58,000 BTU/hr, ships with a pre-attached 10-foot hose and regulator that connects to a standard 20-lb propane tank, and includes lava rock and a weather cover. It’s CSA-approved, which per Outland’s product listing makes it usable in some areas that restrict open wood burning — but confirm that with your local fire authority, since rules vary by jurisdiction.
The catch is the tank. A 20-lb propane tank isn’t included, and you’ll be swapping or refilling it — a standard exchange runs about $17 to $25 depending on retailer, according to GoodMoneyKeeping.com’s 2026 pricing survey. If you host often, running out of gas mid-evening (with no backup wood to fall back on) is the real-world dealbreaker people report most. It’s also the least “campfire” of the three — no crackle, no sparks, just clean flame over lava rock or glass.
Propane also happens to be the fire pit style most people pair with actual outdoor cooking nights — if grilling and pizza are as big a draw for your patio as the fire itself, it’s worth reading our pellet grill comparison and our breakdown of outdoor pizza ovens before you finalize the whole patio setup.
Pros
- Instant on/off, no smoke, no ash, no wood storage
- By far the cheapest to run per evening (see the fuel math below)
- CSA-approved and, per the manufacturer, permitted in some burn-restricted areas — verify locally
Cons
- Requires a separate 20-lb propane tank and ongoing refill trips
- No wood crackle, sparks, or smoke smell — some guests find it feels less like a “real” fire
- Running out of gas mid-evening is the most common owner complaint
Best for HOA and Smoke-Restricted Yards: Smokeless Wood-Burning Fire Pits
A smokeless wood-burning fire pit wins when you want the real wood experience without sending smoke into the neighbor’s pool party. The Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 (about $259.99 for the base unit, per REI and Target listings) is a 19.5-inch-diameter, 304 stainless steel pit weighing about 25 lbs, with a double-wall design and an airflow system that pulls air through the base and reburns smoke through secondary combustion holes near the rim — a design Solo Stove’s own product page describes as producing an “easy-to-light, smokeless fire.” It ships with a removable ash pan for faster cleanup than an open pit.
Be precise about the claim: “smokeless” is a marketing name, not a literal guarantee. Every wood fire produces some smoke, especially at startup, with damp wood, or in gusty wind — Breeo’s competing X Series 24 (about $399 for the Corten steel version, per Breeo’s site) uses a similar reburn system it calls “X Airflow” and makes the same kind of reduced-smoke claim rather than a zero-smoke one. What these designs verifiably do, per both manufacturers’ spec sheets, is burn a larger share of the wood gases through a second combustion pass instead of releasing them as visible smoke — which is why long-term owners consistently report noticeably less smoke than an open pit, not none at all.
The Bonfire 2.0’s dealbreaker is price relative to a plain steel pit: you’re paying roughly $40 more than the Pleasant Hearth for a smaller fire bowl, and you’re still buying and storing wood. If cooking over the fire matters to you as much as ambiance, the Breeo is the more popular step-up pick specifically because of its grill-grate ecosystem, per GearJunkie’s hands-on coverage of the line.
Pros
- Real wood flame with meaningfully less smoke than an open pit, per manufacturer design specs
- Removable ash pan speeds up cleanup versus a traditional pit
- Compact and light enough (about 25 lbs) to move around the patio or take camping
Cons
- Costs more upfront than a comparable open wood-burning pit
- Still produces some smoke, especially at startup or with damp wood — not a literal zero-smoke device
- Smaller fire bowl and less heat output than a full-size open pit
Spec Comparison: Wood-Burning vs. Propane vs. Smokeless Fire Pit
Here’s how the three contenders stack up on paper, using manufacturer and retailer-listed specs.
| Model | Type | Price | Fuel | Heat Output | Footprint | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Hearth Hudson 34″ | Wood-burning | ~$219.99 | Cordwood or bundled firewood | Varies with fuel load | 34″L x 34″W x 23″H, 30″ bowl | Not listed by retailer |
| Outland Living Firebowl 883 Mega | Propane | ~$214.99 | 20-lb propane tank (sold separately) | 58,000 BTU/hr max | 24″L x 24″W x 13″H | 34 lbs (with lava rock) |
| Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 | Smokeless wood-burning | ~$259.99 | Cordwood or bundled firewood | Varies with fuel load | 19.5″ diameter x 14″H | ~25.1 lbs |
Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
The 5-Year Fuel Cost Math No One Runs
Sticker price tells you almost nothing about what a fire pit actually costs to own. We modeled a typical suburban “fire pit season” of 20 evenings a year at about 2.5 hours per sitting — 50 hours of burn time a year — and priced out what feeding each pit type actually costs.
For wood, ProCutFirewood.com estimates a standard fire pit burns roughly one cubic foot of wood per hour, and a retail grocery-store or gas-station bundle (also about one cubic foot) runs $5 to $10, per HomeGuide.com’s 2026 firewood pricing guide — we used a $7.50 midpoint. That’s 50 bundles a season for either the open wood-burning pit or the smokeless Solo Stove, since both burn wood at a comparable rate; the smokeless design reduces visible smoke, not fuel consumption. For propane, FirePitSurplus.com’s propane usage calculator estimates a 20-lb tank on a 58,000-BTU burner lasts roughly 12 to 17 hours at a medium flame — we used 14 hours — and a tank exchange averages about $21, per GoodMoneyKeeping.com.
| Fire Pit | Fuel Cost / Season (20 nights) | Fuel Cost / 5 Years | Pit Price | 5-Year Total (Pit + Fuel) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pleasant Hearth Hudson (wood, retail bundles) | ~$375 | ~$1,875 | ~$220 | ~$2,095 |
| Outland Firebowl 883 Mega (propane) | ~$75 | ~$375 | ~$215 | ~$590 |
| Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 (smokeless wood, retail bundles) | ~$375 | ~$1,875 | ~$260 | ~$2,135 |
The decisive number here is fuel, not the pit. Propane comes out roughly 3.5 times cheaper to run than either wood option over five years, because a $21 tank exchange stretches across multiple evenings while a $7.50 bundle covers barely one. Wood owners can close most of that gap by buying a full cord instead of bundles — a cord averages $275 to $400 (about $2.66 per cubic foot at the $340 midpoint), per HomeGuide.com, which works out to roughly $130 a season and about $660 over five years if you have somewhere dry to store it. Even with bulk cordwood, though, propane still wins on raw fuel cost — the trade-off wood owners are actually buying is ambiance and lower upfront gear cost, not savings.
Footprint and Clearance: What Fits Your Patio
The Outland propane pit has the smallest physical footprint of the three at 24″x24″, which matters most on a small deck or narrow patio slab. The Pleasant Hearth’s 34″x34″ frame needs the most open floor space of the three. Every manufacturer publishes a minimum clearance distance from structures, railings, and overhangs in its owner’s manual — follow that spec exactly rather than eyeballing it, and check whether your model is deck-rated at all, since wood-burning pits generally are not recommended for direct placement on combustible decking without a heat-shielding pad.
How We Compared
The PicksWeTrust Editorial Team did not hands-on test these fire pits for this comparison. Instead, we cross-referenced current manufacturer spec sheets and retailer listings with verified owner reviews on Amazon, Home Depot, REI, and Walmart, plus long-term reliability patterns and expert consensus from outlets including Forbes Vetted, GearJunkie, and OutdoorGearLab, to identify where real owners’ experiences diverged from marketing claims — particularly around actual smoke output and fuel consumption. Our full methodology and standards for sourcing, disclosure, and product selection are detailed on our editorial standards page. Prices are approximate, current as of publication, and change frequently — confirm the latest price with the retailer before buying.
For more backyard evening upgrades, browse our full Beach & Backyard gear guides, including our comparison of patio mosquito control options — worth pairing with any fire pit, since bugs show up right around dusk whether you’re burning wood or propane.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are smokeless fire pits actually smokeless?
No — “smokeless” is a marketing name for a design that meaningfully reduces smoke, not eliminates it. Solo Stove and Breeo pits use double-wall airflow and secondary combustion, per each manufacturer’s product specs, to reburn wood gases that would otherwise escape as visible smoke, but startup, damp wood, and wind can still produce noticeable smoke.
Is a propane fire pit cheaper to run than a wood-burning one?
Yes, by a wide margin in our modeling. Based on a typical 20-night, 50-hour fire pit season, propane cost roughly $75 in fuel versus roughly $375 for either wood-burning style bought in retail bundles — about 3.5 times cheaper — using FirePitSurplus.com’s tank-runtime estimates and GoodMoneyKeeping.com’s 2026 propane exchange pricing.
Can I use a wood-burning fire pit if my HOA bans open burning?
Not without checking first. Some HOAs and municipalities that restrict open wood burning still permit CSA-approved propane appliances, and some also carve out exceptions for enclosed or “smokeless” wood-burning designs — but rules vary by jurisdiction, so always confirm with your HOA and local fire authority before buying, regardless of what any manufacturer’s marketing claims.
How much clearance does a fire pit need from my house or deck railing?
It depends on the specific model — always follow the clearance distance printed in your fire pit’s owner’s manual rather than a general rule of thumb. Manufacturers also specify whether a model is rated for placement on combustible decking or requires a heat-shielding pad underneath.
Do smokeless fire pits use more wood than a regular fire pit?
Not according to the fuel-consumption estimates we used — a smokeless pit like the Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 burns wood at roughly the same rate as an open pit of similar size, around one cubic foot per hour per ProCutFirewood.com’s estimate. Its secondary combustion system is designed to reduce visible smoke, not the amount of wood you feed it.
