Update Two years later with only 4 fires, the black paint burned off and the metal is rusting.
If youre looking for a small, portable fire pit to warm up your patio, this one is it! It looks attractive with fire or without. The screen dome helps to keep embers in check, and the handled hook allows you to take the lid on or off without getting burned.
I havent used the grill attachment yet, but look forward to it. I wish there was a way to keep all the parts together on the unit though (rather than having to store the parts separately). To send the heat upward and prevent corrosion, the instructions say to add sand on the bottom, so a trip to the hardward store was in order before use. The bottom of the pit stayed cool after lighting a fire, so it should be safe to put on other surfaces. The only downside is that assembly was somewhat challenging. The supplied wrench is as thin as a credit card, and it kept slipping when trying to tighten nuts -- so I used 10 14 sockets instead. Also, the allen wrench tool was cumbersome -- couldnt get leverage to tighten screws because the Phillips head was on the long end rather than the short end. Therefore, a power drill was used instead. When attaching the ring around the top of the fire pit, tighten the curved pieces loosely at first, to allow some play to attach the ends. Extra hardware was included too, which could be confusing for some folks. If youre handy and can get past the assembly, youll have a nice fire pit to show for it.
