Fire Pit Burner Types: Cross, H, Linear, Ring and Bullet Compared

By the Outdoor Heat Direct fire feature team · Authorized The Outdoor Plus dealer · Reviewed September 2026

What are the actual fire pit burner shapes, and who makes each one?

Every manufacturer names its shapes differently, which is why this feels harder than it should. Underneath the branding there are only about ten geometries in common use.

The Outdoor Plus also builds shapes nobody else does: Fish Eye, Lotus, Racetrack, Switchback and Half Moon. Those exist to fit specific table geometries rather than to produce a different kind of fire. You can see the full set in our fire pit burner collection.

Which burner shape gives which flame pattern?

This is the question buyers actually have and almost nobody answers. You are not buying a geometry, you are buying a look.

One rule cuts through all of it: a burner lights the shape it is, scaled up. If the burner outline does not echo the opening outline, the flame will not fill the table. Our complete fire pit buying guide covers how that plays out in finished tables.

What size burner fits a given fire pit opening?

The burner is always smaller than the opening, and the gap is not decoration — it is combustion air and thermal expansion room. Starfire Direct puts the floor at "at least 3 inches of clearance on all sides." Woodland Direct phrases it as a burner "3–6 inches smaller than the opening." Those are not in conflict once you notice one is per side and the other is across the whole dimension. Better than either rule are the pairings manufacturers publish in their own kits — not estimates, but what actually ships in the box.

Figures taken directly from each manufacturer's kit listings and installation instructions. Firegear's numbers are published as minimum inside pan dimensions, so larger pans are permitted.

Two things jump out. Nobody publishes a "6 inches per side" rule — the real gaps run 0.5" to 9" and cluster at 3–4". And American Fire Glass tops out at an 18" ring even in a 36" pan: past a certain diameter you stop scaling the ring and either change shape or accept a dark center. Match your pan first in burner pans or the wider fire pit components range, then size the burner to it.

Why is buying a burner by BTU the most expensive mistake?

BTU per hour tells you how much gas the burner can consume. It tells you nothing about where the flame lands. A 410,000 BTU H burner and a 160,000 BTU linear burner can occupy the same 72" table and look completely different — one fills it, one draws a stripe down the middle.

Burner, burner kit, drop-in pan or insert — what is the difference?

The terms get used interchangeably by retailers and they are not interchangeable. Clean definitions:

• Burner. The drilled or ported tube assembly only, with a gas inlet. Nothing else. This is what you buy when you already have a pan and a valve.
• Burner pan. A metal tray that holds the burner and the media, with a flange or lip. A drop-in pan has a lip that rests on the surround and drops into the opening; a flat pan sits flush on a finished surface.
• Burner kit. Burner plus pan plus the plumbing to make it run — typically brackets, a flex line, an air mixer on propane, and either a match-lit valve or a spark ignition.
• Insert. A complete pre-assembled unit — burner, pan, gas flex line and ignition system — designed to drop into an existing masonry opening with no further assembly.

If you are building a surround from scratch you want a kit or an insert, not a bare burner. The complete assemblies live in fire pit burner kits — 88 of them — and ignition systems are listed separately for anyone upgrading a match-lit setup later.

Should you buy brass, 304 stainless or 316 stainless?

This is not a marketing distinction. It is metallurgy, and it decides whether your burner survives a decade near a pool.

The mechanism matters. Chloride ions create localized corrosion called pitting, which spreads beneath the protective chromium layer on 304 and eats the metal underneath. The 2–3% molybdenum in 316 is what blocks it. If your fire pit sits within splash range of a chlorinated pool or within a mile of saltwater, 316 or brass is the honest answer and 304 is a false economy. The Outdoor Plus offers burners in 304 and 316 stainless and in brass, all under a lifetime warranty.

What do CROSSFIRE and other high-output brass burners actually do differently?

Standard burners are drilled pipe: gas exits through holes and burns at the surface. High-efficiency brass burners replace the holes with engineered jets. Warming Trends builds every CROSSFIRE 2.0 burner from "solid 100% brass" and uses what it calls a Universal Jet system on a redesigned pinwheel manifold, across a 60,000 to 560,000 BTU range. The Outdoor Plus takes a similar route with its patented Bullet burners, marketed as "Less Gas. More Flames."

Now the part worth knowing before you pay the premium. Warming Trends' own technology page shows a graphic reading "TWICE THE FLAME" but publishes no numerical comparison, no percentage and no test conditions beside it. The Outdoor Plus publishes no gas-consumption comparison either. The principle is sound — angled jets entrain more air and give a taller, more separated flame — but as of September 2026 neither manufacturer publishes data that would let you verify the multiplier. Buy these for the flame appearance, which is genuinely different in person. Treat the efficiency claims as unverified.

Do you need an air mixer or a different orifice on propane?

Yes, and it is not optional. Propane is C3H8 against natural gas's CH4 — far more carbon per molecule. Burned without pre-mixed air, the surplus carbon leaves as black soot on your glass and on the inside of the pan. An air mixer is a venturi: a narrowed section that accelerates the gas, creating a vacuum that pulls air in through a ring of holes. The Outdoor Plus specifies an air mix fixture with six holes on its liquid propane configurations.

Mixers are sized to gas flow, not heat output: 90,000 BTU for burners in the 45,000–120,000 range, 150,000 BTU for 120,000–250,000, 300,000 BTU above that. Orifices differ by fuel too. Firegear's Pro Brass Snowflake uses a #61 (0.039") injector on natural gas and a #72 (0.025") on propane, and the manual states plainly that "No LP Conversion kits are available" — you buy the burner configured for your fuel. Check whether your model sits under natural gas fire features or propane fire features before ordering. Operating pressure is consistent across brands: nominal 7.0" water column on natural gas, 11.0" on propane.

How much fire glass or lava rock goes over a burner, and how deep?

Too little and you see bare metal. Too much and you smother the flame, or worse. The published ceilings are tighter than most people assume.

• American Fire Glass: "don't layer the glass higher than 1/2" above the burner in propane gas applications. You can use slightly more fire glass in natural gas applications."
• The Outdoor Plus: "You can place the filler material on the burner, but no higher than 1" thick above the burner," warning that excess filler "may impede gas flow and cause gas build-up and potentially cause an explosion."
• Firegear Pro Brass: use lava rock "a minimum of 1" diameter as a base to fill the burner pan," with no more than one inch over the top of the burner.

The propane danger is physical: propane is heavier than air, so it pools. Bury the burner under four inches of glass and unlit gas collects in the voids instead of reaching the ignition source. Lava rock goes in first as a cheap base layer; glass goes on top as the visible half inch. Shop the fire glass range and size it to burn area, not pan volume.

Which burners does Outdoor Heat Direct actually stock?

Twenty-one burner models are active in our burners collection, all from The Outdoor Plus. Prices below are live catalog prices as of September 2026, for the smallest size in each family.

If you would rather buy the whole assembly than piece it together, the complete kits and the Firegear range are the places to start. For finished tables that already have the burner installed, see our The Outdoor Plus buyer's guide or the full The Outdoor Plus catalog.

Fire pit burner questions we get asked