Gas vs Wood Burning Fire Pits: How to Decide

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

Does a gas fire pit give off as much heat as a wood fire?

No. Two things work against gas.

First, radiant fraction — the share of a flame's heat that leaves as radiation, which is what you feel on your shins. NIST work on flame heat transfer uses 0.15 to 0.30 for natural gas against an all-fuel range of 0.15 to 0.60, with low-soot fuels like methane at the bottom and sooty solid fuels at the top. Wood sits well above natural gas.

Second, coals. A wood fire builds an ember bed that radiates long after you stop feeding it. Close the valve on gas and the heat stops in two seconds.

So a 65,000 BTU/hr gas fire pit warms three or four people, not a circle of eight. If heat is your reason for buying, see how many BTUs a fire pit needs.

Gas vs wood burning fire pits: how do they compare?

What does each one cost per night?

A three-hour evening at 65,000 BTU/hr, the common rating across the gas fire pit category. Wood uses $300 per delivered cord at 24 million BTU per cord, matched to the same heat release.

Per-million-BTU and per-evening figures are Outdoor Heat Direct calculations.

Cord wood and natural gas are a wash, so "gas costs a fortune to run" is a myth — unless you are on propane, where a 20 lb tank holds about 430,000 BTU, roughly 6.6 hours at 65,000 BTU/hr (our calculation). Buy $8 bundles at a gas station and wood becomes the priciest fire in the yard. See natural gas vs propane.

Where are you actually allowed to burn wood?

This is where wood buyers get blindsided. The EPA is explicit that wood smoke carries PM2.5 fine particles plus benzene, formaldehyde, acrolein and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and that fine particles are the biggest health threat in smoke.

Air districts act on that. In the Bay Area, a Spare the Air Alert makes it illegal — indoors and outdoors — to burn wood, fire logs or pellets in a fireplace, wood stove, outdoor fire pit or any other wood burning device. First violation: a smoke awareness class or $100. Second: $500. Since 2019 it can be called any day of the year, and gas fireplaces, logs and inserts stay permitted. Similar bans run across the Pacific Northwest, and most HOAs ban open wood burning outright. Check our fire pit regulations reference first.

Where can you put each one?

Clearances aggregate at 36–48 in to the sides and 60–120 in above, but each manufacturer publishes its own. Start with our clearance table by brand, then the surface guides: wood decks, composite decking, pavers and covered patios.

What does each one cost to buy and install?

Wood wins on entry price at the bottom of the market, where a plain steel bowl costs less than dinner out. We do not stock that tier and will not quote a price we cannot verify. Our own wood burning fire pits are hand-cut Fire Pit Art steel, $1,014 to $8,470, ready to burn with no installation.

Gas starts at $629 in our fire pit range, then adds infrastructure. A trenched natural gas line runs $600 to $1,300 at $15 to $50 per linear foot, plus $100 to $300 in permits, installed by a licensed technician under ANSI Z223.1 / NFPA 54. Propane skips the trench; you only need to hide the cylinder, which is what tank enclosures are for.

Which one is more work to live with?

Gas is seasonal: clear the burner ports, rinse or replace the fire glass or lava rock, drain the pan, cover it in winter. Twenty minutes, twice a year.

Wood is weekly. Shovel ash, scrub soot before rust sets in, and find dry storage for a 128 cubic foot cord, which is what log racks are for. Spark guards are not optional with dry grass, a shake roof or kids.

Can you cook over a gas fire pit?

You can cook over wood. You should not cook over gas. Dripping fat lands on the burner ports and media bed, carbonizes, clogs orifices, distorts the flame pattern and permanently stains fire glass. Most manufacturers void the burner warranty for it, and grease-soaked lava rock gets replaced, not washed.

A wood fire pit takes a grate, tripod or swing arm. Gas handles s'mores on a long skewer. To cook dinner over live fire, buy wood.

What is a smokeless fire pit, and does it work?

Smokeless fire pits — Solo Stove, Breeo and the double-wall steel category they created — exist because smoke is the biggest complaint about wood. The wall carries two rings of holes: lower holes feed cool air under the fuel, while air rising between the walls is superheated, exits the upper ring and ignites the unburned smoke in a secondary burn.

It works, with caveats. Smoke drops sharply once the pit is at temperature, and only with dry wood. It does not eliminate fine particles or sparks, and it does not exempt you from a burn ban, which regulates solid fuel, not smoke. We carry one: the Fire Pit Art Smokeless Fire Mesa at $1,854.

When is a wood burning fire pit the right answer?

We sell mostly gas. Here are four cases where we tell people to buy wood anyway.

1. No gas line, no trenching budget. If the meter sits 80 feet from the patio, the quote comes back at $1,600 with permits, and you will not babysit propane cylinders, wood deletes the problem entirely.

2. You want to cook. Live-fire cooking is wood's category and gas cannot enter it. If a grate and a cast iron pan are part of the picture, the decision is made.

3. You want the sensory thing. The smell, the crackle, the shifting coals, the ritual of building it. Gas produces flame; it does not produce that. Plenty of buyers know what they give up and choose wood anyway.

4. Tight budget, rural lot. Acreage, no HOA, no air district alerts, free wood on the property. Wood is then the cheapest fire you will ever own.

If two or more describe you, buy wood. A gas fire pit bought for the wrong reason is an expensive patio ornament.

Can you convert a wood burning fire pit to gas?

Usually yes, and it is the most common upgrade we quote. A masonry or steel wood pit with enough volume takes a drop-in pan or ring burner, a key valve and a media bed — either a complete fire pit kit insert or a bare burner and pan sized to the opening, from $76 for an H-burner and $136 for a stainless pan burner.

Three things decide it: the opening must fit a standard burner footprint, the enclosure needs ventilation openings for propane vapor, and the supply must be pressure-tested at 7" WC natural gas or 11" WC propane. Going the other way is rarely safe — gas bowls are not built for ember contact.

Gas vs wood fire pit FAQs