A chiminea is a freestanding, front-loading garden fireplace with a bulbous or tapered body and a vertical smoke stack, which draws smoke upwards and away from the people sitting around it. It gives you a contained fire and a directional throw of heat in a smaller footprint than a full outdoor fireplace. Fireside Boutique stocks steel chimineas and pyramid chiminea fireplaces built to stay outdoors year-round. Free UK mainland delivery.
Read the full chiminea buying guide
Steel or clay?
Clay chimineas are the traditional Mexican form and hold heat gently, but they crack if they take a hard frost with moisture in the body, and a cracked chiminea cannot be repaired reliably. Steel chimineas take frost, rain and repeated heating cycles without cracking, which is why the range here is steel. The trade-off is that steel gets hot across the whole body, so it needs more clearance from furniture and from children.
Classic belly or pyramid?
The classic form has a rounded belly and a narrow neck, which holds a small fire and concentrates the heat forward. The pyramid form, such as the BonFeu BonPyra, is taller and more open at the front, so it takes bigger logs and reads more like a compact outdoor fireplace. Both draw smoke up the same way.
How much heat does a chiminea give?
Less than an open fire pit of the same fuel load, because the body encloses the fire and the stack carries some heat away. What you gain is control: the smoke goes up rather than sideways, and the enclosed firebox means fewer sparks. For a small courtyard or a patio seating three or four, that trade is usually worth making.
Chiminea or fire pit?
Choose a chiminea if your space is tight, smoke management matters, or your seating faces the fire from one side. Choose a fire pit if you want more heat, seating all the way around, or the option to cook over the fire.
Siting and care
Stand a chiminea on a non-combustible base, keep a metre clear around it, and never site it under a pergola or a shade sail. Empty the ash when cold and keep it covered over winter, because standing water inside the body is what shortens the life of a steel chiminea.
